Week 13 - Application Review

The image editing application I decided to review was Picnik.  I have been using this application for years now.  It is very user as well as kid friendly and has fun effects to use on photos.  Some features picnik has are basic edits, photo effects, text, stickers, and frames. 

                In the basic edits tab you can crop your photo to your preferred size.  You can also change the colors in your photo with auto-colors or the neutral picker.  This is the area you can also find the tool to sharpen your image.  The last tool that can be found in this tab is the resize tool that you can use to change the size of your image.  Under the effects tab is where you can really start to have fun editing your image!  Some effects that you can use on your image are black and white, sepia, boost, or soften.  Under the text and sticker tabs your can add text and stickers to enhance your photos.  On my example photo below you can see that I added text to my photo.  There are several fonts and colors to choose from.   The frames tab allows you to add frames to your photos.  There are holiday frames, basic frames, and different shaped frames to choose from.  Below on my example photo I used a basic simple frame. 

                I could see this application used in the classroom for any grade level.  This tool could be used in art class to create digital art.  It would be a great way to bring art and technology together.  This application could also be used in a language arts lesson while creating a story.  Photos could be uploaded and edited and then printed to add to a student created story.  There are many possibilities in ways that you could use this application.  It is very disappointing that this tool will no longer be available after April 19^th. 

                The office tool I chose to look into was Google Documents. This tool has a lot of features that are present in Microsoft Office’s tools, such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint. I have never used the program, to create documents, but I already have a Google account, so I have access to their tools and have used them in passing. One of the features of Google Docs I use the most is the ability to open PDF documents from Gmail.

Much like the very expensive Office software, you can create documents and apply all sorts of different formatting to them. However, the choices for fonts and formatting are limited to whatever ones Google chooses to include in the program, so it is not as deep as the Microsoft software is. I am not very good at using Excel, but my husband is, and he told me that Google Docs’ Spreadsheets are not as powerful as Excel’s. He said that Google severely limited the functionality of the software, so “power users” can’t get as much out of the spreadsheets. I also used the presentation software in Google Docs and found that it can create basic slide shows, but not with as many features as PowerPoint.

One of the parts of Google Docs I can see myself getting the most out of in a classroom is not actually even related to the documents themselves. It is the ability to share files between different Google users so that everyone can create and edit the document. For example, in my class, we could take all of the students to a computer lab, and give them all access to a shared Google Document. This document could be used to start a story, and let everyone add to it. They would be able to see the updates from their classmates in real time. They would also be able to proofread each other’s work instantly and provide their classmates feedback on the story. Then we could go over to a presentation and everyone could add their own visuals to tell the story with pictures, maybe even ones they create with a service like Picnik!

Week 12 - Websites

I created a resource website for my students and their parents.  I wanted to use this website as another communication tool for my students and parents.  They will be able to find their homework assignments, testing information, school news, and helpful resources they can use at home. I decided to add in the homework assignments to my website because parents are always asking me what their child's homework is.  I figured this would be an easy way for them to check their child's homework nightly.  I always wanted to add in a school calendar to keep parents up to date on the happenings going around at our school.  All of the things I added to this website is a tool that the parents/students can use at home.

My Classroom Website
 

Week 11 - Concept Maps

The first thing I thought of when creating a concept map was to create one with different story elements.  I work with these story elements weekly with my students and having them create a concept map to show their understanding of their story would be great.  We create concept maps all the time on paper but to be able to create one on the computer would be much better and I think my students would enjoy it more.  Another area my students see a lot of concept maps is in science.  Below I created a concept map of the life cycle of a butterfly.  This would be a great science project.  Students could choose something and create its life cycle or food chain.

Starfall.com Lesson Screencast

Every week  my students get the opportunity to work in the computer lap or on the lap tops.  It is a great opportunity to bring technology into the classroom but I feel like I spend most of my time running from student to student to get them on the correct website/activity.  Screencasting is a great way to teach a mini lesson on the activity we will do on the computers.  I put together a mini lesson on how to use the website starfall.com.  I think the students will really benefit from it.  This assignment was a great motivator and I can't wait to put together a screencast for logging in and setting up an accelerated reading test.  

Week 8 - Mapping

View Important Landmarks Around Michigan in a larger map

While teaching in Detroit, Michigan I found that my students are not familiar with their state.  They do not know any other cities around Detroit or some of the major landmarks that most of us are familiar with in Michigan.  One of our social studies objectives in our curriculum is to be able to identify and describe some Michigan landmarks.  I put together this map to highlight some interesting things around Michigan.  I thought my second graders need to be familiar with the great lakes, capital building, their school, and the Mackinaw Bridge.  I also wanted to add some personal touches so I add the college I went to along with my co-teachers college she attended.  My goal at the end of this lesson is to make sure the kids have learned that Michigan is a large state with a lot of interesting places to see and visit.  

I think google maps would make this lesson interesting because the students would be able to "travel" from place to place.  While traveling around the map we can also work on our directions traveling north, south, east, and west.  There are a ton of things we can bring into the classroom to teach about Michigan and this map would just be the beginning!

Week 7 - Podcasts

With the definition of HPI described at the beginning of the chapter, where the goal is “to achieve, through people increasingly successful accomplishments, directly tied to organizational goals that are valued by all stakeholders…” (p. 135), there are several ways to apply these ideas to a classroom. The idea that a student’s education is valued by the stakeholders is an important idea to keep in mind. In the case of a student, there are many who have a stake in their educational future. The student, the teacher, the school, the parents, their family, and even society as a whole will benefit if the student performs well in class. This leads to the ideas of human capital and organizational complexity that the chapter discusses. 

The first way to integrate the idea of human performance improvement theory into a classroom setting is to make sure many of these stakeholders are directly involved with the student’s growth and performance. Making sure that not only the teachers and students are in control of the student’s educational future ensures success. Additional human capital could yield higher performance increases than simply throwing more money at a student could. The idea that more human capital leads to better success for the students also means that the student has a higher potential of being well behaved and acting better at home, as well as possibly participating in more after school activities, means everyone benefits from the student’s growth. 

The next idea that integrates human performance improvement into a classroom is organizational complexity. This ties directly to the previous idea of human capital. In this case, the teacher, or even the student themselves, acts as the mediator to all of the different parties who hold a stake in their future. They coordinate the efforts of the various parties to make sure everyone is acting in tandem to ensure success. However, the problem with this idea is that teachers have a complex level of involvement because not only are they managing these connections, they are doing so for dozens of students. Some are also more willing than others. If a teacher is able to coordinate the efforts of the various groups, such as all of the parents, they will have a better chance of successfully organizing the behaviors that could benefit a student’s educational future.  

While looking for an educational podcast I was searching for one that I would actually use in my classroom with my second grade students.  I came across a podcast called Storynory.  This podcast highlights all types of stories for kids.  It ranges from fairytales, new children’s stories, myths, poems, and adventures.  I’m always looking for new stories to bring into the classroom so my students are familiar with all genres. The link to this podcast is here http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=94571049

I think podcasts are a great tool inside and outside a classroom.  There are several that I came across that would be useful to teach kids in the classroom.  I found that there are a lot of science and social studies podcasts that could be used.  These can be used in a listening center during workshop or small group instruction.  It would also be neat to create a podcast with a group of students.  Schools could do announcements every morning or teach other classes about a given topic.  The opportunities are endless.  I also found that there are podcasts geared toward teacher resources.  This is a great tool to use to communicate with teachers around the world.  Podcasts could also be set up for professional development opportunities.  Again, the ideas are endless.  I’m glad that this tool was introduced to us because it will for sure be something I will use in my classroom.    

Week 6 - Embedding Media

My students LOVE learning educational songs.  It gives them a fun way to learn the material and remember it.  This is one of the videos I showed them when we were learning about pronouns.





Sometimes when my students do not have prior knowledge about a topic we are reading about in our opencourt stories I like to show them pictures so they can become more familiar with the topic.  For example, a few weeks ago we were reading the story How the Guinea Fowl got her Spots.  My students had no clue what a guinea fowl was so we looked for some pictures and information before we started our story. 

We then did some research online to figure out where the guinea fowl lived.  They originated in Africa. 





View Larger Map

Week 5 - Photo Sharing

My flickr page

1a:          One factor in which this program would be effected negatively would be if students and teachers do not know how to use the tools of technology to its full potential the students will not learn. When thinking about the new tools I get each year in my classroom I sometimes feel frustrated.  I might not always get the full training or not fully understand how to incorporate these tools in my classroom.  Therefore, I do not use them in the classroom the way that I should.  If these students and teachers are not familiar with using the programs on the laptops they too will get frustrated and maybe not use the programs in the correct way.  
                Another factor in which this program would be effected negatively would be if there was a lack of funds for the upkeep of the materials.  It takes a lot of money to keep updating the programs and tools on the laptops.  Plus, you also have to keep in consideration of missing, stolen, or broken laptops.  How are students and teachers going to partake in the program if they do not have a working laptop?
                The third factor in which this program would be effected negatively would be the different teaching styles of teachers and the different learning styles of students.  Not everyone learns in the same way.  It is our job as teachers to figure out how our students learn and apply that to our classroom.  We can do that with technology but we have to put in some extra thought.  Are the teachers going to be able to do that if they are jump starting a brand new program with the laptops?
 1b:          The first thing that may help mitigate the factors that contributed to the minimal effect of this project would be to implement bottom-up changes instead of top-down practices. Instead of providing teachers and students with technology and telling them how to use it, the changes in the curriculum’s technology could be suggested by the teachers. That way, the administration could obtain software that the teachers are already familiar with, and don’t have to re-learn how to perform all of the functions of the software. Granted, there would be differing opinions of what people want, but at least there will always be a group of people who understand how to use it, instead of an entire school full of people that is clueless as to how the new software works.
Another way to increase the effectiveness is to give students incentives to learn how to use the computers for educational reasons. It is not enough to simply just say “here is a computer, go use it to learn,” because students know what other kind of other content exists on computers, and will try to use it for entertainment. Locking out the non-educational features isn’t an option, because the students will find a way around content filters and restrictions, so you have to incentivize use of the computers as a learning tool. It’s not enough to just grade them well, but the teachers need to find fun and interesting ways for students to engage with the information.

Week 4 - Social Bookmarking

https://delicious.com/annettewoj/ 
 

Social bookmarking might be my new favorite thing on the internet.  It is a great space to store all of those links you come across when searching for activities for your classroom.   I think this is a great tool to use with students, coworkers, and parents.  Every year I send out a note with important and useful websites my students and parents can use at home.  It is so much easier and more convenient to share a link to a social bookmarking website like delicious.  This tool would also be a great thing to use with students when working on research projects.  This way their time can be spent on browsing the websites related to their topic that someone has bookmarked instead of wasting time looking for new material!  There are several ways I could use this tool inside the classroom and I am very excited to share it with my coworkers.   

As far as the reading goes, I think that the old definitions make a lot of sense when you consider the way that instructional technology used to be used in the classroom. Back then, they would just show a movie and talk about it afterward. However, it has evolved so much over time; it is hard to see how someone could have ever considered the 1920s view of instructional technology as just “media”. The modern definition sees it as something that people don’t just use once, but continue to learn from over time. This is similar to the way I view instructional technology, because I see it as a tool that I can integrate into various parts of the learning process. We use technology to instruct, to evaluate, or to assess and it plays a large part in each of those steps. Teachers like me see huge benefits from including some forms of instructional technology in the classroom. Modern uses of technology let us see the interaction that students have with the material, and that allows us to evaluate their comprehension of the material in ways that written assessments do not.

Week 3 - Reflection

Unfortunately, for me I think that a wiki doesn’t have a use in a second grade classroom like mine. It requires a little more technical skill and knowledge than my students may have. They know how to use a computer, but there are rules and constraint necessary for effective classroom use of a wiki, and I don’t think my students would be able to do it. I like the idea of a wiki, but it seemed like it would be a difficult thing to get going. It may take a lot of work to get all of the content into the pages that you need.

I could think of a few different ways to use a wiki in the classroom. The first idea I had was a classroom powered collection of notes for the class. Everyone could contribute a little bit of their notes so that the class is able to come up with a sort of “master” set of notes that everyone could refer to and find the information that they need. The downside of this is that some members may do more work than others, and it may cause some students to not pull their own weight.

The next idea I had was very similar to the note idea, but would instead be a study guide that the classroom puts together. I could provide them with the study questions, and they could work together to answer all of the questions thoroughly. Often, you will find that some students are strong with some areas of the content and weak in others, and this would give them the ability to build on each other’s knowledge.

The last idea I had would only work for an upper-elementary class, possibly in the 4-6^th grade range. I would start a story for the class, and everyone can add a few lines. They add their own creativity and personality to the story. Sometimes, if the student is under pressure in class, they may hit a writer’s block and may not produce the same quality of work compared to having the time and space to sit down at home and write their part of the story.

I think that wikis have a lot of potential for many classroom situations, it is just that you have to find a group of students who are willing and able to contribute to the project.

Week 2 - Reflection

I enjoy using a blog and reading blogs.  This past summer I got into the “blog world” and started reading several different blogs.  I got so into it I created my own personal blog.  I use it to share craft ideas, recipes, and other random things I find interesting.  I was excited to see that blogging was going to be one of our projects in this course because I would like to learn new ways in which I can use a blog in my classroom.  The RSS Reader is very convenient because you can go to one spot and read everything.  Before I discovered the RSS Reader I would have five to ten windows open with different blogs trying to keep updated with all of the new posts.  Now all I have to do is open one window and everything I need is right there. 

Another educational technology I would like to use in my classroom would be a blog.  I think it would be a great tool for students to share their work with other students and for them to find resources they can use in the classroom.   These resources would give them opportunities to find more information on a given subject or to interact with information in other ways.  I feel this would fall under the demonstration portion of the cone because students have to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject in order to communicate it on the blog.  The weakness of using a blog in the classroom would be that some students may have a hard time communicating their knowledge through words even if they fully understand the subject.     

RSS feeds would be more similar to the top and middle parts of the cone. It would apply to both for different reasons. It would fall toward the middle because it can deliver iconic experiences, such as serialized content like television or motion pictures. It can also deliver recordings, radio and still pictures similar to more traditional means such as newspapers. It could also apply to the symbolic section of the cone because it can be used to communicate visual symbols and verbal symbols to a wider audience.

An imaginative use of both a blog and RSS feeds could be to let teachers share information and lesson ideas quickly. While teachers may be teaching the same material across the country, they are rarely in touch with each other. They know the other teachers at their school teaching the material, but that is usually the only group they know with the material, so they only have a few points of view about it. Books and lesson plans can be distributed to assume some level of standardization, this is still fairly impersonal. The ability of a blog post to share information from one person to many is something that could never have been done with traditional means of communication. The teacher with the ideas could easily compose a blog post to share the idea, and the other teachers, who are subscribed to the blog through an RSS reader, will be able to see that tip, as well as any other tip from additional teaching blogs that they may have subscribed to. This answers the problem of teachers being able to connect with each other and exchange plans at a fast-paced rate, without the need for an intermediate body such as a publisher.

Week 1 - Reading Reflection

The classroom I teach in is for the novice-level students, and there are two teachers in it. This classroom is built on the information age systems mentioned in the Reigeluth & Joseph article. You will find many of the systems such as customization, initiative, diversity, team-based organization, autonomy, cooperation, and total quality. We also follow a learning-focused paradigm, and gear our lessons to the student’s needs. We also teach to mastery of the topic by following personal learning plans, allowing every member of the class to work at their own pace. We are also able to monitor their progress through performance-based assessment and encourage them to develop their skills through peer-assisted learning. The way that we are able to do this successfully is because there are two teachers and we work in small groups. We are able to pull aside groups of students so we can coach them through the material, and give them opportunities to guide each other to comprehension of the material. It would be beneficial to find ways that technology can work into this system. Because of the wide variety of available technology and the educational level of the students, it is important to find the right types of technology to make sure that it meets our learning goals.

Technology is not taking over or replacing the teaching that we are doing, but it is enhancing it with the use of technology. The Postman article argues that technology in learning is solving problems that do not actually exist. He uses the example of power windows in a car as an analogy for technology in learning. With this example, it seems like he is ignoring the fact that some technology actually finds ways to make things easier for students or teachers so that their learning goals may be accomplished. For example, we teach students to use technology so that they may take ownership over their own learning, or so that they can assist other students in learning. Technology lowers the barriers for helping others and gaining assistance from others, and if students are able to communicate their ideas to each other, they can demonstrate their mastery of the topic. This also benefits the teachers, since it easier for them to monitor the students and interact with their material through technological means. For example, if a student did some form of formative assessment on the computer, and their grade appeared in the gradebook instantly, I could see that grade and discuss with them why they got that grade and what they wanted to improve or clarify instantly while it was still fresh in their mind. Alternatively, we could interact with the students in real time through the internet, and it could provide a more media-rich experience than simply just telling them to use their imagination. Technology is not solving problems that don’t exist, it is solving real problems and creating new avenues for teachers and students to connect with each other and enhance their learning experience.