As I near the end of my technology class, I have to consider how far I've come this semester. Honestly, technology is a hard road for me. Although I grew up with the computer and Internet at my disposal, many elements of computer use are simply not intuitive for me. However, throughout the course of this class, not only have I improved my knowledge of technology and Internet resources significantly, I have also developed a very real appreciation for the vital role technology can play in educating the current and future generation of students.
I remember a coworker once pointed out to me that most teachers are people who did well in the school environment and excelled in the established system. What he meant was that most teachers often see the intrinsic value of education and tend to be motivated by that assessment. However, as generations of students are susceptible to increasing technological influences, the landscape of education must adapt to our technology driven world. Even students who are naturally suited to the classroom environment are still held to the trappings of their influences. Children are exposed to vast and limitless technology. I will not teach a single group of high school students who will remember a time before the Internet existed. I barely even remember it myself. These paradigm shifts are significant and defining. Teachers must learn to step outside of their own influences and adapt to the needs of the children they serve.
Reflection and evolution are not unfamiliar practices to educators. Many engage in regular reflective practices and adapt their teaching based on their observations. It also should be said that incorporating technology into the classroom is not a new concept for practicing teachers. However, I think teachers are often told what they need to do, but rarely have immediate access to the tools and knowledge they need to actually integrate technology effectively. Therefore, a class like this one should be mandatory for all education programs.
I feel confident that the knowledge I gained during this class will assist me in my career as a teacher. However, I also know that it will be my responsibility to take the tools I've learned about, actively apply them to my lessons in meaningful ways that ultimately promote student learning, and continually seek out new tools and opportunities to engage my students through multimedia. Possibly the most significant lesson of this class has been the importance of recognizing the difference in effective technology integration in the classroom and technology merely for technology's sake. This distinction is part of the reason why a technology course is so significant to the education of teachers. Being able to integrate technology effectively, resulting solely in enhanced student learning and engagement will be a challenge in the years to come. However, I anticipate it will also be fun and exciting to see where technology leads me and my students in the future!
Monday, December 3, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Quizlet
Quizlet is a site for making digital flashcards. Quizlet allows educators and students to create study sets of interactive flashcards, which can include images and sound. While free accounts are available, paid accounts to Quizlet Plus include access to extra features such as the ability to upload your own images and to make flashcard sets for an unlimited amount of classes as opposed to the 8 which are included with a free Quizlet account.
I created a set of cards as a quick reference guide to students on the characters for a 10th grade English class studying Shakespeare's Othello. When students study Shakespeare, they can easily confuse characters and their actions, simply because the language is both complex and often times intentionally clever and subversive. Until students become accustomed with reading Shakespeare, they may need guides to the action of the play. Furthermore, since Othello is a play, it is truly intended to be heard and seen, not read. Therefore, Quizlet offers a unique tool with which to aid students in their study of Shakespearean plays.
As an online tool, Quizlet is very easy to use. You simply name your set and begin typing information into the appropriate fields provided. You can easily tab down to the next row of text boxes in order to write another flashcard. In addition to typing text onto each of the flashcards, you must also set your specific language, which allows the cards to have an audio feature, in which the information on the card can be read aloud to the student. This feature may be particularly useful for foreign language teachers but also serves audio learners very well.
Quizlet also has a feature that allows you to add images to the flashcards. This feature is extremely useful for students of plays. If I were to show a film adaptation of Othello to the class, I could include stills from the film of each of the actors with the corresponding characters they are portraying. In the free account of Quizlet, I found that there were plenty of stock images of Othello although they were shots from a live adaptation and the actors were unfamiliar to me. However, if I had Quizlet Plus, I could save stills from any movie I chose to show my class, and incorporate them into my flashcard set. I found this feature, in particular, to be one of the most useful additions to my lesson on Othello.
Another feature of Quizlet is that you can search for flashcard sets on almost any subject. Therefore, as long as the flashcard set is open to the public, I can use it as a study aid in my class. Furthermore, students who need help in a particular subject may also find Quizlet an excellent resource for their independent study. Because users have the option to set the privacy level on their own flashcard set, I can create a set specifically for my students and give them a password to view the card set. In this case, I did set the password of "Othello" for these flashcards I created. I can also designate my sets by class, allowing me to organize my cards by subject, unit, and lesson easily.
http://quizlet.com/15518902/othello-characters-flash-cards/
I created a set of cards as a quick reference guide to students on the characters for a 10th grade English class studying Shakespeare's Othello. When students study Shakespeare, they can easily confuse characters and their actions, simply because the language is both complex and often times intentionally clever and subversive. Until students become accustomed with reading Shakespeare, they may need guides to the action of the play. Furthermore, since Othello is a play, it is truly intended to be heard and seen, not read. Therefore, Quizlet offers a unique tool with which to aid students in their study of Shakespearean plays.
As an online tool, Quizlet is very easy to use. You simply name your set and begin typing information into the appropriate fields provided. You can easily tab down to the next row of text boxes in order to write another flashcard. In addition to typing text onto each of the flashcards, you must also set your specific language, which allows the cards to have an audio feature, in which the information on the card can be read aloud to the student. This feature may be particularly useful for foreign language teachers but also serves audio learners very well.
Quizlet also has a feature that allows you to add images to the flashcards. This feature is extremely useful for students of plays. If I were to show a film adaptation of Othello to the class, I could include stills from the film of each of the actors with the corresponding characters they are portraying. In the free account of Quizlet, I found that there were plenty of stock images of Othello although they were shots from a live adaptation and the actors were unfamiliar to me. However, if I had Quizlet Plus, I could save stills from any movie I chose to show my class, and incorporate them into my flashcard set. I found this feature, in particular, to be one of the most useful additions to my lesson on Othello.
Another feature of Quizlet is that you can search for flashcard sets on almost any subject. Therefore, as long as the flashcard set is open to the public, I can use it as a study aid in my class. Furthermore, students who need help in a particular subject may also find Quizlet an excellent resource for their independent study. Because users have the option to set the privacy level on their own flashcard set, I can create a set specifically for my students and give them a password to view the card set. In this case, I did set the password of "Othello" for these flashcards I created. I can also designate my sets by class, allowing me to organize my cards by subject, unit, and lesson easily.
http://quizlet.com/15518902/othello-characters-flash-cards/
Glogster
Glogster is an interactive, digital poster-making tool. As part of a unit on 20th century American authors and themes, I created a Glog to introduce 11th grade English students to the Beat authors of the 1950's. I envisioned that I would create an introductory Glog on each of the notable literary styles of the 20th century for this unit. The idea was to create an interactive document that could alternately serve as a study guide. I included video, pictures, short blurbs of information regarding the three primary authors introduced, links, and an introduction the historical setting of beatnik literature.
Glogster provides templates, backgrounds, decorative images, animated images and interactive tools to allow users to create highly expressive, digital posters. Although it seems to be very popular amongst teenagers as a kind of social networking site, upon which children may share their own creative expressions, limited educator accounts are available without charge, full educator accounts are available for a fee. I simply signed up for a free, regular account, and thus far, I have found that it is satisfactory.
As a Web 2.0 tool, Glogster is highly user friendly. When you want to add a feature to the Glog, you simply click on the feature that you want to add, located at the top of the page on a toolbar. Glog seamlessly searches YouTube and connects with Facebook, which results in significant convenience in the addition of elements such as video. Although I am still learning how to use the tool, I appreciate the ability to add clever visual elements, such as animated pictures. While too many of these elements may easily become distracting for students, if these tools are used properly they may help engage learners. Having the ability to use these elements may also encourage students to create their own Glogs for their own school presentations.
Another element of Glogs that I feel is particularly useful for educators is the ability to add elements which engage many different types of learners. Because of the ability to include sound, text, videos, and images, educators can create presentations that address the specific needs and learning styles of their students. Furthermore, Glogs are stored online. If students need time to look over the information again in preparation for a test, they may easily access their teacher's presentation with simple link. Because of their accessibility, Glogs can be highly effective study tools. Most importantly, they are truly fun to create and view. I anticipate using Glogs for many units in the future.
Glogster provides templates, backgrounds, decorative images, animated images and interactive tools to allow users to create highly expressive, digital posters. Although it seems to be very popular amongst teenagers as a kind of social networking site, upon which children may share their own creative expressions, limited educator accounts are available without charge, full educator accounts are available for a fee. I simply signed up for a free, regular account, and thus far, I have found that it is satisfactory.
As a Web 2.0 tool, Glogster is highly user friendly. When you want to add a feature to the Glog, you simply click on the feature that you want to add, located at the top of the page on a toolbar. Glog seamlessly searches YouTube and connects with Facebook, which results in significant convenience in the addition of elements such as video. Although I am still learning how to use the tool, I appreciate the ability to add clever visual elements, such as animated pictures. While too many of these elements may easily become distracting for students, if these tools are used properly they may help engage learners. Having the ability to use these elements may also encourage students to create their own Glogs for their own school presentations.
Another element of Glogs that I feel is particularly useful for educators is the ability to add elements which engage many different types of learners. Because of the ability to include sound, text, videos, and images, educators can create presentations that address the specific needs and learning styles of their students. Furthermore, Glogs are stored online. If students need time to look over the information again in preparation for a test, they may easily access their teacher's presentation with simple link. Because of their accessibility, Glogs can be highly effective study tools. Most importantly, they are truly fun to create and view. I anticipate using Glogs for many units in the future.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Wordle
Wordle is a Web 2.0 tool for creating word clouds. It's a free tool with a variety of possible applications for educators. I created this Wordle for a lesson on the Prologue of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. My intent with including the use of Wordle in this lesson was to make students aware of the importance of the words Chaucer chose and emphasizes throughout the prologue. Words that are emphasized frequently throughout a text tend to be the most revealing about the author's intention.
Wordle creates word clouds by taking a section of text, which the user must type or paste into the website, and jumbles the words creatively in order to create an attractive word cloud. These word clouds can easily become educational because Wordle will automatically emphasize words that are used more often by making them bigger and/or bolder in the word cloud. While these word clouds can be an interesting visual display, they may also provide a quick snapshot into the author's intentions. Wordles would not supplant any type of deep study of the text, but they may assist in starting students on the right path to a greater textual analysis.
Creating my Wordle was relatively easy. I simply used a Google search to obtain the full text of the Prologue, read it over quickly for errors, highlighted and copied, and then pasted it into the text box provided on the Wordle site. Once an initial Wordle has been generated, you may use simple editing tools provided on the site to change the orientation or the words, the overall layout, the color and style of both the text and the background, as well the font used. While they are useful, the purpose of the tools is primarily aesthetic. Once you have completed your Wordle, you may save the document on the site only and print it out if you choose. Unfortunately, Wordle does not allow users to save the document to their computer, although the website will provide users with a link to embed and access the Wordle online in the future. For me, not being able to save the file was a significant draw back for this tool. I really enjoyed using it but I would have liked to be able to save the picture file on my professional website instead of taking a screen shot and loading onto my website. However, I would definitely use the tool again. In particular, I think a tool like Wordle could be very helpful when initially introducing students to older texts such as works by Chaucer or Shakespeare. Wordle may also serve as a significant tool in evaluating the intent of historical texts. It would be interesting to see Wordle incorporated into a history lesson on the Constitution or the Gettysburg Address. Such a tool may reveal both the intent of the document, but also the concerns of the time from which the document arose.
Wordle creates word clouds by taking a section of text, which the user must type or paste into the website, and jumbles the words creatively in order to create an attractive word cloud. These word clouds can easily become educational because Wordle will automatically emphasize words that are used more often by making them bigger and/or bolder in the word cloud. While these word clouds can be an interesting visual display, they may also provide a quick snapshot into the author's intentions. Wordles would not supplant any type of deep study of the text, but they may assist in starting students on the right path to a greater textual analysis.
Creating my Wordle was relatively easy. I simply used a Google search to obtain the full text of the Prologue, read it over quickly for errors, highlighted and copied, and then pasted it into the text box provided on the Wordle site. Once an initial Wordle has been generated, you may use simple editing tools provided on the site to change the orientation or the words, the overall layout, the color and style of both the text and the background, as well the font used. While they are useful, the purpose of the tools is primarily aesthetic. Once you have completed your Wordle, you may save the document on the site only and print it out if you choose. Unfortunately, Wordle does not allow users to save the document to their computer, although the website will provide users with a link to embed and access the Wordle online in the future. For me, not being able to save the file was a significant draw back for this tool. I really enjoyed using it but I would have liked to be able to save the picture file on my professional website instead of taking a screen shot and loading onto my website. However, I would definitely use the tool again. In particular, I think a tool like Wordle could be very helpful when initially introducing students to older texts such as works by Chaucer or Shakespeare. Wordle may also serve as a significant tool in evaluating the intent of historical texts. It would be interesting to see Wordle incorporated into a history lesson on the Constitution or the Gettysburg Address. Such a tool may reveal both the intent of the document, but also the concerns of the time from which the document arose.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
PLN Article Review
Twitter can be a very useful tool for keeping up with current news articles and trends in education. Recently, through a link posted on the Edudemic Twitter feed, I found an article entitled "The Teacher's Guide to Digital Citizenship." This article outlines a new curriculum introduced by Microsoft, which addresses issues of copyrighted material, intellectual property, plagiarism, and ethics in media in a digital age. The article walks through the units of the curriculum and explains the various discussion topics and projects which are intended to drive home the need for responsible use of digital media.
The article was highly informative because it offers some very practical advice and ideas on how to talk with students about their responsibility to respect copy written material and the intellectual property of others that is made widely available to them through the Internet. Although I have listened to many lectures on plagiarism, copy written material, and intellectual property throughout my undergraduate education, it is often easy to forget that younger students, who have grown up with file sharing most if not all of their lives, may not understand the implications of these concepts in the digital age. The necessity for a thorough education in digital citizenship for all students is ever growing. If we do not educate our students on the responsibility they have as consumers and producers of digital media to respect the property of others and protect their own property and ideas, we cannot expect them to understand the value of any of the artifacts including music, images, video, written material, software, or games that they encounter online. A link to the article is located at the bottom of the page.
Edudemic offers articles that cover many topics in education and I have found their Twitter feed to be particularly interesting. It was hard to choose a single article to focus on for the purpose of this blog entry. In general, I have found Twitter to be a very useful tool for accessing distilled news stories and information. It is even more convenient that all this information is located in one place. The word limit means that, as a reader, you can see a snapshot of an article including a headline and you can decide whether it interests you or not. Twitter is definitely a useful tool for educators to keep up with all things relevant to education.
I retweeted the article here: https://twitter.com/RachelSwain5
Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/Edudemic
http://edudemic.com/2012/10/teachers-guide-digital-citizenship/
The article was highly informative because it offers some very practical advice and ideas on how to talk with students about their responsibility to respect copy written material and the intellectual property of others that is made widely available to them through the Internet. Although I have listened to many lectures on plagiarism, copy written material, and intellectual property throughout my undergraduate education, it is often easy to forget that younger students, who have grown up with file sharing most if not all of their lives, may not understand the implications of these concepts in the digital age. The necessity for a thorough education in digital citizenship for all students is ever growing. If we do not educate our students on the responsibility they have as consumers and producers of digital media to respect the property of others and protect their own property and ideas, we cannot expect them to understand the value of any of the artifacts including music, images, video, written material, software, or games that they encounter online. A link to the article is located at the bottom of the page.
Edudemic offers articles that cover many topics in education and I have found their Twitter feed to be particularly interesting. It was hard to choose a single article to focus on for the purpose of this blog entry. In general, I have found Twitter to be a very useful tool for accessing distilled news stories and information. It is even more convenient that all this information is located in one place. The word limit means that, as a reader, you can see a snapshot of an article including a headline and you can decide whether it interests you or not. Twitter is definitely a useful tool for educators to keep up with all things relevant to education.
I retweeted the article here: https://twitter.com/RachelSwain5
Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/Edudemic
http://edudemic.com/2012/10/teachers-guide-digital-citizenship/
Digital Storytelling Project
As a project for my Technology in the Classroom class, I created a Digital Story about my love for music. As a first attempt, I feel the process of making a digital story was a great deal of fun. However, using the Mac software iMovie required a bit of a learning curve. Ultimately, I will probably spend quite a bit of time familiarizing myself with the software before incorporating it into a class. However, I can see it being a very useful tool for English students to use technology and their creativity to tell their own stories.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Digital Storytelling Glog
I thought I'd share a recent project for my technology class. I did a brief presentation on Digital Storytelling and made this digital poster on a website called www.glogster.com.
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