Blog Post #10

The skills I acquired from working on Powerpoint 2 was to successfully create a computer-based game to help the students in studying material. I can now easily create Jeopardy game so that refreshing material for my students will be made easier. It took some time to figure out how to make it, but I finally got it down. I wouldn't change much about this project because it was clear and simple, but effective.

What I found most interesting about my classmates blogs was that they were very similar to mine. There were many ideas that we all shared, so that comforts me. It shows me that I have support with the different ideas and materials used in the classroom.

Really the only other technology-related skill I would like to learn next is how to put in different equations into Excel so that I can calculate different data. I learned a little about this in my high school and college computer classes, but I have forgotten a lot of it. Other than that, I don't really have an urge to learn anything else. I think we have covered the basics of everything need-to-know this semester.

I think in my future classroom I will use all of the things we have learned in this class. More so the Powerpoint and Word than anything else. I loved learning about how to create a newsletter because this is a tool I know I will bring into my class. I will also incorporate powerpoint because this is a tool that I can easily use to teach actual lessons.

Blog Post #9

   Peripherals are a device that connects to its host and expands its capabilities. This could be headphones, speakers, or even a microphone. Using a podcast is a great way to integrate audio peripherals into the classroom. Projectors are a great way to integrate audio visual peripherals into the classroom because it gives the students a chance to see the material as the teacher talks. You could combine non-computer audio-visual and computer based audio-visual by using them together in the classroom to enhance the visual and audio intake the students have. Combining these would enhance their knowledge tremendously.

   The web-based resource I have chosen to use is cpalms. It is an online toolbox of information, vetted resources, and interactive tools that helps educators effectively implement teaching standards. It is the State of Florida’s official source for standards information and course descriptions.This could help me tremendously by showing me ways to implement a lesson into the day's material and giving links to other websites that have lesson plans to use.
   This website can be found at http://www.cpalms.org/Public/ and has helped thousands of teachers all across the US find lesson plans and interactive materials to use in their classrooms. This will be a very successful tool too use in my own classroom.

   I could use Excel to successfully come up with an equation that could help me put in grades and come out with an average and other certain areas of interest for me. This will help me in teaching 4th grade because it will allow me to spend less time working on calculating grades of the students' many assignments. By creating formulas to use to calculate averages and grades for the students, there will be less of a margin of error.

I really enjoyed working on Powerpoint 1 because it refreshed all my memories about using powerpoint so that I may now be able to create a useful tool to use in my classroom. There is nothing that I would change because I thought it was organized and worked well.

Blog Post #8

Advantages: Easy to learn to use; multimedia can be easily applied to presentation; easy to edit; great for showing graphs/charts/diagrams

Disadvantages: Difficult to take notes with while paying attention to the information; audiences don't interact with presenter; not good for presenting certain types of information; presenters are often not well versed in the art of presenting and read straight from slides

In short, the digital divide is a social issue referring to the differing amount of information between those who have access to the Internet (specially broadband access) and those who do not have access. The term became popular among concerned parties, such as scholars, policy makers, and advocacy groups, in the late 1990s. The difference is not necessarily determined by the access to the Internet, but by access to ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) and to Media that the different segments of society can use. With regards to the Internet, the access is only one aspect, other factors such as the quality of connection and related services should be considered. Today the most discussed issue is the availability of the access at an affordable cost and quality. I am on the side of the digital divide that has quick access to the internet and other outlets and can afford it. I think the divide will separate the students from those who have access to outlets and those who cannot. It will make it harder to keep everyone at the same level in the classroom and outside. I will try to make access to computers and internet so the students have an equal education. 

The racial and gender inequality in jobs prove to be a recurring issue in today's society. Men and certain ethnicities tend to make up the majority of the science, technology, and engineering jobs. Will more student involvement in technology at an early age change this statistic?

 

Blog Post #7

1) I would use power point to support knowledge learning by creating an easy way for students to take notes, see organizational patterns, and attract the students to the lesson with graphics and other sorts of attractive materials. I do worry, though, that with the organized notes the students will become passive and not learn note taking skill sets for their own use. It is something they will need to know in the real, so I may compromise and make the power point in a way that will help the students learn how to take notes.

2) Adaptive technologies are used to help people with special needs. There are five methods of output that can render computers and printed materials accessible for individuals who are blind or visually impaired: Screen Reader, Braille Printer, reading device, electronic braille displays, and text magnification. I personally have not known someone who has had to use adaptive technologies. The challenges I can see is that the students may fall behind if you don't pay extra attention to them and help them out to satisfy their educational needs.

3) The web page design assignment was fairly easy for me because I have had to design web pages in the past. I liked this assignment because I found it easy to do. I don't think that I would have done anything different if I had the chance. Weebly is easy to use so that is what I chose.

Blog Post #6

1) I think that I would try to maintain a website as a teacher. I think it would be a helpful thing for parents to be able to keep up with what is going on in class. I think the hardest part would be remembering to updating it.
2) I plan on using technology such as online calculators and math games to help my students learn from home. I also plan on using online calendars such as Google's to keep myself organized.
3) I liked the Web Evaluation Wiki because it helped me hone my skills about how to create an evaluation for websites that I may have to assign to my future students. Next time I can improve my assignment by making it more creative.

Blog Post #5

1) After listening to the podcast I decided to research Diigo and found it very interesting. I ended up downloading it and I have already found it very useful. I like the highlighting tool it has and the screenshot tool. I have used these a couple times already. As you can see I have also incorporated into this blog by highlighting this first paragraph.
    I will be incorporating this in my classroom whenever possible. It is a very useful tool to use when I need to highlight an article to use in class, or to add a sticky note to this page. I think that by incorporating this in my classroom, I will be encouraging technology use like this in the students' homes as well.

2) I think that the Wikis and Twitter are very useful Web 2.0 tools for the K-12 classrooms. According to the podcasts, Wikis are very useful for researching and adding your own information to a specific wiki page. The podcast also mentions that by incorporating Twitter in the classroom, it will be a very useful way for the students to follow researchers and educators and tweet to them in hopes of getting a response. This interactive tool will be very useful in the K-12 classrooms.

3) The skills I acquired from the Web Hunt are very useful. I learned in order to find desired information quickly and efficiently, use just the key words in the search bar. I liked the pressure to find the desired information as quickly and efficiently as possible. The limited time made us work faster. I didn't not like anything in particular about the assignment. Next time, I will work faster to try to gain my information quicker. I think this information could be used in my future career because it allows me to find desired information as quickly as possible.

Blog Post #4

   In some schools, it is not only the students who are using the web-based resources to support student learning, but also the staff are getting involved. They are researching the books that students are interested in so that they develop a love of reading. Though it is not always dependable, I like to use Wikipedia because its information is usually correct.

   I think using the Internet is a very useful tool in today's education. With the world's information at their fingertips, it would be smart to have the students access and use it in their everyday school time. It is not useful when you take into account that the quality of information is highly variable. It is useful though, because the most useful information can be copied directly from the internet into a word processor.
   In my WEPO class we researched various Internet-based resources for use in school work. I researched Wikipedia and found that it is a very dependable site and its information is reliable.
   The skills I acquired from Inspiration was how to find reliable sources and use them to aid in my teaching. I liked that it taught me how to incorporate information from outside sources into my lesson plan. This is the kind of information I will use in my future career as a teacher.

Blog Post #3

I decided to critique Facebook because I was already on it because I'm very good at procrastinating.When going through the rules from chapter 6 I see that Facebook has set their website up perfectly. Everything from text alignment, to using upper and lowercase, to keeping a simple color scheme. They are set up perfectly.

I think open source and open content materials are important because without them, it would be too difficult to gain knowledge and relay that knowledge to students without breaking the copyright laws. I would use open content and open source materials because it would make things less difficult for me as a teacher. For instance, I researched the term "open source" for my WEPO class last year using Wikipedia, which is an open source software.

I acquired many new skills working on Word and Graphics 2. Such as how to use the address book tool in the mailing section of word. Without this tool, life would be so much harder. I really like how when you enter the information into the address book, it transfers the info to each individual letter automatically. I don't really think I can improve it any further because it is good as is. I can really use this information whenever I need to send out letters to this parents of all my students.

Blog Post #2

As a student, I have mainly used Microsoft Word to write papers, or make resumes, or newsletters. I have seen my teachers use MS in basically the same ways. They use it to make newsletters for parents, or charts with diagrams and such. It is a very useful tool.I like the idea of the actual newspaper model presented in chapter nine. I think it could prepare students to write in an investigative way. 

I took Writing, Editing, in Print, and Online last year and about 1/4 of our class was on copyright and fair use. I have learned the basic rules and how and why it was set up. I would teach students the rules to copyright and what is acceptable and not acceptable. I would show them the way to properly give credit to the places they received the information from.

The skills I acquired from Word and Graphics 1 was the basic how-to of preparing a quiz with the tools provided by MS. I like how it made us think about things we would actually quiz our students on. I would probably improve it next time by adding more graphics, or making it more appealing to the eye. Students get tired at looking at a boring white piece of paper;

Blog Post #1

I think using computers is a very important concept for teachers and students to grasp. I believe that it through the use of computers that students and teachers are presented to a whole world of information right at their fingertips. These days, employers are looking for well-educated, and technologically savvy people to hire. These students are exposed to problem-based learning environments which allow them to learn central concepts of a discipline, gain problem solving skills, meaningful tasks, teaches them to construct their own way of learning, and culminates in realistic, student-generated products. I believe that the teacher is a mentor and instructional designer who helps students focus on problem-solving activities.

In my classroom, I will use computers for three reasons; teaching my students about computers, using the computer as a teacher, and using computer tools to assist my students to acquire and learn information and to develop higher-order thinking skills. I hope to learn the various methods of using the computers so that I may then teach those same skills to my students, all the while using it as a medium for other genres of learning.

I definitely agree with the label "digital native" because I believe that today's youth has been born into an era of technology that has consumed society. Being a digital native means that you are already accustomed to living a life full of technology whereas the "digital immigrants" were forced to adapt to this way of life. There many differences in the way digital natives and immigrants use technology. For instance, digital natives tend to use technology as a social basis (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), whereas digital immigrants use technology more to accommodate their work. It is also at a greater ease that digital natives use technology because they have been brought up with this same technology and grow and mature alongside it. I anticipate there will be differences between myself and my future students because technology will be even more advanced than it is today and so these students will have already been introduced to it and will have no need to adapt to the advances like I will.

1. I took a CGS class back when I was earning my AA at Pensacola State College, but the class was not very helpful. I also took one technology class in high school, but again, it wasn't very helpful. I use the basic technology such as Word and occasionally Excel. I mainly use technology for writing papers and using social media so I believe this class should be very helpful.

2. I hope to learn the basic tools of using technologies such as Excel, Word, and others. I would like to be able to retain the information so much as to help me use it in my future career as a teacher. My main problem when taking technology classes is retaining the information to use at a later date.

3. I have learned that my learning style is very hands on. I have to be able to see what is going on. I do not do my best learning when I am just listening to a lecture. I like to be able to interact with the subject I am learning about. This class seems to be able to fit my needs due to its need for personal interaction with the technology itself.