Final Reflections on the course

I can't believe the course is over. It has been a long semester filled with many projects. I learned alot from all of the assignments. I feel that I will be able to use technology effectively in my future classroom.
Keeping a blog!
I have enjoyed keeping a blog throughout the semester. In the future, I will definitely introduce my students to keeping a blog. There are many benefits to having students keep their own blogs.
My Personal Website
I also enjoyed making my own personal website. Freewebs.com was very easy to use. I tried to make my website look as "techy" as possible. I really liked the background and images I used to format my website. I like how the website is organized. In the future I would definitely make a website for my classroom. It is a great way to communicate with parents and students.
I put alot of time and effort into my personal website. I have a respect for those
My Wiki
I had a hard time thinking of a theme for my wiki. I decided to create a theme that I have been working on with a student during fieldwork. During fieldwork I have been working with a third grade student. We have been reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid and keeping his own journal as well. We have been working to improve his sequencing and summarizing skills. Some of the ideas in the wiki I have used with my student. Other ideas I took from Web 2.0 tools I learned in class. Wikispaces was very easy to use. It was easy to upload pictures and make external as well as internal links.
My ICP Project
My ICP project was using audio/video podcasts to enhance 21st century skills. I was very interested in this topic as we had briefly touched upon it during class. As I researched podcasting I learned how to create my own podcast. It is very easy to do. I downloaded all of the necessary programs which were all free!!! I also found many great teacher and student made podcasts. I listened to a student made podcast from a student in kindergarten. It was amazing to hear students create radio podcasts.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class. This was my first online class so it took a little getting used to not learning with a teacher in front of me. I learned many new tools that I can use in the classroom to enhance my teaching and my students learning.

Day 2 of ICP Presentations

Monday was our last class of the semester. Many people presented their ICP projects. I learned alot from the presentations as they ranged in topics. I also presented my ICP lesson. Here are my reflections from the night:
Janine
I liked how she began the presentation by asking questions of how we as teachers try to accommodate ELL learners. Her visual of a concept map was very effective. She also provided useful websites. I also liked the checklist provided. It is good for teachers to evaluate their teaching to make sure they are meeting their needs. Great Job!!
Danielle
This is a great topic. Students will definitely be motivated to play simulated games and the great benefit is they are learning at the same time. By asking the question if we would rather be in Vegas playing games or being at home playing board games was a motivating way to start the presentation. It really caught my attention. I also liked the survey you completed with students in your school. The results are based on the actual people who are affected by using simulative games in the classroom. I found your presentation very informative. Great Job!!
Rebecca
This is a topic we are familiar with as we are all keeping a blog for this course. The two scenarios provided were effective in showing the advantages of using technology in the classroom. I also liked how she asked us to reflect on what type of blog we are keeping. Overall it was a great presentation. Great Job!!
Amy
I t was nice to see a different way of presenting the ICP. I liked the wiki you created. Unfortunately I kept losing audio so I was unable to hear most of the presentation. I did like the video you chose to incorporate into the wiki page. Awesome job!
Jennifer
The quote she used to begin her presentation caught my attention. Jennifer effectively made a chart of decision-making and problem solving. I also found her picture of bloom’s taxonomy an effective way to see the different steps. Overall great presentation!
Angela
Many of the students in the class are part of a social network such as Facebook or Myspace. This was a topic we are familiar with. However not many people in the class were familiar with twitter. Recently the new buzzword is Twitter but I was still not aware of what exactly it was used for. I found this presentation to be very informative. It was interesting to see how many people in the classroom do not like the idea of twitter. Angela also clearly expressed her opinion of twitter. Great presentation.
Maureen
This was a topic that not many of us were familiar with. Some of the students in the class were able to guess a few of the six c’s. The presentation was very insightful. It shows the power of motivation over student’s progress. It is interesting to see that Technology was the seventh c as many students are extremely motivated by using technology.
Lindsay
I like how you listed assistive tools for reading, writing and math. The presentation was very informative. I liked the slide she provided with useful websites. This is a great resource for teachers to have. Overall, great job!
Lisa
This was a very interesting topic. I liked how you presented your topic by creating a science lesson to teach your topic. I found this to be an effective way to teach your topic. It was very informative. Great Job!!
My own presentation
I also presented my ICP lesson. I was very nervous as I have never been given the role of being a moderator. I was able to upload my presentation without a problem. However for some reason the slidebloom presentation would close. I would then have to upload my presentation again. This cut into my presentation time so I was unable to finish my presentation. Besides the slight problems with technology I think my lesson went well. Students actively participated in the lesson. I also read some comments left by other students. They all enjoyed the lesson and liked how interactive it was.

I can see the finish line!

We are winding down to the last week of class. Three of our main assignments have been a work in progress. I still have some work to complete before the course is over. I have been keeping up with my personal website. I have been updating it with class assignments weekly. I enjoyed making the website and designing and formatting it. I have great respect for web site creators and designers. I did not realize how much work you have to put into it. I have also been blogging as often as I can. I really liked keeping a blog. It is like keeping a diary. You can reflect on your writing. If you wrote something down you can go back and see what you wrote. After some time you might think differently. My ICP project is coming along. My topic is podcasting and how it enhances 21st century skills. It is a topic that we have touched upon in class previously. I have been working on my PowerPoint presentation. After watching other students present, I realized that my presentation has too many slides and that I will not be able to complete my presentation in the 12 minute time frame. I have to go back and cut down some slides to make it shorter. At first I was confused on how I would make this PowerPoint into MSMC lesson plan format. After watching the presentations I saw that they had a clear introduction, development, guided practice, closure, independent practice and evaluation. Talking about all this work that I need to complete is getting me stressed so I am going to go work on my finishing touches.
Talk to you soon.

Day 1 of ICP presentations!

Monday night was the first day of presenting ICP projects. We had to pick a topic and then use a digital method to present our presentation to the class. The presentations were very informative. I present my ICP project next Monday night and the presentations gave me many useful ideas. Here are my reflections based on the student's presentations:

Caitlin-The Use of Digital Video and Media to Enhance Student Learning:
I enjoyed Caitlin's powerpoint. I like how she involved the class by asking questions. Everyone in the class was willing to participate. I think Caitlin did a great job for not having a microphone. Her powerpoint presentation was very informative. The only critic I have is to make sure if you use video that it enhances your presentation. The YouTube video that was posted I had a hard time hearing the sound.

Heather-Digital Storytelling:
I liked how Heather used a blog to assess our prior knowledge. I liked how she had many different examples of digital stories: narratives, historical themes and informational stories. I also liked the images she used I think it enhanced her presentation.

Steven- Interactive whiteboards in the classroom:
I liked how Steven asked question in the beginning of the presenation to get the class involved. This is a topic that most people are familiar with. I thought the presentation was very informative. I liked the resources Steven provided for interactive whiteboards. I also felt that Steven was very passionate about his topic.

Carolyn-Using Scrapblog and Glogster to Inspire Creative Writing:
This is a topic that I was unfamilair with. After Carolyn's presentation I would definately use scrapblog to create my own scrapbooks. I loved the visuals Carolyn used. I like how she put in the link of a tutorial on how to use the scrapblog program. Overall I think Caroyln did a great job I really enjoyed her presentation.

Mary- Facebook & Linked In:Professional Connections for Educators:
I think this is a topic that many of the student's in the class are familiar with. Many people use Facebook for social purposes. I have my own Facebook account. I really liked the cartoon that Mary used. I think it portrayed how relative this topic is to younger people who have a Facebook account. If you are looking for a job you have to be careful what you put on your Facebook or what your friends post on their Facebooks. I personally do not take pictures when I am out with my friends because I know they are going to post it on Facebook. Luckily I don't really like taking pictures. So this does not really affect me. I felt that Mary was very passionate about her topic. I also liked how she used a quiz at the end to assess what we learned.

Assessment Through Blogging

Tonight is our first day of presenting our ICP projects. Heather asked the class to write in our blogs about three facts we know about digital storytelling. One of our class assignments was to create a digital story. By doing this she is activating our prior knowledge.

Here are three facts about digital storytelling:
1. Story is based on a theme/subject
2. Use pictures, animation and sound to tell your story
3. PhotoStory from Microsoft Word was easy to use!

Heather also discussed how making digital stories increases our information literacy skills, media literacy skills and information communication technology literacy(ICT). To assess our knowledge Heather asked us to write how we utilized these skills in making our digital story.

Information Literacy- I told the story of the Hyrdoelectric Process.
Media Literacy- I used my media literacy skills and told this story through the use of digital storytelling.
Information communication and technology- I had to figure out a way to tell the story which is a boring concept in a fun,informative way. I tried to be creative by creating a H20 family. I thought students would be able to relate to the family.

I thought using a blog as a form of assessment was a great idea. She activated our prior knowlege of digital stories and blogging (as everyone in the class is keeping a blog to write their thoughts and reflections of the course). I never thought of using a blog as form of assessment. It is something different. It is a fun and motivating activity for students. I know I enjoyed writing a blog as a form of assessment. For teachers it is easy to check and keep track of student's blogs.

Technology and Curriculum Integration

Our group was assigned chapter 6 Technology and Curriculum Integration. We were happy to have this chapter because it is something we found to be very interesting and a helpful resource for our classrooms. We also felt that it was something that the other students in our class will find interesting and motivating, as they will be integrating technology into their own classrooms. Our group worked very well together. We discussed what we thought were the major highlights of the chapter. From there we divided the work into sections and came back and collaborated our ideas into a PowerPoint presentation.
Classroom Management Techniques:


* Teachers need to ensure equal access. Not everyone needs the same amount of time to accomplish a given task. For example: if a class is divided into five groups, assign computer time one day per group per week. Teachers should also avoid periods that will be interrupted (e.g. by music).
* Teachers also need to vary the usage and types of access. Teachers can differentiate between: whole class work, group projects, partners, individuals, open-scheduling (e.g. 10 minutes per person X the number of people).
* Teachers also need to make modifications for higher ability and lower ability students. A printout of the results of the session is helpful.
* Have someone at the computer at all times. To track what student has been at the computer teachers can keep a log. Teachers can also schedule use during early morning, recess and lunchtime.
* Teachers need to arrange access to more computers: Send students out to use other computers: to the library, to the resource center, or even to a vacant classroom when those students are at physical education or music. Organizing aids are a must to keep a well-organized classroom.
* Use organizing aids: Use a journal to record usage, post sign-up (and sign-out) sheets next to the computer, and use a pocket chart with a card for each student; they turn their cards over after a turn and when all are done, they start over. You can also have a popsicle stick for each student and two jars, one labeled “Been There” the other labeled “Not Yet”. The students take the sticks out of one jar and put them in the other as they complete the work. I think that is a great idea. In the future, if I am lucky enough to have computers in my classroom I will use this management technique.

Integrating Technology into the content areas:
http://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/bcisd/classres/intideas.htm
General Ideas:

* Power Point Presentations: lectures, school board and PTA presentations, open houses: info for parents and welcome to classroom, showing class rules.
* HyperStudio Stacks: welcome to the classroom and getting to know you (students fill in information about themselves), classroom rules and consequences, book recommendations, create and/or tell stories, present and assess information
* Web Pages: calendar of school/building/classroom events, school activities, faculty/staff pages

For each the content areas of Social Studies, Science and Health, English Language Arts, Math, Art, Music and Physical Education provided ways to integrate technologies of:

* Word processing Software
* Spreadsheet and Database Software
* Desktop Publishing and Graphic/Paint/Draw Software
* Multimedia software such as PowerPoint, Hyper Studio, or Web pages

As a group we also discussed interactive websites that can be used in the classrooms:

* Fact Monster
* APlusMath
* PBSKids
* BrainPop
* Starfall
* Discovery Kids

Assessment

Assessment is the process of acquiring information and making judgments about student learning. There are several purposes of assessment such as to assist in student learning, to identify the child’s strengths and weaknesses, to assess the effectiveness of a particular strategy, to assess and improve the effectiveness of curricular programs, to asses and improve teaching effectiveness, and to provide data to communicate with parent’s about a child’s progress. Assessments are not only used to see if a student is understanding the concepts taught it also is valuable for the teacher to see how effective their teaching was and if not how to improve their teaching so that all student’s can grasp what is being taught to them.
Types of Assessments:
There are several types of assessment. Formative assessment provides continuous feedback to teachers and students, which enables them to monitor progress and identify and address errors and gaps in learning. Summative assessment is a larger test given at the end of the unit. Formal assessment is structured and recorded assessment. Teachers and students use informal assessment opportunities to make incidental and immediate judgments and provide feedback about student learning. Peer-assessment occurs when students provide feedback to other learners about their learning. In this course, we have used peer assessment. We give feedback on other group’s presentations by leaving comments on their blogs and wikis. Self-assessment occurs when the learner assesses her or his own work. We have also self assessed ourselves as we blog and reflect on what we have learned. Another type of assessment is authentic assessments, which are based on teacher observations of children as they are engaged in real meaningful classroom events. Some examples of this are students writing in a journal and power point presentations. Another type of assessment is traditional assessments, which focus on grades, and helps to rank knowledge through the classroom. Some types of traditional testing are teacher made quizzes, exams and homework assignments. I think that this type of testing is good to see if student’s grasped basic knowledge and it is good to evaluate the lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Norm referenced assessments are formal assessments based on the scores of a particular group of students. One type of norm referenced is the SAT’s in which most high school students take. I don’t personally like this type of testing because some student’s do not do well in taking tests and this testing does not show their strengths in their knowledge. Criterion referenced tests is another type of formal assessments comparing the child’s performances to criteria. One example of this type of testing is the ELA exams that students take in the 4th grade. I have observed this type of assessment in a fourth grade classroom getting ready for the ELA exam. The teacher used ELA exams from previous years for the students to use as practice. The teacher worked on specific skills such as the reading the passages and the multiple choice questions that went along with the passage. I don’t believe that this type of assessment shows what students know. The teachers prepare them just for this test and this is not help the students in learning new cognitive skills. Most teachers have them memorize answers. Alternative assessments are a different way of assessing students other than the traditional authentic such as exams in portfolio. Portfolios are also used as a type of assessment. It is a collection of student’s work during the school year such as written, work, journals, self evaluations, and other samples of the students work. While I did fieldwork at Temple Hill Academy I worked with two students and we kept a portfolio of their work. I read with the student’s and then they would do various activities to go along with the book we read, such as responding to their opinion of the book, working on characterizing the main characters of the story, samples of their drawings and so on. This is a good way of evaluating student’s so you can see what they need work on and see how they have progressed over time.
I think that it is important to vary the types of assessments used in the classroom. Some students might do well on one type of assessment or do poorly on a different type of assessment. Teacher’s need to use different types of assessment to help them find the student’s strengths and weaknesses, by using only one type of assessment you cannot find out this information.
YouTube Video: A is for Apple: Grading Achievement in Schools
One quote that stuck out in my mind was about testing in education today “ Schools are preoccupied like doing well on the tests is the purpose of education". Many teachers are preoccupied to teaching the students to the test. Some believe that standard based education and frequent testing may impede student's learning.
A Look to the Future of Testing and Grading
As technology changes and advances everyday so does education. Schools are being held more accountable for students testing scores. Need to find a more consistent and valid way to test all types of students. Performance and authentic assessments, as well as the use of portfolios, are likely to replace the more traditional paper-and-pencils tests.
Digital portfolios
Digital portfolios (ePortfolios) are collections of student work that are stored electronically. They are records of student's progress throughout the year. They provide information to students, parents, teachers and members of the community. Digital portfolios can include varied media such as text, graphics, video and sound. The Department of Education Student Digital Portfolio (SDP) will enable strong links between a student’s planning, learning and the curriculum. This will help the collection of evidence of learning for assessment against the curriculum outcomes and standards.

The A B C's of Grading

I signed up for a free online grade book using Engrade software found at:
http://www.engrade.com/
It was easy to sign up and create an account. You can even watch a short demo, which was provided instructions on how to create your account and was very easy to follow.
Here is a snapshot of my gradebook, attendence and calendar.

Once you sign up you can create your classroom. It is broken into sections. The first section is class information. You can enter the class name, school year and grading period (by semester trimester etc). The next section is students. You can then put your students name and gave them an access number. This number is a secret and only you and the student will know the number. The next section is the grading scale. You can select how to grade students in your class. Engrade provides several common grading scales such as by 10 % A=90 B=80 or by 8% A= 92 higher B=83 and higher etc. You can also customize your own grading scale. The next section is the assignment categories. You can enter categories into which you can organize assignments such as tests, quizzes, homework, participation, etc. You can also chose if you want your assignments weighted. If you click no then the assignments are weighted equally. If you click yes then you can customize your own grading and percentages. You can also chose if you want to drop the lowest score. The last section is options. You can choose how you want to view grade book. You can sort by students, assignments, round student percentages and if you want to show students percentages in reports. You are now done creating your classroom. You can also create another classroom. Elementary teachers only have one classroom for those who teach middle school or high school you have multiple classrooms for each individual class.
When you are done creating your classroom you can then click on each individual classroom to input grades. You can then add assignments. Enter the assignments name; category and how many points are possible to receive. It is easy to fill in the grade. You can also enter if a student is excused from the assignment with an e or missing the assignment with an m. It is also very simple to change the grade if a student was absent you can just click the box and change the grade. You can even put if the assignment is extra credit and you can add points for students who did the assignment and it will not affect the grade of the students who did not do the assignment.
Some extra features of Engrade that a teacher might find beneficial are the: calendar, attendance, citizenship and student/ parent access. The calendar allows the teacher to post when assignments are due and what day a test is on. The teacher can also track a class’s attendance. The teacher can mark is a students is absent or late. Under the feature citizenship the teacher can comment and write a brief description of how the student is doing in class. The teacher can also communicate with parents and students. Students and parents have access to this software. Students can sign up and see their grades using the code the teacher provides for them. This is a nice feature for students and parents to see how they are doing in the course. They can see what assignments are missing, when tests are coming up etc. Parents can also monitor their child’s schoolwork, can see when they are absent, if they are late, if they are missing homework assignments etc. Some other options are the teacher can also print the gradebook, print individual student reports and you can even export this information into an excel spreadsheet.
Here are some suggestions for Engrade to make it easier for teachers. One suggestion is to view more assignments per page. You can only see eight grades a page. Engrade should make the columns smaller allowing more grades per page. Another suggestion is that when inputting assignments it would be nice if you see a calendar so you know what date the assignment was due.
Overall, I think Engrade is a great tool to use in the classroom. The software is free easy to use and easy to sign up for. It saves the teacher the hassle of having to figure out grades. Students and parents can access the software as well. When the report cards come out the parents can’t complain when they have the opportunity to see how their child is doing. Students can see grades so if there is a discrepancy say on a grade the student can show their work to you and you can easily fix their grade. Even for students who do not have access to the Internet at home you can print out the student report sheet for them to take home. The only downside to using this program is that you would have to be updating your gradebook everyday because parents and students can access it at any time.

Making a Crossword Puzzle!

I made a crossword puzzle using Microsoft Excel. I am familiar with the Excel program. I followed the tutorial and found it easy to make. I learned how to copy and paste the black outline and how to write the number indented in the upper left hand corner. I think this is a great way to teach students to learn vocabulary. I made a crossword puzzle using third grade geography terms.
Here is a snapshot of my crossword puzzle and its corresponding clues (definitions of the geography terms).













First, I would introduce the vocabulary terms they need to know. Students would simultaneously learn how to use Excel while learning new vocabulary. Then students can share their crosswords puzzles with classmates and have them complete it. Making their own crossword puzzle gives them ownership. Students are exposed to vocabulary several times. Students can give their fellow classmates the crossword puzzle to complete. Students will also have to complete a crossword puzzle given to them by a fellow classmate. This will help the students to easily remember the terms. Next time, I think that I chose a topic with less vocabulary terms.
Teachers should not only teach Excel as a software program but they should also integrate the program into different content areas. As seen, students can use excel to make crossword puzzles to learn vocabulary in content areas such as English, Social Studies and Science. Students can also use Excel when experimenting during science. They can keep data taken in charts (such as temperatures recorded). Students can also use Excel during math lessons they can record survey and also make predictions and record the actual results and compare them.
For the extra credit assignment, to make a crossword puzzle using a Web 2.0 puzzle maker I decided to use ABCTeach.com They provided several free crossword puzzles templates for the topics such as Spanish numbers, rain forest, "at" words, homophones, opposites, and school days. If you are a member of ABCTeach.com you can make crossword puzzles with your own word list. I liked this website. It was easy to make and you could format the crossword puzzle in different fonts, colors, and background colors. In the future, when I have my own classroom I would sign up for this website. The site provides a custom worksheet generator you can make your own worksheets for: ABC sort, Handwriting, Word Wall, Unscramble, Math, Soduko, Bingo, Spelling and Missing Letters.

Webquest on Constructivism

Over the last two weeks our group worked on the Constructivism Webquest. I have made my own Webquest before and I like the format. It is very easy to follow with the Introduction, Task, Resources, Process, and Evaluation (which provided a rubric). By using this Webquest I gained a better understanding of Constructivism its theory and how it can be used to teach in the classroom. For the assignment, we decided to make a power point with information regarding the theory and history of Constructivism and the essential ideas as well. We listed the advantages and disadvantages and Lindsay turned the information into a visual display using Inspiration. We then made science lessons plan that aligned with the 5E lesson plan design. I picked a second grade science unit on air and weather. This lesson introduces the concept of air and weather. Students were able to experiment on their own with materials to see how air affected their movement. In the explanation stage teacher and students work together, by comparing and contrasting students observations. The teacher then clarifies and thoroughly explained the concept of air. Students are actively engaged in the inquiry process as learn about air.

How is the 5E lesson plan design (from the Constructivism, Webquest) aligned with the inquiry process? If you were a principal of the school, will you encourage your teachers using it in their classrooms? Why?

Constructivism is the philosophy about learning, that proposes learners need to build their own understanding of new ideas. When learning new things we use both our prior knowledge and knowledge gained from new explorations. Many times we are curious about a topic and are motivated to learn and answer our own questions about the topic. We poke, probe, inquire and explore the topic until we gain some information. As we investigate the topic we learn new ideas and combine them with our prior experiences to gain a better understanding of the topic. We extend our understanding by discussions. We then validate the theory as we solve problems.
It is up to the teacher to facilitate the constructivism theory into the classroom. Students come to school full of questions. Sometimes teachers hinder students from asking questions because they do not have enough time to teach them everything there is on the curriculum. Teachers should promote opportunities and events that encourage and support student’s inquiry. I think that principals should stress the 5 E lesson plan model when teaching science to their students. This type of model encourages active learning and I believe that students will gain a thorough understanding of the topic.

Mindmapping on Inspiration and Gliffy.com

I used Inspiration to make a mind map diagram. I signed up for the thirty-day free trail. I watched the tutorial and found it very helpful when creating my mind map. I liked the many pictures from clip art, note pads, templates for different subject areas and easy to use link to urls.
I chose to make a graphic organizer called Sense Sketcher. Students have to fill in the graphic organizer with the senses and emotions they pictured from the reading. Then they can use the points from the graphic organizer to draw their own picture. I also put pictures that corresponded to the five senses. This will help the students to visually remember and identify the five senses.

I used gliffy.com to make my second mind map. I did not find this program as easy to use as Inspiration. However I did like how easy it was to save and to make into a webpage and the various ways that you could save the picture (in different sizes).
I chose to make a graphic organizer Tips for studying abroad in Oxford, England. I went to England and thought students who are going to travel abroad this summer might find this map mind helpful.



Overall, I enjoyed using these programs to make mind maps. In the future, I will use these programs in my classroom to make mind maps and graphic organizers!!

Digital Citizenship

Highlights of Weeks Readings

What is an Acceptable Use Policy?
Acceptable Use Policies ensure that school computers are being used in a safe, relevant and appropriate manner. Schools AUPs serves as a legal document, it should be complete, adaptable. be unique to their school, protect students, and inform parents.

Cornell University Library
Listed five criteria for evaluating Web pages:
Accuracy: Does the website list an author and a way to contact them
Authority: Does the website have the author’s credentials
Objectivity: Does the website have accurate information
Currency: Is the page is current and updated
Coverage: Is the website free or do you have pay fees to access it

Best search engines
I also liked this page it had the best search for your information needed. It broke it down into different categories by what the student was looking for and the best search engines to find the information. Some examples:
I need help to define my topic
I need to find quality results...
I need to do research in a specific discipline...
The timeliness of information that I need is..
I need facts…
I need perspectives and opinions...

Group Meetings
This week we met twice. Our first meeting we discussed digital citizenship and the effects it has on teachers and our schools. We discussed the necessity of implementing AUP’s in schools. We said that censorship is necessary but it does come with limitations. We also talked about blogging and how some schools are strict with blogging because of who can access the student’s blog and write back to them. Schools are also limiting what sites teachers can look at. They are even recording what sites they are using and using this information to dismiss some teachers who are using the Internet inappropriately. We felt that this is restricting because they are limiting the websites that teachers can use as tools to aid them in the classroom.
During the meeting Dr. S met with us and suggested that instead of using GTalk we use WizIQ because it would give us a better experience because it was more like Elluminate Live. During the meeting we all signed up for a WizIQ account.
Our second meeting we finished our discussion on Digital Citizenship. We also started our group Wiki. Lindsay set up the main page of our Wiki. We suggested ideas of what to put up such as pictures.

Reflections on Educating the Net Generation: 21st Century Learning and Teaching

Here are my reflections on some of the questions posted:

What are the six 2007 National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) and which of the standards you think are well implemented? How do you feel about your readiness to meet those standards?


1.Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:
a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.
d. identify trends and forecast possibilities.

2.Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
c. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.
d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

3. Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:
a. plan strategies to guide inquiry.
b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.
c. evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
d. process data and report results.

4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students:
a. identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation.
b. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.
c. collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.
d. use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions.

5. Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:
a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.

6. Technology Operations and Concepts: Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students:
a. understand and use technology systems.
b. select and use applications effectively and productively.
c. troubleshoot systems and applications.

I think most teachers use the Internet for quick easy projects. They don’t give time for students to explore on the Internet. Standard 4 needs to be implemented more in the classroom for students to explore and create to learn more. Standard 5 Digital Citizenship needs to be integrated into the classroom. Teachers need to show students how to find information on the web safely and how to appropriately cite information without plagarising. Teachers seem comfortable with Standard 2 Communication and Collaboration. They are now integrating Wiki’s and Blogs into their classrooms as a way to communicate. For Standard 3 Research and Information Fluency teachers need to show students how to search for information on the web. How to evaluate websites to see if they are valid or not. Unfortunately students go straight to the internet when they research a project. They no longer go to the library.

What is the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 bookmarking?
Dr. Smirnova’s Web 2.0 powerpoint:
One major difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is the way information is shared. Web 1.0 was known as “the mostly read-only web”. In the year 1996 the web had 54 million global users and 250,00 sites. The sites were mainly published content with little user-generated content (work was very isolated). Web 2.0 is called “the widely read-write Web”. In 2006 the Web had over1 billion global users and more than 80,000,000 sites which. The amount of websites that were published by the user grew tremendously thanks to the creations of bogs, wikis, video sharing, podcasting, and social networks such as myspace and facebook. Communication and collaboration “flows in multiple directions” and is shared with the community of learners.


Discuss the Net generation. Why are the digital students different from the previous generations of students? What are the implications for teachers?
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by March Prensky
The article discusses the difference between digital natives and digital immigrants. “Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach”. Digital natives are those that grew up surrounded by computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones and other tools of the digital age. Digital immigrants have had to adapt to this new environment of technology. Digital immigrants have an “accent” that can be seen such as printing out their email in order to edit it rather than editing it on the screen. “Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language”. The article suggests that today’s teachers have to learn to communicate in the language and style of their students. Teachers have to teach in a quicker manner less step by step. Digital natives are multitaskers they can read a book while watching TV while emailing a friend. Digital immigrants cannot possibly believe that they retained any information while reading because they have never done so before. Teachers need to invent knew ways to teach to their students that will engage them. For example, a group of professors created a software that was much better than what they were currently using and they assumed that the company would adopt the program easily. However they found resistance because of the complication of the new program. In order to reach the digital natives they decided to make it into a video game in order to teach how to use the software. The game was very successful in getting younger people interested in learning the software. Teachers need to think similarly when teaching.

Highlights of Educating the Net Generation:21st Century Learning and Teaching

Here are some highlights of the weeks readings and videos!!
A Vision of k-12 students Today
“Students will use engaging technologies in collaborative inquiry-based learning environments, with teachers who are willing and able to use technology’s power to assist them in transforming knowledge and skills into products, solutions and new information.” I liked how the video was presented through written text on card boards. I found it very effective to portray the insight into the youth of today and how technology has greatly impacted their life and learning. Many students spend several hours a week playing video games, watching television, listening to their Ipods (music and books),using the computer, and communicating with family and friends through email, texts and ims. 63% of teachers don’t let their students create something new with technology. I found this percentage to be very high. As future teachers we have to allow students to create knew things and to learn knew things from technology.
Shift Happens
The information in this video really makes you think about the changes occurring in the world. The number one English speaking country in the world will soon be China. 25% of people in China with the highest IQ’s is more than that of North America. Also the amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. That means that half of what you learn in your first year of study in college will be outdated in their third year. I am happy to be taking this course because I really do not know much about the Internet and technology and would love to incorporate this into my classroom. Teachers are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet and using technologies that haven’t been invented in order to solve problems that don’t exist yet. One fact that blew my mind was the number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the total population of the planet. I used to be totally against texting because I felt that it was very impersonal way of communication. I finally had to give in because all of my friends and family were staring to communicate through texting. I still feel that it would be easier to call someone and have a five-minute conversation than texting all day to get your point across. I guess I am a digital native because I have to change and adapt my ways in order to fit in with the net generation.

Is It Age or IT: First Steps Toward Understanding the Net Generation
The opening paragraph describes a student at a university and how technology affects his daily life. The student wakes up to see several instant messages on is computer. He then blogs with other classmates on assignments, looks up the weather, sports and news on the Internet. Some characteristics of the Net Generation are: they are visual communicators, they learn through discovery rather than being told, they are able to shift their attention from one task to another, respond quickly and expect rapid responses in return. They are also Digitally Literate- having grown up with access to technology they are able to use many IT devices and navigate the Internet easily (don’t need a tutorial). They are also more likely to use the Internet for research than the library.

Portrait of a Digital Native By Tom McHale
One fact that I found amazing is that new research suggests that brains can be trained to multitask. “According to a study conducted by Monica Luciana, found the brain's ability to effectively self-organize competing information remains in the developmental process until 16 or 17 years of age”. I think it amazing to think that brains can be trained to multitask and that the brains of children in the net generation have adapted to technology.

Exploring Moodle (Week 1)

Week ones overview was to become acquainted with the Moodle webpage. I have used Moodle in previous classes so I am somewhat familiar with the layout. However this is my first online course so I am excited but I am also nervous. We had to explore the different sections of the page: Learning Online Netiquette, Computers, Internet, WWW, About Copyright, Fair Use, & Plagiarism, Tutorials for PPT Design, Video Tutorials and Blogging: First Steps.
Here are some things that I found very useful:
I enjoyed the article Active Learning by Leslie Hendrikson. The website Active Learning by Leslie Hendrikson discusses active learning in the classroom particularly in social studies classes. Active learning is seen in mock trials were students engage in role playing and take on the roles of characters in a court case, set up a mock trial courtroom and guide their own trial. As a student in the classroom, I tend to be very quiet. I listen and pay attention in class however I do not participate in class discussion unless I am called on by the teacher. Most likely in classes there are the students who like to talk and they tend to lead class discussions. I can recall one of my favorite social studies classes in high school was economics because as a class we made our own economy. I decided to open a bank and I was in charge of lending loans to fellow classmates. Everyone in the classroom was involved in the community and we all gained a great amount of knowledge about the economy by being active learners. If I would have read this from a textbook I would not have had the same experience or enjoyment of learning this new material. I think it is important to incorporate active learning into the classroom. The website gives you ways to do so in social studies classrooms. This is not something that happens quickly as a teacher you need to encourage and support students to make them feel comfortable.
I also liked the video Avoiding Death by Power Point. I have created many PowerPoint presentations in the classroom. I have to admit some of the slides I made could have served as an example of what not to do. Here are some suggestions to improve power point slides are: animation, enlarge screen capture and use call out brackets, you don’t always have to have captions or writing to convey your point, and for charts that are two small you can take the chart make it the background and add an animation so that it appears in front of the chart (keep the context of information because chart is in background).
I also liked the video Integrating podcasting into your classroom. This video is a great introduction to what podcasting is and how you can use it in your classroom. Using podcasts is a great way for students to demonstrate their understanding of the material. You can use it for any subject area. Students can edit their podcasts add music and sound effects for emphasis. They can listen to other podcasts of students and educators as a model. One elementary school has even made their own radio podcast. Some useful information for teachers where the name of websites that integrate podcasts into their classroom and several sites that had free podcast programs.
We also had our first group meeting. Our group decided to use gtalk. I have never used this program before I was not even sure how we were going to chat. After using gtalk I really liked the program. It made communication very easy. Since this was our first group meeting we discussed any problems or questions we had regarding the course. Many of us had questions and we were able to navigate each other through some parts of Moodle. We also discussed what we explored and next week’s agenda.
That about sums up Week One! Talk to you soon.