Blogfolio

1. Introduction Video: Through this assignment, I felt we met standard 1. "facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity". I feel this because through having to video one another on an intro of ourselves and kind of why we want to be teachers, we inspired each other "face-to-face and in a virtual environment". Ourselves as students and as future educators inspired one another and also facilitated one another while completing this assignment. I have learned that it is not as hard as I thought to make a video about myself. My biggest problem I faced was not knowing exactly what I was going to say on my video, but after getting in front of the camera words just started flowing. I did not truthfully solve this problem, it just kind of worked itself out. I can integrate this knowledge by also making my students video each other doing introduction videos of themselves to get their creative thinking juices rolling to start off the year.

2. TED Talks: Through this assignment, I felt we met standard 5. "engage in professional growth and leadership". I think we met this standard not by ourselves completing it, but by watching great examples of teachers who fulfilled this entire standard top to bottom. I learned from John Hunter that I really want to work with gifted students at some point in my career. I was so inspired by watching the kids' creativity and the fact that they were fostering their own learning was so incredible. I want to help children be able to do that some day. The only problem I can really think of is that I forgot to post my post in class because I was so involved watching the videos, I did not even write anything down, so I had to post it later. I just rewatched some of the videos to refresh my mind. I will integrate this knowledge by introducing some of their examples that they used in their talks into my own classroom.

3. Concept Map: Through this assignment, I felt we met standard 2. "design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments". Frankly speaking, creating the concept map was to design a  digital-age learning experience, so we obviously met that standard because that was the whole point to the assignment. I have officially learned how to create a concept map. Before this assignment, I never fully knew what one was. My problem I encountered was that I had never created a concept map before. I solved this problem by asking peers, looked at different examples, and followed the rubric to the tee. I will integrate this knowledge into my future teaching, by using that application to help me organize my lesson plans and different learning activities for my students and future classroom.

4. DoNotTrackMe: Through this assignment, I felt we met standard 4. "promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility". We specifically modeled digital citizenship by downloading this and putting it on our own computers, so that we did not get tracked by websites. I learned that there are SOOOO many trackers out there, whether they are not harmful or worse, that they are harmful. The problem I encountered was that my computer in class would not allow the download to happen, so I had to wait until I was home to see the full results, which ultimately blew my mind. I never solved this problem. I have tried several times, using all different browsers, but it would just not download onto my computer in class. I will integrate this knowledge by teaching my students how to download this to keep them digitally safe while they are using the internet at school or home.

5. Augmented Reality App: Through this assignment, I felt we met standard 3. "model digital-age work and learning". I did not think that I had ever used an augmented reality app before, so I ultimately learned a digital-age skill by having to download one and be able to use it, to describe it to the class. I have learned what an augmented reality app is and their uses, and honestly they are pretty common now a days. I see them everywhere. My biggest problem was that I had never heard of an augmented reality app, so I was not quite sure what I was looking for when we were supposed to download one. I solved this problem by googling what an augmented reality app really was. I will integrate this knowledge by having appropriate augmented reality apps readily accessible to use in my classroom to further enrich and engage my students' learning.

6. Voki: Through this assignment, I felt we met standard 2. "design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments". By actually creating a Voki, we developed a digital-age learning experience. We had to learn to "incorporate this digital tool" to be able to use it and produce an intro to a hypothetical class and their parents. I learned what a Voki was because I never knew before. I also learned how interesting it could be to students to hear a voice coming from an animated face explaining activities to them. The only problem I faced was that I did not exactly know what all to include in an intro to a class. I solved this problem by thinking back to classes growing up and recent ones, to give me inspiration on what to say and it did. I will integrate this knowledge probably a lot throughout my career because it seems like students may enjoy and better engage while listening to a Voki give out directions to assignments and what not. It almost seems like they would think they were watching a cartoon.

7. Web 2.0: Through this assignment, I felt we met standard 5. "engage in professional growth and leadership". I think we met this through having to present our websites to the class. We had to "demonstrate the effective use of digital tools" by telling the class why and how our websites could be used in future classrooms, and also the effictiveness of the website as well. I learned that there are many many resources available for teachers to use to help organize ideas and lessons, better and safer search engines for kids, brainstorming tools, and many more. The main problem I faced was trying to figure out if the tool that was presented would be useful and relevant in my classroom or not. I solved this by anytime that something sounded and looked relevant, I put a star beside, so I could go back and look to use it later and try it out for myself. I will integrate this knowledge by making use of these many resources because there were a good few that seemed that they would be excellent in helping me organize my teaching and help students learning.

8. Our own website: Through this assignment, I felt we met standard 4. "promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility". I specifically did what was stated above in my website because my topic was Online Safety. I gave videos and written facts on how to safe while online. This alone promotes digital citizenship. I have learned how to create a website because I never knew how before. I did not realize how simple it was to just create a website. The problem I encountered was that I had never made a website before, so I was not sure what all information to include and how to format it. I solved this problem by modeling my website to be similar to other websites that talked about the same general information. I will integrate this knowledge in case I ever need to create another website or if I feel the need for my students to create a website. I will have the knowledge to do so and be able to lead them in creating in one.

9. My Movie: Through this assignment, I felt we met standard 3. "model digital-age work and learning". By creating a movie that told a story through at least ten pictures, a mp3 sound clip, and captions, our class "communicated relevant information effectively to peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats". We used still photos, sounds, and text to express our story. I learned how to create a movie. I always thought it would be so hard to create those cool little slideshow movie things, but really it was not hard at all. The biggest problem I faced was deciding on what story I wanted to tell that would be relevant and interesting to the class. I solved this problem by finally deciding on a story that I thought would interest my peers in class. I will integrate this knowledge by creating movies pretty often for my classrooms to peak their interests. I want to keep my classroom fully engaged through presenting information in a variety of ways, and I think using homemade movies is a neat and pretty simple way to do so.   

     I want to begin by saying I had no idea what I was getting into when I registered for this class. I knew with the prefix IT it had something to do with information technology. I did not know how much learning I would be doing and how many useful things I would be taking away from it. I have learned how to use a countless number of different types of technologies that will enhance my teaching in the future. I have learned how to blog, create a website, create a movie, create and use a Voki, along with many other smaller websites and apps. I think that my strong points were that I already knew how to use many basic features on the computer and internet. Also that I kind of have a creative mind and many things in the class were kind of left to our discretion. I think my weak points were that I was not always sure about my final product and also walking around the room while trying to explain something was really difficult. I think my strong points were strong because already knowing how to use most features, picking up on new applications and websites were pretty easy to do. I think my weak points were weak because I had never had to walk around the room and talk about my subject while using the iPad and focusing on what students were doing, so I found that to be difficult and one of my weak points. I think I definitely need to work on circulating the room and being smooth about it while still paying attention to what my students are doing. I want to use some of the things I learned while circulating the room in my future classes. I plan on integrating a piece of technology in each lesson that I will present. I think it is important that students today be well rounded. It may just be by presenting information in a variety of ways or it may be having students creating their own type of activity for a subject of their choosing. I think that the applications of blogs are semi important. I guess it depends on how the teacher uses it. I think it could possibly be used as a type of journal of sorts, but I am not sure with all the cyberbullying going on that I would be comfortable with requiring my students to post things where other classmates to see and potentially pose a threat. There is always that bad apple that could potentially ruin the rest and I do not want to see any of my students being persecuted due to a post they posted for school.

SAMR, LMS, Whiteboard, BYOD

     From just reading this article, I would not be able to tell you what SAMR or LMS stood for. I would have to do extra research for that. However, by reading further into it, the article gives a little insight into what they are. I perceived them to be tools for teachers that have different levels. I could agree with whoever wrote the paragraph including the SAMR model because they talk about teachers being thrown tool after tool and not knowing how to actually integrate these tools into their classrooms. I feel the exact same way with some of my classes. In some classes I am given examples of when and how to use certain applications or models to help enrich my students' learning. Then in other classes I feel as if I learn how to do these things and never see the applicability of them for a classroom, students, or even myself. Then I am left guessing what a LMS is. By the paragraph I would assume that it is something similar to the Blackboard that we use here at southern. I do see where something like this would be useful for the rest of our careers and also for our future students as well. I think the fact that so many classes use Blackboard, that having to continue to use them and teach others how to use them would be a breeze because we are becoming so familiar to it. I think interactive Whiteboards are good for some things, and then not as useful in other ways. I think it is a great way to gain students' attention because the start of it is pretty interesting, but with all of the up and coming tech tools, our students will not continue to be impressed. I sort of like the idea of BYOD in a sense, but not totally. I can see where that would seem like we should go to that, but I just think about all of the students that do not have access to devices to bring to class then making them feel left out, which is not what I want to do as a teacher.

A Conversation With a "Bad" Teacher

      This author starts the article by talking about what John did before he got into teaching and how he got into teaching. He goes on to talk about the horrible experiences that went on in just the little time that John was a teacher. He includes some crazy examples of what went on at the school where John was a teacher. He then starts a kind of summary of an interview with John. The author gives a list of the questions asked and the answers. They mainly talk about his time at the school, why he became a teacher, why he quit, why he wrote this book, and some specifics from the book.
     I kind of enjoyed reading this article after finding out that the principle he mentions was removed from her position. I feel that in a lot of places, not just the district mentioned in the article, just try "pass" there students. Like all they care about is their graduation rate and not if their students are ready for college or careers. My cousin has some learning disabilities and his special education teacher retired this year and his school district did not fill the spot for a few months into the school year. My cousin came from an area where he was learning nothing and was never given a chance, to moving in with my family and immediately receiving a much better education and situation. He started learning a lot better and was moving right along, even though he had a lot of one on one instruction in a special classroom, learning was still taking place. After, his teacher retired, they just kind of threw him in the general ed classroom without any help or accommodations. His teachers just started giving him A's with his work being all wrong, so that they would not have to deal with his problems. Because of this, his learning began to recess. I tell this story because that is what happens when teachers and administrators do not care about the actual learning going on and just care about their passing rate. No one actually learns anything and everyone is just hindered in the process when it comes to move up to the next level.

Kids Can't Compute-And That's A Problem

     This author starts by stating the old myth that kids are "digital natives" and are more tech savvy than adults. He goes on to state why people think this. He then goes on to talk about his first set of computers and how he had to operate them. He then talks about all of the things that kids do not know how to do within the computer, and then turning to what they can do on computers. He goes on to conclude his article by stating reasons why the younger generations will become problems due to their un-knowing of how to use the nitty and gritty of computers, and then he gives some solutions to this said problem.
     I can agree and disagree with the opening statement as well as the entire article. I think that a lot of kids cannot compute like people did in what I would consider the "olden" days. I consider myself to be pretty tech savvy and even I did not know what the heck he was talking about when he was talking about his old computers. I honestly do not know why I would need to know those things, seeing as most computers just do all of that stuff for you; its just not really necessary unless you want to be like a computer programmer or something like that.                                                                                                                                                                                          

Beyond MOOCs: Is IT Creating a New, Connected Age?

     Before reading this article, I had no idea what a MOOC was or especially what Beyond MOOC's stood for. After doing a little of my own research, to better understand the article, I found out that MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Classroom. This meaning that for a small price students could join this classrooms for their learning. The article about Beyond MOOC's talks about furthering the idea of MOOC's. They talk about them in the sense of using them for businesses, and ultimately broadening the secondary education experience. I however, do not like the sound of these MOOC's. I honestly do not like online classes what so ever. With my major, I have to take several online courses, and for me that's a several too many. I do not get the learning experience that I receive in a good ole fashioned classroom, with a teacher and your peers. I understand that these MOOC's mean a low priced alternative for people who may not can afford the traditional standard education, but I just do not learn anything from my online classes and they are not nearly as broad and general as some MOOC's. I just do not see how someone could trust the education and learning outcomes from classes like these. I will not try to say that I pay attention like I should in my online classes, but that is because there is no one in front of me or around me making me do so. I do not trust MOOC's in getting a secondary education, but maybe for other things besides college courses it could be useful.

My Movie