Chapter 10: Rethinking Education in a Technological World

In order to sum up this book, we need to look at the current teaching methods and really question if those methods are working with the new generation of thinking.  Learning not only happens in courses taken in school but in the outside world.  I can tell you that most of the information you have learned while growing up and do not use in my daily life is lost in my brain.  As learning is moving outside of the school, we need to rethink the different methods we want to use in order to catch our learners.  Motivating students is important because if students don't feel that the material is worth learning, they are likely to  not use the information.  Students need to learn information that will provide them a basis for the rest of their life.  Like we said before we need to provide students for their future and not our past.  It is through teaching students using different techniques that we are able to provide them with tools to succeed in their future.  Lastly students need to be able to receive information when they need it.  Students need to know how to learn information later on in life.

Overall I believe that Students should be using technology in the classroom.  It is important to motivate students to learn so that they can succeed in the rest of their careers.

PSA Reflection

A Public Service Announcement, or PSA is a great learning tool for students to use in the classroom.  When we created ours, It was very simple to do.  We completed ours with a Mac video camera built in to Kara's Laptop.  After we were finished filming it was very easy to edit and finalize.  The hardest part for our group was submitting the video on You Tube.  We were unsuccessful in doing this and ended up posting the video right on our blog.  If a class was to make a larger video they might not be able to do this.  

Having students make their own video's is a great learning tool.  Whenever I made video's in High School, I remembered the material better.  Videos could be created for parents to find out what the class did on a field trip or to highlight rules in the classroom.  

I think it would be a neat idea to create classroom rules in the beginning of the year and then have different groups make a video why these rules are important to follow.  This would be a good method of teaching PBIS in the classroom.  Another idea would be to have students create a public service announcement about a conflict in a story we are reading as a class.  Students can recognize the conflict in a story and give possible solutions.  My last idea was to use videos as a learning tool to common mistakes made in Math class.  Students could make a video about the mistakes they have made and then show students the correct way to solve the problem.  

Public service announcements are a great way to teach in the classroom.  Even though I dream of teaching a younger aged students I still believe that Public Service announcements are a great tool to enhance learning in the classroom.

Exit Slip 11/11/10

Today in class we talked about if we want to fit the current teacher picture, or if we want to be innovative and buck the system to try to change things.  The model works for some students but not all students.  He showed some articles about teachers who are pushing the boundries.  Reasearch shows that it doesn't matter how much technology you use, it matters how well you are teaching. 

I presented my book chapter for the class today.  Technology royaly screwed up today.  However as we said in our presentation. Because there is one negative aspect of technology, doesn't mean we should stop using it right away. We should teach about the positive aspects. 

Cyber Bullying Podcast

Creating this pod cast was fairly easy.  The most challenging item of creating the pod cast was finding what to say.  It was difficult because I would write something and then when I said it out loud, it sometimes sounded funny.  I think before we publish anything we should speak what we are trying to say out loud to see if it sounds foolish or not.  The other challenging thing about the pod cast was limited materials.  In class we discussed how a Mac was the best method for creating a Pod cast.  I am a proud owner of a PC, but found it challenging to create a podcast using it because the limited amount of music available.  Once I got started, it was easy to do.  All you have to do is press the record button and you are good to go!

I would love to use this method in the future.  It was very simple to do and it  would be great to incorporate in the class.  I feel that I would love to have my students create their own messages and create different pod casts that way.  It would also be good to do a poetry unit and have all my students share their poems via pod casts.  This way you could also display your students work to their parents with out having each parent take time off of work to hear every ones poetry.  This would also be a great way to have students create their own radio station.  You could talk about the events that are occurring in your classroom so parents feel in the loop.  If you are studying about different current events you could have students create individual pod casts about different elements in the news.

In the hour it took to create my first Pod Cast I have fallen in love with the process.  I am now jealous of Mac users and would love to own my own to create more.  The process was very simple and I am sure to create more podcasts in the future.

Chapter 9: What does this all mean?

This chapter of Thinking Education in the Age of Technology shows educators that children are using technology whether we like it or not.  Students are jumping on the video game bandwagon which leaves many parents and educators frightened.  There is the notion that students who aren't reading actual text are not improving vocabulary or reading skills.  However if you take part of the online community of video games there is many opportunities to communicate with other gamers which in the end improves a students communication skill.  The book encourages parents to instead of judging what the child is doing, and predicting that the game has little educational value, you should go ahead and play the game with your child.  Many times parents are unsure of technology and often jump to the wrong conclusions. By having your child teaching you about different technologies, you not only learn different benefits of the technology but also improve your child's understanding of the technology.  Teaching others is one of the best ways to learn new things.  This concept can also be applied to blogs, wiki's, Facebook, Twitter and many other types of technologies.  

When I was telling my mom about the different things I was learning for this class you could see the glazed look come over her face.  However instead of continuing to talk about the different things I was doing, I sat down and showed her the different things we were learning. My mom was the first follower of my blog and has become my friend on face book and also has her own flicker account.  She now doesn't think sitting on the computer for hours at a time is a complete waste of time, but knows there is some benefits to the various amounts of technology.  Also by showing her the different things I learned in class, I was able to learn more in depth about the different items we touched on.  This was a win win for both parties.

It is a fact of our time that students are using technology at an alarming rate.  So why continue to teach students based on old methods that interested an older generation.  We should change our focus to reach today generation of learners not past learners. 

Chapter 8: How school's can cope with the New Technology

The chapter discusses three main ways schools can cope with the New Technology to improve the Education system.  The first idea the book presents is performance based assessment.  Students could be tested on the skills that they possess and not based on if they can pass a standardized test.  The book explains how schools can use this as a credential system for students to gain skills as a gateway into different professional programs.  For example if a student wanted to be a doctor they would have to earn different credentials in high school than a student would want to go into a Music Field. When I was in High School I was never a fan of Standardized testing.  Like many other students, I hated taking the ACT and wished there was a different way to get into college.  This might be one way for students to accomplish the admission into college.  When I read this goal, I was a little weary on if this would work.  My main concern (which I have expressed before) is if a student changes their mind later on in life and are unable to accomplish their dreams because of their age and lack of training.  What if a student dreams of being a famous musician growing up and gets all the credentials to go to an elite Musical College.  However 10 years down the road that same student changes their mind and goes back to college competing with students who are 10 years younger than he/she.  I feel that it is sometimes better to at least open the students mind to alternative ideas and have back up plans in case the student changes their mind later on in life.     

The next idea the chapter presents is New Curriculum designs.  This would be a great option for students who maybe go to a lower income school or a school that offers few classes.  Students would be able to take classes online at a different school and earn credits to graduated at their own school.  This option is great because it tailors to students individual interests.  If a student wants to take an AP class, however attends a school that doesn't offer the program, the student isn't out of luck.  The student is able to take a vast amount of classes without having to attend a school that offers them all.  I feel that this is a great idea, however would be even better if the student had a teacher as a mentor making sure the student stayed on track.  I have taken many online classes and its always better when you have an actual human caring about your progress instead of relying on the input of your computer. 

Lastly the Chapter mentions the Idea of New Approaches to Equality in the digital world. Today schools arn't equal on terms of funding across the country.  Some schools, because they have high test scores, can offer a large amount of classes with a large scale of tools.  With technology students can have an equal shot at receiving an education.  It doesn't matter any more if you were born in a poor area, it matters what opportunities are presented to you and how many you take advantage of.  With the New age of Technology, these student are able to learn the same classes as schools who are receiving large amounts of funding.  Technology just helps even the playing field a little more. 

Epilogue: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts

The epilogue, I feel, is a good wrap up on this book.  It shows a High School teacher who is using a large amount of technology to teach his high school Journalism class. He arrives at school one morning at 6:50, roughly 45 minutes before his class is scheduled to start.  The reading just shows the different things he is able to accomplish before his students arrive, such as Posting to the class RSS page, or bookmarking a journal on his delicious account.  He submits a blog to his blog post and uploads a new podcast so he can listen to it later when he has time. He completes roughly 10 different forms of technology in the 45 minutes he has of prep time before his students arrive that morning. 

This example goes to show that once we are familiar with all these different types of technology it will be simple to use them all in our classroom.  Right now all this new information feels slightly overwhelming to us.  And I even feel that this is going to be very hard to incorporate EVERYTHING into my classroom.  But this example shows that it can be done very simply.  It might take a couple years implementing a new type of technology one by one. Eventually this will just become part of your every day school day. 

Chapter 10: What It All Means

Chapter 10 is the chapter that combines all the chapters together.  We have read about all this different types and kinds of technology.  Now it is up to us as future educators how we are going to decide what to do with the information.  We know that students and the education system is changing vastly around us.  We have many different tools available for us that were not available twenty years ago.  We now must decide what tools we want to incorporate into our classroom and what we want to leave behind.  This chapter also talks about the different shifts taking place in the new age of technology.  

With the internet content is being opened up to the general public.  Schools are no longer required to buy all the resources needed to teach the youth.  Students spent a large amount of time researching to learn.  Now Information is right at our fingertips.  It only takes a google search to find new information.  Learning is also taking place 24/7 in compared to past times when students came to school to study and then went home and forgot about learning.  With computers students can learn half way around the world and still not fall far behind.  Learning is switching from lecture to different forms of conversation.  It is outdated to just stand in front of a classroom and tell the students what they should know. Instead students need to find meaning in the information placed in front of them.  Students need to know why must we learn this and what is the benefit for me as a student.

One of my favorite shifts taking place is "Mastery is the Product, not a test.  In the past if you passed a test with a 70% or greater you were able say you mastered the material. No one took the next step and tried to see how you could apply the information to the real world.  In fact teachers assumed that if you passed the test you should have been alright applying the information in real life.  Students are no longer being tested on the material in Test format. They are being asked to apply the information they learned in different new ways.  These ways are more applicable to real life.  I believe that when students feel that they need to learn this information because it is beneficial to success in later years they are more motivated to learn the information.

The last chapter of the book talks about all these shifts taking place in the world.  This is only the beginning of a new format of teaching.  The book has showed us the vastly different options we have to incorporate in our classroom.  However because this huge shift is coming it is very important that we take the information and run with it.  Because if we don't, we might get swept away in the flood of technology. 

Exit Slip 11-4-10

We looked at this interesting school that had student work at their own pace at a desk like setting.  These schools dont necessarly look like everday classrooms.  During the group presentations it is always a good idea to have your directions set before students move.  I am guilty of this, but when you get into groups you are going to want to chat.  Its a good idea to tell directions first.  I liked how the students linked the topics we read in the chapter by a venn diagram. 

We were reviewing the iRLO projects.  One thing I never considered was to have the text on the screen longer than I take to read it. 

I liked how the professor created a check list for us to go through about our annotative bibliography.  It was easy to see what he wanted and we know what he is requiring for us. I think before a project was due in my classroom I would create a checklist for my students so they can see clearly what my expectations are. 

Chapter 9: Social Networks

I thought it was rather funny that the book addressed Facebook as a tool to use inside the classrooms.  Many schools around the state block social networking sites like Ning and Facebook.  I also am sure that many teachers would be against using Facebook in their classrooms.  One of the major concerns of teachers who are skeptics of social networking sites is putting to much information about yourself out online.  It is not your mission to create friends through social networking sites.  As teachers we would be creating profiles as interest groups for students. 

Social networking sites would be a great way for students to carryout discussions between students.  The book mentions that students who may be a little shy in class, have more encourage to speak up in conversations online.  I would love to be a third grade teacher someday and was a little stumped how I could include Facebook into my classroom.  I don't think Facebook would have the same motivation as using the social networking site with high school students.  I feel that the site would be great to comment on their opinions and practice typing out different lessons.  It would be important to have the students not use their full name and also keep few pictures online.

I also would allow parents access to this sight so they can see the different work their students have completed.  Parents could see the different conversations they are having in class.  This would also be a good place for students to place different current events they found online.  Social networking sites are good teaching tools to inform students about the importance of watching what you post online.  Today, when cyber bullying is a huge problem, it is important to teach students rules to properly behave online.  Facebook and Ning are only a few sites that teach this importance.

Reflection on Screencasting

http://screencast.com/t/mOfanLCL 

The screen casting for my Cool Tool took a lot of work.  I spent a lot of time getting familiar with the website.  It was an easy to use, user friendly website.  However there were a lot of different applications teachers can use in their classroom.  It also took a little bit of work to record the screen cast.  I had planned out all the different things I wanted to say however when you recorded the different information you were unable to rewind your material.  If you made a mistake you needed to start over from scratch.  I found it easy to record small bits of my screen cast which ultimately took more time than going through the screen cast in one take.  I also had to start over after I realized that I was just talking and not moving around to different elements of the website.  A good screen cast will click on different pages and show what the site all has to offer.  

I think this is an awesome tool to use in the classroom.  Now it is beneficial for students to not miss any class time.  If we are doing something important on the computer we can show students who are absent that day what we did in class.  This way students could be on the other side of the world and still receive the information they missed in the classroom.  I think this would be an excellent tool to show different examples of different math problems students need to complete for homework.  When I was growing up my parents were never able to help me with my homework due to the fact that they didn’t know the method the teacher was teaching us to solve the problem.  Parents can look at the screen cast you created and help their students with homework.  Or even better, if a student is lacking parental support at home they are able to come back during their own time and look how to solve the problem.  

I feel that screen casting is a great tool to use inside the classroom.  It may take a little time and preparation to create the screen cast however there are many benefits for your students.