Technology Inquiry Wiki Reflection

My Wiki!

     I exerted quite a bit of effort, over a span of many months, on this course task. I spent many days finding what I thought were appropriate informal and formal resources and writing my annotated bibliography. Right away I knew what additional resources I wanted to include, so I added these to my wiki. I then spent many days writing my introduction and best practices section of my wiki. Once I had this completed, I worked on the screencast. As usual, the screencast was probably the most difficult part of the entire task, probably because I am a bit of a perfectionist. I only had to record my screencast about 8 times, which is a step up from my previous experience with Jing.
 
     I really learned a lot from this inquiry wiki assignment. I not only learned how to help my niece (and other students with autism spectrum disorder) use technology to learn and grow, I also learned how to work a wiki. Wikispaces was not always cooperating with what I wanted, but overall, I am happy with the wiki that I came up with.

     This task was a very valuable experience for me as a teacher and as an individual. Through this assignment, I learned more about autism spectrum disorder, technologies that help students with autism spectrum disorder, and how to set-up a wiki. I am now more familiar with wikispaces, and would be ready to use wikispaces in my own classroom. Before this task, I had heard of and read about wikispaces and wikis, but I never actually created one. I now understand some of the functions and limitations on wikispaces and am more knowledgable about this tool. As a future teacher, I will need to try out technologies before assigning my students to use them; this course task helped me to experiment with a wiki and learn about it, before I get into my own classroom and set up a classroom wiki or have the students make wikis.
    

Day 14-Exit Slip

     Today we looked at things that we have learned throughout the semester. We talked about how we will integrate technology into our classrooms, such as using a SMARTboard, blog, podcast, social bookmarking, or iRLO. Dr. Boyer brought up taking a Wii remote and making it into an interactive whiteboard...I need to look into this, if I do not have an expensive SMARTboard in my classroom.

     Looking back over the semester, I have learned a lot about technology. I knew basically nothing before this class; I did not really even think about using technology in my classroom. I used to think that using technology in a classroom meant using computers or using powerpoint. Now, I know how to use technology, and I know how to incorporate technology into my classroom to make it a more interactive environment. I now understand better what technology is. I have learned to use many, many tools and I plan on incorporating many of these tools into my classroom. I plan on using blogs, iRLOs, SMARTboards, and podcasts. Some of these technologies I had never even heard of before this semester. This semester, I was challenged to learn new things and take a new perspective on technology use in the classroom; I feel that because of this class I will be a better teacher in the future.

Ways to Integrate Technology

     Three different ways that I will integrate technology into my classroom are through the use of a SMARTboard (if available), blog posts, and interactive reusable learning objects. I teach first grade and I have a SMARTboard in my classroom. I integrate technology into my classroom by using the interactive functions of the SMART technologies. I will have a student-centered learning environment, where my students get to come to the board and actively participate in my class. I want my students to make discoveries and come to their own understandings, and I feel that the SMARTboard allows students to really get active in their learning. I also have a classroom blog. I do not have my students write blog posts, but rather I use the blog as a communication device with parents and to create an open classroom environment. I post relevant information (homework assignments, calendars, events) and classroom experiences so that parents can have a feel of what is happening in my classroom. I also include Scratch in my classroom. I will create iRLOs that can further my student's thinking and help them practice skills. These are just a few of the technologies that I will incorporate into my classroom.

iRLO Reflection

     I really enjoyed making an iRLO. I had never heard of Scratch before this class, and although it was frustrating and difficult at first, I had a lot of fun making this project. I spent many, many hours and days making my iRLO and then re-making my iRLO. Even after watching the tutorial videos, it was difficult to figure out how to use each of the commands and how they go together to get the action you want. After some trial and error, I was able to get my final iRLO to be pretty much the way I wanted it. I would have liked to make the questions pop up randomly, but I couldn't figure out how to do that. I changed and practically re-made my entire project after we had our peers critique them. I received some very good comments and suggestions on my iRLO, and I used these comments to re-make my project. I had to change many things, such as making the project more interactive. I also did not realize that the green flag was such a powerful "start" command. At first, I did not realize that the green flag command could be used to set things back to the original, start position. After some more trial and error I was able to make my project reusable and interactive.

     I think that Scratch is a really cool tool. Designing this iRLO helped me to see that I definitely want to make more iRLOs, in the future, for my classes. I think that iRLOs are fun, engaging, and can be very educational. I really like the idea of using and designing iRLOs to make mathematics (and other classes) more fun for students. This project opened my eyes to see how "games" can be used effectively to educate my students on the material we are learning. Sharing my iRLO with my peers allowed me to get some extremely helpful feedback; it also allowed me to see errors in my iRLO that I had not seen before. Overall, I had a lot of fun designing my iRLO, despite the frustration, and I will continue to make more iRLOs as a teacher.  

Day 13-Exit Slip

     Today in class we looked at technology integration. We watched a video and took notes on how a teacher integrated technology into her classroom. The following are my notes:

• smartboard
• online collaboration-world wide...tools: wikis, twitter, skype, to get started look online (such as epals)
• cooperative learning
• teacher daily blog..assignments (open classroom)
• student computers and laptops (mobile lab)
• student blogs w/current events and classroom activities...more motivated to write and become active members of society
• No photocopies...online text/electronic text

     We then looked into what of these things the teacher could do before, couldn't do before, or could do before but better now. We should use technology when it allows us to do something that we couldn't do before or we could do before but better with technology.
    
     We then split up the class to read and reflect upon some brilliant and stupid things that teachers can do with technology. My expertise was in number 5-negative and number 5-positive discussed admitting your ignorance and allowing students to teach us when they know more. We used a jigsaw method of grouping and regrouping to become more knowledgeable about a variety of topics in a short amount of time.

Day 12-Exit Slip

     Today we discussed chapter 10 (the last chapter) in Rethinking Education. We discussed what the future might look like if technology is not included in the learning environment. Will schools survive? Will students continue to be motivated to learn? Will they go elsewhere for their education? Dr. Boyer brought up the point that even in kindergarten, children can use technology. If we aren't using technology in the classroom, are we meeting our student's needs to the greatest extent possible and available? During discussion debrief, we also discussed the difference between teaching students breadth vs. depth.

     We then engaged in a media search task. We found artifacts (online video, podcast, SMART Notebook lesson, Scratch project, and online game) for a grade level/content area and posted them to our delicious accounts. This was actually a fun task to do. We were able to search for things that are interesting and pertain to a topic/grade that we are planning on using in the future. This was actually very helpful. I found quite a few interesting mathematics websites, videos, lessons, and games.
    
    

PSA Reflection

Digital Storytelling PSA

Our royalty free music was provided by incompetech.com.


     At the start of the semester, when I heard that we would need to make a video PSA, I was very apprehensive. Now that it is all said and done, I really don't think that it was all that bad. It was actually quite fun and cool to use Movie Maker and to record our PSA. My partner, Casey, and I spent a fair amount of time completing this task. We met a couple of times to brainstorm ideas, come up with a plan, and then execute our plan. We decided that we would make a PSA on identity theft. Our goal was to design a PSA that would be geared towards elementary school children (around 5th grade). We showed our audience that people can get kidnapped online, just like they can get kidnapped on the street. In our PSA, there was a girl named Anne Brown, whose identity was stolen online. Thankfully, we were able to find a handful of our peers who were willing to volunteer as actors and actresses in our PSA; our actors and actresses each said the line, "I am Anne Brown." This was supposed to clue the audience in that Anne Brown's identity was stolen, because all of these people could not be Anne Brown. We then told our audience to never give our personal information online, such as your full name, telephone number, address, credit card numbers, or passwords. Overall, I think that our PSA turned out really nice. I hope that it gets the message we were trying to say across.

     As a future teacher, there are many ways that I can include video/PSA in my class. I could have my students make a video re-enactment of a historical event. My students could act out a book or play. I could also have my students make a short video about online safety, such as this PSA. I think that having students make a video of what they are learning about is a great way to reinforce information in a creative and unique way. I also think that group work is a great thing to encourage in school, so having students work in small groups to make a video would also be good at having students practice collaboration and team work. As a teacher, I think that I will include at least one project where my students will make a video of some sort to demonstrate their understanding of an event or idea.