Exit Slip 9/30

Today in class we talked about chapter 3. This chapter goes over many skeptic beliefs of technology.  They had a good presentation however I wish they didn’t make generalizations during their presentation. There was a good point made about voicing your opinion in discussions.  Once you display your opinion as a teacher the discussion is over. Overall I believe that technology is coming and hundreds of year later people will look back on our time and laugh about our worries of technology taking over the world.  We went over the topics for our Wiki.  Many students had interesting ideas and I am excited to read them.

I am very nervous about the White board lesson. I have never created a lesson before and have no ideas on what I want to teach.  So hopeful I will have some inspiration soon. 

The Development of American Schools.

It is surprising that schools haven’t changed much in the last 2 hundred years.  Ever since the industrial revolution, students have been attending a school system very familiar to us today.  Before the industrial revolution parents were the primary providers for education.  Some would send their children to a one room school where they would learn information with a variety of educational levels.  Sometimes one room schools were not available.  In that case students would not receive adequate education. 

This chapter also hit a little close to home.  My grandma attended a Normal School in Wisconsin to get her teaching license and taught in a one room school very close to the house I grew up in.  She was working in the one room school where she met my grandpa.  When she got married she stopped working in the school to take care of the family. 

Horace Mann has done a lot for the education system.  He helped schools urbanize or move from many one room schools around the city to condense into one building.  He created the first school where one teacher taught one grade level.  This is something we take for granted now a day. 

Overall it is important to look at the history of one revolution to see what to expect in our future.  We are now entering into a time where the school system as we know it is about to change. Technology is consuming the world and school systems are working to stay afloat in the flood of technology.  This is the reason teachers need to keep up with technology in their classroom.  Teachers are not sure what the future is going to look like, and because of this we need to keep up with the times to make sure technology snowballs into something unable to maintain.

Exit Slip 9/23

Today in class we discussed the chapters from the book.  The group did a good job presenting and created many good questions for the class to ponder.  I feel that technology is a good tool to use in the classroom however there are also many methods that are working in the classroom and shouldn't just be thrown out because they are out to date.  For example what are we going to do if Books go out of style.  There is something about sitting on the couch reading a good book.  I don't necessarily think that I should go home and read my Kindle.  I actually think reading a computer screen all day would be rather boring.  Technology in the classroom is great, but old methods shouldn't automatically be thrown away. 

Reflection on Chapter 2 (Rethinking Education)

After reading this chapter in Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology I have mixed feelings on incorporating technology into the classroom.  The book mentions that with technology students would have the ability to study their own lessons that based on each child’s interests.  The book compared these individual lessons to an IEP.  I however feel a little weary about having children choose to learn according to what the child’s interests are.  When I was a student I first wanted to be a ballerina, and then a teacher, and then a doctor, psychiatrist, to finally deciding to be a teacher.  If I were learning based on my interests the things I would need to learn to succeed in my career would keep changing.  If a student wanted to become an actress, what would motivate that student to learn math facts?  It is our job as future educators to prepare our students for their future.  However we are not sure what their future holds. We should be preparing our children for multiple possibilities instead of just one outcome.  Today, many people are layed off, forced into finding jobs they never dreamed of having.  My own mother owned her own flower shop, and then decided to sell and is now working as a customer service rep.  These two jobs are not related. If she only learned in school information about flower shops she would have lacked the communication and technology information needed as a customer service rep. 

                The chapter also talks about just in time learning. I compare just-in-time reading to cramming.  You are learning the information as you need it and then when the information isn’t needed anymore we discard it. How do we know if we will never need the lost information in the future? We don’t.  This is why it is important to retain all the information we have learned. Our brain is a powerful computer able to store far more information than any computer.  Why put your intelligence in relying on the less effective model. 

                This chapter had some good information as well.  When I am a teacher I will integrate different material to learn information.  It is good to recognize that everyone learns in a different way.  This is why it is important to teach many different ways.  I feel technology is a great tool to use in the classroom, but should enhance learning not take over learning.  If students can only learn from a computer what is the point of school at all? I feel as a teacher I should reflect what old methods are still working in the classroom and what methods need to be replaced by technology. 

Exit Slip 9/16

Today in class we discussed different opinions about technology.  It was surprising that there were many different opinions in the classroom regarding technology.  The most controversial moment in class today was when we were discussing the quote ...

“If educators cannot successfully integrate new technologies into what it means to be a school, then the long identification of schooling with education, developed over the past 150 years, will dissolve into a world where the students with the means and the ability will pursue their learning outside of the public school.”(xv)

The topic of online schools came up in response to this quote.  If technology was taken out of schools would that inspire more students to take up online schooling? I never really thought that there were students in elementary school who were learning by the internet.  I realized in class that I knew nothing about online schools.  It makes me curious if they really work and if students who are using online classes missing out other life schools.  Is there such thing as too much internet.  I know if I took online classes I would not be able to focus as well as being in an actual classroom.  I need to interact with my peers and teachers in order to learn the material.  This class just made me curious about online school and what it is all about. 

Reflection on "Growing Up Online"

 Growing up online does a good job of this new generation coming of age with the internet.  For the first time, kids have access to an unlimited amount of information.  They are able to communicate in ways never thought of ten years ago and also finding new ways of expressing themselves.  With websites such as facebook, people are able to express themselves in ways that they are unable to express publicly.  Many adults today don’t understand this new desire to be online all the time and because of this misunderstanding, parents, teachers and other adults are viewing the internet as something corrupting the youth. 

There was one teacher in the documentary who taught high school English.  She felt that the internet was diminishing the quality of different pieces of literature she assigned, because students could escape the assignment by reading spark notes.  When I saw this teacher, I was a little upset by her methods of teaching.  I admit to using spark notes as a way of completing an assignment.  The only reason I decided to use spark notes was because I thought the text was boring and a waste of my time to read.  I remember when I was in high school and a teacher assigned a book for the class, it needed to be interesting or else I didn’t read it.  The teacher seemed to be relying on old methods to teach a new generation of students.  I feel if the teacher incorporated spark notes into her lessons in addition to reading the literature she would have been more effective at teaching.  If I were in her shoes, I would go to spark notes as an overview to the book that we are going to read.  She could create her own Facebook group and have students post their feelings of the assigned reading.  Students could post their questions so you know what needs to be reviewed in the classroom and what the students learned from the assignment. 

                This video opens your eyes to many different possibilities that can go wrong on the internet.  Girls are using the internet as a “how to” guide for anorexia.  Bullying has been refined to be invisible to adults by taking place online instead of inside schools.  Rumors can now be spread instantly through Facebook, Myspace or even Youtube.  The documentary compared the internet to historical westward expansion.  Adults are finding themselves in unknown territory and there is no one regulating what is going on online.  This documentary shows how it is even more important to use technology in the classrooms to create some guidelines for the internet.

                It is my job as a future teacher to embrace technology rather than trying to push it out of student’s lives.  If internet is pushed out of schools, students are just going to use the internet in more shocking ways at home on their own time.

***If you would like to watch the video for yourself visit http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts Chapters 1-3

I feel like a nerd for reading the entire 54 pages, without skimming or taking a study break to keep my sanity.  I can honestly say that I enjoyed reading about blogs and how to use them in the classroom.  My favorite part of the reading was in chapter 2 where the book provided teachers and how they used blogging in their classroom.  There were no pictures in the readings, but there were websites listed to show the exact blog the teacher implicated in their classroom.  This was the first time I was able to read the material with my computer on my lap and not get distracted by the internet because I was using the links as references to understand the text. 

Anne Davis, a fifth grade teacher implicated blogs in her fifth grade classroom and every student was sad when the year ended.  I never thought that blogging could be possible as early as 5^th grade.  However all the students said that they thought the experience would be boring, but turned out that it was exciting and they learned a lot.  (http://itc.blogs.com/thewriteweblog/)

These chapters made me think a lot about how I would use a blog in my classroom.  My first thought was to use a blog as a main way to communicate with parents.  I could list homework assignments and keep a diary of my classroom for parents to look at.  However, after reading the chapter I see that there are ways students can learn through blogging.  Students could keep it as a personal diary to show the growth they made over the course of the year.  Students could “publish” their work online for parents and other classmates to see.  Also if school districts implemented blogging in all classrooms, students, teachers and parents would be able to see a child’s progress over years. 

I am an ESL minor, so I am always thinking about how I would change my classroom to incorporate ESL students.  Teachers could easily put pictures in their blogs to illustrate what they are saying in case their parents aren’t fluent in English.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so maybe parents can see the progress their student is making without a language barrier. 

A confusing part of the text was when the reading was trying to explain how to put pictures onto blogger.  I was trying to follow along to put on my own picture however was confused what they were talking about.  I feel that if there was a student reading the material without their computer on their lap they would not be able to understand what the text was saying.  This is something I hope to learn in the future.  

***Note: I figured out how to insert a picture seconds before publishing this post.  This is one lesson in teaching.  Sometimes you can’t read something in a book to learn. You just have to do it yourself.  This is a picture of my driveway in fall… (I just think it is pretty)

Reflection on Website Validity

What is wrong with this sentence? “Christopher Columbus was born in 1951 in Sydney, Australia”.  Young students are naive to believe that everything they read online is true.  However, many students learned at an early age that Christopher sailed the ocean blue in 1492-making the above statement incorrect.  If you look further on this website you can see that the website was designed specifically to show students that not every website is filled with correct information.  If I was teaching a class about the validity of information on the web, I would use the example of a wiki to show how many different people could post information even if it was incorrect.  You could even makes something up on the spot and show the students how easy it is to post something on the web. 

You could also use the website with the rain forest octopi to illustrate your point further.  If someone came up to you while you were eating lunch telling you that there were these octopuses that lived on pine trees and are endangered because Sasquatch eats them, would you believe them? Then why would you believe this information if it was posted online?

Sometimes the information isn’t always clear if it is true or not.  In this case there are some helpful hints to determine the validity.  Spelling mistakes is one red flag that the information online is incorrect.  If the website didn’t take the time to make sure their spelling is correct they probably didn’t take the time to make sure their information is correct.  Websites who don’t post the creators name and contact information are also a little “fishy”. 

Reflection on Week 2 Reading

Change.  We are entering into a time where change is happening, right here right now. Many view change as something that needs to be stopped, an infection of our old ways.  However in the case of Technology change is only opening up opportunities to students.  Opportunities the last generation could only dream of.  I like to think of The FUN block thresholds lecture.  It is our job as teachers, to teach students to prepare them for the technology that has not been invented yet.  

This chapter of Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology makes you realize how much change is occurring in schools today.  In the past, schools had books as the sole information provider.  Teachers today have new technologies being developed which makes keeping up with the times extremely difficult.  This chapter has definitely inspired me to not be afraid of technology.  There are so many ways to use technology in the classroom which makes learning more fun and interesting for students.  

First of all, there is the smart board which many schools use to teach lessons.  At my elementary school at home, every classroom is equipped with a smart board.  Students can’t wait to be called on so that they can come up to the board and move the images around just with the touch of their finger.  Smartboard lessons are very interactive.  In math class, Smartboards can easily show how multiplication is a continuation of addition.

Students can learn about culture around the world through first hand experiences.  Students can take online field trips by looking at google earth.  This tool easily illustrates the differences in topography around the world.  The teacher could also use skype to talk to scientists, or different people around the world.  Teachers could link up with a classroom in Germany and talk through video chat.  

Teachers can stay in contact with their student’s parents through blogs or even by creating their own group on facebook.  Teachers can post class assignments on these websites.  Documentation of a classroom not only helps the students remember what they did at school that particular day, but also shows the progress the classroom has made over the entire year.  

When I was at camp we incorporated technology to create new games that were both fun and entertaining for kids.  We had one particular game that combined “hide and seek”, tag and cell phones together.  Each group would be hiding from one group, and trying to find another.  The thing that made the game interesting was each group was able to hunt down the other team by asking clues on the counselors cell phone.  The campers got so excited when the phone rang and everyone wanted to be a part of the game.  

Technology is affecting all aspects of life today.  From in the classroom, to remote areas technology is always there.  It is our job to keep up with the times or else drown in the massive flood of technology.