My experiences in EME2040

My experiences 

   Taking this EME2040 online summer A class for 6 weeks had me very nervous in the beginning, and even stressed at times. I also was doing another online teaching class as well to finish my teaching requirements to try and get into the program, so I thought it was just going to be too much for me to handle at a point. I planned ahead at times sense I also had another class, and it just made it easier for me to focus, get things done days before they were said to be due, and because of that, it made it a little more stress free for me! 

   The textbook, "Transforming Learning With New Technologies", was very informative for me to read, and it gave me a considerable amount of knowledge about technology in general like making hyperlinks, embedding videos/pictures, making websites, lesson plans etc., and how it can also be positively used in the class room when educating students. 

   The discussions we were to make were based on the teachers directions that we had to follow, and also what chapters we read in the textbook, were always fun and informative to do. One in particular that we recently just made that I really enjoyed to talk about was based on Cyber-Bullying, or 2 other topics we could of chose from. I ended up researching and writing about Cyber-Bullying because, bullying in general is a huge deal that is going on in schools and even through computer screens/cell phones in this generation today. It needs to stop, but unfortunately I do not think it ever will. I could kind of relate to this topic because when I was in high school, a girl from my graduating class committed suicide all because of Cyber-Bullying and bullying being done to her in school. It hurts to know that people can be so mean and lead some to think about or actually commit such a devastating act. My good friend Thomas Herrick made an ASL anti bullying video I also put in that discussion I briefly talked about above, but I also will be putting it down below just in case you did not get a chance to view the video last time. 

Throughout the 6 weeks we did many assignments and activities that were very fun to do and I learned a lot about using technology in many positive ways that I did not know before.

Many of the activities we did throughout the 6 weeks were blogs that we made on blogger. Here is a link to all my blogs if you would like to check them out! The blogs that we had to make were based on what we read throughout the week and we had to talk about 3 topics that we thought were interesting that we wanted to reflect on. We needed to quote things from the textbook or even websites that related to what we were writing about and also how we would use what we wrote about in the classroom with our future students. One blog in particular that I enjoyed making was actually my very first blog. I liked this blog a lot because, this class was the first time I had ever made one before! You can see my very first blog on the link I embedded above. 

Photo credit to jonwatson on Flickr

   Some assignments and even group projects that I did in this class, to me, were the most beneficial  that I learned about and I am going to start using them when I study to become a teacher, and even when I am a teacher with my students. We made a lesson plan, a wiki page, an eportfolio, a rubric to evaluate a children's website, and also a webquest. Before this class, I never knew how to do any of those things; now I do. The eportfolio was my most favorite assignment I made because I was able to write like I was actually a teacher teaching at an elementary school. It got me excited to think that in just a few years, I will not have to imagine being one anymore sense I will actually be one. If you want to start making websites, Weebly is an awesome website to start on so click on this link. For an example of what a Weebly website looks like, here is my website I recently just made. Another assignment that I enjoyed doing was the group lesson plan. At first I was a little nervous about doing a group lesson plan because I did not know who was going to do the work and who was not gonna put in much effort at all sense we had never met in person before. In past group projects, especially in high school, I would always be in groups with people who did not put in much effort, and I was the person who ended up doing most of the work. We only talked through canvas, but luckily, we all did our fair share with the lesson plan and we got a good grade on it! I am looking forward to doing more group projects in the future classes I will be taking! Making blogs and the many other assignments/activities I learned to do while being in this class has taught me many things that I did not know how to do before that I can now use with the use of technology when making lesson plans etc., for my future students. With that said, I also will always make learning in my classroom fun! 

Photo Credit to Svetlana Gladkova on Flickr

Connections to learning outcomes

From reading the syllabus under the learning outcomes and assessment, I found my self shaking my head yes to most of the items on the list that I learned from being in this class. Communication was always used effectively when it came to group projects, and also when we had a question that we needed answered by the teacher.Critical thinking was down in particular when we evaluated the children's website that we had to do in the beginning of the semester. Technology/information management was used when we learned how to make blogs, websites, lesson plans etc. I am sure we learned and used one of the other 2 or even both of the ones I did not mention on the list through this small semester, but I thought the 3 I explained were more important to talk about sense we constantly used them in our assignments and I saw myself using them a lot.

Suggestions and feedback

I know you may be looking for suggestions and feedback from me for ways to improve your class, but I honestly can not think of any improvements that I think you need to know of to change anything about your class/assignments. I liked how you gave us a week to get all our assignments done, gave us lengthy feedback on all of our work, and with the feedback, you told us how to improve in areas so we do not make the same mistake next time. Maybe if anything, you could have your future students make more websites sense I thought they were very fun to make and it tied into everything that we have learned like adding creative commons pictures, videos, hyperlinks etc. Besides that I really can not think of any improvements. I enjoyed this class a lot, thank you for teaching me!

References:

H. (2014, February 01). Anti-bullying ASL video - Read All About It. Retrieved June 20, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBTVmPoAMbQ

Weebly is the easiest way to create a website, store or blog. (n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2016, from https://www.weebly.com/

Digital Blog Post #E- Chapter 4

Digital Blog Post #E- Chapter 4

   Designing lessons and developing curriculum with technology is so important in today's classrooms for student learning. In chapter 4 of this book, it explains that an example of doing this could be by doing a science lesson on ecological footprints or with rainscapes showing the water cycle. The one that is more interesting to me, that I will be talking about here is about the ecological footprints. "This lesson shows students the impact that modern lifestyles, including their own, have on environmental resources. Every group of people leaves a lasting impact on the environment through natural resource consumption and waste accumulation- their "ecological footprint" "(Maloy, et al, 2013, p. 77). This lesson is challenging for many students because it is sometimes hard to think of ways that we can live here on this planet without destroying it. We destroy it everyday by doing something so little that we think would not destroy it, but in all seriousness, it does. Examples are littering, smoking, oil spills, cutting down trees leaving birds with no homes etc. I think this science lesson would be an amazing lesson to do with my students in a few years to come, because this lesson makes your students have to think out side of the box. Thinking outside the box is not really used much in children that are in school today sense everything is answered for them within textbooks and through the internet. Here I provided a picture of an interesting way you could imagine what an ecological footprint may look like.                                                                   

Photo credit to Institut-Escola Les Vinyes on  Flickr

Second, Apps as well can give you good educational lessons you can teach your students through the right curriculum. My lesson plan is an app that gives you "pre-established templates to support lesson planning by teachers. You can customize the app to fit the requirements of your school district or school" (Maloy, et al, 2013, p. 80). Today in history is another good app that provides day-by-day important events that have happened and also remarkable people that are in our history that we learn about in school today. When I become a teacher, I know most definitely that I will be using My lesson plan, sense right now, as I am studying to become a teacher, making lesson plans is a learning experience I am working on as we speak for both my summer classes, so it would be a good tool for me to use now and in the future in becoming a teacher. As for Today in history, I also will be using this with my students because learning about things in history, especially things that are happening now in today's world, is really important to inform your students about. Giving you an example of one of the two apps I talked about, here is a video I found on YouTube that explains how a lesson plan app works called Easy Planner; it is very similar to the app,  My lesson plan.                                                         

Third, Websites/apps are out there to help with student assessment in and outside of the classroom! Rubistar is an awesome website for teachers to go to when making rubrics for grading their students assignments. It provides teachers/students studying to become teachers a set of templates that can be used as written or even can be customized to best fit a particular assignment/project they are wanting to grade depending on how heavy the points are for each assignment/project. I have used Rubistar before in a class at FSW last semester, and it made making a rubric so fun and easy! I can not wait to use rubistar again when I become a teacher, and I start grading all of my students work that I assign them to do! Here I provided a comic I made on a website called ToonDoo talking about Rubistar.

                                                                              

In conclusion, Using technology is a good way to make things into lessons with the use of computers, smart-boards, tablets, etc. while in the classroom with the example I provided above about the ecological footprint. Apps and websites can help teachers along the way to work with student assessment. My lesson plan is an app that helps make lesson plans for teachers to follow by throughout the day when educating their students. Rubistar is a website that also helps teachers when grading students assignments. It is a website where you can make rubrics to help grade your students assignments/projects. I am so looking forward to becoming a teacher all because of the latest technology! It makes learning fun!

Resources:

J. (2013, November 07). Easy Planner - The Lesson Planning App for Teachers Demo. Retrieved June 07, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvQHECiOS18

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Murphy, S (2015, June 7). Rubistar. Created with ToonDoo http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10221503

Digital Blog Post #C- Chapter 8

Digital Blog Post #C- Chapter 8- Communicating and Collaborating with Social Media

First, when using the power of social media, teachers can communicate with students, their parents and even other teachers around the world, and they do not always have to use emails,texting or blogs as the chapter explained. Surprisingly, this chapter also explains that twitter can be a source of communication for teachers wanting to talk to other teachers in their community or even around the world. "You can search hashtags (#edchat, #edtech, and #ukedchat) for general conversations about education or instructional technology" (Maloy, et al, 2013, p. 199). This page also says you can look up #scichat and #scitalk for anything about science, and also hashtags for english/language arts, math, and so much more. After reading about how twitter was a place for teachers to talk to other teachers,  it really surprised me. I actually went on my personal twitter account and read many comments teachers have made and are continuing to make on all of these hashtags. When I become a teacher in a few years to come, I am going to start using twitter to talk to different teachers about different subject matter etc. It will be very interesting to know how other teachers teach their students even when they are complete strangers, and the fact that they could live anywhere in the United States, or even outside of the United States is very interesting to know as well. The video below will explain how to use some teacher hashtags. Along with the video, I am providing a ToonDoo comic that relates to what I talked about above.

Second, When children text now a days, they use textspeak or digitalk, According to Maloy, et al, that way of texting is "an abbreviated collection of symbols and letters that are used for quick communication when using cell phones or text messaging on a computer" (Turner, 2010). One of 3 examples from this book is, "Hey, Wuz ^? Nm here. U look gr8 2day Wht R U doing 2morrow?" When I text my friends, I write to them as if I am actually talking to them in person. So for example, I would of wrote that digitalk/textspeak out properly like this: "Hi, what's up? Not much here. You look great today. What are you doing tomorrow?". Many children today are so use to texting in the improper way that they actually start using it in the classroom when doing classwork, and even at home when doing homework. Yes, I am sure I have texted improperly before, and may still do it here and there, but sense I am in college now, I got myself out of that habit, because it is bad to write that way all the time. When I become a teacher and I notice a child writing this way, I will try my absolute best to get them out of this horrible habit.

Photo credit to Krypto on Flickr

Third, Another form of communication teachers can use to get a hold of students, their parents or other teachers is with something called Skype. Skype is a computer program where you can call people and talk to them through a microphone just like you would if you were talking to them on the phone. When talking over the computer, you can video chat and talk/see the person at the same time. Skype also has an option where you can type back and forth to one another if you do not feel like actually talking or seeing the person your on with. With Skype, Teachers can video chat other teachers that could be in the same building as them, different state or town and/or even in a different country and have their classes meet one another through the computer camera. When I become a teacher, I am going to try and video chat another teacher in the same building as me, and see if we can do a big class lecture together and see if it could work. That would be very interesting to find out!

In Conclusion, Their are many ways for teachers to communicate through social media. You can use Twitter, Skype, blogs, teacher websites, and so much more. When it comes to teachers communicating with students, they will not always get proper English out of their students. Many students are so use to texting with improper English that it sometimes shows up in their school work. That is why teachers are here to help, to make an impact in their students lives in a way that is big or even small!

Resources:

D. (2014, January 26). Twitter Hashtags for Education Explained. Retrieved May 24, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5KU7x1ujqw

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Murphy, S (2015, May 24).Teachers use twitter. Created with Toondoo with http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10166947

Digital blog post #2 (optional)

Digital blog post #2- Chapters 2 and 5 (optional)

First, there are many barriers that can be overcome with using technology in today's classrooms. What I thought was interesting when reading through chapter 2 of the transforming learning with new technologies textbook, was about the teachers personal attitude about using technology in classrooms. When teachers have a negative attitude towards technology in the classroom it either means they do not really know how to use technology to make it beneficial to learning or they are just use to the old textbook material learning. Negative attitudes towards technology can be over come if you just try and explore ways it can be used beneficially towards your students. When I become a teacher I will be using technology in many ways so I can make the learning environment in my classroom fun with videos, power-points etc. I will also never make learning boring, and have my students look forward to coming to class.

Second, When reading through chapter 5, I never knew there was so many electronic note taking sights/programs that students can use for there class/homework notes. Personally, I have never used any before besides Microsoft word. To give some examples from the book, there is Notestar, Onenote, and even Microsoft word for note taking an even and option to record your teacher talking in class and you can listen to it after class or when your at home doing your homework. One example in particular from this book  I liked reading about was Onenote. "Onenote, a commercial software program and app for either Mac or PC computers, is a multifacted electronic note-taking option. Onenote serves as a digital notebook for multiple notebooks or binders that can house different types of data with the click of a mouse or push of a button" (Maloy, et al, 2013 p. 106). Also, I have posted a short Video of what Onenote is all about down below. When I become a teacher I will definitely be referring these note-taking options to my future students.

Third, when surfing the web for information for writing tern papers or doing projects it is very easy for students to plagiarize there work. When you want to use someones work you need to remember to always quote it in your work them give them credit within the paper and even on the resources/work cited page at the end of your paper. Plagiarizing can result in getting a 0 on the assignment and even getting a referral (those were the consequences that would happened if you were caught plagiarizing when I was in high school). Here is an article you can look at with rules for avoiding plagiarism so that it will never happen to you when you are writing future papers and making projects!

In conclusion, chapter 2 explained many positive and negative things about using technology in the classroom. It was very big on explaining that things do change and it can be very beneficial for students in the classroom to use technology and to learn from it as well as teachers learning how to use it in the classroom in a beneficial way for students to learn material being taught by using laptops, smart boards etc, and not just always using textbooks. Chapter 5 talked about how to use technology through websites in a beneficial way like finding electronic note taking sights/programs to use, how not to plagiarize peoples work and to always credit them when you want to use there work, how to use search engines etc. It also talked about how cyber bullying takes place on the internet. If you are catch being a bully on the internet or even in school it has consequences so never be a bully!

Resources:

Basic Rules for Avoiding Plagiarism. (n.d.). Retrieved May 17, 2016, from http://wps.prenhall.com/hss_understand_plagiarism_1/0,6622,427073-,00.html

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Murphy, S (2016, May 16). Discussion 2- by Samantha14266. Created with ToonDoo http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10126208
 (This picture is about barriers in technology, forgot to make it my picture title).

O. (2013, November 24). Welcome to the all-new OneNote. Retrieved May 17, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bKiatpaacg

My first blog- EME2040

Digital Blog Post #1- Chapter 1

1) First, Technology is used a lot inside the classroom now a days. Students and teachers use tablets, smart phones, and even laptops in ways students can learn with topic related videos or articles they find while surfing the web. With the use of laptops there are 3 basic categories to chose from: Ultra-portable, Thin-and-light, and Midsize. I honestly did not know the types of laptops there are, and I was surprised when I was reading this chapter, because I thought a "Laptop is a Laptop". Little did I know, that was not the case. As referenced by Maloy, et al, in chapter 1, "High quality laptops offer substantial battery life, an easy-to-read screen display in all kinds of light, sufficient memory to run multiple applications, and enough processing speed to handle downloading information and processing files"(2013, pp. 6-7). Although I am not a computer geek, and I have much to learn about computers/laptops, in my classroom I would have a few laptops around the room for my students so they can do projects using power point etc. and also they could do homework. When using technology in the classroom we can all learn things we did not know before about laptops like how they are made and how they work. This article, How Stuff Works explains very well the pieces of a laptop and how it works. 


2) Second, I was very interested to read about TPACK since I had never heard of it before. TPACK stands for technological pedagogical content knowledge. It explains that while using technology for student learning you can use curriculum and pedagogy while not focusing mainly on one or the other when teaching to elementary and or secondary school children in the classroom. I hope to learn more about TPACK and the positives that come out of it through this class. The video I posted below explains more about what TPACK is. Also I will be posting a video below of 2 elementary school teachers in Texas using TPACK with their students. (I know she wanted 3 minutes or less with the videos, and this is about 6 minutes, but I think this video shows TPACK very well!!)

3) Third, Technology devices can be used in many ways in the class room. When people use laptops or smart phones/ipods to go on social media, especially children in this generation, they mainly go on twitter, facebook, instagram etc. to become social with family and friends. It can also be a learning experience for some. As referenced by Maloy, et al, in chapter 1, "An Ipod, for example, is a device to play music. Add a speaker and it becomes an entire classroom listening technology that plays songs, pod casts, and other recordings for students"(2013, pp. 13). Also when you go on twitter or facebook you can scroll upon educational videos or learn all the recent drama their is with celebrities that pop up all over as you surf the web. In a more school related focus, instead of holding around all your bulky textbooks, you can now purchase E-books and have all your reading done in the palm of your hand or on a laptop. When I become a teacher I will be using laptops in my class room and hopefully a smart board as well. Social media can be used educationally in the classroom or for amusement will all these devices out there being sold today. 

   In Conclusion, their is so many things 21st century teachers can benefit from when using technology in their classrooms. It will keep teachers more productive and not always having to read the material being taught from the textbook. When I was in high school I remember when teachers taught word for word from the textbook and how boring it was until we got smart boards. Technology will also benefit the students because they become more out to learn when surfing the web etc. for what they are learning in class and they will also become more imaginative when it comes to projects that are being assigned. Chapter 1 from Transforming Learning with New Technologies is a very good textbook to read to find out some of the many things you can do while using technology in school for learning!

Photo credit to queensu on Flickr

Resources: 

Flores, A. [Ashley Flores]. (2013, June 23). TPACK Example. [Video File]. Retrieved from 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a90EvWfoLU.

Kimmons, R. [Royce Kimmons]. (2011, Mar. 22). TPACK in 3 Minutes. [Video File]. Retrieved 

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wGpSaTzW58.

Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.   

Wilson, T., Valdes, R. How Laptops Work. Retrieved from 

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/laptop.htm