Exit Slip

Today we had our final discussion group which closed out the book.  We have a good discussion on our veiws of the future with technology and keeping education in mind.  After that, we did an activity which had us finding a list of resources and tools that we would use in our classroom.  It challenged our learning of how to find usable resources, while also having us find things meaningful that we can use in the classroom.  It showed us just how easy it if to find resources and tools for a lesson in such a small amount of time.  This also helps stress the importance of using these tools in our classroom and making our students aware of them.

Exit Slip

Today, we discussed improvements we could make to our annotated bibliographies and ways to improve our screencasts.  I feel like my SWOT analysis was well done so I feel that I should have zero problems with it.  If so, I will surely correct them.  We discussed how the IWB is the next project due which reminded me to post it in the dropbox as soon as possible.  We talked about chapter 10 today and we were able to leave early and have a "catch of air" day to relax and work on things that will be due soon.

Podcast

article link:
Goldman to lend $25 million for charter schools

I would say from an effort standpoint that Jim and I put in a lot of time and effort into our podcast.  We read our article through mulitple times and looked up extra information to back-up or discussion and to help define things that the listener may not know (defined charter schools).  We put in a lot of time writing our script and practiced it many times before we even thought of recording it.  Also, we tried some different music and sound effects for our podcast before we finally agreed on a final copy and structure.  We put in a lot of time and were pleased with our finished product.  Making  this podcast was a good experience on how to work together with a new tool and how to communicate what we needed help with.  I would like to create more of these someday for a classroom because once we got going, it wasn't too hard and it will be easy excessable for students and parents.  The podcast is an important tool and you can use it to cover many things such as keeping parents in the loop of whats going on in the classroom or to even post extra information or lecture notes to students to listen to at home for extra help.  Like I said above, this project was tough at times but once we got the ball rolling, it was really simple.

Exit Slip

Todays class seemed extremely long for me.  This was probably because of a massive headache and still some anger from the elections on the 2nd, but we won't get into that on here.  Back to what we did in class though.  We had another discussion group that gave us a great deal of conversation on our approaches to the digital world and how we can use it to better our assessments and change the design of curriculum.  The ideas we shared on how they go hand in hand was very interesting and the article we read on Professor Boyer's Twitter account help put our discussion more in perspective.  The idea of that charter school where the enironment seems very free and inviting is a good thing to look at.  Why isn't that possible on a large scale?  Why aren't there more of these schools?  I thought it was a great way to focus in on student's strengths but still challenging them and helping them to their full potential.  We also discussed some extra tips on how to use scratch.  We discussed better ways to give instruction on how to use it and to allow more time for the learner to read what is going on on the screen.  After this, we discussed the YES TEST for our annotated bibliography.  This was a good thing to discuss because I know for myself, my wiki bibliography was terrible.  This YES TEST is a good way for me to go back and fix this up to make it look more professional and more appealing.  This really helps me get back on the right path to do my technology inquiry wiki.  This project has kind of fallen off with many other things being due sooner.

S.W.O.T.: Twitter

http://www.screencast.com/users/tjone871/folders/Default/media/52b89cd4-4a06-4daa-8f78-8bdf2e44dcc5

For this assignment, I spent a good deal of time researching my topic and putting together my script.  I also made my own Twitter account so I could become familiar with what I was talking about.  I did a few days of reading on  Twitter and put together a well outlined script.  I practiced it many times to get my timing down and too make sure I was as fluent as I could be.  I thought this was a good project and I was happy that I actually read into and expeirenced Twitter before I did anythign with it.  I truly did get to understand how to use it and what it was all about.  I thought the screencast was a good idea and a unique tool to try.  I think this would be a great tool to use to make tutorials for students and show them how to use other tools at their disposal.  Once again, this would be a great tool to use in a classroom and it was very beneficial to learn how to use it.

Ch. 8: Rethinking.............

With all of the advancements in technology, we need to find a way to monitor and "cope" with them.  How can we use these tools to our full potential?  What is their full poetential?  These questions will always have different answers but we can find a happy medium for what we are currently doing.  The idea of using computers for better standardized testing is a cool idea.  It would be great to focus in on all students strengths when testing them as a whole, especially when it could be for state and federal funding or determining their success.  It would be great to specialize the testing to what suits the student best and really challenge them on their skill sets.  Also, the curriculum can be more focused on what the student really enjoys learning about which would also increase their participation in class.  With an array of curriculums, each student could share their area of "specialty" and share this with the class.  The classroom can become an area for all units of studying and can even spark interests for other students.  This would also spark extra learning outside of the classroom.  A big problem is still the "divide" of technology services provided for students.  It is true that some students may not have the same oppurtunities outside of school to continue their learning but, with the standardized testing, they could test high enough to receive funding for more computers.  I like the idea of focusing on a students interests and what they want to be, but you cannot do that all the time in the classroom.  I think I would hold a unit or have a once a week day to work on something related to your interests and aspirations but I feel like you still have to follow a curriculum that is almost the same for every student.  It's not possible to focus on every strength of the student but let them find their strengths and in higher education (college prep-college classes) and then focus your learning on it.  Students of all ages constantly change what they want to learn and what they want to be.  It isn't fair or possible to always change your approach year in and year out with every single student. 

Ch. 7: Rethinking

It is true that there are large differences in education and oppurtunity from school to school.  It is also true that this is even more prevelant in the technology aspect.  We see the arguement based on the gap in technology from school to school.  If we do not have a level playing field, how can everyone be on the same page or pace?  Surely, we want and agree that education should be equal for everyone and that every student should have the same oppurtunities.  The reality is that this just is not true.  We have a "digital divide" and we must fix this.  Our problem is that money just cannot be distriputed equally because most elites do not want to do this.  If we can figure this out, we know that learning will surely become more engaging for our modern students.  They are used to seeing computer screens all the time and always using some type of device be it a cellphone or an MP3 player.  With new technology, we are seeing new modes of learning.  Learning outside of the school has increased greatly and students can "specialize" in any subject they'd like on their own or even be homeschooled.  One huge benefit to me is the fact that we can customize learning to the student with computers.  We can give them all the support they need and allow them to get hints or work at a slower or faster pace.  We can adapt to each and every student.  The idea to me of using computers to tailor the learning to each student is great.  We can challenge everyone in a way that works for that student.  Also, they have the ability to learn even more outside of school which could open up many outlets for projects and special topics.  I would love to encourage learning outside of the classroom and give my students any advantage they can get.  Even with this "digital divide", we can use every tool at our disposal to expand our students oppurtunities.  Also, we can look for grants to improve our schools to lessen this divide.

Chapter 10: Blogs.......

I thought this was a great way to end the book and leave us thinking again, but using what we've read and learned.  In the end, this just continues to back up my thoughts on embracing technology in the classroom and, even if you don't want it, you almost have to have it.  The world is rapidly changing and so is education.  The last 2 sections of this book did a great job of wrapping everything up and putting the ball in our court.  I found it amazing throughout all of this to have learned just how rapidly technology is transforming education.  The idea of a new way of being literate is almost weird to me but it is true.  We need to be editors of the web, be publishers of the content, and most importantly, we need to share it with everyone.  Learning is worldwide and we now have, more than ever, more ways of sharing what we know with the world.  I especially liked the focus on the big shifts of literacy and education at the end.  The content is more open than ever and students can learn anything they want outside of school; all they have to do is go online and find a resource.  With this, learning has become an every mintue thing, or as the book put it, "24/7".  This is a benefit for teachers also.  We can share ideas with other teachers and even use their ideas.  We can find alternative resources to use in the classroom.  Audiences have also expanded.  Students can now share their works and ideas with other students and have an expanding universe.  Their work is truly never "finished" because others can look at it and critique it, give ideas to the publisher.  We are able to share our ideas with the whole work and the whole world can use our ideas.  The epilogue is a great way to show a modern classroom and not only the tools you can use, but how to use them and how beneficial they can be.  This all just seems to back up my ideas of using technology as much as I can.  It backs up the idea of simplicity but also, why all of this is so important.  We need to set our students up for their future and by doing that, we must use everything we can that they might encounter.  We have to face the fact that a book just doesn't cut it if a student wants to learn a fact instantly or share something with a large audience.  I honestly don't think I'll do anything differently as a teacher.  I would like to have a classroom just like Tom McCale.