Refletive Post

 

 

While taking Intro to technology class, I have learned so much throughout this semester. Even though I thought I knew as much as I need to know about technology apparently there is so much more that can always be learned. Especially with the era that we live in technology is constantly evolving and getting more and more advanced for the better.

One of the main concepts I enjoyed the most was getting the opportunity to explore all the different technology tool that could benefit me in the future as an educator. For instance for every blog post we had we had to use some sort of new 2.0 tool such as Voki, Bidstrip, Wordle, Bubblus, Padlet and so much more. To be honest when I started taking this class and when I saw the names of all the 2.0 tools I was amused by how many technology tools there was. However, with each blog that I did I got the opportunity to learn every week something new to the point where I learned how to navigate and use the tool efficiently. By the end  of the semester I was even able to create my own teacher portfolio via website!

                Another main concept I learned that I found would be the most beneficial was getting the real perspective of an educator. Educators are mainly thought of as the ones who teach children new material such as math, science, and so forth however, most of us don’t realize that behind that there is so much more than just standing in front of children and teaching. With assignments such as the collaborative group project and WebQuest assignment, I got the opportunity to come up with a lesson plan. I have worked with children a few time but when it came down to writing a lesson plan I found it very difficult because there are certain standards that need to be included all the while making it fun so the children can participate effectively. In essence I know have a better understanding of writing out an effective lesson plan.

This was my first online class I have ever taken and was very nervous and unsure if I would be able to keep up with it. This Intro to technology class was by far one of my favorite class even if it was online. Professor Coleman did an awesome job of keeping a great rubric and explaining the assignments as well as answering any questions we may have had in a timely manner. One of the assignments we also had were discussion post. With discussion post we would talk about one subject put our thoughts on it and then got the chance to view other classmates thought and comment. For me it was wonderful getting the input from other classmates and getting to see their point of view on the very interesting subjects we had.

             To sum it all up, this semester was a really interesting semester and when taking Intro to technology class made it all the more interesting. I got an opportunity to learn so many new technology tools and even better I learned how to use them effectively in a classroom. I also learned that an educators’ job is more difficult than we can imagine and with this class I understood how to properly write out lesson plans. Overall I truly enjoyed this class and learned so much from it as well.

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.

Rios Moreno, P (December 10, 2015) Technology created with Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/create



Blog Post #L- Chapter 12

          Technology integration is something that most students find wonderful and great and helpful especially to visual learners. With technology, there are so many innovated apps and games that can help students with any subject such as math, reading, spelling and so forth. However, there are many debates as to whether or not it is helpful or instead worsens the students learning the ability. Some think that rather than help the student learn instead they will play games or surf the internet all day rather than pay attention to the teacher or play with those innovated apps. There are also those parents who believe that the students can learn so much from technology because it provides an array of information from all across the globe.

            Inclusion and Infusion of technology also plays an important role not only with students but also with the ones who introduce it, the educators. Educators must also learn the ways of technology and keep updated in order to help the students succeed. In order to do this, they too must take courses to keep up with the latest apps and software. This way technology is infused and used with academic core standards as well as NET-S

             Digital inequalities are definitely something that will be a problem that unfortunately many schools encounter even in the era that we are living in. In the school district, I live in recently upgraded to BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) program and it was mandatory for all the students to bring some sort of technology to school. Although I personally didn’t see this as an issue because most children seemed to have the latest and greatest phone however in the community this is when I realized not many have that privilege. For instance, a family member of ours that had three daughters in school had a difficult time  trying to get this because they only had one computer in which all the three girls shared to do homework and research for projects. We helped her overcome this issue but this isn’t the same for everyone else so renting or going to a public library is the best next thing one can do. In school children can use computers but at home isn’t always guaranteed that privilege and rely on public libraries or friends home. 

Resources:

10 Ways Students Can BYOD. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BdV9Bq81X4

Digital Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from http://www.collierschools.net/byod

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.

Blog Post # K- CHapter 6

I truly and sincerely enjoy reading each week different chapters because there is so much technology out there that even as a person who grew up with technology have no knowledge to these varies subjects or apps.  One new subject I learned through this chapter is social bookmarking which I think is an extremely wonderful subject that could be very beneficial to students. Social bookmarking is basically where one can tag online resources that interest a person or can be useful for them.  However, the best part about social bookmarking is that it is more of a community group and with one can make it public or private, but if it is public others with the same interest can help with this search. This helps with the search process because each person may have researched a different topic so in the end when all these different research come together then you get one huge amount of resources that facilitate your search.

Skype, Oovoo these are just a few of the apps that people use to  communicate with one another online, but it’s not just hearing on another  like a phone call it is also being able to see one another to make it seem more realistic. Technology has advanced so much more that now big companies and even classrooms have access to communicate through video conference. Video conferences allow students to communicate with one another simultaneously for an item such as discussing a group topic or assignments that require the students to collaborate in a group.  This is also something convenient for anyone to use because if ones at home they could easily use their laptop if they are on the go they could also have access to it through their smartphone which most students typically have. All in all with video conference it gives the students a fell as if they were actual with the group next to one another rather than having them miles and miles away which, in essence, helps students that don’t have the time to go meet up with group members.

             One main topic that for me stood out the most was online learning and virtual schools. With online learning and virtual school it facilities schooling more easily for anyone from adults to students.  For instance, an adult who has a family but wants to further their education but still has to work to maintain his family than virtual school is the best method for him. With a virtual school, this man would be able to continue his education for his degree on his free time without the hassle of having to find time in his busy schedule to drive all the way up to the campus and wait hours for the lectures. Online learning allows students to take it on their convenience, students with online learning can take lessons, turn in assignments, everything that a regular campus would have.

                                                                                                                                                   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. Rios Moreno, P. (November 11, 2015)                                                                                                                                                                Technology created with Lino http://linoit.com/users/paulariosm18/canvases/Online%20learning

Blog Post #J- Chapter 11

     

While reading the textbook I came across a new strategy that I had never heard of but really captured my attention and I believe it could be wonderful for the classroom. This is called Democratic Schools and Classroom in which the students and the education together choose what will be taught throughout the school year.  Of course just like the actual democratic system there are rules and requirements that must be followed and, in this case, it would be the school rules as well as the state core standards and curriculum.  Although there are many different opinions as to whether this really does work or worsen the school I believe it could be a great opportunity to allow the student to become more mature and think as an adult. With this, it gives them a chance to put themselves in an educators shoes thus, seeing the difficulty in it and allow students to be more cooperative towards certain lessons. The democratic schools and classroom system also allow students to work together to come up with what will be taught throughout the year.

With the democratic system, there are also many other ways to get the classroom more engaged in the lessons. One suggested in the textbook was the Student Participation System which are when students are given a handheld wireless tool to get the students interact with the lessons. For example, one high spoken form are clickers which are basically little remotes that allow students to answer the question a teacher might place in front of them.  With clickers and educator could easily create a game such as Jeopardy or Who Wants to be a Millionaire games shows, this way students are actively engaged all the while getting assessed to see if the topic is being learned or if there is a need to review and if so which areas need more review. This could also be very helpful in situations such as reviewing for finals or state test that may be coming up, the possibilities are endless. With the help of technology, there are so many better effective ways for an educator to capture the student’s attention.

Overall the most significant portion of the textbook that I found most important and helpful that would benefit me in the future is the Digital Teaching Portfolio. When in high school I was originally was going to study Early Childhood Education which at the end in order to get you certifications one must build a profile from the time one began to till the very end. This is very similar to the digital teaching portfolio however the difference is with digital it is all done online which in essences is a huge benefit to teachers. The best part about it is that one can have access to it just about anytime without having to haul around a big binder that holds the portfolio or have to fear that the pages might fall out or so forth.  From my perspective I also think it’s great because it allows one to go back and reference items that may be used in another subject/topic. All in all, it’s a wonderful way to reflect and look back in the way one had grown as an educator but more importantly who one can better themselves.

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. Rios Moreno, P. (November 11, 2015)

Technology created with FlipQuiz http://flipquiz.me/u/paulariosm18/adding-and-subtracting-1

Blog Post #I- Chapter 4

          In chapter four it really opened up my perspective on educators and just really demonstrated to me how much more complex teaching really is. For this reason, I truly applaud teachers not only for the patience of dealing with children on a Monday through Friday basis but also for doing the planning out of every day. Personally I knew it took some sort of time and thought but this chapter really explained in depth what is necessary to plan a lesson and really demonstrated to me ways to better it as in comparison to when I was taught.

         First things first, in this chapter it emphasizes how important for a teacher to first decide on a topic to teach and what concept will be taught on the subject.  With modern technology teachers now have the availability to browse through hundreds and hundreds of curriculums to assist them in planning out a lesson. It is also important for an educator to keep in mind the importance of keeping up with the state standard and core curriculum, so an educator has a lot of factors to keep up with. In the end once a topic is decided is also essential to do assessments to children on the topic not only before and after but also during the lesson. This way the educator gets a glimpse of how much knowledge a child has on the subject and knows how to start off the subject. Also during to see if indeed the children are gaining knowledge or if the subject needs to review and in the end to see if the topic was indeed learned.

        Another great concept that was introduced in this chapter that I really found useful was introducing the lesson to students. The best approach I found for me was the Understanding by Design or as many may know as the backward design.  In this approach, there are three main stages to this design which are Stage 1: Identifying desired results, Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence, and finally Stage 3: Plan learning experience and instruction.  In the first stage, it is basically identifying the topic and what questions shall be answered. The second one is deciding with evidence will be shown to the students to articulate with the topic that will allow them to gain more knowledge as well as continue to gain their attention.  Finally in the last stage is actually setting out a lesson plan complete with activities and time frame for the lesson.

      To sum it all up, once the lesson is successfully completes the only thing left to do is assess the students on the subject to see if the lesson was effective and if children learned the subject.  The most effective way to see if a child has indeed learned the subject is by having the children explain the topic to on another. For instance, have the students collaborate in a group and create a presentation using technology such as PowerPoint on a certain portion and teach to the rest of the class. This way the educator will have the ability to determine if the subject was indeed understood. Aside from this there should still be a test assessment for each child.  With technology though assessing children is easier because educators can use rubrics to help children and makes grading easier with electronic grading.                                                                                                                                                      

     

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. 

Rios Moreno, P. (October 28, 2015) Technology created with Voki http://www.voki.com/mywebsite.php

Digital Blog Post- #H Chapter 9

The use of PowerPoint has become more and more popular. It helps one organize their ideas and visually show their thoughts. With PowerPoint, one can add 3-D effects, narration, sound, pictures, diagrams and so much more. It is a wonderful software that facilitates the lesson for a teacher because once done it’s just a click away from changing the subject. PowerPoint it extremely beneficial to visual learning that have difficulty focusing on a topic because as mentioned before PowerPoint has more of a video effect rather than reading straight out of a book or using a regular whiteboard.

One great tool that I learned in this chapter was Digital storytelling. Digital storytelling is a tool that can be used in school from K-12, it’s a way to use written text and create a story presentation with audio, video, and realistic text. “Digital storytelling connects directly to the history/social studies and language arts curricula” (Transforming, 2013). For instance in a language arts class it can be used to allow students to use their imagination to created stories but in the end actually bring these characters to life with digital storytelling and, not only does it have to stay in text but students can actually narrate the story as well to and more excitement to the story.

Photo taking and Movie Making is something that I personally as a future educator would love to implement in the classroom. My last high school year one of my classes was a video tech class in which we would learn how to use cameras, microphones, windows movie maker and so much more. From first-hand experience, I can personally tell you it is a great way for students to work in groups and learn from one another. Using movie making allows students to express themselves and be creative when creating these videos. Once completed each group would then be able to show the final completion and this way learn about a different topic from each one.

 

 

Resources:

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

Blog Post #G- Chapter 10

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