Reflective Post

Wow. Prior to this course I was what you would consider technologically slow. This course has helped tremendously with my ability to adapt education so that I am able to use technology. Technology is such a big role in our society today and will only continue to grow. This course is a must for all who are looking to become teachers in the future.

TEXTBOOK

 

The textbook is a great mediator between technology and education. It illustrates what a classroom would be like if technology was at the threshold of the students' learning. Even though this is a required textbook for a college course, this can help an established, successful teacher with adapting their classroom to enhance learning through the utilization of technology. One of my favorite technological advancements in the classroom are the digital games for learning. I grew up playing Oregon Trail in school. Even though it does not offer as many educational perks as funbrain, it allowed room for creativity to choose the path that I took. From the different paths I took, I learned what things worked and what things did not. Oregon Trail did much more than just pass time, it engaged me in learning what were the best options while still implying my creativity. Transforming Learning with New Technologies is a great resource to use to continuously implement new technologies into the classroom to enhance the students learning.

DISCUSSIONS

Being able to interact with other human beings is something that every human being is born with. We all have the capacity to create conversation, arguments and express emotions through interaction with other people. Obviously, it is a little different when you are taking an online course and all you can see if a tiny profile picture, but that does not prohibit a different type of interaction, digital interaction. Besides, we are so used to texting, emailing or calling someone so digital interaction for this course was not too hard of a challenge. When humans interact and discuss things, not only does each person's knowledge expand from all other discussion, it also expands one's own view. Many things are objective in this world including discussions with others, therefore opinions will be contradicted and rebutted. Henceforth, it is crucial to tell someone, whom you do not agree with, that you respect their opinion or viewpoint but have to delightfully disagree.

If one is interested in reading the discussion posts, click the link. 

ASSIGNMENTS

Each of the assignments all relate to possible options to utilize once we become teachers. Rubrics, rubrics and more rubrics. Rubrics will be a necessity if you are teaching middle grades or secondary grades. The assignment we did was to create a rubric for evaluation websites. Although we made rubrics for website evaluation, we now know the structure and formatting of rubrics and what each category needs to entail. The instructional strategies wiki was a fun way to make a webpage for strategies that are extremely effective. The discussions were constructive and informative. I am usually not big on group projects but this one was a blast! When one of us did not know where to go, start or end, another would chime in and assist the person in need of help. Upon completion, we now have several instructional strategies that have proven to be effective to use in our own classrooms. The WebQuest was a fantastic individual task. I learned how to create a webpage that can include a lesson plan or unit plan. It is also a great tool for students to visit by themselves in case they want to delve deeper into the subject matter being taught. The collaborative lesson plan was a first for me. I had never created a lesson plan before but it was awesome learning about the format of the lesson plans and the opportunity to input some of my own teaching creativity and implement it into the classroom with my students. The teacher webpage eportfolio was a creative way of letting parents know who you are, your achievements, your teaching style and your philosophy on teaching. This one was probably my favorite because we had the freedom to put whatever we wanted and make it as interesting as possible.

Visit the assignments and see the wonderful things learned through this course:

• Website Evaluation Rubric
• Instructional Strategies
• Math is FUN WebQuest
• Lesson Plan
• Teacher WebPage ePortfolia

I thoroughly enjoyed this class. A suggestion that I would offer would be for the discussion posts. On canvas, the due date on the side of the home page says the due date for when the replies are due but is not the due date for the initial post. That got me a few times. 

Digital Blog Post #E Ch. 4,7 & 9

CONCEPT 1 The first concept that I found interesting in several aspects was the educational practice of using electronic grading software. Initially, it is very self-explanatory. Teachers will use a software the keeps records of grades and will automatically grade assignments in a matter of seconds. There are a couple of advantages to utilizing electronic grading software. One would be that it would cut grading time down drastically. Rather than spending countless hours looking through tests, quizzes and different assignments, a teacher can slip a sheet into the software and bingo-bango, bongo, you have a graded assignment. The other advantage is that teachers can assign percentage values to different types of work, and the software instantly calculates the overall grade (Maloy 86). It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that a computer generated grading software can cut grading time in half and make it so much easier for teachers to grade. This I already know. The only concern I have with this concept is that if a Mathematics teacher has given a test and on that test is a word problem, that necessitates problem solving methods which requires to show the work of how they came up with the answer. The software is not capable of grading the handwritten work that the student was require to show.

CONCEPT 2 The second concept that I found interesting was digital games for learning. Today, millions of kids play video or computer games that have a significant impact on the kids' physiological and psychological makeup. A lot of the games kids play (i.e. Call of Duty, Minecraft, and Halo), have negative sociological impacts. For instance, a kid that thoroughly enjoys video games will be less inclined to go outside and hang out with friends or get exercise. The effects of video games can be detrimental to a students future in schooling. With all that said, I LOVE the idea of making digital games for learning. What a brilliant idea! to make computer games that kids can enjoy and it still have educational value. The key to a successful digital game that incorporates learning is to make it enjoyable for the kid. Why would a kid play an educational game that is boring when he could be playing a fun role-playing game that is way more fun? This would be the only question I asked in regards to digital games for learning. The games must connect with the kids and engage the kids to want to play more. The more they play, the more they learn.

CONCEPT 3 The third concept that I found to be interesting was the YouTube, handcrafted videos, and streaming video resources as a way to teach. In a generation that is dominated by social media, vine, periscope and snapchat, the ways teachers teach must adapt in order to connect with their students. We have so many YouTube video makers that, in today's society, they are famous for the videos that they post of themselves. It is disheartening to see people posting videos of themselves doing erroneous things and becoming famous because of the stupid stunts they pull. But the idea that YouTube can be used in the educational sense is brilliant. It can have so much value. A teacher can easily find a video about the Trail of Tears, by which the Indian tribes were removed from their land and sent to Oklahoma to create more land for the United States to expand to in the early years of the United States of America. What a valuable way to teach kids! Visuals are extremely important for a lot, if not all, students.

The Effects of Video Games on Learning: The Positive View

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Blog Post #C

The three concepts that I wanted to explore and further expand upon are redefining creativity, electronic communication between teachers and students, and using text messaging to teach about spelling.

Creativity is such an important part of education today. It gives kids the freedom to use alternative routes to solve problems, present something or even interact with other people. It is encouraged greatly in education today but kids do not necessarily live up to the potential that they have. They play countless amount of video games and computer games which, I believe stunts their ability to express some sort of creativity. But in today's society, living after people that have demonstrated tremendous amounts of creativity such as Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein, kids do not have to come up with original ideas or concepts that no one ever has, they just need to think, say or do something that they have never thought, said or done. Creativity, also, does not have to be in the form of writing or fashion. It can be on a field or a court. It is crucial to allow kids to be creative in all aspects of life which will create room for growth in the educational sense.

There are many ways to communicate in our society today, such as texting, calling, emailing and social media messaging. There are many options for a teacher to build their own social media/ information communication system. Teachers have the freedom to build the way they are accessible to contact via phone customization, emails and social media messaging (although I would not suggest this one). Teacher-to-student communication is vital for successful students and teaching. Blogs, online discussions, wikis, teacher or classroom websites and email are some of the ways that students and teachers can communicate. The reason for having so many options is to allow the students ample opportunity to get in contact with his or her teacher. I believe that students need to have access to a teacher either through face-to-face communication or digital communication until the teacher or student goes to bed but with the stipulation of it being school related only. I already knew that there were many ways to communicate with a teacher and it has helped me tremendously throughout my college career. Something that extended my my thinking on communication between students and teachers is setting up online discussion boards for students and the teacher will be extremely effective for students to have access to other resources such as other students. This allows the student to ask his or her fellow classmates first rather than bothering the teacher.

Texting while in class is a nationwide dilemma that raises cause for concern for teachers. It can distract not only the student texting but also the students around him or her and the teacher as well. But after reading Strategies for Using Email and Texting in chapter 8, my perspective has changed a bit in regards to texting. We here a lot about kids getting upset at the iPhone's autocorrect setting. At times, autocorrect will change the word you are trying to type to something completely different and in some cases explicit. Educators today are encouraging teachers to embrace rather than seek to ban the use of cellphones, seeing text messaging as a way to build "better relationships, meaningful educational experiences and a more cooperative environment" (Nielsen & Webb, 2011, p. 2). Students can become more aware of spelling and grammar through the use of texting.

Quiz on Digital Blog Post #C

Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Nielsen, Lisa, and Willyn H. Webb. Teaching Generation Text: Using Cell Phones to Enhance Learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011. Print.

Chapter 1

The three concepts to reflect upon regarding chapter 1:

1) The first thing to reflect on is the shift in teacher desire in must-have educational tools from 2011 to the next couple of years. Wireless internet was the leading must-have tool for teachers in comparison to a year earlier when internet, a computer and an LCD projector were the top must-have tools for teachers. As we progress further into the 21st century, which is very technologically driven, we must adapt teaching practices to accommodate the ever growing technological advancements. This shift is already influencing teaching because of the changes in school software, such as smartboards and the iPad program.

2) The second thing to reflect upon is the iGeneration and how much kids are engulfed by digital media, including music, television, computers, video games, smartphones and other electronic devices. It is crazy to think how much social media has influenced the iGeneration. In some cases, it has shaped some kids' view on life and society. Kids in the iGeneration spend, on average, 7.09 hours using digital media. This will influence not only the kids but also the teachers because eventually, textbooks will no longer be in affect because of the technological advancements such as the iPad program which has all materials and textbooks accessible from the iPad.

3) The third thing to reflect upon is the influence that social media has not only on your identity but also your digital identity. Social media has become such a leading role player in our society today. Students are constantly checking Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. As a college athlete, we have to sign a waiver letting the school know they can use any picture taken of us to promote the Athletics program on social media. Digital identity has become such an important factor on how kids are seen in our culture. This influences teaching by demonstrating that kids have different interests and will require the lesson plans to be adapted to the interests of the students.

In conclusion, technology has grown and shows signs of continuous growth. It has shaped how subjects are taught in schools and will continue to shape how subject matter is taught. Now if technology has made teaching easier, that is a whole another blog post that I hope to be able to answer.

Resources:Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Technology's impact on society in today's generations

 This site offers great insight from where technology was to where it is today and the massive impact it has had on our society and culture!