Final Reflection!

This class got off to a rocky start with cancelations and many assignments we were unsure of what to do; I think the entire cohort was very unsure about how the rest of this class was going to turn out. But, it has been a great learning experience. I think it is amazing that we are able to learn so much from each other and because we span many grade levels it is interesting to see how people are trying to use technology at every level. I was able to learn a lot from my peers through working on projects together and see others presentations. I was excited to learn about the blogs and wiki’s and how to incorporate them into my class. We have had teachers who use wiki’s in the past and I have wanted to use them and never had the time to check it out, through courses like this it is great to have the chance to learn about technology we are interested in for our students. I am looking forward to implementing the projects we created with my students and see how they react to them.

Dec. 15th questions

1.       The Digital Divide definitely exists at my school. We have a great new school building with a computer lab and two student computers in every classroom at every grade level. We also have a couple of carts with laptops on them that can be signed out my teachers and used in the classrooms. Our students have a computer class once a week and one of their specials and many of the classrooms have a promethean board in the room. Our students have great opportunity to use all this technology throughout the day and school year, but once they go home there is a huge discrepancy as to how much access to technology they have. Within our community we have some families that have computers and ipads, some of my students even have their own computers in their rooms. Then I have students who don’t have a computer at their house, or they have one but no internet access. There are two extremes that exist in our community outside of school.  This lack of technology at home can put the students at a disadvantage when it comes to completing homework assignments, projects, or accessing help.

2.       Our school tries to get students using as much technology as possible and last year we had an after school program that I actually ran where students were exposed to even more technology and got to learn about different software. But no matter how much they use technology in school when they go home they can put all this knowledge to use. They are going to be behind their peers when they get to high school and beyond because they are not going to be as experienced with technology. Our school is also trying to become more interactive with parents using online resources but they also have to send home paper copies and flyers to those parents without the access to technology and the internet.

3.       As an educator it is extremely important that I am doing as much as I can with my students to teach them about technology. I think one of the most important skills to teach my students about technology is how to learn about new technology. I can introduce my students to many different kinds and uses of technology but they are only going to be with me for a year so if I teach them how to be information literate this will help them for their entire life time. Students need to be aware that technology is always changing and new advances are always happening. They are going to be living in a world where from year to year they may be using totally different technology and they have to be able to adapt to that.

Collaborative Project reflection

I thought my collaborative project with Stephanie was fantastic! We often collaborative together during the school day and I am very excited to be able to do this author study with our classes. I think I am most excited with our students becoming more and more comfortable with using the internet to do research and have discussions. I think we did a really nice job of building off of our instructional model. Students will have to continue to use the blog to have discussions but their use of the blog is a little more in depth in with this activity. Students also have to become comfortable with finding information on the web and using the blog to guide them to website allows them to have direction but still find the information on their own. This will be highly beneficial to my students especially as we do more and more with research projects in the spring time. The added bonus to working with Stephanie’s class so much is that there is a real sense of comfortable among the students and teachers. I am getting to know her students which help with transitions next year when some of them are in my class, and she gets to continue working with some of her from last year. They are already familiar with her style and expectations.

Instructional model reflection

I really enjoyed getting the chance to work with Steph and Stacey…Steph and I get the chance to work together a lot and it was fun to have a third part involved. It was also great to work with these two wonderful ladies because we teach close grade levels. I am really excited to implement this plan into our classrooms and start having our student’s blog with each other. I think it will be a really great opportunity for students to learn how to use something like Bloggster, which is easy to learn how to use and yet they can do so much with it. They are also going to love learning about different current events and being able to share it with someone especially from another school. Hopefully this project will begin to open the door for us connecting and creating a larger learning environment for our students.

Dec. 8th

1.       Yes, absolutely all teachers should be encouraged to create online activates within their classrooms. The students that we are teaching today are going to be living in a world dominated by technology and they more they use the more they will learn about it and see how helpful it is. I don’t think that teachers need to feel like they have to do everything online but if teachers were able to incorporate just a few online or technology based activated into their curriculum I think they would start to see the benefits as well. I think a lot of teachers don’t use technology because of their own lack of understanding.

2.       I honestly am not sure if I think social networking has a place in education. I would not use social networks in my classroom of 5^th graders and I think if teachers were going to use them it should not be until the high school level. Students younger than high school age are too obsessed with the social aspect of social networking and not how they can be used educationally. I am not sure how I would incorporate something like Facebook into my classroom. I feel like there are so many other ways to get students to connect to a larger community without using social networking sites.

3.       As I stated I am not sure teachers should be using social networks in the classroom but if they were I would hope it would be at the high school level and after a lot of instruction and guidance about cyber bullying and internet safety. If students were going to use a social network within education I think it would be interesting to see how something like a facebook profile or a myspace page could be used for college applications. Students would obviously have to be very careful but it could be an interesting way for colleges to learn more about students and possibly interact with them more. But there are also many things that could go wrong here. Students could also use twitter in a social studies or current events class and follow politicians or other influential people to keep up on what is happening in the world. Although again I would hate to see a generation that gets all their important news from twitter.

4.       As of right now I still see the role of social networking in education as a problem. Students are using places like facebook as a place to bully and bash other students. High school students and middle school students don’t realize these social networks are public domains and they are getting themselves into trouble. Students who suffered from being bullied at school used to be able to go home and escape from these attacks, now with the prevalence of cell phones and almost all middle school students having a facebook page this bullying does not end when the school day ends. We have clearly seen an increase in students attacking other students through social network pages. For me the role of these networks in education needs to be usas educators teaching tolerance and acceptance, not trying to incorporate these media’s into the classroom.

Dec. 1 questions

1.       When students are studying various topics one very useful tool is for them to work with primary sources. It is the job of the teacher to provide students with the opportunity to work with these primary sources and accessibility to them. When students are able to work with primary sources and gain a firsthand account of events they gain a closer understanding of what happened. The information is more meaningful to them when they see it comes from someone who experienced it. The NARA is currently compiling a huge database of primary sources for teachers to be able to use with their students. Teachers need to make sure students are able to use the sources appropriately including understanding the perspective of the primary source

2.      Blogs, Wikis, and web-based word processors all use technology as a means to communicate and collaborate but each is used with a different purpose. Blogs are a way for many people to communicate through a central location. You could have one person blogging and others commenting or you can have an open blog for many people. Blogs allow for lots of discussion and let’s people share their ideas. One way a blog could be used in the classroom is for Literature Circles. Students can use the blog as a safe way to discuss the book and a teacher would be able to see all the discussions and who is participating. The great thing about using a blog for literature circles is that you could open the door for students to start a literature circle with students from another school or grade level in your school. The discussion wouldn’t have to be confined to the classroom. While wiki’s also allow for people to post their ideas there is usually less of a discussion element to a wiki. Within the classroom a wiki could be used as a class newsletter. Because it can be added to and edited by many students the newsletter could become a living document where students could update it daily and parents would be able to see what was happening in the classroom immediately. Students would have to work together and collaborate to create one document that everyone was able to work on. Another way for many students to work on one project is using web-based word processors like Google docs. I think this would be a great resource for students in older grades who are working on projects or papers together. Students are able to log in and add to the document whenever they want and each time the document is edited the whole group gets an email. Students would be able to edit and change things without having to re-create the document each time and find time to get together.