Digital story

Sisters are Forever. on PhotoPeach



I enjoyed learning about this technology. I think this would be a great tool to use in the classroom for students of all ages. I chose to base this "lesson" around poetry. Students could either find a poem or write their own poem and then find visual clips that accompany the poem to tell the story. This is a great way for students to use their creativity. When thinking of ideas, I also thought of using this tool to learn more about your students. You could have the students compose an "About me" digital story where they could talk about their family and where they're from- the possibilities are endless.

As a teacher, I could teach a lesson with the information embedded in the digital story. The combination of the visual and audio will help students of all learning style.

I really have nothing negative to say about this program and my experience creating my story. The uploads were fast and easy and everything on the site was easy to comprehend and navigate. I will definitely be using this program in my teaching.

TPACK and Video Recording

One technology that I think students would enjoy practicing is video recording. In video recording telling students can use their creativity to tell their own stories in a visual learning sense. They can also use this technology to tell a story that they have heard but add visuals and voice overs to make the story come to life. Also, teachers can use the digital storytelling to teach lessons to their students. For instance, a teacher may like to create a video to tell the story of the first thanksgiving in for a social studies lesson. This may help students see the visuals in order to learn the content. This goes perfectly with the TPACK. When students are assigned to use the video recording as an assignment they are both practicing the technology along with learning the content.
I think that the most positive attribute of this technology is that it gets students to both learn content as well as practice technology. Also, it seems as though it would be enjoyable to students of all ages.Some of the cons of this technology is that if resources such as a video camera aren't available students wouldn't be able to complete the assignment. Also, students may get wrapped up in the creativity and lose focus of the content objective. With all this said, I strongly believe that the pros out weigh the cons.

Flickr!

Creative Commons part II

This is a photo I licensed with Creative Commons.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/59760530@N06/5463008380/

Creative Commons

Photo Attribution:
[[Image:Harvard food pyramid 9652.png|thumb|description]]

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Here is an image I found on the Creative Commons site. My Kindergarten class has been recently learning about the food pyramid so I thought this image would be helpful to display and explain the the class.

Copyright

In this day and age, more than ever, it is important to teach students about copyright. It is so easy to "steal" music, pictures and other pieces of work with technology making it so accessible. We need to teach our children at a young age how so important it is to site work if it is others. This goes along with not plagiarizing others work as well. Young students might not understand why things must be sited if they are copyrighted so it is good to have a discussion in the classroom around the whys, as well as have the students practice how to properly site different types of work, such as photos.

SKYPE

Just recently we were asked to have a meet and greet with our instructor via Skype. This is a really great piece of technology. The program allows you to get connected with people that are all over the world. This program makes business meetings so much easier. Rather than flying people across the country and across the wold, people can meet via Skype. This reminds me of a movie called "Up in the Air". In this film, a company asks a young professional to fire people over a program like Skype instead of face to face. She absolutely hates it because it is so impersonal. Now that I have touched on a business perspective, I wonder what a classroom could do with Skype? Maybe talk with pen pals in another country? Or meet with their teacher if they have any homework questions? I think this is a really great and easy to use program that connects people on an even more personal basis.

Kindergarten Math Interview

Today I conducted a math interview for my TE 402 class. My goal of the interview was to see how familiar the students were with measurements. This includes the tools they use to measure and the units. I was surprised to see that not many of the students were familiar with measurements. They did not even know what to call the scale that I placed in front of them. There was only one of the five students that was familiar with what a cars speed is measured by and how to find out how a orange weighs. When I asked her how she knew this she responded with "My mom told me her car goes 25 mph". Unlike the other students, this student has been exposed to multiple resources back home. This really showed me how important it is for young students to be exposed to as much as possible back home and at school. The more we can introduce to students the better chance that they will be able to retain this information later on when it is presented.

Thoughts on Lesson Planning...

Before taking my TE401 class, I had absolutely noooo idea on how in depth lesson planning can be. To be truthfully honest I my impression of a lesson plan was simply writing down what you want to accomplish for that day. I have come to learn that lesson plans can and should be much more detailed than that.

When I began writing my first science lesson plan in TE401, I was annoyed at first about how much work was going into this one lesson. It wasn't until I taught my lesson to the Kindergarten class that I realized how great it was that I had all of the necessary components on my plan. While we all know things never go exactly how planned, it is so nice to have a guide in front of you that you can alter when need be. I've also learned that lesson plans serve as historic achieves. You can use them over and over again the next years. You will be able to note what worked and what didn't and this will help you tweak them for the specific group of students.

Although lesson plans do take much time and thought but before I know it I will be an expert and it will come much easier!

Youtube!

Throughout my TE classes, I have heard over and over that we may be faced with many challenges in our classroom. One of these challenges is the lack of technology resources or restrictions placed. From my experience in the classroom and browsing the web I have come to realize how much stuff is on Youtube. There is nearly everything!! This is a great source for any classroom as long as you have internet connection. I bet that you can find something to fit any lesson you are teaching on Youtube. Youtube is also a way to show a real-life scenario if it is impossible to see on your own. For instance, if you are teaching a science unit on volcanoes, you can pull up a clip of a real-life volcanic eruption. Or if you don't have the funds to take students to a petting zoo, you can bring the petting zoo to you. The opportunities are endless! Also, watching these clips are enjoyable to the students. However, one important thing to keep in mind is that you need to choose clips for students that are both meaningful and enjoyable.

Now that you have the idea that you may want to use Youtube in the classroom you need to check out if it is blocked on your school's internet. Many times it is. Now what? Well one of my TE401 professors brought up a great idea that I had never thought of. You can find the clip when at your home the night before and save it to a flash drive. You can then bring it in and it should work. This just comes to show that with every challenge there is a solution!

Where do I fall...?

I read the article "Digital Denizens" (http://www.stockton.edu/~intech/spotlight-digital-denizens.htm). This article discusses the different type of technology users. After reading the different descriptions, I came to realize that I am a Digital Native. This means that I have grown up with technology and feel confident with most technology presented. This seems to be right in the middle of the spectrum. One one end there is the digital recluse and on the other there is the digital addict. I think it is mind blowing to think about those who refuse to use technology. These people are usually those of older generations who lived just perfectly fine before any technology was invented and probably feel no need in learning to use it at this point in time. I on the other hand am lost without my blackberry. It is crazy the difference in attitude about technology.

As teachers, we need to realize that the world is only going to get more technologically advanced and students need to be caught up with the technology that is being used around them. This means that we as teachers need to stay up to date as well. We need to stay in the know constantly about what the new uses of technologies are. This is one of the reasons I see this class as beneficial. It really forces you to explore technology uses that you may have never heard of otherwise. I will continue on my technology learning in hopes that I will bring new ideas to many students some day.

Week 2- The Use of Twitter

I never thought I would create a twitter account. I always thought that it was simply a waste of time and energy. I got this impression from the amount of time my roommates and friends checked their twitter account or how many times they talked about hash tags or celebrity gossip. Near the end of fall semester, I decided just maybe I should create one to see what all the hype is about. I added my friends and was getting requests to be followed as well, but to be completely honest I never was interesting in tweeting or reading what others had going on that day or their random thoughts. I still gave it a try but can still say I am not a big fan. Maybe one reason for this is that I don't know what to tweet about? Or that I never know of a clever "hashtag" or maybe because I don't understand retweeting or why you need to tag someone in a post?

However, this class has brought me to realize that Twitter can connect people on a more professional level rather than just gossip between friends or celebrities. I now see that professionals will tweet interesting articles or ideas that may be useful in my teaching and professional life. I am willing to try to give Twitter another chance and try to become more familiar with it since it is a popular social network. As for in the classroom, I am not sure how this technology can be useful for students. I can see students getting way off topic and using Twitter for other than communicating ideas with their classmates. I guess, I just feel that blogging may be more beneficial and easier to manage and use for students communication. It would be a more structured way. I guess, I am wondering are there other ways you can use Twitter in the classroom?