Journal 10

Kidspiration / Auto Learning

I am so amazed how wonderful Kidspriation and Auto Learning are!!!

Kidspiration is a computer program for our younger students K-5. Students can do a number of fun, but content important projects in this program, dealing with all of the basic subjects. I was drawn to this program because 5year olds can do it as well as 5th graders. The program tells you exactly what you are doing while you are using the program. I got so caught up with the program, it took me two hours to get off, I was having so much fun.

Auto Learning is a program that is used to teach individuals certain computer programs. It is a brief clip of video on each section of the computer program to tell you how to do specific items. Auto Learning was a little difficult for me at first because I am not use to getting directions entirely from a computer monitor by just watching. After watching the third clipping I began to get more familiar and comfortable taking in the information. I think that it is a wonderful way for student and our peers to get information on different programs and help the growth of technology. It is empowering for students to be able to find out the answer without having to ask a teacher every time they have a question. This site makes it possible for students to do exactly that!

Journal 9

Fitting the Pieces Together

By: Patricia A. Yost

Integrating laptops in the class room is a fantastic idea. There are so many ways for teachers to incorporate the lesson and in quicker time. Students can watch little clips of movies that get straight to the point of what the teacher is trying to make so that there is not two days wasted on watching a movie. Teachers can have the students look up online resources and research that they need to work. Teachers can also have all of the assignments and lessons on the laptop. This helps teachers stay organized and keeps all of there documents in one spot. Lots of teachers come to school everyday and have their hand full of papers and books. But if everything was done on laptops they would be carrying on bag instead three or four. Even kids, Kids walk around everyday with a 20-30pound book bag. To help keep their load light, a laptop will help a lot. Students taking notes would be a lot easier because students who have messy handwriting can read their notes and so can the teacher. I am not saying though that everything should be on a laptop. It shouldn’t. I think a good amount can though. I think that is important to stick to old school of ways of doing assignments too, so that students do not only rely on technology. When I mean old school I mean a pen and a paper. Laptops will help the schools move up in the world of technology. I thinks it is pretty promising that we are head in that direction.

Question/ Answers:

Q: How do we make the technology not a distraction to students?

A: Students will be give specific instructions of when they can have free time on the laptop. Teaching them to deal with it now will help keep them more focused and successful with technology.

Q: What about the students that cannot successfully learn on a laptop. All studetnts learn information differently.

A: The best way to help the students that do not learn as easily on a laptop, we can have alternate ways for them to learn. But it is very important for us to still have students work with laptops to help them get comfortable and ease them into it.

Journal 8

“More Than Money Matters: Establishing Effective School-Corporations Partnerships”
By Nancy Flynn

In this article, it talks about a partnership that schools and corporations have in order to incorporate technology in the classrooms. A lot of schools do not have enough money for extras such as new computers in classrooms. Although our world is changing every second, and our world is moving faster into the age of technology. It is very important in our student’s future to be on top of what is going with technology and incorporate into our lessons and our classrooms. Corporations have teamed up with schools and have helped fund technology into the classroom. This helps the schools that maybe can not get the computers in the classroom. As long as us a teachers keep on making it known that technology is important, people will be able to see how students can be so much more successful using technology is. It helps out corporations too when students are getting more and more experience with technology because those students will grow to be adults and maybe one day want to work for that corporation. We have to keep are students updated in our competitive would so that they stand a chance.

Questions/Answers:

Q: How can we make sure that students get good use of this technology?
A: Have students spend a certain amount of time in the classroom for just working on technology will help students become proficient in technology.

Q: How can us as teachers help support new technology?
A: Staying updated with new resources and technology we will be able to keep the fight for incorporating technology in the classroom and will be educated in that subject.

Journal #7

"Save the World on Your Way to College"
By David Gibson and Susan Hulli Grasso

"Save the World on Your Way to College," is about two American students started to communicate with two Indian students. Collaborating together they tried to find ways that they can help the world's global warming problem. This article made me so excited and proud of how far our students have come. To hear about four students taking world matters into their own hands and them wanting to make a difference is so wonderful. This reminds me of a futuristic version of the JFK era mixed with technology. I love how the students are using their technology for good and they are also getting so much more out of it. Those students are getting in touch with people across the world which will also help them unite their world and get a greater acknowledgment of each other cultures. It will also teach students to work in groups and not everyone has the same views about everything. This helps students keep an open mind. This helps students become more successful with their future professions when working with other individuals. I am so proud to read this article and it is very motivating. I like the idea of not only thinking of ideas to save the world but actually applying those ideas.

Questions/ Answers:

Q: How can we get more kids to get information and resources to communicate with people from other cultures and places?
A: Teachers can set up a program with teachers from other countries or even in the US. This will help the students that want to communicate with other students without being scared too.

Q: How can we make sure that students do not chat with inappropriate people? Like someone that would like to harm our students.
A: I think that we should teach our students what information is important to keep private from the web so that students are not put in any danger.

Journal 6

Classroom 2.0: Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a way of sharing different sites and resources with eachother. Social bookmarking is a great way to get information about technology to our peers and our students. It is a great way to get important ideas and resources to help everyone become more success full in their studies. Social bookmarking can be used for students in groups to colloraborate information found by eachother for their research. Since it is webbed based so the group would not have to be meeting in person to get their peers information. The bookmarking of the sites can be on bloggs or wikis to have access for the group that they are working with and also the group can right comments on the blogg or wiki to describe the website that they are sharing and also describe how they use it. As a future teacher, I think this a wonderful idea and resource for students to use so that they better communicate their information with their peers and so that they can collaborate with different and new types of technology. A lot of students have different schedules then eachother so being able to use the web helps students fit projects and group activities into their schedule. It also is beneficial for the teacher because the teacher can monitor the progress that the students are having and to make sure that the students are working as a group. Technology is so important for our students to know how use it and learn new resources to help prepare them for the world of technology that they will have to face. Students will have to use a lot of these resources to be able to be succesful for the future.

Classroom 2.0 was alot of fun to see how technology can be used in different ways. It is was exciting to see how other people used it to fulfill their imagination in the world of technology. There were alot of new ideas that I would have not come up with if I hadn't seen how others used it. There were many sources and ideas that I hope to use in my classroom one day.

Journal 5

Improving Students Learning
By Catherine Tannahill and Leslie Ricklin

Expanding the boundaries for students is very important for teachers to hold up to. Technology has certainly proven to be a huge tool to helping students further their abilities. In the article, Improving Students Learning, it shows how students using technology for their research can benefit the students in a much fuller way. The articles goes over four different steps of research and then goes into the details how technology helps improve each step for our students. Wikis and blogs were also mentioned as a way of communication in group work along with email. It easier for students that have different schedules to be able to have more ways of communication, without being right next to each other. The article also went into how students usually use PowerPoint as a way of presentation.

Questions/Answers:

Q: How do we make sure that students do not over use the PowerPoint?

A: Everyone in one time or another has over used a PowerPoint. As teachers we can try to train our students in using PowerPoint by demonstrating how to present with PowerPoint.

Q: How do we get our students to put things in their words without using others?

A: I figured teachers can do exercise that can lead up to the steps of summarizing with out using other peoples words from the internet. Research is definitely going in the right direction to help our students but it is necessary to train our students how to do it properly.

Journal 4

The Threat of Security:

Hindering Technology Integration in the Classroom
By LeAnne K. Robinson, Abbie Brown, and Tim Green

How far is going too far with technology? This article describes what can happen when security in technology is taken too far. The article makes it clear that security is important to protect the students and the integrity of the school. But what this article is talking about are the regulations that being left on Teachers for the ideas of what if. The example the article uses to show a little over the top is when a teacher buys CD-RWs to burn their presentation and the school administration says that it is high risk that teachers might try and break a copyright law. Restrictions on e-mails were another issue that was discussed.

Question/Answers:

Q: How does the school administration deal with restrictions on technology without making the teachers afraid to use the great resources that can help improve the classroom?

A: There has to be a certain amount of trust involved with how restrictions are made. Teachers and administrators need to sit and talk together to be able to decide what is right and fair. Technology is growing more and more and it is imperative for our students to keep on learning the ways of technology so that they can have the best advantages that help them to develop into adult with experiences that they will need for success.

Q: Why do make technology so scary to are students?

A:Technology is growing more and more and instead of fearing are students away from it we should help them learn it and use it. Technology is only going to keep on getting bigger and bigger and we have prepare our students for the future.