Journal #8

Incorporating technology into the classroom can be difficult with the very limited California budget, but even when you are able to incorporate technology into the classroom there can difficulties that arise with its usage. The article Creating Valuable Class Web Sites, by Elizabeth A. Baker, gives an example to the problems that arise when teachers try to incorporate the internet into their classrooms. Ms. Baker tells that the common problems with use of the internet in the classroom are: lack of time, lack of website access, lack of computers, and fears of safe internet use. To help teachers find a way to solve their internet problems, Ms. Baker created several methods that can be used for incorporating the web into your classroom. Each method incrementally increases in difficulty and can be chosen according to the instructor’s level.

What are the Method levels?

Method 1 is a list of web site providers which are meant as a beginning point to encourage instructor’s who are at a beginner’s level. Method 2 is Blogs, Groups, and Wiki Web Sites. This level was meant for the instructor who has a little more experience with the internet but does not have time to learn how to use website development software. Method 3 is becoming your own developer and was created for the more advanced instructor who has time and money to learn web development software. This also requires having server space.

For the more advanced method, what would be some of the requirements of uploading your website to the school server?

After you have taken the time to learn and develop your own website, you have to contact your school technology coordinator and make sure that the school website has server space for you to upload your site onto.

journal #7

In the article, What is your favorite Ed Tech Tool? the author, Paul Wurster, explains the results of an Ed Tech Poll taken. The question posed was: Which group below would you choose as the most effective for teaching and learning over the past 30 years? With the most votes were Internet tools/Resources receiving 332 votes, 37%. General Productivity Tools came in second with 209 votes, 23%, followed by Interactive Whiteboards and Projectors, 151 votes, 17%. Coming in the rear was Web 2.0 Tools with 137 votes, 15%, and Portable Digital Devices with 70 votes, 8%. The total votes received were 899.

So what do the results of this poll tell us?

This poll shows that more and more teachers are incorporating technology into their classrooms. Many teachers find that technology is an additive to interactive learning. Paul Wurston tells us, “I feel that the open access that we have to the internet is one of the catalysts in the classroom, in teaching, and just living and working in today’s society” But we should also keep in mind that students can still benefit from interactive whiteboard learning which allows the student to perform and not just read about a subject. As Jan Williams of Horizon Elementary in Kent, Washington tells us, “I believe interactive whiteboards and projectors have helped students VISUALLY see and understand the information presented. Gone are the days of long lectures. Students are engaged and actively involved and creating their own learning.” The article also tells us that other benefits to technological use in the classroom is that information can be shared across greater boundaries, to the district, state and beyond.

Does technology really add to an instructor’s lessen plan or take away from it?

Teacher’s should remember that nothing substitutes for face to face interactions but technology can be a helpful way to encourage student learning. As Paul Wurston writes, “The ability of teachers to use productivity tools such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Publisher to create and electronically save instructional materials is a powerful thing much taken for granted, yet we’ve had that ability widely available for the past 20 years. Without this ability, lessons would have to be created from scratch over and over, every year, wasting valuable time that could be spent improving and refining last year’s lesson.”

Journal #6

In the article, Mapping Student Minds by Ariel Owen, a new workshop called Kids in Creeks is explained. Kids in Creeks is an interactive program which allows students to collect data and input it into Spreadsheets as well as teach students water quality, and creek health. The teacher who oversaw the activity incorporated technological devices such as Palm Pilots which could download their data to a WISE database at school. The instructor found that this technique eliminated errors which occurred with written data. Enhancement of this program is with a school environmental club which collect more data in an after school program. The ultimate result of the program is to use the data found and connect it to cause and effect of annual changes in the creek.
What exactly does this program teach?
The article explains that a challenging aspect of this project is for sixth-graders to find inverse relationships. The program helps students develop critical thinking skills which are necessary for their development.
What are some of the other benefits of the program?
Not only does this program teach students their relationship between their activities and the creek while allowing scientific and critical thinking skills, but in incorporating an after school program, it gives students a positive outlet for what would otherwise be idle time.

Journal #5

In the article, Can you Hear Me Now? by Sherry Turkle, the negative aspects of technology are laid out. Sherry Turkle bluntly shows that we have become a culture of always-on, meaning that people are unable to turn off their technological devices even when we need quiet time to think. Turkle breaks down what she thinks is the five most negative aspects that keep people connected to their technological devices and disconnected from reality. They are: the creation of fake virtual selves, loss of time to make time for self concentration, adolescents who lack enough decision making autonomy, lack of public privacy, and lack of focus on one activity or person. The most striking portion of the article is the author’s interpretation of “the tethered adolescent.” The author speaks of parents feeling as if there is some sort of safety net in giving their child a cell phone. They always know how to get a hold of them and where they are but the problem with tethering their child to a cell for is the child’s loss of autonomy. I believe there is more to it than that. Not only does the child loose autonomy in life choices which mark their ability to accept decisions and their consequences but the child also is developing a dependency on technology that does not necessarily need to be part of their growth process. More on the issue of adolescences and technology is, they see their parent is plugged in: always on the phone, texting or on the computer and they learn that this is the proper behavior. After all, children mirror their parents. They adapt many of the parents aspects and being plugged in is one of them. We are developing a culture where people are les relying on their own ingenuity and more on an electronics.

How do we establish an equilibrium between technical realities and face to face realities?
There is no black or white answer to this question. It is important to educate our public on the positives and negatives of the “always-on culture” so they can adapt a personal working relationship between the two realities.

How should teachers handle adolescents and their increased use of cell phones in schools and their classrooms?
I don’t think that it should be the teacher’s choice to ban cell phones from the classroom but to require that they are kept out of reach (perhaps placed on the desk where the teacher can observe them)while students are in the classroom, so as to prevent playing on cell phones during class hours.

Journal #4

In order for teachers to incorporate new technological tools into their teaching, they will need to learn a specific knowledge called “technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK). What differentiates between a teacher and another person who is specialized in the same subject area is a teacher’s ability to make subject matter intellectually available to their students. So with all the new technological tools available for interactive subject matter learning, the next step would become how to framework those tools to accentuate your lesson plan. The article, Too Cool for School? No Way! written by Punya Mishra and Mathew Koehler, shows that in order to do this we have to have a “creative repurposing” strategy. “Such repurposing is possible only when the teacher knows the rules of the game and is fluent enough to know which rules to bend, which to break, and which to leave alone.”

What is the first necessary step for teachers when trying to incorporate new technological tools in their lesson plan?

The first step with technological incorporation into lesson plans is first for “teachers need to develop a willingness to play with technologies and an openness to building new experiences for students so that fun, cool tools can be educational.” Teachers have to maintain their ability for lifelong learning and use this to benefit their class.

What exactly is TPACK?

TPACK is technological pedagogical and content knowledge. In application, TPACK would be the teacher’s ability to use their knowledge of a technological tool and be able to teach it to the individualized learning strategy of each student.

Journal #3

Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog, written by Patricia Deubel,Ph.D., gives yet another example of the importance of having a purpose to an educational assignment and the necessity of teaching ethics for each new technological tool. Dr. Deubel tells us that when incorporating tools of technology like blogs it should not just be for fun. It needs to have instructional “standards, goals, and essential questions with corresponding understandings, knowledge, and skills that you desire students to acquire.” Though blogs can be useful teaching tools teachers will also have to practice proper ethics. This means teachers will have to mediate to insure that students are posting “factual truths” as opposed to just “free expression.” Students will need to remain in the boundaries of blogging for educational purposes. Blogs require a lot of teacher initiative and interaction but the rewards from having a spot for student/ teacher interaction are endless.

How do you let your students know what is expected of them both ethically and educationally when using a classroom blog?

As with any new class and the coming of a new year, a teacher has to spend the first week or two establishing class rules and ethics. Upon use of the classroom blog, a teacher will have to every explicitly explain the goals and rules to students for using the classroom blog. The teacher will also have to put some sort of grade initiatives so the students will be sure to participate in the class blog. Again, the teacher will have to be sure to mediate because some students will test their ability to break the rules.

What are some helpful cites to help beginners with their classroom blogs?

www. Classblogmeister.com/bloggers contract.doc
Edublogs.org
www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47
www.teacherfirst.com/content/blog/blogbasics.cfm

Journal #2

In the article, “Social Networking for the K-12 Set,” Jim Klein tells the positive attributes to having a social networking website which promotes interactive learning and dialogue between students, parents, and teachers. The article tells that social online networking is helpful in four ways: it is an easy way to promote the use of technology, it promotes communication between teacher and student through technological means, it allows for discussion through workgroups, and creates an effective learning environment. “It is possible to create a safe and comfortable, relevant environment for students, teachers, and staff to create, collaborate, and grow in.”

With the continual California budget crisis, will this be a cost effective way to promote learning?
Yes. Online social networking is completely free. To start up a system would only require initiative and drive. The benefits from a communicative learning system completely outweigh any difficulties having to train people to learn how to use an online networking system.

Will there be negative problems with a system that allows people from home to view online social networking? Controls can be added that only allow people who have joined the group to go on and read the network. Also, all comments written can be viewed by a presiding teacher or administrator who could make sure that comments being made were related to education and not personal social life.