Take Away Message 3/17

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I feel like I really learned a lot today. I always thought about the fact that students need to understand the dangers of the internet but never thought how to go about teaching them. Discovering the Digital Citizenship was amazing! That site has everything you and your students needs to know about how to be a good digital citizen, follow rules and policies and have digital respect, even about cyber bullying! This is definitely something I am going to have my students explore with and even maybe send a note home to their parents so they can be informed on the dos and don'ts of this new digital age.

Take away message 3/10

I clearly was very opinionated on my opposition of the secure use of the website wikipedia. Yet I found I might have judged too quickly before I had done all my research. Through this discussion I found that there are security settings as well as a main office where all editing must be approved when prior to learning this I believed it to be a free for all of a jumble of miss-information. I was very surprised in learning this and it makes me second guess my usage of it in my future classrooms. I do believe that it would serve as a great compare and contrast piece with a highly reliable source but instead of ruling it out I do feel that now it is a good stepping stone to the beginning of the use of research.

Chapter Five Review

            The internet can be both a wonderful and scary place. I feel it is important while introducing the internet and its wonders to young children to also show them what to look out for and be careful of. It is also important to teach children what a creditable site is compared to a made up site that might be baring faulty information. This chapter also touches on the topic of plagiarism and how children can unknowingly commit this act therefore we must educate them on how to rightfully state the sources we use.

            One section of chapter 5 struck my interest in particular, the section called ‘Evaluating Online Information.’ The reason this struck me is because up until college I feel I was not able to properly assess how credible a website and its information was. That I feel is an imperative skill to have to be a sufficient internet user. I also feel that it is important that schools have certain web pages blocked. There are so many negative and inappropriate sites that children can accidently stumble upon it is important to keep them shelters from that possibility and also to teach them safe search skills for when they further their research at home. I also feel it is a good idea to conduct a list of creditable and useful internet sites for students to use and keep them up on a chart in the classroom or in their notebooks so when searching on their own those websites come to mind first therefore they learn how to search properly and efficiently.

            I also had the pleasure of reading the article, “Computers as Mindtools for Engaging Learners in Critical Thinking,” by David H. Jonassen. Mr. Jonassen explained how computers could be used as mindtools and I completely agree. There are a bunch of databases and programs children can use to ‘engage learners in critical thinking.’ This is important, therefore students will not only be using the internet as a tool for research but also for a tool to broaden and challenge their mind.

Questions:

1.     What are a few valid and useful websites you would present to your students to use?

2.     Do you think there are more negative effects on the use of the internet then positive or vise versa? What is your opinion on this?

Take Away Feb 24

These videos really inspired me. Although I am focusing my webquest assignment on a higher grade level (5th grade) in the elementary sschool scale, I would rather keep it comical and light. I feel as though my idea and topic are not able to portray a heart wrenching cliff hanger of whats to come but a more comical yet still determined and driven in accomplishing a task at hand. Since my topic is history it is less of opinion and depiction and more facts and understanding. I am very excited to see what everyone's video trailers have in store and excited to see where everyone takes this creatively.

chapter 2 and 3 reflection

I found chapters two and three to be very informative. Chapter two really highlights the amazing attributes that technology has when integrated into the classroom. As stated in the text, it "promotes unique, powerful and transformative learning."Along with this, integrating technology can assess skills such as visual learning, accessing and assessing information, student engagement, collaboration, feedback and creativity. Throughout chapter two there were many great pieces on how technology can aid and be beneficial in multiple areas of the classroom but the one I found most intriguing is how it helps heighten students creativity. For students that don't feel a paintbrush, crayon or canvas is the outlet to their creative thinking they now have a new outlet with the various opportunities technology offers.

Chapter three is very important for all teachers. Without planning, a classroom is mayhem and learning can be close to impossible. During my student teaching experience my sponsor teacher was most definitely a "digital immigrant." I witnessed her trying to assess and keep order of each child's individual assessments on paper in the thickest binders I have ever seen. Using how to implement technology into her planning and assessing of students her paperwork, organization and time would have been so much easier. This is just one first hand example where I found that implementing technology in planning and organizing in the classroom from a teachers standpoint can help everything run more smooth. 

1. What is one way technology has helped you improve your creativity? How can this be related to your future students?

2. Have you ever witnessed a teacher using 'old fashion' ways to organize or apply material for their class? If so how could have using technology helped them and what type of technology?

WebQuest Idea

I wanted to make my webquest as fun as my imagination allowed me to. I love learning about Hellen Keller and the hurdles she overcame I also am a lover of American Sign Language. So, for my webquest I want to create a mission for a 5th grade class to learn about these topics in a fun way. I will have an evil villain threaten to rewrite Hellen Keller's history and it is up to the students as time travelers to save her by researching and proving him wrong before he can rewrite it.

The standards I will address will be:

Standard 2, Key Idea 3

Key Idea 3: Study of the major social, political, cultural, and religious developments in world history involves learning about the important roles and contributions of individuals and groups.

Performance Indicators--Students will:

Elementary

understand the roles and contributions of individuals and groups to social, political, economic, cultural, scientific, technological, and religious practices and activities

gather and present information about important developments from world history

understand how the terms social, political, economic, and cultural can be used to describe human activities or practices.

and

Social Studies Standard 1: History of the United States and New York

Students will: use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

and

Social Studies Standard 2 
World History

Students will: use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, 

developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.

Take Away Message

Before my student teaching experience I always had a negative outlook on integrating technology into the classroom to some extent. I still had blackboards in my elementary school classrooms and now I found that they are replaced with smartboards. This is only the second class of course EDU 7266 and my eyes have been opened to so much more that I cannot help but think that the positives now outweigh the negatives in technology integration. The video on edutopia I found extremely inspirational. I remember thinking how I need to learn all these new applications this way I can then pass that knowledge onto my future students as the featured teacher has. The children in the video were so inspired, focused and still interacting with their classmates on a personal level. I found this important because I always would see the use of technology as diminishing personal, face to face communication skills. I also loved how creative the students were getting they seemed so inspired. Today has really opened my eyes to a whole world of opportunity for teaching.