Final blog!

I just wanted to post one final blog saying how much I've learned from and enjoyed this class. Also, here's a link to yet another project I thought I'd never be able to complete but did! It's my digital portfolio, which will be very handy if I ever decide to look for a teaching job other than the one I currently have. It's nice that I can access it from anywhere as well, oh the wonders of the internet :) Well here it is if you'd like to see it, enjoy! http://cms.miss-saylor-portfolio.webnode.com/

Class Reflections

I started this class thinking how much I hated technology. Computers have always frustrated me and I have always preferred to do my class work the old fashioned way-with a pen, paper, and a book. I've changed my views a lot over the semester. I still prefer to do my work the old fashioned way. There's just something I enjoy about opening up a book and taking it with me anywhere. It's nice too, when I'm writing, to not have to worry about a computer crashing or stress about how often I save what I'm doing. I also just don't like looking at computer screens! But...I've learned that technology has so much to offer, for me and my students. I've learned about all kinds of neat tools for teachers (powerpoint, interactive whiteboards, social bookmarking sites, and tons of useful websites), and while I don't enjoy spending all my time with technology, I've certainly come to appreciate it, understand it, and utilize it! My goal as a teacher is to make sure my students learn. It seems to me, that students learn better when technology is used (at least some of the time). I also am beginning to think that more teachers need to be taking a class like this one. Not enough teachers know how to use technology, many of them know even less than I knew when I started this class. There are so many technology related tools out there for teachers to use and they are being wasted because not enough teachers know they exist, or know how to use them.
This class was more work for me than I'm used to. Typically, I sign up for a class, do the readings and papers that are required and get an A. Nothing is out of my comfort zone. This class was waaay out of my comfort zone! But, because of that I think I've learned the most from it. I had to actually use the tools I was learning about, and that's why I learned so much. That's exactly what I feel my students need. They should be using technology to DO what they are learning. They need to be actively engaged to internalize what they're learning and technology is one of many ways to do that. Why not use it?

Article Presentations

I thought everyone did an awesome job on their presentations! I especially admired one student's use of the interactive whiteboard, she clearly spent a lot of time working on it! Throughout the presentations, I learned quite a few things that I may actually be able to apply to the classes I teach. The articles I chose were both related to my content area, so I obviously found them to be interesting. It would be neat to have my students follow along with a transcript and watch a film in Spanish. It would also be neat if I could use SKYPE for video conferences from a Spanish speaking country, I just am not sure how I could actually pull that one off! I am also really excited about maybe trying out e-pals. It would be awesome if I could get an account set up and give my students electronic pen pals right from Spain! Also, I will almost definitely use multiplication.com, in fact I'm not sure why I haven't already heard of it? Students during after school programs, or students with spare time in the computer lab, could really benefit from and enjoy some of the games they have on that site. I also think that many of the presentations emphasized the benefits of technology, I just think teachers have a long way to go before they actually start using it to it's full potential!

copyright

I absolutely loved the "fair(y) use tale" video...Very clever! However, I am still a little confused about copyright, especially with regard to teachers. According to the video teaching falls under fair use, so what exactly must teachers do to avoid copyright infringement? I would assume that any material used should be cited, but other than that I am lost! On that note, it's difficult for me to say what teachers I've seen violating copyright laws. I know that as a school we attempted to generate enthusiasm about the PSSA by having "North East Idol" (a teacher talent show with PSSA themed acts) rather than "American Idol". The kids really enjoyed it, but it was certainly an "American Idol" rip-off, if you will. But from what I understand, our little talent show would be considered a parody, and thus okay according to fair use. Given that I don't fully understand copyright, teaching my students about it would be difficult, but I can definitely say it's important to emphasize how to avoid plagiarism of any kind. I think that many times kids (as well as adults) violate copyright laws or plagiarize without even knowing they are doing it. Kids, and especially college students, need to learn how to properly cite sources and differentiate between what is an original thought in their writing and what is being borrowed by another source. As far as copyright goes, I do believe creators of material deserve to be compensated for their work. On the other hand, 100 years is a little extreme to hold the benefits of copyrighted items from the general public, especially if it's for the purpose of education.

interactive whiteboards

I would LOVE to have an interactive whiteboard in my classroom! I believe they keep students almost 100% more engaged than using a traditional black board. Students are excited to be able to come up and actually manipulate what's on the board. I can think of so many neat things I'd be able to do with one in my Spanish classroom. Foreign Language learning is meant to be interactive and interactive whiteboards appeal to multiple learning styles. They can help audio, visual, and hands-on learners and they keep kids from getting bored! My students always start out the year excited to learn a new language, and when they realize how much grammar and work is involved in doing that, they become frustrated and disengaged. The more ways to keep them "entertained" the better, and I believe Smart boards keep kids entertained as they are learning. It's a shame that not all schools/teachers have the funding to be able to have an interactive whiteboard because there are so many advantages to them. It's also a shame that some teachers have them in their rooms, and never use them! I think it will be a very long time before I have one in my room, and in the meantime I try to do as much as possible to keep my teaching interactive and mix up the learning styles I teach to as often as possible. Having an interactive whiteboard would make that a whole lot easier! Many times there is no other way (that I can think of!) to practice the vocab. and grammar involved in learning Spanish without giving out a worksheet or assigning book work. A Smart board would make review and practice work so much more fun, I don't think the students would even know that it would be the same content as what is on their "boring" worksheets! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I eventually will get one in my room.

PowerPoint

I'd like to share that I used my PowerPoint! I created a PowerPoint on the topic of Day of the Dead, and then posted it to my echalk account. I took my kids to the computer lab (since I don't have a digital projector)the day before Halloween and had them look up my powerpoint and then complete a short webquest. The kids loved it and it was so much better for them to learn by seeing and doing, rather than by listening to me lecture. It freed up enough class time so that we could create our own papel picado (day of the dead craft). The other cool thing is now that I've done all the work, I can use it again next year! Yay for technology! (never thought I'd say that!)

video reflection

Our group made a video Public Service Announcement on the topic of online sexual predators. We made our video a spoof on Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC. We tried to make our video a little silly (my name was Chris Shmansen, and we were an all girl group acting out male roles), yet solemn enough to acknowledge the seriousness of the issue we chose. We had a lot of fun filming and learned a lot about the video equipment. The fact that I found out that I can check out the equipment as an Albright student was neat. That opens up the possibility of me actually using my own videos in a lesson. We also became much more familiar with moviemaker, youtube, and audacity. I feel that my group did an awesome job of working together and multitasking. Jocabed and Chauncy did the majority of the editing while I looked on royaltyfreemusic.com for background music and opened up a youtube account. I also used a separate computer to sort of "try out" different ideas we had. Then, when they were ready I had a few suggestions (for example, effects and fonts) that we could put right into the real video. We used a flashdrive to transfer my audio into their edited video. I have to admit that I was dreading making this video, mostly because I wasn't comfortable with the hard/software and had never made a video before. But, I now feel 100 times more comfortable with the process and had a lot of fun creating the video. It shows that you really learn by doing!

Videos in Education

Video has proven to be highly beneficial in my classroom. As a foreign language teacher, I use videos frequently, they are part of the textbook curriculum. The videos that go along with the text include snapshots of various Spanish speaking countries (as well as cities within the U.S.) and highlight Hispanic culture in those areas. They also show short dialogues using the vocabulary from each chapter so students can see real Spanish conversations in relatively realistic situations. It helps them to hear accurate pronunciation of the language, hear how it's used in context, see images of the vocabulary words as they're being spoken, and partly experience Hispanic culture, all in about 15 minutes per video segment. In addition to the textbook videos (which are highly beneficial, but at times cliche), I've used videos to teach concepts that are better understood visually. For example, when I taught a short unit on Frida Kahlo, I showed a video which included many examples of her art. My students found this far more engaging than just reading about her. The video was much easier for me to use than if I had shown photocopies or printouts of her artwork. The video also incorporated her life story, as well as that of Diego Rivera, and did so in a much more organized fashion than I think I would have been able to have done without hours of preparation. I've also, more recently, used videos I'd found on unitedstreaming(discovery education), which I discovered during this class! The videos were a little difficult to convert to a DVD (which I had to do since I don't have a digital projector), but it was worth the extra effort on my part. I had explained the conjugation of a certain verb as many ways as I could think of to my students. I taught from the textbook, explained it the way that I had learned it, and even found supplemental worksheets to reinforce the concept. Many of my students were still just not getting it. I used a unitedstreaming video which explained the verb in an engaging way--lots of visuals and a little bit of humor--and many of my students showed serious progress in following assessments. It also, in a weird way, made me feel like I had earned some credibility with them! All of my rambling about pronouns and subjects and infinitives was exactly what they were hearing in the video (apparently in a more interesting way!) and it almost proved that I was right! Miss Saylor does know what she's talking about! It isn't practical for me to incorporate a video into every lesson, and I don't think that's the point of using video. It should be used to supplement instruction and reinforce certain points in a lesson. I also liked the videos from unitedstreaming because they were only about 10 minutes long, short enough for me to teach almost a full lesson, use the video to support what I was teaching, and give the students some time to practice. I can think of one college class in which I used video, and it was an Education course. We used video to film ourselves teaching a lesson. It was really interesting to see ourselves teach. We could better reflect on our teaching. It made it easy to see how often teachers say "umm" and how much they circulate around the classroom. It also showed how engaged our "students" (classmates) were. I've also been thinking about other ways I could incorporate, or my college professors could have incorporated, video. For Spanish, it would be awesome if students who study abroad (myself included) were required to film parts of their experience and then come back to a class in the U.S. to present their videos. This would allow students take a virtual tour of maybe ten or fifteen different countries! It might even be neat to ask students to interview their host families or teachers in the countries they visit. Then students back home could hear the variations in Spanish spoken in different countries and explore the differences in culture in those countries. As always, the resources, or lack thereof, would make it a little difficult to accomplish, but I think it would be a really cool project!

Educating the Net Gen-The Real vs the Possible

I liked that this article started out by stating that not all of our students are actual "Net-Geners". My issues with incorporating technology in education have all been related to the fact that not all students have access to the internet and some don't even have computers at home. Schools don't all have the best resources/funding for technology either. Despite that, I'm beginning to be a believer in what the internet has to offer to education. I've learned things in this class that I already have used or intend to use in my classes. My initial skepticism and ignorance is what prevented me, and I believe prevents most educators, from incorporating more technology into the classroom. I'm young enough to be considered of the Net Gen, and yet I consider myself to be technologically incompetent (although I'm learning!). I can only imagine how older teachers feel. And yet we rarely have professional development in Technology. Each class I learn something else I didn't know existed with regard to technology and education. It's almost overwhelming how much is out there. I'm open to change, but I wonder if anyone else is. Some teachers have been doing the same thing for years, and I don't think many are adapting to technological changes, nor do they feel the need to. Some day I hope to have access in my classroom to more technology. For example, with what I've learned I'd almost kill to get a digital projector and a computer that's fast enough to make use of it! It would also be nice to have a few computers in my room. I have students with a huge variety of experience in my subject (Spanish). I'm expected to take differentiated instruction to a whole new level, given that some of my students are fluent Spanish speakers where as others have never used the language. For those fluent students that finish their work well before others or aren't challenged enough, the internet could provide many supplemental activities for them, without them feeling bogged down with extra "busy work". For now, I intend to occasionally take my students to the computer lab, but this takes extra time and can present complications (i.e. getting there, starting up computers, finding 30 that work, getting things to print, assigning seats, finding 30 headphones that work for audio activities...lots of new worries that aren't necessarily issues in the traditional classroom). I also plan on using teacher resources the internet provides to improve my classes- hands-on lesson plan ideas, videos (teacher tube/united streaming) which I can burn to DVD, worksheet/puzzle makers..anything I can find to make my lessons more engaging. I hope to see school districts supporting technology more than they do now. A lot of technology use in schools depends on administration providing funding and adding technology into the curriculum. Until that happens, I intend to learn and use as much as I can, because I do believe learning can be more meaningful to students if technology is properly implemented. Also, I've noticed many of our EduCause readings are geared towards education at the college level. Online assignments are far more likely to be completed by college students, partly because they are more responsible, and partly because they all have access to computers on campus, whereas not all secondary students do. On the other hand, if our students will be attending universities that make use of technology, shouldn't it be our responsibility to make sure they are ready for that college level education? Another issue I have with technology is that not everything we learn can be "simulated". For example, virtual dissections/surgeries can not replace the hands-on experience future Doctors will need to have. Visual aids to understand mathematical concepts are neat too, but students should be able to eventually generate those mental images without relying entirely on a website. On the whole, I think educators need to try a little harder to keep up with technology, especially if it is the best method currently available to inspire learning. Our learners are definitely changing faster than our teaching methods, I just hope we can eventually catch up, or that we at least start trying to.

social bookmarking

I must say I was horribly worried about not being able to do the social bookmarking assignment. It wasn't that bad! I used diigo because I assumed I would understand it a little better since it's what Prof. Mislevy uses. It was so neat, and really not that difficult! I am already thinking about making a page for my Spanish classes. It would be cool to give them my site so that they can complete assignments (like webquests, or research projects). It would also be nice to add a link to my e-chalk page. My school uses e-chalk to keep parents and students posted on assignments and announcements for class. I could put a link there for additional Spanish tutoring. It also makes it easier to share my favorite sites with other teachers. I'm planning on sending my diigo page to my sister and friend who teach so they have quick access to tons of fun, educational sites! If more teachers in a school did this I'm sure someone would find something they could use for their classes! Well, if you're interested in my sites, here's my diigo site:
http://www.diigo.com/user/carriejnell
Have fun with it!

Excel Ideas

I'll be posting this week's blog in two entries. I'm recovering from some sort of awful flu and missed class last week, so I'll have to figure out what I missed about social bookmarking. Meanwhile, here are my thoughts on Excel! As I mentioned, I missed our second class on Excel, but I can relate to the hypothetical scenario described in our assignment (school training on excel). Today, my school had an Excel training session! Lucky for me! I was placed in the "beginners group" so we just covered the basics. In that session, we learned how to input data and do the various functions (add, average, etc.). This is helpful for teachers for obvious reasons. It's a great way to keep a class list, enter grades, and calculate grades for report cards. Teachers can also alphabetize their students, put students in order of highest grades received using the student's averages or one specific test to see who needs help with what topic. It allows teachers to really analyze data. On a higher scale, PSSA data can be assessed. Schools can see how many students ranked "below basic," "basic," "proficient," or "advanced," on that test, and see how many students they need to move up a level. They can also organize the data by filtering to see which teachers or "teams" (groups of teachers who have the same students)are doing the best in which subjects and can encourage those teachers to share suggestions for improvement. Students can also participate with excel. They can learn to input data, create graphs, and organize information for research or class projects. This can put a new spin on learning for them, and help them in future careers! I wish I'd learned it in school! My school principal also uses excel to give teachers schedules/assignments for class coverages, assembly schedules/seating charts, and to share discipline data (number of absences, detentions, suspensions, etc.). I'm sure there are many more ways to use excel, and I suggested follow-up training on the topic. I don't think an hour is quite enough to master the use of any form of technology and it would only real improve our school if teachers really understand how to utilize it.

Google Apps Readings

Google Apps could have really helped me with group projects, especially in college. My statistics course in which we had to conduct research experiments comes immediately to mind. As a group, we were to get students to participate in our experiment, analyze the gathered data, and write a collective report. It would have been really useful if we could have posted the data to googledocs, so that each group member could have posted new participant data. Our participants were also motivated to be involved in as many experiments as possible, since extra credit was offered for participation. Google Calendar would have been an awesome way to share when we were running the experiment, and plan times to meet with our group members. Google Apps definately would have been useful, assuming all our group members and participants knew how to use it! Hopefully, in time, using these programs will become common knowledge. I also plan on using social bookmarking (probably de.lic.ious) as a way of tracking websites I'm interested in using for my class. My school has been making use of collaboration as a staff. We are expected to meet with people in our content areas (i.e. social studies teachers meeting with other social studies teachers) and discuss ways to improve our teaching. Tagging websites we find interesting can make it easy for us to stay on top of the best possible resources for our students. Teachers are also expected to give common assessments and analyze data. Google Apps could be used to do this as well. Again, this would have to mean that all of our staff is familiar with using the technology. If not to share with others, I can at least use tagging and Google Apps for my own organizational purposes. Social bookmarking will be a good way of saving websites until I'm ready to incorporate them into my classes.
The lesson plans I chose to print from the Google Apps link were not actually from my subject area (I couldn't find any for Spanish! No Fair!), but I can think of ways to adapt them and use them in my classes. The first is a Language Arts lesson plan called "Class Collection of Book Reviews". The students are expected to read a book and write a review of it in Google Docs, including information such as reading level, and a brief description. I would use this with short stories in Spanish or Spanish Poetry. The second lesson plan uses Google Calendar for a Social Studies plan called "History of Life on Earth". In this lesson students are to collectively report on the history of the earth (spanning 4.6 billion years) and compress this "Earth Timeline" into one calendar year. Rather than having my students report on the history of the Earth, I would have them focus on the history of ancient civilizations (Aztecs, Myans, Incas, etc.) in the now Spanish-Speaking world and the Spanish Conquests that took place in those areas. This would help to compress an excessive amount of information into one easy to process "calendar year," while holding students accountable for their groups research/work. Neat stuff!

1. As mentioned in my previous blog, I am considered a Net-Gener. Technology, in some way has always been a big part of the world I live in. After reading one of the articles, to which I related far too well, I realized, as I was reading off my sister’s laptop, watching TV, and checking my email, that the world of technology is more relevant to me than I thought it was. I have more in common with my tech-savvy students than I realized. It’s not the “language” of the technological world that I’m concerned about. My students and I are at least somewhat “fluent” in technology. What concerns me when it comes to incorporating R/W tools in the classroom, is the language in which they are writing. In the article emphasizing the effectiveness of blogging, many of the student feedback sections had grammatical/spelling errors, and am sure the ones that were chosen had the fewest errors. I appreciate that students can freely voice their opinions without the constraints of traditional pen and paper and/or size 12 font with 1 inch margins. I also like the fact that other students can give feedback and that students actually enjoy writing. But if the quality of their writing is poor, what skills are being reinforced? Last I checked, btw, lol, g2g, kool, etc. were not found on standardized tests. I think freely blogging may be a great way to get students thinking deeply about content, but when will they learn to write properly?

Also, I don’t think that all of my students are quite as surrounded by technology as those in these articles. Some kids (and schools) can’t afford technology! Not everyone owns a blackberry, computers, digital camaras, mp3’s, and everything else the articles have mentioned. So how do you keep those students from feeling left out when classroom assignments become largely technology based?

2. I didn’t realize that digital photo tools were R/W tools (actually, I didn’t know what R/W was, but was surprised photos fall into that category). Flickr and Shutterfly seem really neat. I also learned what an aggregator is (I had never heard the term before this), and thought that the webcams kept in the African wild and around Active Volcanos would be really fun to use in a science classroom. The communication via webcam between western/asian students (regarding the different versions of a fairytale) was really a good idea, and would be perfect in a Foreign Language classroom. I noticed though, that that project was funded by Time Warner! So, chances are it’ll be awhile before my school is financially capable of doing it.

Googledocs is a place where students, or anyone for that matter, can store documents online. Much like Microsoft Word, but on the internet. I have never used it, but I imagine it is considered R/W because it can be accessed and shared by anyone, anywhere (if they are set as able to view it).

Reflection to "Digital Natives" and "Net Gen" Articles

As a Foreign Language teacher, I really enjoyed the terms “Digital Natives” and “Digital Immigrants”. Although according to “Educause” I am of the Net Gen (I was born in 1985, so I technically qualify), I’m having trouble deciding whether I am digitally “fluent” or not. I played Oregon Trail and Number Munchers in elementary school, and loved them both. I use the internet to check email, but I’m not sure I would if it weren’t for societal pressures to do so. I don’t enjoy updating the world on my life via Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter (but I do know what all of those are). I feel that face to face conversations and intimate “real life” relationships are far more valuable. I’d be lost without spell-check. I found the statistics in “Educause” to be shocking. I think it’s depressing that people spend so much more time playing video games than reading. I prefer real tangible books and libraries to online resources, unless I can print them out and find a nice quiet space to read them in. I almost always hand write drafts before I type them, and again I only type them because I am required to do so. I feel as if I am ignorant to much of what technology has to offer, but apparently I’m more tech-savvy than any previous generation. I believe I maintain views of the digital immigrants as well as the natives, and I’m confused as to where exactly I lie on the spectrum of digital fluency. Why must I be placed on one side or the other?

When it comes to education, I noticed both the readings emphasized interaction in the classroom. I see the benefits of incorporating technology into the classroom, especially if the funding is there, but who says that interaction has to involve technology? Both readings also seem to argue that students’ learning styles have changed and so should teaching methods. I agree completely, but is this really a new concept? I’m new to the teaching profession, but two of the current “buzzwords” in the school district for which I work are “Cooperative Learning,” and “Differentiated Instruction,” both of which emphasize group work/socailization skills and teaching to different learning styles, including hands-on learners. Constructivistic /“learner-centered” classrooms aren’t novel concepts.

I think technology can and should be utilized in education, but only as a percentage of the overall learning experience. Interactive learning should occur much more frequently than it currently does, but that doesn’t mean that technology is the only tool to use to accomplish that. I also think the readings don’t take the issue of funding seriously enough. I’m all for using additional technologies in my classroom, but I can’t even get a working laptop, let alone a digital projector or Smart Board. Technology seems to be outdated as soon as it’s created, I can’t afford to keep up and neither can my school district or the students I teach (a very large percentage of whom live below the poverty line). As the articles mentioned, most students believe that nothing can replace the expertice teachers have to offer or the overall social experience of school, and I agree. I think there are many different learning styles, and not all today’s students can be classified as “tech-savvy learners,” I certaintly can’t be.

I really liked this quote from the Digital Natives article:

It's not actually clear to me which is harder - "learning new stuff" or "learning new ways to do old stuff." I suspect it's the latter.

I do think students today learn differently than previous generations. I just think we need to develop new methods of instruction, which include technology but do not rely solely on it. A variety of teaching methods should be utilized, and technology should be one of many.

Carrie's First Blog

Don't worry. I'm not planning on dropping the class...yet! :) Actually, it's lots of fun, looking forward to a great semester!