What I have learned in this class:
This summer I've learned about technology in education. For the most part I didn't even know most of the technologies existed and was intimidated to use them when I read our assignments. After working with these technologies week-by-week this summer I have become quite enthusiastic about each technology and about applying them in the classroom this coming school year. I have already created course sites for both subjects I will be teaching this school year and have begun populating them with the appropriate learning resources for the first unit. This will be an absolutely invaluable resource for the students and will be a very good communication resource for me to parents as well. Parents can go on these sites and see the materials I am providing, and the organization and quality of these materials should impress the most demanding parent and give them faith in the quality of the education their children are receiving. As a teacher of chemistry and physics I usually get the students who are on the track to attend a four-year university. Parents of children on this track are often engaged in their children's education and this type of organization and presentation should go a long way in winning their confidence. I am also quite excited in the programs that use audio, such as podcast, and interactive audio and visual such as edupuzzle. These programs allow me to provide learning resources to students of every learning type. I also am quite taken by movie story which seem to be so engaging for students and will draw their attention to the material in a deeper way. To conclude, this course has been extremely valuable for me. I was forced to learn these technologies and found that they are quite intuitive and not at all hard to learn. This epiphany makes me so much more confident in my ability to engage 21st century learners with digital learning material which will not seem foreign or antiquated to these technology immersed students of today. The following discussion of the list of tools we were introduce to this summer is provided as required: Learning Tools introduced in this class:
My Strong Points in Educational Technology: My strong point in educational technology is my desire and willingness to use any technology and any strategy that would engage my students and make me a better and more effective teacher. That willingness and desire means that I will give these technologies a try and see how my students engage with them. I love the idea of students being able to access a variety of digital materials at any time and from whatever device they choose. This course has given me a much larger view of how I can use these technologies to improve and better engage my students. My Weak Points in Educational Technology: Without a doubt my weak points come from my status as a technology immigrant. As I like to say, when I grew up high technology was a long telephone cord. I was an adult before the internet became common place. As such, computer technology can be intimidating and over-whelming. Engaging in on-line technologies requires me to leave my comfort zone and often makes me feel like a complete idiot. While I see so much good the internet and social media have brought to the world, I also see how many problems they have caused. I’m not sure it’s a better world or not but it is the world we have, and we will not be going backwards. So then, if I want to be an effective teacher it is incumbent on me to learn, to engage. As we said in the military I need to innovate, adapt and overcome. Will I integrate these technologies into my classroom? Why or why not? I will certainly integrate these technologies into my classroom as I have stated repeatedly in this final reflection and for the reasons I have stated as well. Not to integrate technology into my classroom would be to give up in my attempt to engage my students. I have no intention to give up on the goal of student engagement. We have to meet them where they are. They are immersed in technology. We, therefore, must integrate these technologies into the classroom. My Future Learning Goals: This has been an excellent course this summer. It has introduced me to new technologies, and I have a much greater vision for how to put these tools into my educational toolbox. I intend to continue to learn. I especially need to learn ways to incorporate these tools to engage students. I am convinced that we have to meet our students where they are and with the tools most likely to engage their interest. For that, I now believe that technology is the key. To that end, my future plans are to use these tools in new and innovative ways. I will use them this year and gather information as to how students are engaging with them. I also want to experiment with the idea of the “flipped” classroom. I can see potential in that, especially for courses like chemistry and physics where students are typically university bound. The flipped classroom doesn’t seem that different than what they will experience at the next level. It puts them in charge of their own educational experience and that is surely what they will experience in university. So my future learning goals are set. I’ll incorporate many of these technologies that I’ve learned this summer. I’ll evaluate their effectiveness and continue to learn new strategies to better employ these technologies. The goal remains the same. I will engage these students by whatever means necessary. Technology is the water they swim in and I need to swim in that same water if I intend to achieve the goal.
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This week I developed five different online resources: Padlet, Quizziz, Rubric, Thinglink interactive photo and a Scoopit online magazine. Each have power and purpose in the classroom. Below I will explain my ideas on each one and explain how I would use each in the classroom.
Padlet: A padlet is a great organizing resource that allows you to post different resources that were created not only by the teacher but by others. It's nice to be able to post many different types of media from video's to slides, edpuzzles and articles. I would use a Padlet to post all the lesson resources that I have for the chapter or unit. This would allow students to access materials at any time and study at their leisure. Quizziz: I found this to be a great resource for quiz making. The site possesses a wealth of quiz material already in its library which makes using Quizziz much faster and more powerful than writing a quiz from scratch. I believe Quizziz to be different from Quizlet because I can choose to give the quiz synchronously or asynchronously. This is a great option for teaching as I can make it an interactive activity or something students do on their own. In my class I plan to use quizziz for daily quizzes which I call "reality checks". I like the thought of using Quizziz because it immediately shows the results of students which will save me time with grading. Rubric (Rubistar): This was an awesome resource. I routinely use rubrics and find them both tedious and time consuming to prepare. Rubistar was easy to use and writes the rubric itself with minimal input from me. Finding this site not only frees up a lot of my time, it probably writes a better rubric than I would by myself. I will use this site weekly to produce rubrics for labs and activities and projects, etc. Thinglink interactive photo: This is a fascinating resource that could be great for visual learners. It is engaging and visually stunning. I could use this explaining certain topics to better meet all learning styles. Scoopit: Scoopit is a great resource to post intriguing articles and resources. These are resources that students wouldn't normally find on their own and it's a great way to bring new ideas to light. I would use this in my classroom as a "pick your own reading" activity where students could choose to read what interests them most and write a summary of the article. This is a great way to integrate differentiation as students can choose what is best for them. Todays Question: Chapter 12 No. 1: As emerging technologies continue to affect education, there is little question that the role of the teacher will change. Imagine yourself teaching a class in 20 years. How do you think your role would be different from the typical teacher's role today? Technology is quickly taking over in many facets of society and education is no different. As technologies become ever more powerful it allows teachers to differentiate instruction to different learning styles. I see education moving towards students having an individual education plan which meets their own individual learning style. Educators will be providing materials and resources in many different formats and focused on each student as an individual. Our project for the week was to build a class website. This is a perfect project as school approaches quickly. This class has proven to be exactly what I needed at exactly the right time. A class website (Chemistry Page) is the perfect platform for posting weekly agenda's, lesson plans and the resources required for those lessons. It also allows us to put great resources that we have researched and approved.
Creating the class website proved to be an eye-opening experience. I was actually quite amazed at how easy it is to create one of these- and it is free! After learning how to drag and drop features into the pages, creating features became more or less intuitive. I will continue to use the weebly class website I created as the school year begins. Now that I have a structure to the website, and better understanding of how the creation aspect works, I feel confident in my ability to maintain a class website throughout the academic year. Below you will find the link to my class website: https://rhs-chemistry.weebly.com
Week 4 ReflectionsTeacher task software is abundant for instructors to perform all types of teaching and learning responsibilities. After completing the Google Docs projects, reflect your working experiences when collaborate with your group members by using Google Docs. You may want to focus on how you use these technologies into your own classroom and how Google Docs promote active learning and collaboration among students?
Google Docs and Slides are great collaboration tools inside the classroom and fit in perfectly with many teaching strategies. I have used these tools successfully while employing Jig Saw teams. Students work in groups and are assigned a piece of the overall content, a jigsaw puzzle piece, which they will be responsible to research, develop and teach to the group. As a group they are to produce a PowerPoint presentation that includes each members work. This technology works perfectly with this strategy and this strategy engages students and teaches them to collaborate effectively and teaches them responsibility and teamwork as well. That is what these collaborative technologies can do, used correctly. Collaboration can teach more than just the content or the learning objectives. Students learn how to work together, give and take constructive criticism from a peer, and to produce something together which is better than they could have accomplished alone. Project 1: Lesson Plan https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a8mJJwi8FLBiDjPAoeiQM8B6KACKtFvm/view?usp=sharing Project 2: Survey https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=vqQ9fyInLkO_p2QIDR6x3G0Tnb3yrtJDrx2fzmiduBNUQ0lJTEVQOUtZRDZJT01PU0U1SEhDMUJJSy4u Project 3: Google Doc & Slides Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13HmkuTFHqpPsgX_sV52W6rBD0tkKzuv3edwogriju20/edit?usp=sharing Google Slide Presentation Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Cf4ztKVLwTQ-hgWfhv1WRnLhOHKQ1nHC0lFm8ap1PDg/edit?usp=sharing Chapter 4
Question 2: Students with special needs include both those who have disabilities and those who are gifted. Technology can provide solutions to help meet the unique needs of both groups. However, schools typically have limited budgets for technology. Considering that the needs of all students should be met, what do you think the best allocation of limited technology dollars should be to meet these students’ needs? Give examples to support your views. Technology allow teachers to differentiate learning for all students. Every student is an individual and learns in a different way. Technology allows teachers to provide materials for students of every learning style: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. We can record lectures, provide interactive PowerPoint presentations, provide engaging simulations. All these tools can be brought to bear to engage all our students. We have a special responsibility and lawful duty to provide for the special needs of those with disabilities. This is not an option and is required under the Children with Disabilities Act. School budgets must consider these children and we must accommodate for them. Talented and Gifted (TAG) students’ needs need also be met and can be with existing technology and teacher accommodation. In my experience, I have had both SPED and TAG students in my classroom and found that both can be accommodated. In fact, I have often used the TAG students to peer teach the students with disabilities. In this way both prosper. The TAG students gain the much deeper understanding that comes through teaching and the SPED students are relaxed with the other students and engaged with them in learning. In my short experience with teaching, I have not lacked the technology to engage either students with disabilities or talented and gifted students.1 Chapter 5. Question 3: What is the most significant opportunity presented by technology integration? What role does training play in effectively integrating computers in the classroom? Schools should reflect the culture of the society it serves. In this digital age the kids are often further ahead of the teachers and schools in terms of technology literacy. It is essential that we incorporate more and more technology into the classroom. The opportunities of doing so are many. First, technology gives teachers the ability to engage students in a deeper way, and in a way familiar to them. If we present material to students in the way we were taught, it would seem quaint, old fashioned and the results would be less effective. Technology gives us the ability to present material to students in different ways. Every student is different and have preferred learning styles. Technologies most significant opportunity, it seems to me, is the ability to differentiate and present materials in ways to meet each students individual learning fingerprint. Training must be an on-going part of teacher professional development. Technology grows and changes, and teachers must be trained to change with it. We must embrace technology and incorporate into our daily professional lives’. This requires training. Luckily most IT departments are more than willing to spend time with teachers individually or in Professional Development training. School districts are more-and-more willing and able to upgrade and allot the money required to incorporate technology and to train teachers and administrators. Chapter 6. Question 2: Some teachers believe that too much emphasis is placed on computers and other technologies in the classroom. Considering the technologies you have learned about in this chapter, do you agree or disagree? Defend your view. I believe that in the digital age that a computer with internet access is the gateway knowledge. We no longer have a real choice as to whether to use computers in the classroom. Computers and digital technology are ubiquitous and an essential part of our everyday life. Technology is the water that our students swim in and to decide to limit use of these technologies in their education would put students at a disadvantage. Every student must have a computer and internet access and we must challenge students with new technologies that will engage them and prepare them for a future where even more advanced technologies await them. A large part of our responsibility to our students is to prepare them for the future. The future for these students will include more technology and more advanced technology. As a technology immigrant myself, I am continually amazed by this technology and the opportunities it brings. As someone who had to go to the public library to find information for high school term papers, I stand in awe that the accumulated knowledge of the entire history of the world is accessed in seconds through a computer or a smart phone. Every student must have this tool at hand, every day. Week 2
Chap 1-3 3 Questions Chapter 1 Question 3. Question 3: The number of technology tool available to teachers is already daunting, and more are emerging every day. Given the value of these tools to enliven and support 21st century learning, what will you do to keep yourself informed about the options available to you? How will you manage your discoveries and work toward integrating them into your classroom? Technology in the classroom has never been more important than today. The kids of today are totally immersed in technology. Technology is central to their social lives, their fun activities and should also be central in how they receive material in today’s 21st Century classrooms. Many teachers, like myself, are technology immigrants, meaning these technologies were not even envisioned when we were children. But we “technology immigrants” cannot allow that to be an excuse for not using technology to engage our students. Most school districts now are putting serious resources into technology. Google classroom, Canvas, Webpages, smart instructional boards are common in most classrooms now. What still remains uncommon is teachers utilizing these resource as they should be utilized. The technology is there, what remain is the will to use it. Of course, there are serious obstacles to the use of these technologies besides the knowledge and inclination to do so. Change is difficult and for many the time required to change the method and style of instruction after many years is a large hurdle indeed. In many instances the administration itself does not make use of technology a school priority, so we all just go along as we have been. Of course, that must change. We must embrace these technologies in order to not only engage our students but to prepare them for a world in which use of these same technologies will be an everyday affair. So how will we learn what technologies are available to us, and what will we do to integrate these technologies into our classroom instruction? This class is a great start. In Technology in Education we are exposed to various technologies and are given a vision for how to implement these into our instruction. We can also spend time with our district’s technology department. They love to talk about the tools they provide and even what their plans for future technology additions are. Another great resource is the district curriculum directors. They tend to be research oriented and up to date on new technologies and the strategies to use them. So let us put in the time required. I plan to experiment with flipped classroom. I plan to have one unit per semester as a test case. I plan to explain it to students, parents and administrators in preparation and expect no opposition. I plan to more heavily utilize our teacher websites as a communication tool for parents as well as students. Chapter 2 Question 21. Different students have different learning styles and their learning styles influence their learning. As a teacher, you should understand your students learning styles when preparing for classes. Discuss your understanding on different learning styles and its influence on learning. Learning styles refer to the way in which and the conditions under which we learn the best. Learning styles are individual, we each have our own preferred learning style. Learning Styles are broken down into three primary ways of learning, auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Auditory learners thrive and learn through listening and speaking. Auditory learners tend to think through things before speaking and in doing so can reach a deeper level of understanding of the material. They enjoy hearing the material explained and also benefit from discussing material or making a presentation. Visual learners need to see the material to take it in through visual senses. For these learners the material hits home best under these conditions. Visual learners like to read material and also see a task demonstrated. The kinesthetic learner learns by doing. This learner is a true hands-on learner. These learners prefer to see it in action and can have trouble visualizing it until they get their hands on it, then it becomes clear for them. School districts have good classification tools available so that we can know the preferred learning style of each of our students. I say the preferred style because we can all learn in all different ways and should use all different ways. We all just tend to do better in our preferred learning style. As teachers we know we will have all three learning styles in our classroom and need to keep that in mind as we prepare lesson materials. Auditory learner enjoy lecture and discussion. A recorded lecture on the teacher website is an excellent tool for these learners as they can go back and listen to explanations and material presentation over and over again. Having auditory learners prepare presentations and teach-back material is effective for these learners. For visual learners, PowerPoint slide decks are great, full of charts and graphs and pictures. Labs and interactive simulations are where kinesthetic learners thrive and can have hands-on activities. Chapter 3 Question 1Instructional planning is a skill every educator at every grade level must master. To integrate technology into instruction, a logical, sequential approach is needed to help teachers to clarify which technologies are most useful and at what points they should be included in the process. Discuss Design-Plan-Act (DPA) system – what it is, how the three distinct planning components of DFA differ, and why it is helpful to use a system approach to integrate technology? Instructional planning is the task every teacher must perform and the skill with which we do so often decides the quality of our lessons and directly affects outcomes. The Design-Plan-Act system (DPA) is an organizing approach to instructional planning that allows teachers to break down a unit of material into sequential lessons to achieve required learning objectives. This logical, sequential approach also gives teachers the ability to choose technologies that are appropriate to the lessons. 1. Design – Breaking down the instructional unit into the content we will teach and sequence in which we will do so. 2. Plan – Breaking down units into daily lesson plans in a sequential fashion. This is the most detailed step where teachers will choose the teaching and literacy strategies and technologies to be used. 3. Act - Develop an instructional action for each daily lesson DPA is a very organized approach to unit planning and give teachers the ability to break down units into logical, sequential steps. Inside this approach teachers can choose technologies that fit the overall plan. Hello, I’m John Oglesby and I teach Chemistry and Physics. This is a blog site for IDT-645, Technology in Education at the University of Southern Mississippi. I’m in the MAT program here at USM, an Alternate Route Teaching program while teaching Chemistry and Physical Sciences at Richland High School in Rankin County, MS.
The photo above is my and my family on a fishing trip. I'm the one with the goofy hat. Week 1: Introduction Work Experience: My work experience is quite varied. I’ve just started my third career. I tell my kids that I’m still deciding what I’ll do when I grow up. With any luck I’ll never grow up and just keep doing things I like. I really think that teaching could be it though. There aren’t too many professions where you get a chance every day to make a difference in someone’s life. I’m proud to be a teacher and want to keep getting better. This class will help. Here are the bullet point details:
Learning Experiences online – My only experience with online classes has been in my course work here at USM. This is my fifth online class. It’s taken some time to get accustomed to on-line classes but I’m getting there. It takes longer for those of us who grew up with rotary phones. Technology back then was a really long telephone cord. Technology Software Skills: I have used all the office tools and am quite familiar with these in a business environment. My use of technology in a classroom setting during my first year of teaching was rather limited. I look forward to learning more about incorporating technology into my classroom. Electronic Communication Tools: My experience in this area ends with email and texts. This is where I hope to learn the most. The effective use of these tools to communicate with parents as well as with students seems to me to be most helpful. New Tech Tools in Education: I have used online simulations and games in the classroom but I must say that my use and knowledge in this area are limited. I’m looking forward to learning though, and I see great value in using new tools. The kids today are all tech savvy and use of these tools will add to my teaching effectiveness. Teaching Philosophy: I will use any tool, any strategy, any method at my disposal to engage and reach my students. I am committed to continually learning and getting better every class period. Teaching is a wonderful profession and my students deserve my best effort every day. Student Blogs:
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