Final Project Proposal

The project I'm designing for my students is based on iMovie. Students will get in groups of 3 to research the African slave trade and create an iMovie based on what they learn. The iMovie must include group members' names, pictures, music, video, voice recording, and a credits/bibliography page. Students will have some time in class to work on the project and will most likely also need to spend time outside of class as well. Students are active users of the technology to learn content in creating their iMovie rather than passively watching a documentary or other video clip during a lecture.

Conception of Technology

How has your conception of technology changed since the beginning of the semester? (If it hasn't changed, explain what your view is and why it hasn't changed?)

Technology can be anything from an idea, to a tool, to a product, to a system of organization. I don't think my conception of technology has necessarily changed, just my knowledge has broadened. I've learned about many applications of new technologies such as garageband, web 2.0, google tools, wikis, and so on. I've been introduced to so many free technologies that I didn't know existed. I've also learned that to effectively use technology in our classrooms we need to have a purpose and objective in mind. Technology can greatly enhance our lessons and engage our students more actively in their learning.

Class Wiki Search

The educational wiki I found is a 2nd grade class wiki where the teacher can post students' work, creating portfolios, and showing improvement. The wiki is well organized and has several links that can also be explored. It has a separate page for each student where you can see their work and it has a class calendar as well. I think this wiki could be improved by updating students' work and adding to their portfolios.

Use of Google Tools in Classrooms

My group checked out Google Calendar and it is an easy way for teachers, coaches, administrators and students to share time-related info like class topics, test and quizzes, field trips, student club activities, team schedules, assignment deadlines, school events, parent-teacher conferences, staff meetings with other teachers and administrators, and school holidays. Changes made by a calendar organizer are automatically seen by anyone who checks the site, so it is always up to date. You can set up separate calendars for each of your classes and share each one with a designated group of students, parents or the entire community. Having a common online tool to store and share all of our calendar information is so much more efficient than expecting everyone to keep track of a thousand events, calendars, and handouts. Not only are you posting the event date and time, but any other descriptive or pertinent information can also be accessed just by clicking on the event. So, for example, instead of having a field trip handout that you hope actually reaches parents' hands, parents can sign up to access the calendar and have all the information they need for the field trip posted under that event. Google calendar is more efficient, easily accessed, more organized, saves paper, and best of all it's free, which is great for schools on a tight budget! You can also choose to have email updates when the calendar is changed or updated. This is a cool tool that hopefully I'll remember to use in my classroom rather than having to set up a class website.

Protecting Yourself Online

In this technological age, much of the work we do is online. Our computers and various websites hold important information that can be accessed by hackers and viruses. If we don't take proper precautions, we can be victims of identity theft, predators, unwanted adds, phishers, spam, and pornographic materials. Some ways to avoid these online threats include:
~don't click unknown links and downloads
~make sure your computer has firewalls, anti-virus software, and programs like Ad block Plus
installed
~back up your work
~know who you're talking to and "adding" as a friend on facebook, etc.
~use secure passwords and don't use the same password for all websites
~don't have important info. kept online: credit card #s, social security numbers, etc.
~know what to do if your identity has been taken or someone has hacked into your accounts
BE SMART, SAFE AND SECURE!

Podcast Project Experience

Although I was a little stressed about the project when it was assigned and frustrated with technical issues, I learned a lot from this experience and it proved positive. In this day and age, kids are becoming more and more technologically advanced and as a future teacher I hope to not be too incredibly far behind them in my classroom. I liked learning how to make a podcast and will hopefully learn how to make a movie as well to enhance my lesson plans. I thought about how my podcast could be used as an anticipatory set when starting a new unit on WWII. I won't go into details about "what I learned," because the entire podcast making experience was all new too me. But I did learn that Macs make these projects easier because of the shortcuts that Mac computers allow. Maybe one day I'll switch from my PC. ;-P

Effective Use of Technology in the Classroom

I read this article that had some good ideas about how integrating technology in the classroom is effective. I think using technology in the classroom can be both effective and ineffective. We shouldn't use technology for the sake of using technology. If it's not serving an educational purpose, helping students develop skills, or helping to teach a lesson then what's the point? When using technology you should have a clear point or objective. From my own experience, sometimes I hated doing projects or homework that required me to use technology if I didn't see a point to it. Some of us would rather answer questions in the book than go through all the work of putting together a powerpoint presentation, creating a video, searching the internet or using excel. I definitely can see the uses of these technologies, but doesn't mean they are the best way for all students to learn, if that makes sense.