Digital Blog Post #F

Information Alerts

Information alerts are a wonderful way to stay informed on topics of your choice.  Google Alerts is a great service to use.  Until this assignment, I was not aware of the free alert service offered by Google.  I decided to give it a test run.  So far I think it is wonderful!  This is going to be a fantastic resource to have in the classroom.  Using an alert system like this allows you to filter out all of the news that is not of interest to you or your class.  It allows you to stay up to date with the most current information available.  After adding the topics of your choice, an email is sent when there are new Google search results.  While I was researching Google alerts I stumbled across another alert system.  This one is called IFTTT which stands for "If This Then That".  It takes the idea of Google Alert and expands it greatly.  It brings two programs together.  For example, if I want an update every time a new planet is discovered I would connect Space with my email.  You can also request things like the daily picture from NASA to be saved, daily, in your virtual pocket.  There are many amazing sources that can be combined using IFTTT not just for your classroom but also your daily life.  

One to One Laptop Computing

One to One Laptop Computing is a term used to mean that every student has a type of computer or tablet.  This may not necessarily mean an entire school, it might be that only one class in each grade level has a device.  I have not yet been to a school that has individual computing devices for every student.  I have been in an elementary classroom that raised money for ipads and the principal matched her donation but she was the only classroom at their grade level with tablets. One to One Computing is very expensive.  Our textbook states that Maine's Learning Technology Initiative has placed laptops in the fingertips of a majority of their secondary students.  This has a yearly cost of $18 million per year! (Maloy 306)  The fees are certainly hefty but the outcome can be outstanding.  More and more schools, districts and teachers are working together to build a bridge between low income students and the latest technologies.

Digital Pens and Notepads

Digital pens have the ability to record what someone has written and turn it into a file that can be saved and opened on a computer.  A digital notepad can also take what is written and convert it but it can also take drawings and convert them to images.  Originally, I felt that digital pens were not a very useful tool for the classroom.  I can write my notes and then I can scan them into my computer if I needed to make a file.  I guess the digital pen could make notes easier to read.  However, I wonder how many mistakes the pens make in translation.  I did read about one pen in particular called a LiveScribe Pulse.  I do see a very beneficial use in this type of digital pen because it not only records your writing but it also records any audio while you are writing.  There have been many times in my note-taking past that I would have loved to have had something like that.  The best part about the digital notepad, in my opinion, is that it converts your drawings.  My son does not typically bring home any of his artwork from class until the end of the year.  This could be such a great way to allow parents to see what their children are drawing, the same day they draw it.  The teacher can convert the drawing and then email the file to the parents.  I would love to have that!  Boogie Boards are also a popular notepad that is inexpensive and although it does not have wonderful saving and converting features it would still be great to have for handwriting or math practice.  

Resources

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

Wood, Brittany. "Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds." Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

 

Digital Blog Post #E

Approaches to Lesson Planning

  Understanding by Design is a new concept for me.  Unlike Student Learning Objectives, I have no previous knowledge of this particular approach.  After reading in Chapter 4 of our book about this style I have come to like it but I am more comfortable with the learning objectives approach. The style seems to be very simplistic.  Stage 1 of planning is to identify the desired results of the lesson.  What is the main idea and/or information that we want to be the most memorable to the students?  This is also when the planner would determine essential questions to be answered and then can begin to organize the topics.  I like Stage 1 of UBD (Understanding by Design) because when the planner understands what it is they want to teach and what they want the students to absorb then the first major hurdle of planning is reached. Stage 2 is to determine how the students new knowledge will be measured.  Typically, this would be one of the last items I would work on and in the past it has been one that I have had the hardest time planning. Stage 3 is to plan the objectives and methods to be used. 

Performance Assessments

  Performance assessments are, in my opinion, incredibly necessary for the development of students and teachers.  While I was student teaching, at my last college, the final part of my lesson was always to assess the students.  I would be able to ensure that I did my job teaching and that the students were able to learn and retain the topic taught.  While I was teaching a lesson on renewable and non-renewable resources I handed each student a post-it note.  Each note had a resource or man made object written on it.  I wrote three sections on the board and one by one I had the students walk up and put their note under the appropriate heading.  After viewing all of the students I was successfully able to see which students fully understood and which students would need extra attention.  Performance assessments are also very important for teachers.  I recently was talking with some of my teacher friends and one of them had her assessment done by the principal.  She was very excited and boastful in telling us that she received "highly effective" on a few of her results.  While I was listening I was excited for her because I thought this sounded like a great achievement to receive from the principal.  However, one of my other teacher friends responded that she had once been told that as a teacher you do not want all of the highest scores in your assessment.  I think what she was trying to say is that to be highly effective that means you were close to perfect in that area and you have the data and information to back that up.  If a teacher is receiving highly effective in all areas then that means you are meeting all requirements at a higher stand point. There are so many changes in the academic world that there should always be room for improvement and change. To achieve highly effective should be extremely hard to do with so many things in consideration; diversity, academic levels of the students, co-workers, administration etc.  Assessments are key to educators and students growth.

Multimedia Technologies in Schools Today

  I found this section of Chapter 9 to be very familiar.  I taught a lesson, that I planned,  to a 4th grade classroom on the water cycle.  I was able to incorporate how much or how little technology I wanted in my lesson.  I used a document camera to display lyrics to a song that we sang about the cycle.  I made a PowerPoint presentation that also included a short YouTube video.  Then we did a few other worksheets, and a hands on experiment with ice in a mason jar to view condensation that had formed on the lid.  After reading this section of the chapter I have thought of ways that I could have incorporated more technology into the lesson.  If the classroom had access to computers I could have the students build their own PowerPoint.  If I had a digital camera or camcorder the students could have recorded their hands on experiment.  The students could have also used their own video clips and pictures to make their own Animoto.  As the lesson planner I think it would have been fun to also make a Prezi that I could have shown to students, possibly instead of a PowerPoint.  The students could have the opportunity to the view the Prezi at home as well.  

Water Cycle Prezi