WOW

First thing I want to start with is WOW, this class has been a very great way to start thinking more in terms of integrating technology into the classroom, even if it is an online class.  I have known for a couple years now I wanted to focus more on technology and etec 524 has given me a base to grow on.  The biggest impact I have seen throughout this class is how you allowed us to create artifacts, portfolio's, Wiki's, and other pieces of information to our liking.  So often as educators we give students a lesson tell them they have to do it an exact way (the way we want it), and expect it to be done that way.  With etec 524 we were given the opportunity to discover our own interests using the technology of our choice. 

If students are given a choice and are able to express learning through the format we have been able to learning becomes so much fun and that is what we need to help students and ourselves grow.  The focus was not on cross the t and dotting the i rather on what we found of interest. I will continue to keep my blog, however I will use it as a way to interact with home school students.  One thing I am DEFINITELY going to use is the e-portfolio, I have loved creating that site and knowing all my important items are in one place.  Also as a home school mother, next year I will even have my 2nd grader keep track of her items using an e-portfolio.  I just want to say if more instructors as Dr. W were willing to be as open minded and realize education should be fun and not a chore, we would have more students who wanted to learn! Thanks! This has been a short but GREAT journey! I look forward to taking the information I learned and sharing it with others. 

Blog Reflection #7

I decided to design a lesson developing a classroom Wiki for a reading comprehension lesson.  I used Jing to explain the project which I would also use to explain to the students the assignment. 

            In order to improve learning we as educators MUST be open to change, the traditional method of teaching is just NOT working anymore. Students get too bored listening to a teacher stand at the board lecture, write down some concepts they hope they learn, and then expecting students to memorize it and take tests.  I still see students right on this campus cramming to memorize material for tests and this is not working, I just do not understand why teachers can’t get this, or they refuse to change their teaching styles.  As teachers we need to realize students are learning through technology although we refuse to learn ourselves, which in turn is only hurting our classroom instruction.  Connecting students with real life experiences is a key to helping students engage.  I believe we are heading for disaster if instructors whether public school, private school, online, face to face, do not learn to think out of the box and help students learn to learn.  I am onboard totally with the concepts of 21^st century teaching!   

Podcast- how to use Jing

The purpose of my podcast was to show others how to use Jing and describe some of the benefits of the program if used for students.  When I first learned to use Jing I was excited to see how simple yet affective using it could be.  I am an audio & visual learner therefore Jing and other podcast programs are great for me when used in online learning because it gave me a chance to understand what is being taught.  I will definetly use podcasting in the future to enhance learning for my students.  I also looked at using Cinch as a podcast I could use for classroom instruction and also saw it as a very exciting tool that can be used in bringing 2.0 web tools to students.  

 

The link below is directed to my Jing screencast   

 

  http://screencast.com/t/cQxFnbGh

Critical Analysis of Information

After completing the Mapping information activity, which by the way I did for hours I was so amazed, I realized even though I have been searching the net since it started to boom in the late 90’s, I am not narrowing down my searches enough.  I searched several key terms however I took Disney Cruise (since we are going on one in September) and I went to Google.  I entered in Disney + Cruise and Galveston Cruises were the top 7, I did not put in Galveston so that told me the internet search picked up where I was searching from and used that as a way to give me the location of Galveston.  Then I used my typical search engine mode typed in Disney Cruise which was very broad and pointed more toward advertisements and travel agents rather than the actual cruise line.  So I took “Disney Cruise” with the added quotations and the search was narrowed down to only sites that actually offered Disney Cruises.  It was very interesting to see just a few different KEY words such as and, or, and the + sign can change the amount of junk retrieved on a key word search.  I will definitely be using the Mapping suggestions as well as referring back to Novemberlearning.com for future internet searching tips. 

I believe students need to be taught these implications because as shown in the MartinLutherKing as a student that would look like a very good site to do research for a project, however after investigating we see it is not.  It is important for students of any age to understand just because we read it or find it on the internet does not mean it is a scholarly site. 

Without a doubt I see sites such as Delicious, Google Reader, and Stumble Upon as having advantages to organizing my information.  Delicious and Stumble Upon remind me of Pintrist because it is set up similar and organized in a way that is appealing and easy to find information according to interests.  I enjoyed using delicious because not only does it show the description of the site but also has a direct link, therefore with one click you are where you need to be.  Also with delicious you can put things in categories where-as the traditional bookmarking is organized by lists and often very hard to find what is being searched for.  It was also interesting to perform the “easy who is” on Delicious site, it showed the information necessary to research a little further which led me to https://www.markmonitor.com.  I will be using these tools, websites, and mapping strategies to continue to grow in this technology filled market we serve.     

e-portfolio

The tenent I most related to in the list of Assessment for Learning principles was AFL should focus on how students learn.  The reason I was most attracted to that tenent is because so often when I taught school (special education for 5 years) I saw teachers teach the same material in the same manner day after day, month after month, and year after year, with no regard of different learning styles.  As educators I believe it is our job to make sure we are teaching several learning styles and seeking each day to find out more and more how each of our students learn.  Teachers so often do not want to take the time to assess students individually to learn how they learn which I believe is a huge barrier for our students.  I believe portfolio assessment has a greater potential to understand what students are and have learned then giving tests.  I have completed my masters degree this last summer and the classes in which I learned the most and gained a strong knowledge of the material were the ones in which were assessed by portfolio's.  Even as a secondary special education teacher my students were given portfolio assignments rather then tests which had a large impact on how they learned.  I believe the reason why portfolio assessment has greater opportunities for students and their assessment is because it is what they created not a test they had to memorize.  I am a huge supported of portfolio's because I think they are a great way to get students involved in their own learning.  I have found students love to collect information and share it with others it means more to them if they discovered it rather then they had to cram for a test to try and learn it. 
I like the idea of creating a portfolio in this class as well because I will collect and compile the information that is important in my learning.  My portfolio will also serve as a way to keep all information in one place, the information that seems most important to me.  I look forward to building on what I have in my portfolio and continuing to use it as a tool to grow as a learner.   

https://sites.google.com/site/jodilcalkins/

WIKI WEEK

I decided to create a WIKI for our local home school group, with the idea that all of the parents could have access and add to the information as needed.  The Wiki was extremely easy to create and is a great tool for sharing information.  I even created a 2nd Wiki for the CES PTO in which I serve as president again this will be a way we can all share and collaborate for upcoming events.  I see WIKI's as being great way to create web pages without having to purchase a separate domain, web server, and the other tools required to build a website.  There were several other 2.0 tools I discovered that I would love to work with, one was Live Minutes, it offers a way to conduct meetings online and even stores your minutes, this is a great tool for those who want to save time and money I am going to be looking into this further for sure.  http://liveminutes.com/oneclick/

I also saved a site that has several 2.0 web apps on it in which I am checking out each one to see which I can use, I encourage you all to check it out!
http://www.go2web20.net/

Educational Technology Organizations

The first organization I chose was Instructional Technology Council because they focus on being advance leaders in distance education.  ITC’s mission is to provide exceptional leadership and professional development to e-learning experts through advocating, collaborating, research, and sharing innovations in learning technologies.  ITC also stays present with federal legislation that relates to distance learning, organizes professional development meetings, supports research, and provides members a forum to share their expertise and instructional resources. 

I selected ITC because I am a supporter of online learning and would like to become an online instructor.  Therefore I feel as though ITC could provide some very good insight and changes to instructors of online learning.  Another aspect about ITC that attracted my attention was the live webinars which are provided for training, which cuts down on travel and cost.  I am a huge fan of online learner and a proven example it is more motivating then face to face classes, therefore I chose to teach and learn both online.

http://www.itcnetwork.org/index.php

            The second organization that appealed to me was Educause, because of their mission to advance higher education by promoting the use of information technology.  The mission of Educause also includes professional development, applied research, policy advocating, teaching and learning, online information, publications, special interest communities, leadership training, and innovation. 

            One of the reasons I was led to Educause is because I tend to focus more on higher education organizations since receiving a master’s degree in higher education learning.  I tend to focus more of my attention and need on ways to integrate technology into higher education.  I believe a positive way to gain information and learn new ways of teaching is to collaborate with other educators in similar disciplines.  With Educause membership there are benefits of being able to join communities that are available for new ideas and concepts in teaching students using technology. 

http://www.educause.edu/   

What is Educational Technology

Educational Technology means an array of things to me however the first thing I think of when I brainstorm about Educational Technology is as educators we must re-think the way we teach. As an educator I believe we need to be more creative, by allowing students to learn through using technology. So often teachers are afraid of a classroom in which students are up moving around and engaging in a fun creative way. I believe educational technology involves thinking out of the box, by allowing students to use their individual skills and learning styles to create a love for learning. By doing so students need empowering, motivating, and, self efficacy. Students are starving for new ways of learning, the old lectures and tests are not working for the students of the 21st century therefore as educators it is our job to help students reach a better understanding of their learning so they are better able to use that for future "real life" situations in their own workplace, homes, or educational institutions.

I believe if students are not empowered to learn and taught to love learning they are not going to be as equipped as those that are. Educational Technology involves a variety of teaching tools and not being afraid to take risks, evaluate their success, and change the teaching methods accordingly. Allowing students to use laptops, e-tablets, cell phones, and e-books are great ways to promote learning. Students should not be restricted to one method of learning such as lecture, memorization, and testing. It has been supported that students learn more effectively through gaming, simulation, and using gadgets they love, often they do not even realize they are learning. Therefore I believe as teachers, instructors, and trainers we should be constantly learning new material and teaching it to our students, so we all keep up with current technology.

Creating a Culture for Teaching and Learning - If its on the internet its true

In the article Creating a Culture for Teaching and Learning the one that stood out to the most is 1. If it's on the Internet, it is true.
So often people really believe this and it is hard to break the cycle in them to go right to the Internet for research.  Like the example given in the article about the 16 year old student who was led to a website while doing a term paper claiming the Holocaust never took place.  We as educators must understand these random websites are created but people just like you and me and their own opinions and ideas.  For information to be considered scholarly it should come from sites in which are peer reviewed and known to present educational facts and not ones own idea, that should be presented in a blog!

WHAT I HOPE TO GET OUT OF THIS COURSE
In this course I hope to bring away more information on the technology being used in classrooms that is working for students to become more engaged in learning. I am a firm believer of classrooms that are changing regularly according to the needs of the students.  It is important to gain more insight and experience with technology is why I am interested in these courses therefore I am looking to expand my knowledge of how to stay engaged and current on educational technology.

Stephen Downes' article

I agree with Downes’ article on several things he mentions about ways blogging can be used however I do not think enough people are on board using them yet.  Things that really stuck out to me in the article were when Downes’ talked about a blog as a way to publish to the entire world, often we do not think of blogs in that expansion although they are.  Blogging is also a way for people to exchange their views with others not associated in our “immediate environment”.  I like the way the article described blogging as “personal publishing”, because so often individuals want to write but they do not have an audience however with blogging the audience is broad and large. 

I do not think we have met our potential with blogging due to the idea most people have about it, although most of the time when we do internet searchers it will take us to blogs.  I believe in order to meet this potential it can start with teachers, trainers, and educators showing individuals how much of an impact blogging can have on their writing by reflecting on the comments made.  I think the only thing preventing us from reaching the potential of more blogging users is individuals perceiving it more as a journal rather than an interaction with others.  With time I do think blogging is going to become more and more popular and a tool used to expand knowledge.    

Educational Technology Teaching Philosophy

I have discovered over the last several years of teaching that for me teaching is an always changing and evolving with current technology and new discoveries.  My teaching grows with my expanding knowledge of my disciplines and growing awareness of the research related to educational technology.  I have grown to realize with several years teaching that experiences working with students has shaped my teaching styles I deliver today.  I believe teaching educational technology involves a variety of teaching styles, teachers and students must stay current on technology, for students to stay engaged regular feedback must take place and I believe it is important to connect students learning to something they already know through real life experiences.

I believe in teaching using a variety of learning styles such as active learning, cooperative learning, and individual learning.  Active learning can be used as a strategy in education for students to take personal responsibility for what they learn by assigning projects and presentations in which students are to collect information in order to gain understanding of the subject. I believe these assignments should involve but not be limited to creating a hypothesis and collecting information to better test it, projects be based upon real-life situations, and presentations involve demonstrating their knowledge to peers and teachers.

Cooperative learning is also a teaching style I support because it has been tested with positive results that students learn successfully in groups to achieve shared goals.  I encourage students to establish group goals, take on different roles within the group, and develop group autonomy. 

Individual learning is also important in teaching students because each student learns differently therefore a variety of technology concepts should be used to construct and express learning. 

With the rapid growth of technology in our educational settings the demand is constant therefore I believe students should be taught to explore new methods using updated resources.  In order to assure students are current with technology used in classrooms as a facilitator I continue to explore research, new devices, and ways to teach students how to integrate technology into their learning.    

I also believe as a teacher it is significant to stay engaged with students by listening to them when there is a need and give immediate feedback as often as possible.  Students learning is important to me therefore I want to facilitate them in the greatest way possible so when they leave my class they are prepared to take the information learned and apply it to the “real” world.