Final Reflection
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Project #13
We
have used so many types of technology in this course! We have had the best
opportunities to learn about Skype, Facetime, Google Docs, SMARTboards, PLNs,
YouTube, iMovie, iPhoto, iBook, blogs, and so many other collaborations. I have
used Skype prior to the class and loved it from the beginning. I love how we
can integrate it into our classrooms and connect with teachers and students
from around the world. Facetime is one of my favorites as well. I have used
Facetime prior to this class and thought it was great how you can talk to
someone like they are there in person.I have used this to collaborate with my
group this semester and it was very helpful. Google Docs is amazing! I love how
you can share documents with anyone you want, whenever you want and it is
accessible anywhere! I am so glad that tool is available for us as teachers. SMARTboards are awesome! I can't wait to learn and do more on those in
the classroom. They are so interactive and engaging for children to apply their
learning. I can see so many things I can do on the SMARTboard in my classroom
to get the students motivated! I am also glad to have found my PLN (Personal
Learning Network) and to be able to add teachers and experts to it as I find
them for future references. I'm sure it will benefit me in the future when I'm
teaching. YouTube is such a huge part of this class and I feel very lucky to
have used it so often and see how to embed videos or share them in different
programs. iMovie, iPhoto, iBook are all wonderful programs!! I have really
enjoyed creating movies, videos and the iBook. I have learned so much like how
to insert pictures, videos, text, charts, hyperlinks, make movies, detach audio
from a recording, upload photos, import, export, edit, crop, resize photos,
etc. I must say the possibilities are endless when it comes to technology! I am
so fortunate to have learned so much in this course and to have all these
technologies to use and get for my own classroom. The students will be so
excited to start learning about them! All the blogs we had to visit and comment
on were great experiences and showed me how there are so many educators out
there willing to share anything you want to know. I can only hope that the school I become a teacher in has as many great technologically advanced devices to utilize as we got to learn about in this class!
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Final PLN
Final Personal Learning Network Summary
My Final PLN looks a lot different from my original one. When we were first assigned to do this my goal was just to fill up the tiles. After the entire semester between all of the wonderful and helpful videos we were required to watch, the people we followed on Twitter, and all of the blogs we viewed, it has vastly grown. I see now how helpful and useful Symbaloo and a PLN in general is ! I am also in EDU301 and Dr. Vitulli gives us so many amazing resources, thanks to Symbaloo I can easily keep track of those resources. They are right the in my PLN anytime I need them and from here it can only grow throughout the rest of my educational journey! One of my favorite tiles on my PLN is to www.storyline.net this is an amazing website that Dr. Vitulli showed me, and I have already started using it with my Preschool students this semester. It is a website that has tons of children's books that are brought to life, and even some with celebrities reading them! Great site!
Blog Post #13
Blog Post #13
Back to the Future
This is a video of Brian Crosby during a seminar about how he utilized technology in his classroom. The majority of Mr. Crosby's class was made up of students who used English as a second language. That sounds so challenging to me!He talks about how his students were taught on a narrow curriculum which hinders their learning capabilities. A narrowed curriculum only brings down the student's level of creativity. Each student is required to have a blog and record everything they do in it. He also required his students to set goals, but not just for themselves. They set them for their community, their school, and their country. He challenges his students to better the world around them through their own goals. He then conducted a hot air balloon experiment with his students, this experiment captured attention from all over the world! Mr. Crosby's class then constructed their own hot air balloon,it flew into the atmosphere until it exploded. They put all the recorded hopes inside the balloon. This experiment made students want to learn on their own. It also helped break the language barrier because so many students had to learn how to interpret written and spoken English. Mr. Crosby even had a student brought into his class via Skype because she had leukemia and she was treated as if she were a normal day-to-day student. Mr. Crosby's classroom was very inspirational to me, as an educator. His balloon experiment created a higher sense of confidence in the children and an overall sense of importance. It showed what kind of an impact an ordinary sixth grade classroom can make. With each assignment we are given in this class I more clearly see the importance of blogs in the classroom. With a classroom dynamic like Mr. Crosby's the possibilities are endless. With teachers that are like Mr. Crosby, there is a better future
for our students.
A Vision of Students
This video very clearly illustrated every thought of every college student ever. It covered topics ranging from professors never learning your name to spending thousands of dollars on textbooks deemed important but are never used.Which I happen to have two of from this semester alone, myself! However, the assignment very clearly stated not to view this video from a students prospective, but to view it from the prospective of teachers or University presidents. In that case, I'd feel very poorly about my performance as an educator and a leader. It's one thing for a student to pay for a class and never show up, that's their decision. But assigning material that is irrelevant to their field of study or not adapting to today's lifestyle is a problem for the administration. I actually can relate to this, I had a class this semester sadly at our school that I took online, which cost more than a regular class at the school, in which the professor merely assigned a forum and a 10 question quiz every week. The class was easy, however what did I get out of it? Also, how much money was wasted on a poor excuse for a college level course? In the case of this video though we must ask, why? Why is this student ignoring a class that he or she paid a lot of money to be enrolled into? This is a question Dr. Strange mentions at almost every class meeting when students do not show up. This makes perfect sense to me, why waste your money! Is it because they are lazy? Most, I'm sure would assume so. Maybe it's because the instructor never covers any relevant material. Maybe they never teach. It is possible that the instructor is not giving quality information. As said in the video, college students are multi-taskers because they have to be. They have to make sure the time they spend is productive. As an educator you cannot waste a student's time, just as much as they are expected not to waste yours. Instructors and educational leaders need to be thinking of the needs of the student. Sadly, this is almost never the case when dealing with a University. It's always about money. That's why textbooks are so expensive. That's why you cannot graduate from a college or university without taking at least 36 hours first. It's all about money.
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