A Final Reflection

Having been apart of this class for the past four weeks, I have discovered that there are many new technologies that I have am unaware of. I thought that I was computer literate, but was wrong. There is too much new information developing each and everyday, to be up to date with all of it. This class has opened my eyes to some of these new technologies, and I hope to keep up with the new and developing technology.

Another piece of information that I have taken away from this class is just how important it is to incorporate technologies into the classroom for the students. Students are different then they were ten or twenty years ago. They thrive on technology and are better equip to use and develop the technology.


This class has overall been an awakening as to how technology can be used to better one's class and classroom. I am grateful that I have been exposed to these technologies, and hope to keep up with the new technologies as they come out.

Engrade

Exploring Engrade was fantastic! I found all the same features that a regular grade book would have plus extra features that could be very useful to any and all teachers. Being able to put the grades online would allow more people, such as the teacher, student, and student's parents. Having the grades for all to see would alleviate the questions that usually arouse towards the end of marking periods. The only real downside to this program, or having a grade book online would be for those who do not have access to computers. Granted the students would be able to see the grades at the school library and whatnot, but some parents would not necessarily have access to the computer.

An improvement that Engrade could work on would be making the access to the students grade easier for the parents. Being able to set up a parent account was an option, but one that I could not explore because I set up a different type of account. The possibility for this is present, and I will later go back to see how the parent accounts also work.

This software would be extremely helpful for teachers. Not having to ever buy another grade book, is a cost saving reason. Yet there are other reasons as well, such as the fact that the computer will average all the grades for each individual as well as the class. The software also makes referring to prior assignments very easy. This program seems like a major win! The teacher even has the choice to print out the grades, to have a paper copy or to post in the classroom.

Parents, teachers, and students would all like this software. All can see assignments and grades without having to wait till the end of the semester. They can also see what work was not handed in or what must be done over, before it is too late! This is the ultimate reason why this software would be detrimental to any classroom. Parents can also look at the missing work , and talk to their children directly. without having to use the teacher as a middle man.

Oh week 3

After reading about the different Instructional Systems Design Models, I like that most are some modification of the ADDIE model. The ADDIE model is rather straight forward, and easy to follow. It has also be modified in the past to be more flexible for different teachers, subjects, and students needs. Having them all follow the basic idea, is good though because it keeps the structure. Teachers should always somehow implement their creativity or "spin" into their lessons and class so by using ADDIE and their own creativity it is a win win situation for the students and teacher.

Class this week also took us to explore different technologies for different teaching styles:

Behavioral-
Those who learn best under a Behavioral teaching style, achieve more with a direct strategy of teaching. This type of style includes; mastery learning, and direct computer assisted instruction. Power points, cd-roms and webquests seem like they would be best for students under this strategy.

Information-Processing-
Those who learn best under an Information Processing aching style, are able to achieve more under an indirect teaching strategy. This strategy includes inquiry learning and synectics. For this strategy, Students who fall on this strategy, would benefit most from technologies such as twitter, web blogs, and wikis.


Social Interactive-
The social interactive learning style is an indirect strategy for teaching. This style includes cooperative learning, peer tutoring and project-based learning. Students under this learning style would benefit most from web chats, wikis, blogs, and just group work online.

Personal-
A personal learning style is non directive teaching. It also focuses on individualized instruction. This teaching style would incorporate several different styles, that the student would have found to be more helpful to them.


When looking at the different types of lesson plans in this class, two that come up are the MSMC lesson plan and the 5 E Model. The two are similar, yet the 5 E Model focuses on collaboration and constructivism. I also feel that the 5E Model focuses more on the students learning to work with others in more of a social atmosphere. If I were a principle, I would absolutely make sure that the 5E model was used in the school. I would also use lesson plans like that of MSMC, for those students that are not social learners.

Week 3 reflection

This week, has brought a compilation of new ideas and technologies to my attention. I have always liked the idea of a webquest, and having the chance to make one was great! Especially with the help of my group, because to be honest, i did not really know the subject or appropriate grade level that the content was to cover. The end product was fantastic, and I appreciate the chance to make a webquest, and can definitely see myself making more of these in the future.
Getting the entire group together was probably the hardest part of the week. Everyone has a different schedule, which makes group work so tricky. But between aim, and webex we were able to meet and get the projects done.
The lesson plan and toolkit were also projects that were due this week, and they were both also enriching, and again tricky because of the group aspect. But ultimately the entire group was able to get together and get the work done, so this was great!!

My own personal iGoogle

So as apart of this weeks assignment, we were instructed to create an iGoogle homepage. I had attempted this before with my old yahoo account, but was never able to really personalize it like I could with google. So my page looks like this...



I picked all the information that I found most important, and put it along the top of my page. The secondary important information was put in the next layer, and then I stopped. Only two layers were put on my page, because I didn't want it to become too busy. Overall I liked this, and thought that everyone could put their own spin on it by picking from a multitude of boarders for the homepage.

Oh the new Technology...

This week, came with three new web technologies to try out and use. Te sites were Twitter, Diigo, and del.icio.us.

Having used Twitter, for at least a year I really found nothing terribly new when watching the videos on other people getting the, started. Twitter is a super easy way to get short messages out to a large number of people. I use this as a social site, as opposed to using it for an educational purpose, but this site has lots of potential for use within the classroom. The only real downside, is that there is a limited number of letters that are allowed per tweet.

Diigo, is a site that I had never heard of before, but instantly fell in love with. One of the major problems with my computer is organization, and this seems to be my tool! With the ability to highlight, sticky note, and bookmark pages to a separate page that can be accessed from anywhere! It is almost too good to be true. This tools seems as though it was made for graduate students who do a lot of research, and even for an online course, it's like another way to organize all of the new information that comes my way!! I am very excited that I was introduced to this site!!

Del.icio.us, is a site that I looked at, and I watched the tutorial, but just took no interest in. It seems that del.icio.us is like Diigo, just that Diigo took it to another level. I think that this is why, I did not have a lot to say.

Creativity is not Forgotten!!!

Creativity and Innovation

This standard is one, that I was glad to see on the NETS-S!! A lot of the time, when it comes to standards and curriculum in schools, I feel that creativity is left out. So to see this as one of the first standards was refreshing. Creativity is ultimately the students taking something that they know or have learned, and putting their own personal spin on it. I wish that within many of my high school classes, and even many of my undergraduate classes had more of this. Instead they were plain and dry, with little creativity.

The other standards, are well explained which is great because that made them easier to understand and follow. The only standard that I would possibly not be completely ready for would be the one that deals with the technological operations and concepts. This is something that could be learned, but I currently do not have this information.

The shift from school/classroom 1.0 to 2.0 is great, in a simple phrase! With new technologies, this is a way for students to become more interested in their work. The new 2.0's allow for the students and teachers creativity to shine, as well as their intellects. The 2.0's are also very interactive, which allows for students to interact with other students, parent, and teachers. 2.0's are common use in today's world, so to allow students to use it for educational purposes is a great way to introduce them to it, especially at an early age.