Lab 13 reflection

Overall, I feel pretty good about my technology proficiency. I am one of those people that grew up using a computer my entire life so I feel confident and comfortable with technology. This class has made me realize the importance of including technology into my future lesson plans and the different ways to do that. I am more aware of what programs would be beneficial to use for assessment and research. There are still, however, many skills I need to continue to work on. For example, I feel that I am not good at looking at a resource and determining whether or not it is reliable. I’m sure I’ve used less than reliable websites over the years. I also am unsure as to how the security of technology works and who in the school has the right to use them. I am very unfamiliar with using assistive technology. I’ve heard a lot about it but I’ve never used it first hand. Before I have a classroom of my own and am given a student that needs to use assistive technology, I want to become more familiar with it. For my remaining college years I hope to become more comfortable with technology specific to my profession. For example, instead of always working on computers in a tech class, it would be beneficial to get some experience with a smart board or a Scantron machine. Part of being a teacher is being a life long learner, and even though I think I am on the right track to becoming tech-savvy, I will always have more I can learn.

Professional Myspace

This week I learned about things like technology literacy and technology standards and certification when I read chapter 12. I know in high school I felt like a lot of my teachers (especially the older ones) had NO idea how to use a computer for anything other than checking their e-mail. I think it’s a good idea to take a class in technology before attempting to teach a classroom of students how to use it. In our lab we learned about ePortfolios. I think it’s kind of like a myspace for the professional world. It was…boring. Chapter 12 activities told a story of how one state implemented technology. It started with only 5 schools and snowballed from there. It takes a lot of work and a lot of people and resources to do. The video only showed one example of how to start this process but of course there are many other ways. I can’t say the video felt useful for me because I don’t think I’ll ever be in the position to have to start anything like this.

iMovieMania

This week I learned about the trouble with implementing technology in schools in chapter 11. The chapter was good to remind teachers to obey copyright laws and monitor their students and stuff like that. The last thing I would want to lose my teaching license over is a stupid copyright law. In our lab for this week we explored the world of iMovie (the ONLY good thing about Macs?). It was a lot of new info to learn but if I ever fully figured it out I think I would be making movies all the time. I can think of about a million things to have my students use iMovies for. For example, after they read a novel, they could make a movie version of the book. I think that books and movies go hand in hand.

Distance Education

This week I learned about distance education in our Lab School video and also in reading chapter 10. Over the summer I’m taking my very first distance education class so I enjoyed watching these videos and knowing a little more about what to expect. It actually gave me a positive outlook on taking an online class because the students seemed to enjoy the one on one attention and convenient schedule. In our lab we learned about Mac’s Universal Access Platform. This makes it possible for people with disabilities to have full access to everything computers have to offer. One thing I liked about was the VoiceOver feature. It is for people with visual disabilities. The computer will speak the name of the window the person has opened and even read the words on, for example, a page on the internet. I have no idea what kind of students I will have to teach in the future but chances are I will have a student with a disability, so the Universal Access Platform will definitely be useful to them.

Out with the old, in with the new

This week I learned about audiovisual technologies in chapter 9 as well as learning about podcasts, blogs, and assistive technologies for special needs students. It was interesting to learn about new technologies that were taking place of the old ones. For example, iPods and MP3 players are replacing tape recorders. It made me think about how different my classroom will be compared to the classrooms I was taught in as a kid. Before this week I was familiar with blogs but I was a complete stranger to podcasts. It was challenging to learn something completely new but it was worth it. I talked about it to one of my friends who uses podcasts on his sports radio show. One thing I could see a teacher doing is using a podcast to communicate assignments to their students. I think you could use podcasts for is for students who maybe could not read but could listen to a book being read to them.

Cool Tools

This week I read about using the web for teaching and learning in chapter 8. I also explored two websites: Educators Reference Desk and the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. I found it nice to know that teachers had a place to go to ask questions or just get ideas for lesson plans. I’m sure I’ll be using the internet all the time when I have to make lesson plans. One thing I thought was cool from chapter 8 was “cool tools.” It talked about the website 4teachers.org, which provides teachers puzzle, rubric, worksheet, award, and calendar templates (among others). It would save a teacher SO much time (for example) if they only had to come up with questions for worksheets and crosswords but not have to worry about the template. The websites I learned about for chapter 8 activities, however, was more about providing lesson ideas. I do not think that teachers should get every single lesson plan online, but I do think that the internet can provide teachers with good IDEAS and a place to share information with other educators.

Picture perfect

This week I learned about digital imaging and photo editing. In digital imaging I worked with pictures from my digital camera as well as from the internet. I learned how to put borders and shading on pictures in a Word document and how I could use them in a real lesson. I found putting borders on pictures to be such a simple thing that can make a student or teacher presentation look more professional. I like the fact that when students are asked to take their own pictures with a digital camera they have to rely on them selves instead of the internet. To learn photo editing I had to choose videos to watch about topics I did not know. One new thing I learned was how to use i-photo on MACS. It worked a lot like Photoshop, which I am very familiar with, but it was nice to get the experience with both types of computers. I can see a lot of uses for photo editing in a classroom, especially when it comes to presentations and slideshows.

WebQuest adventures

This week I watched a video about a dinosaur WebQuest and read Chapter 7, which was about the internet and the World Wide Web. Most of the chapter was about finding resources on the internet but one thing I found interesting was the part about teachers making their own websites. I think sometimes teachers do not think about how useful this could be for students. Imagine if unorganized students who do not write down homework down in their planners could go online and find out what was assigned for homework. And not only students, but it would be very useful for parents to know what students are doing in school via the website. As far as the video on WebQuest goes I think that it’s a tool I can see myself using in my future classroom. I see it as an interactive activity. I love that my students can go on there and can get hands on experience with things (for example: the human body) that they would not be able to be hands on with in real life.

Practice makes perfect

This week I learned A LOT. I worked on the practice ATC as well as my productivity tools. I read about academic software in chapter 6 and watched a video about GIS. I took the ATC last year but it was good to get a refresher on some of the skills. For example, I always forget how to make those bar graphs in Excel. I’m nervous that when I take the ATC it’s going to take me longer than 50 minutes since I’m not used to working with MACS. The productivity tools were neat because I could actually see myself using all 3 of the ideas I came up with. One of the ideas I actually stole from MY 10^th grade English teacher. I’ll admit though that I wasn’t crazy about Inspiration, it seemed like too much trouble just to make a concept web. GIS seemed like a great tool, but wouldn’t go to much use in my future English classroom. One piece of software I did like that was in the reading was Oregon Trail. I played that in elementary school and got a lot out of it.

Class Server

This week I watched a video on Class Servers. I thought that it was a GREAT idea for teachers. It seemed like it could benefit the teacher and the student. The teacher saves time and the student gets an individualized lesson. Another thing I learned about this week was administrative software. The part I found most interesting was electronic spreadsheets. It is a great example of a way math teachers can use technology in their lessons. One piece of software that I use a lot is presentation software: AKA I make a lot of PowerPoint presentations. I love using it as an alternative to writing a report or making a poster. As a future High School English teacher I know I will ask my students to make a PowerPoint at some time so it is good that I am getting a lot of practice with it now. I would love to have a chance to get some hands on experience with Class Server as well.

Trio Share

This week I was part of the trio share project for “digital technology in the classroom.” Some of the technology I had heard about (scanners, cameras, microphones, and we had a SmartBoard in high school), but some things were foreign to me before reading this chapter. For example, I have never used a pen input device before. In the lab I learned some new things about Excel, many of which I felt I would never realistically use. For example, auto entries and keyboard moves for scrolling down. There’s no way I would go to the trouble of learning that when I could just use my mouse to scroll down or re-type the same word twice. However, it is certain that I will use Excel in my future classroom, maybe to take a class average or keep grades. I will also use all kinds of digital technology (hopefully, if I’m a good teacher) and I’m glad I’m becoming familiar with it now so I can have years of practice.

The student will be able to...

This week I learned about creating a lesson plan and using Microsoft Word. I learned how to write an objective for a lesson plan in high school in Teachers Academy, but I liked learning the set formula of Audience, Behavior, Condition, and Degree. I think it will be easier to remember it now. I find writing a lesson plan to be an intricate and intimidating process and was happy to learn some tricks and see some examples to make it easier for me. I even managed to learn something new about Microsoft Word, a program I have been using almost every day of my life for the past two years. I have never been asked to create a header or footer before but now that I know how I am going to use it on my English papers and try to impress my professor. In my future classroom I will obviously be writing tons of lesson plans and using Word to write them, so this week was really important.

A new twist on an old concept

This week I learned all about creating a PowerPoint slide show. I had used PowerPoint many times in the past but there were still a few new concepts I had never used. For example, in the lab I learned how to rotate a picture and add shadows to pictures. I’m not sure when any of this information will be useful to me but I learned something new at any rate. While I was making my “All About Me” slide show, I found myself having a lot of fun with it. I actually made it a week earlier than I needed to just because I enjoy playing around with pictures and colors and words. Because of my interest, it made it easier to learn about. I think PowerPoint is a great tool that I could use in my future classroom. I could make a slide show for my students to read notes off of or my students could use it to present projects in class. Grading a student’s PowerPoint would be a great way to evaluate them as opposed to evaluating their test scores.

How the other half lives

This week I learned the basics of both a PC and a Mac, such as creating or saving a folder. I’m a PC user so I was already familiar with most of those concepts but I am a brand new Mac user. A new thing I learned about a Mac is that when you open a file it doesn’t just pop open like on a PC, it saves it to the desktop, (which is annoying). One feature that I’ve never been comfortable using even on a PC was using the keyboard for shortcuts. It was always just easier to go “file, quit” than to memorize a bunch of keys. The knowledge I learned this week will be helpful in my future classroom obviously because without knowing the basics I wouldn’t be able to utilize all the resources a computer has to offer. And even though I don’t love Macs, you never know what kind of computers will be given to you for your classroom so I need to know how to use both.