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.