18 April: My Beliefs

My beliefs of technology in the classroom have changed over the course of the semester. I use to think using technology in the classroom meant that I would use PowerPoints and have my students get on the internet when we did a research assignment. I have learned that technology is so much more than that. I have found that there are as many ways to use technology as there is imagination to think it up. I believe that you can use technology for assignments, instruction, homework, assessment and much more in the classroom. I think that as an educator I need to not be afraid of using technology in my classroom and continually learn new skills with technology.

One thing I learned this semester that I will use in my classroom is to have a class blog or website. I have learned how to use Google sites this semester and I think it is great. There is just so much on there that I can do. I had previously seen a teacher do the same type of thing with blogger which at the beginning of the semester I thought I would do because I felt more comfortable with blogger, but I will defiantly make a Google site for my class. I feel that there is so much I can do on there that will benefit my students. I can put up a calendar, I can post daily post about what we did in the classroom that day, I can put up assignments for students to print off, and I can actually put up links to extra information that will help them. Another thing that I have decided over the course of the semester is that I want to be inventive of how I use my technology. I thought the Picasa assignment was awesome and I would defiantly do that in my classroom. I found that if I teach Utah History I can have the students do a local history picture scavenger hunt and take pictures of local historical sites. I also liked the digital stories. I can either make them and show them to get my students excited about what we are going to or are learning or I will have my students make them and present them to the class.

I believe that technology is so much more than PowerPoints and Google searches. I believe that we as teachers have the responsibility to teach our students how to use technology. Our students will have to have the technological skills to make it in the professional world and it is our job to make sure they have them. I know now that I have to teach these skills just as much as I have to teach my history content or note taking. Technology is important and I have come to understand that throughout this semester.

18 April: Lessons Learned

I learned that technology is growing rapidly. In the video “Did You Know” it said that technology completely changes every 2 years; that means that what I am learning technology wise during my freshman year of college will be completely outdated by my sophomore year. That is crazy and somewhat scary to me. I learned that as a teacher I need to keep up on my technology knowledge. That same video stated that because technology is changing so rapidly, our jobs are changing just as rapidly. This means that we are preparing our students for jobs that do not even exist yet. At this day and age our students will not be able to succeed in the professional world without having well developed skills in technology. As educators it is our jobs to teach our students our content areas (history for me) but also to teach them skills they need to be able to function in society.

I also learned that there is a large disconnect between what our students know and what their parents know. If we believe that our students parents will teach them the skills they need in technology we are severely mistaken. At this point most of our students will be able to do more when it comes to technology then their parents and actually have to help their parents do things. I believe that this has to do with me as well, my family came into technology late and because of that I find I am technologically behind all my siblings. I will have to continually keep learning to keep up with my students so that they do not pass me up in what I know about technology.

I learned that the top 25% of China’s educated population is larger than the entire population of the United States. India’s top 28% of their educated population is larger than the entire population of the United States. In teachers terms that means they have more honor students than we have students. This blows me away. I feel that the U.S. has technology but we take it for granted. Again this is where I believe we need to teach our students skills to advance in the world we live in know (but that is for another blog post). I also learned by watching the Millennial Generation that most students want technology to advance even more. They want to be able to do everything and I mean music, movies, T.V., internet, reading, homework, etc. Wirelessly and on a small hand held device. I believe that we will continue to move that way in this country with our technological advances.

18 April: Strengths and Weaknesses

The UNI survey showed me that when it comes to technology I am the strongest in Tools to Access information and Tools to Use Information. I scored the highest in both of these two areas. This did not surprise me because I feel that I am able to get onto the internet to research and come up with what I need. I scored lower when it came to Software Applications; which again did not shock me, because I tend to stick with the software that I know and do not branch out very much. When looking at the NET Standards I feel that this still holds true because I feel that I am able to use technology to engage in ongoing professional development and lifelong learning. I feel as teachers’ technology is one of the most important ways we can continue in our lifelong learning; whether it be through the internet or by using e-mail to communicate with our fellow teachers we are able to partake from knowledge by using technology. I also feel like I have some great ideas how to use technology for assessment; I actually just had a teacher I am observing show me how 100% of his tests are all online, I loved it.

As a teacher I would like to use more than just PowerPoints in my classroom. I want to use movies and pictures to show historical places and events. I want my students to know how to research online as well as in a library. I want to teach my students how to find what they are really looking for when they are searching the web. The biggest goal I have is to use a variety of technology in my classroom; it is too easy to fall into that movie and PowerPoint technology trap. I found that I want to do digital stories in my class; I want to show them as well as have my students make them. Due to my weaknesses I want to branch out and learn different software. I have Microsoft Word and PowerPoint down, but beyond that I really struggle. I have a hard time making spreadsheets on Excel. I would like to be able to use Excel efficiently and effectively. Another goal I have is to be able to solve problems with my computer; I do really well until my computer does what I do not want it to do. I have found that when I am trying to upload something or link something it does not always work. I want to be able to fix problems like that on my own without needing my husband’s help. I have started to work on this by having him show me how to fix an issue and writing down what he says and then the next time it happened I pull out my written instructions and fix it myself. It has really helped me.

I found online a website that helps you learn how to use excel with mini two minute podcasts. It is set up that you watch and learn one podcast a day. I think this site will be great for me to use because I can spare two minutes each day to learn something new with technology. The website is called Learn Excel From Mrexcel Video and is at www.mrexcel.com/podcast/ learnersexcelpodcast.html. Another website that I found has a bunch of mini-podcasts that help give teachers ideas about how to use technology in the classrooms. They have podcasts on there about subjects such as “Rewiring their teaching” and “Are books dead?” The web site is called Teaching With Technology Podcast: A Series of User-Friendly Techniques, Suggestions, Tips and Advice; the website is http://powertolearn.typepad.com/teaching_with_technology/. I like how this website gives specific technology advice for teachers and the classroom. This would help me integrate technology into all areas of my teaching.

11 April: Digital Cameras and Picasa

4 April: Internet Safety

In class I learned about three major areas of internet safety; cyber ethics, cyber bullying, and sexting. We also discussed about what our roles as parents and teachers are in teaching our students about these three areas. I believe it is every parent’s responsibility to teach their children about internet safety, but unfortunately not all parents take on this responsibility. As a teacher I believe that it is my responsibility to teach my students about internet safety. I know that many of the topics (especially sexting) in internet safety are controversial, but I believe that our students need to be informed about what internet safety is and what the consequences are of not being safe. I believe that cyber ethics is going to be the easiest for me to teach as a history teacher; when we write our research papers I will be able to take the time to teach students about triangulation and about how to find reliable sources. One way of doing this is to use a protected search engine through UEN. Cyber bullying will probably be the second easiest internet safety aspect to teach; I know that I am a history teacher but I believe it is my responsibility to teach my students about this. I could do a current event about bullying and we could cover cyber bullying along with it. I also feel that sexting can be covered the same way. I do not believe that it needs to be a sex talk but you can cover the ramifications of sexting with your class without having to talk about what sex is. In the future I as a teacher need to keep up on the technology because in ten years the issues with the technology maybe different; it is important as a teacher to be aware of what the internet safety needs of my students are and to teach them how to be safe.

21 March - Digital Story 2: Copyright Blog

I was really shocked that you can't show a movie in its entirety. I would have never known that! I think back to all the times that I have sat through a class and we have watched a movie in full. But now I know that you can only use 30% of the movie and it has to have some type of educational value for me to use it. I think I was the most shocked over that. It blows me away that you can purchase a movie and still not be able to use it in the classroom. I figure this goes for all movies including documentaries. This could affect me greatly in history since I have all sorts of documentaries that I would love to use in the classroom. Something I wonder is if it is 30% of the movie ever or if it is 30% of the movie at a time? Although that is frustrating I don’t think we should be having our students watching movies in their entirety anyway.

I also was not aware of how easy it was to license my own stuff. I didn’t realize that all you need to do is give credit to who it came from and share it with others. I think that for education purposes it is good that we have to share our things; in education it is good for us to have a large pool to pull from and that pool won’t grow unless we give to it. I also found it interesting that they were copyrighting as early as they were. I should know that they were, but I had never realized that in 1886 they were making international laws about copyrighting.

I am excited to make my digital story. I think my group is going to work well together and it is going to go pretty easy. We are planning on getting together next Monday during the class time and try to pump it out. I think that having that day off is really going to help us out because we all have crazy schedules and it was going to be somewhat hard to get us all together. I am excited to be able to be creative and show something from history in a creative way.

March 14: Digital Stories 1 Reflection

I learned what a digital story is last time in class. I am excited to do a digital story; I believe that it is a creative way that I will get to tell about an event in history. I believe that you could use digital stories in history classes to get students engaged and excited about what they are learning. I feel like there are millions of these out about the holocaust and that it has been overdone, but I feel like there are historical periods that are considered boring that would benefit from having a digital story done about them. You could do one of these on things such as the westward expansion or about what we did to the Native Americans; both of these topics can be seen as boring in the classroom and would benefit from some emotion.

Our group is going to do the Space Race. I am excited because I have always been one who loved space and what and where we have adventured into it. I think that in a history class this could be very beneficial for your students to watch. I like that the time period is so close to us today and students can connect what happened to what we have now. It is a great way to discuss the Cold War and to discuss the technological advancements that were being made in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. I think the Space Race is fascinating and I hope that our digital story gives it justice.

I am excited for the digital stories because I think I am really going to have a lot of fun doing mine. I enjoy being creative and I enjoy history so this seems to be right up my alley. Plus I am excited that we will get to see everyone else’s digital stories. It will be a fun way to wrap up the class.