When I took my first technology course I was honestly terrified. I believed that I knew the basic skills of technology, and I didn't know why it was important for me to learn anything more. I knew how to type a paper, research on google, and email- honestly what more could I learn. After my class I was honestly so impressed with what I had taken away with me. I honestly had no idea how important it was for me, as a teacher, to integrate technology into my classroom. I now know that technology integration is not just knowing the basic computer skills or software. It is so much more than that.
I cannot even begin to tell you how important it is to learn technology integration for my classroom. I think it is so important to become knowledgeable on technology, because everything is going technology based. That is just the way it is. As a teacher we have to remember that technology integration is not just about knowing the basic computer skills just like the article stated. If I am not knowledgeable on this subject then I am cheating my students out from so much. Children these days are in school for the majority of their time during the days. If they are not exposed to technology or technology integration at all then how will they ever be? It is as important for students to become technology literate as it is for me to become this way. I believe that there are things that I need to learn or do before I become a teacher, so that way I can better myself as a teacher.
I believe one hundred percent that every teacher should be using technology integration in their classroom, and if they are not using it to some extent then they are cheating their students out of knowledge that they need to be obtaining. One of the most important things that I think the student should be learning is the collaboration part of technology. It is such a great tool for the students to be using and learning. However, I think that if students are not exposed to this they will never get the opportunity to learn it. I had no idea about Google Docs or anything like that until I took the media classes here. It is so important that I keep furthering my knowledge with technology and improve the skills that I am not as strong on. I learned from almost every video, article and standard that as a teacher it is so important for me to be a lifelong learner on technology. As a teacher I will use technology integration in my classroom, because I believe it is so important for students.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Lessons Learned
I think one of my biggest concerns after reading and watching all of these articles and videos is that truly everything is going technology based, and I am worried that students are not being educated enough on technology. From my field experiences in the past I have learned that not very many teachers, especially the ones who have been there for a long time, integrate technology into their classrooms. I think that this is such a fault, especially the way things are going these days with technology EVERYTHING. One thing that I was glad I learned was the NET standards of educational technology. It was a great plus to see what my strengths and weaknesses are considering these standards. I think it is so important for me to become experts on all these standards so I can promote them in my classroom.
I also learned that when we use technology, as a teacher, it is our responsibility to know that integrating technology is more than just teaching the basic computer skills. I believe that too many teachers out there feel that if they have their students attend a keyboarding class that this is enough technology integration, and this is FALSE! Technology integration should support these components of learning: active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction, and connection to real-world experts. I think it was so important for me to realize that technology integration is so much more than just the basic skills, and in order for me to adequately integrate technology I must be sure to support these four components of learning. This way I am deepening and enhancing the learning of all my students.
I think that this assignment was extremely important to make me aware of my strengths, this way I do not spend so much time in these areas that I am good at. Also, it made me aware of my weaknesses so that way I can spend time in these areas and better prepare myself for these. I think the most important thing that I have learned through this experience is that technology is never going to stop improving and changing. It is so important for me, as a teacher, to continue to become a lifelong student of technology. I need to continue to learn the latest and greatest to make sure I know it well enough to educate my students on it. The video "Did You Know" really opened my eyes, and made me realize that it is my responsibility to continue to grow and enhance my learning on technology or else I will be completely drowned with all the technology, which is not fair to the education of my students. I must continue to learn to the best of my ability so I can integrate technology and teach my future students all about technology.
I also learned that when we use technology, as a teacher, it is our responsibility to know that integrating technology is more than just teaching the basic computer skills. I believe that too many teachers out there feel that if they have their students attend a keyboarding class that this is enough technology integration, and this is FALSE! Technology integration should support these components of learning: active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction, and connection to real-world experts. I think it was so important for me to realize that technology integration is so much more than just the basic skills, and in order for me to adequately integrate technology I must be sure to support these four components of learning. This way I am deepening and enhancing the learning of all my students.
I think that this assignment was extremely important to make me aware of my strengths, this way I do not spend so much time in these areas that I am good at. Also, it made me aware of my weaknesses so that way I can spend time in these areas and better prepare myself for these. I think the most important thing that I have learned through this experience is that technology is never going to stop improving and changing. It is so important for me, as a teacher, to continue to become a lifelong student of technology. I need to continue to learn the latest and greatest to make sure I know it well enough to educate my students on it. The video "Did You Know" really opened my eyes, and made me realize that it is my responsibility to continue to grow and enhance my learning on technology or else I will be completely drowned with all the technology, which is not fair to the education of my students. I must continue to learn to the best of my ability so I can integrate technology and teach my future students all about technology.
Strengths & Weaknesses
I feel that my strengths according to the UNI survey are the Basic Technology Equipment Operations and Concepts. The one concern I had on part one was the "demonstrate awareness of resources for adaptive assistive devices for students with special needs"- I answered that I was an apprentice at this meaning that I have observed assistive devices in use; however, I feel that this is one of my weaknesses because I do not feel like a practitioner or expert on them yet. The second part of the survey I felt that I had a little less knowledge on. There was only one whole section that I felt I could be an expert on it was "tools to access information." There were some in particular that I felt like I need to work on. The are using video conferencing to communicate with others, using databases, using spreadsheets. I marked novice on all of these selections, and I feel that I should be come better introduced to these topics.
I feel that according to the NET standards I have both weaknesses and strengths. Some of my strengths would be demonstrating continual growth in technology knowledge and skills, apply technology to develop students' higher order skills and creativity, designing developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies, use technology resources to engage an ongoing professional development, apply technology to increase productivity, use technology to communicate and collaborate with peers. I need to work on a couple categories in order to become a more knowledgeable teacher. I think that I need to better learn how to use technology in assessment and evaluation, I need to learn more about the social, ethical, legal, and human issues (that way I am down pact and can teach my future students correctly). These are the two that I feel the least educated on.
Some goals that I would like to make according to the results I have learned from this research would be become more knowledgable on the social, ethical, legal and human issues with technology use, learning spreadsheets and tools like this better, and also learn how to better use technology in assessments and evaluations of the students. On UEN I found a couple of workshops that would help me better my knowledge on some of these goals. The first workshop is Excel 2007 for teachers held March 2 and 3. I think that this workshop would be me because it could help me better my knowledge my skills on spreadsheets to calculate and display information properly. I would really like to better my knowledge on this tool so that way I could share this knowledge with my future students and classes. Also, I think it would help me with certain tasks as a teacher to calcuate information and display data. The second workshop I found will help me continue my knowledge on the social, ethical, legal, and human issues standard. The workshop is Internet Safety for Educators held on Janurary 31. I think that this workshop would help me because one the the main objectives of this standard is promoting safe and healthy use of technology. I would love to learn safe ways to use technology so that way I can share this with my students. This way everytime we were using technology we could do it in a safe and healthy manner.
I feel that according to the NET standards I have both weaknesses and strengths. Some of my strengths would be demonstrating continual growth in technology knowledge and skills, apply technology to develop students' higher order skills and creativity, designing developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies, use technology resources to engage an ongoing professional development, apply technology to increase productivity, use technology to communicate and collaborate with peers. I need to work on a couple categories in order to become a more knowledgeable teacher. I think that I need to better learn how to use technology in assessment and evaluation, I need to learn more about the social, ethical, legal, and human issues (that way I am down pact and can teach my future students correctly). These are the two that I feel the least educated on.
Some goals that I would like to make according to the results I have learned from this research would be become more knowledgable on the social, ethical, legal and human issues with technology use, learning spreadsheets and tools like this better, and also learn how to better use technology in assessments and evaluations of the students. On UEN I found a couple of workshops that would help me better my knowledge on some of these goals. The first workshop is Excel 2007 for teachers held March 2 and 3. I think that this workshop would be me because it could help me better my knowledge my skills on spreadsheets to calculate and display information properly. I would really like to better my knowledge on this tool so that way I could share this knowledge with my future students and classes. Also, I think it would help me with certain tasks as a teacher to calcuate information and display data. The second workshop I found will help me continue my knowledge on the social, ethical, legal, and human issues standard. The workshop is Internet Safety for Educators held on Janurary 31. I think that this workshop would help me because one the the main objectives of this standard is promoting safe and healthy use of technology. I would love to learn safe ways to use technology so that way I can share this with my students. This way everytime we were using technology we could do it in a safe and healthy manner.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Edel 3250 Service Learning Project
Crissa Whiting & Ashley McDonald
EDEL 3250:004
Our school is located in Springville which is in Nebo School District. This school is a Title 1 school. There is a total of 611 students and 306 of them get free lunch. In our 6th grade classroom there was 27 students. Out of the 27 students there were 10 Hispanics and the rest were Caucasian. Our cooperating teacher was Mrs. Peck.
We feel that our relationship with our cooperating teacher was really great. She trusted us enough to allow us to take over many of the tasks during the day while we were there. We were able to gain a great experience from field, and we feel like we have learned so much more by going to the elementary school and applying what we have learned this semester in class.
Our cooperating teacher felt that our digital story went very well, and that the children really enjoyed the technology piece. She felt that it gave them a new experience. Mrs. Peck thought it was really great that we used the digital story because it gave the students a great visual aid which helps them learn and comprehend so much more. She also felt that the students participated so much more because it was something that they enjoyed learning and watching.
Our cooperating teacher was very thrilled with the way the lesson ended up. She told us that because it was a new experience for the children that she felt that they would be able to remember what they learned a lot better. Mrs. Peck also felt that the student participation increased in this lesson because the students were intrigued. We feel that from this lesson our teacher really gained the appreciation for technology, and how much it can really add to a lesson. She strongly believes in visual aids for her lessons so she was glad to see how many visual aids we actually used for the students.
We feel that the training session went very well. Mrs. Peck said that she was so glad to be able to learn something new about technology. We feel that is was so nice to be able to teach our cooperating teacher about PhotoStory 3 because now she will have more technology tools to choose from in the future. Our cooperating teacher was very intrigued throughout the whole training session, and she was taking notes the whole time. This helped us realize that she really was interested in learning about new technology skills. This is in turn made us feel very happy that we could broaden her technology skills/tools.
We felt that this was a great opportunity to share our knowledge of technology with our cooperating teacher, Mrs. Peck. Mrs. Peck and the school for that matter did not use or have a lot of technology in the classrooms. When we used technology in our lesson we felt like our students responded really well to the technology being used. We were happy to share our knowledge of digital stories with Mrs. Peck because it is a great and easy tool to know how to use. We also hope by teaching our teacher about digital stories that she will use them in her classroom more to have a change in teaching more often.
Mrs. Peck gained knowledge of how to create a digital story. She learned about PhotoStory 3 which is an awesome FREE tool for anyone to use. She also learned a new way of technology and how to integrate it into her future lessons.
We now have a better knowledge of how to create a digital story and how to use PhotoStory 3. We learned better by teaching some one else and we were more then happy to share our knowledge that we gained. It was also nice to share our knowledge because it showed Mrs. Peck how much effort we put into the digital story and how much we enjoy using technology to teach.
We feel like this service learning opportunity was worth it because we gained a stronger knowledge of digital stories and how to create one. It was also worth it because Mrs. Peck now has a new way to teach her class and future classes. Where our future students are becoming more and more involved with technology it helps to show our students that we are in tune with technology and enjoy it’s benefits as well.
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