Blog Journal 10

I think surveys are a great way for a class to interact and see what their peers have to say. I think if I am teaching a subject that has to do a lot with opinions it could be interesting for the class to take a survey regarding the subject and then showing the class the results. For example, I when teaching high school philosophy I could have the students take a survey about one of our reading because a lot of philosophy has to do with opinions. I also think it can be used to see what the students think about the class or lessons. They might not be comfortable talking directly to me or another teacher so I think making the survey anonymous would get them to show their true opinions. It can also be used for parents to see how they are feeling about the homework they are seeing or different projects. I think when it comes to reporting tools it could be used for grading, to see which assignments were difficult or easy for the class as a whole. I think it would be beneficial to track grade trends so you can look back and know what assignments might need to be changed. 

When looking through my classmate's blogs I always found it very interesting to see screenshots of projects we had done. I especially liked seeing what people did with the Webpage Design assignment. It was fun to see how my classmates made their website unique to them and how creative each one was. I also enjoyed seeing everyone's newsletters and how they made it to fit what they were talking about. I also found it interesting to see whenever we made a VoiceThread. It was more interesting to see not only what they made on VoiceThread but also to hear what they had to say about the subject. Overall, I found it most interesting whenever a blog post had to do with something that the person had made and when they talk about how they came about making it. 

The next technology-related skill I would like to learn next is how to effectively use a SmartBoard. I only know the basics of how it works and I want to learn more about what I can use it for in the classroom. I want to learn this because I think SmartBoards are a great tool in the classroom and want to be more proficient in using it before going into a career in teaching. I will probably go to the TechSandBox and talk to the people there about all the things I could use the SmartBoard for. I think I could also find a lot of information about how to use SmartBoards and then go to the TechSandBox to try the new skills I find.

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ILP #2: Design

For this ILP project, I chose to make a Prezi presentation. The presentation is a timeline of the past century. When you click on the bubbly you can learn more about healthcare in that decade. I had no issues using Prezi and found it easy to create the presentation. I also made a VoiceThread explaining Prezi and my experience using it!

Voice Thread!

Prezi Presentation!

Blog Journal 7

So far my experience using Twitter throughout the course of the class has been positive. I have enjoyed seeing what my peers post and how they feel about what is going on in the class. I have learned that Twitter can be used in a professional manner rather than in just a social manner. I have also learned that there are many accounts that I can follow about education and educational technology. I have also learned how to be more interactive on Twitter through replying to people and commenting my thoughts about a tweet. I think it can benefit in helping you keep up to date in your field and what new things are happening. I also think it benefits in making sure you are interacting with other people in your field to get more information.

I learned a lot through the Web Design assignment. I learned how to make a website which I had never done before. I also learned how to make it creative and use different effects to make it more appealing. I also learned what is important to put into a website and what is not important. I think I could improve next time by making it more cohesive throughout the different pages. I realized that I used different color schemes and layouts throughout which I think made it a bit confusing. Next time I would try to use the same theme throughout and the same colors. 

My Website!

I know someone who is a special education teacher who uses adaptive and assistive technology often in her classroom so I already knew a bit about it. These technologies are used to help special learners whether it be to make something more accessible for their needs or formatted to help them in the future. I think these technologies are definitely necessary not only for special learners to learn subjects but to also teach them to be independent in the future. I think if you know how to deal with the technology and take the time to understand it before introducing it to a student the challenges will be less restricting. 

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ILP “Participation” – Lynda.com

For the 1st ILP, I decided to participate in a class on Lynda.com. The course was called Educational Technology for Success. I decided to take this course because I thought it would help me learn about more technologies and how to apply them in the classroom. I also took it in hopes of helping me understand why technology is such an important for students. The course was very thorough and I feel like I learned a great deal throughout. Check out my Voice Thread below to find out more about what the class entailed and how it helped in my professional development.

Voice Thread ILP #1

Blog Journal 6

I chose to look at the teacher pages for Jackson Elementary School in El Dorado Hills, California. Each page was very similar in how they were set up. Each page had the same header with the teachers name on it. None of the pages had any pictures of the teachers or their classrooms. Most had links to important documents. They also all had reminders set up for things coming up in the class. It also seemed as though a lot of the information had not been updated since the start of the year. It says that they send home newsletters and use the RemindMe app to relay information to the parents. Here is an example from a teacher named Ms. Hadden.

Link to Ms. Hadden's page: http://www.myjacksonelementary.com/subsites/Hadden/

Link to main teachers page: http://www.myjacksonelementary.com/Teacher-Pages/

I plan to use as much technology as I can in my future career. I think it can be used to make things more easy and efficient in an classroom. I really like SmartBoards and the fact that students can use them with the touch screen. I think it would be a fun way to play interactive educational games in the classroom. I also think I will use Twitter to help the parents stay updated. As I want to teach elementary level students they will most likely not have access to a Twitter account but if I could make one for the parents I think it would be great. They could also you it to ask questions so that everyone can see the answer!

I really enjoyed going to the Tech Sandbox this week. I got to learn about a bunch of new technology that I knew little about. It also got me to think about how I would use certain things in my classroom. I really enjoyed learning about and getting to use the 3D pens. I think they could be fun to use with the students once or twice a week so that they can be creative while also learning. I could try to incorporate them into a lesson for example having the students try to draw something we are learning about with the 3D pens. They could also all display what they made afterwards. 

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Blog Journal 5

My initial experiences using Diigo have been positive thus far. I think it is a good way to interact with the class through annotations and comments. I also think it's interesting to see people's opinions on certain topics when they annotate. I think it could be used in a classroom setting to annotate readings. I think it would be more beneficial instead of using books or papers because other students could see their peers thoughts. Overall, there has not been anything I disliked about Diigo.

I have come to enjoy blogging since starting this class. I think its a great way to post about what we are learning about and how we feel about things. I also like reading other people's posts and seeing their thoughts on the different topics. I think I would obviously like blogging more if I had a choice on what to write about but overall it has been a positive experience. I think it has made me think more about the topics throughout the semester as well. I also think it allows the class to be creative in how our blogs are set up. 

I think a Web 2.0 tool that I would potentially use in my classroom is Skype. Skype is a software through Google that allows people to video chat online. I think using it to have experts in a certain field talk to the students about what they are learning would be beneficial. I think it opens up possibilities because you can talk to anyone even if they are not local to you. I think it would also benefit in group projects to allow the students to collaborate outside of class. I think it would help to make the classroom more collaborative and innovative. 

https://www.skype.com/en/

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Blog Journal 4

Voice Thread Link!

https://voicethread.com/share/12131787/

Blog Journal 3

As I want to teach elementary level students I researched the ELA standards for grades 2-4. Looking through the standards they all seemed relatively simple to me. The standards were things like "use abstract nouns" or "capitalize appropriate words in titles". All of the standards are skills I use on a daily basis to do homework or communicate with others. I feel as though I would be very comfortable teaching the standards to students. There are a few standards that I understand but am not sure how I would go about exactly explaining or teaching them. An example of this would be "Choose words and phrases for effect". I understand what it means to do this in writing but I am not sure how to help young students acquire this standard.


The CPALMS Educator Toolkit has a wide variety of lesson plans and resources to help teachers in every grade level. I think this toolkit would be especially helpful to teachers in their first few years of teaching that might need help with lesson plans. The tool I would probably utilize the most in my classroom is the instructional resources. It has many fun lesson plans to help students learn while staying engaged. It also includes virtual manipulatives to be used in lessons. I think the virtual manipulatives can be used to help add technology to my lesson and keep the students more engaged in what they are learning. 

The Newsletter Design assignment was something that helped me use Word in a more creative way than I am used to. I also made me think about design and how others would view the layout and colors. I learned things like borders and columns that I knew very little about. I think I could have improved on the overall layout of my articles within the newsletter because I don't think they look very uniform. I also think I could have improved on using different colors throughout because I mostly stuck to one or two. Overall I am happy with how my newsletter came out and hope I get to use Word in a similar way soon. 

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Blog Journal 2

For the most part I have used Microsoft Word to write papers or essays throughout my academic career. I usually use it to just write paragraphs about whatever topic I am studying. I have very rarely been given an assignment through Microsoft Word where I got to be creative and have fun. I have also very rarely seen teachers using Word for anything other that writing out assignments or rubrics. I think this is especially true in college. There are very few classes where Word is used for anything other than writing in my experience.

I feel like a large majority of the materials I have been given throughout my academic career have been copyrighted by my teachers. I have been given several copies from workbooks or textbooks as assignments. I have also seen this happen a lot when a teacher is absent for the day. They would make copies from something to work on because they were not there to teach. I haven't seen this happen much in college so far. Most of the assignments come directly from the professor sometimes with an aid from a textbook. I think it is important to use aids to teach some lessons. I think as a teacher I will make most of my lesson tools and assignments. I think I will also use aids from other teachers if they are beneficial to my lesson.

I think to combat copyright problems you just have to do proper research. You have to research and see what the laws are against copyrighting documents so that you can avoid it. I think also researching the specific restrictions and licenses on different documents or books. Privacy issues are definitely something you want to avoid especially when children are using technology. I think making sure all of your accounts are protected by passwords and other privacy measures. Also making sure that the students are using websites properly and not putting any of their information that could be seen by people outside of the classroom. Cyberbullying is always something you want to avoid with students using technology. Unfortunately you can only do so much to protect students while they are in school but once they leave it is hard to control. I think monitoring what students are saying to each other online while using the technology in school is important. I think you should also have consequences set in place so the students will know that they can not use technology to bully others.


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Blog Journal 1

I believe what influences teachers and students to use technology in the classroom is largely because of convenience. Technology has made our lives much more convenient and this also applies to teaching. It also helps teachers by giving them new ways to effectively teach a lesson. I think teachers and students are influenced to use technology because it makes the classroom more interactive. It has been proven that the majority of people learn more efficiently when they are engaged and hand ons with what they are learning. Overall, I think technology is useful in the classroom for teachers and students to make lessons more engaging and interactive.

The ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) standards are standards that they believe teachers should live up to. I think these standards are very important to ensure they are teaching to the best of their ability while using technology. The standard that is most important to me is "Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity". I believe this is a very important standard that all teachers should be striving for daily. I think that if teachers show their students that they are passionate about what they are teaching the students will be more likely to engage. I also think creativity is very important for students to practice while in school. The standard that I think I need to improve on is "Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessment". While I feel comfortable with most technology used in classrooms, I do not have much experience using the technology to teach and assess students. I think it is different because you have to think about what will be more beneficial to them and how they will learn the material best. I think all of the ISTE standards are important for teachers to follow in the digital age where technology is used in most schools.

learning

experiences and

assessments

I definitely agree with the label "digital native" for todays youth. Many young people have been exposed to technology for as long as they can remember. It was in most households and schools when my generation was growing up. I think being a digital native means being exposed to the digital age from a early age and not knowing a world without the use of technology. There have been times when teachers of mine were confused about how a website worked or a piece of technology in the classroom. Last year, when FSU switched to Canvas from of BlackBoard many of my teachers did not know how to use it properly which was difficult when they would input incorrect assignments or grades. I think part of the definition of a digital immigrant is that they find it hard to change their routine when it comes to technology. I do not think there will be a very large difference between myself and my students in the future. I think because I have been surrounded by technology my whole life it is easier for me to learn how new technologies work.


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Blog #0 Introduction

Hi Everyone! My name is Eva Colee and I am a sophomore majoring in Elementary Education. I am also planning on minoring in child development to be able to understand how children become the people they are through experiences. I attend Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL. I am originally from DeLand, FL. It is a pretty small town but it is only 30 minutes away from Daytona Beach. I have a passion for working with children and helping them to grow in not only academics but life. After I graduate, I plan to become a teacher in an elementary school. This blog is a part of my Introduction to Educational Technology class so if you want to see what I am learning about feel free to follow along!

So far in my academic career I have not had the chance to use a lot of innovative technology. I have used basic things like computers, iPads, and SMART boards but I want to learn about other technologies that could help me make my teaching more fun and interactive. Although I feel proficient in using programs like Word, Powerpoint, and Excel I want to learn more as we are becoming a society that uses technology constantly. When I become a teacher in a few years I believe the technology will be even more advanced so I think it is critical to know as much as you can about it.

In this class, I hope to learn new ways of using technology to make a lesson more interactive. I have always found that I learn better and retain more information when a lesson is interactive. It makes students have to think about the information instead of just listening to what the teacher has to say. I also hope to find technology that will make the classroom more fun. If a student is not having fun or is not interested in the material then it can be hard to stay focused. I am excited to see what I will learn in this class and how it will affect my teaching in the future.


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