Distance Learning

I am a huge fan of distance learning, I was involved with a program and Provo High School where I earned most of my associates degree. First of all, I liked distance learning because I only had to pay for the required text for the class and there were no tuition fees. I saved thousands of dollars doing distance learning and I would recommend it to anyone that is ready. I was in a small classroom where there were usually only two or three of us. We had microphones on every desk that you could turn on and talk to the teacher. The teacher had a microphone on their shirt and there was a camera on us and the teacher. There were students in my class from all over Utah, there were about three hundred in my math 1010 class. We submitted our assignments by faxing or on Black Board. Personally, I liked this because I learned a lot of invaluable lessons as I began to learn how to be a college student. One of the only draw backs I see to distance learning is that the student needs to be self regulated. If the student cannot budget their time wisely or find the motivation to do assignments, they will sink. In a classroom setting I see distance learning as a great networking device. The students can be connected to hundreds or thousands of other students at once. I would like to see distance learning available in the elementary level because there are students who are not able to make it to the classroom. If a student is sick or if they are very ill for a long period of time they do not need to fall behind. Often times if there was a game or match that I had to play in, I could record the class and watch it at a later time. A student could still keep up with the class and not fall behind. Students that are ill feel the need to still be on the same page as their peers and this would be a great way to stay connected, going at the speed they are able and feeling inclusion. Distance learning is also a great way for accelerated students who are board in class. If and when they find their niche that they are excited and engaged about there should be distance learning to help with the void felt in the regular education classroom. This would also help the teacher find ways to challenge the student and will be invaluable for the student as they increase their knowledge. I feel that distance learning is a great tool and should be recognized in the education system as a benefit instead of a burden. Also, if a student is thriving under distance learning, they will gain a sense of independence and communication which will help students through out their lives.

Elmo Projector

Transparencies are no more! The Elmo projector can take the image off of paper and project onto the screen. There is no need for outdated transparent paper and the result of getting the image on the screen is faster than ever before. They will pay themselves off over the years because making transparent copies for a classroom costs more money. The Elmo projector can focus in on an image for example, if you had a picture of your face, you can focus down to your eye or the texture of your skin. Something that is invaluable that in my field experience taught me, the teacher had one in her class and she could instantly show the work of a student that did what she asked on an assignment. If this where a couple of years ago, the teacher would have to take the students work to the copy machine and make a copy that wouldn't come out as good as the image from the Elmo. The use of the Elmo in a classroom will be frequent at it adjusts to light and darkness, shows color and focuses it's self automatically. An old overhead projector has to be manually focused and is bulky in size. The Elmo is sleek in size and for the Elmo EV-2000AF LCD Projector with 24 times the zoom is 1,593 dollars (information found at http://www.bizrate.com/projectors/products__keyword--elmo+projectors.html). This does cost more than the old fashion projector, however, they have a longer shelf life and save time. With time being one of the teachers worst enemy, we need the Elmo on our side. Something that I found significant in my field work is that during a book report, the students were assigned to make a mini version of the book. The students were able to show everyone their mini book on the Elmo which projected it on to the screen. It saved time and made the students feel important because their work was shown to every member in the class. I feel that even if the Elmo has to be shared among grade levels at the least, it should become a household name at schools around the world.

My Beliefs

My beliefs with technology are simple. I think that there should be technology in every classroom, being used an not collecting dust. There should be every resource exhausted to make sure that there is newest technology in the classroom for the next generation in the workforce. Something that I found in my field experience is that in the area that I was in, the teacher had a technology grant. There was a lot of technology in the classroom, however, the classroom was not organized in a way that the technology could be used effectively. If I were to have the technology that my cooperating teacher had, I would not let it collect dust and make it usable. Often times the Elmo could not be used unless you moved the pile of papers that were on it. I think that technology is a wonderful resource to have in the classroom and it is important for students to have in the classroom. With this classroom, they get used to the technology that is in the classroom, what happens when they go to the next grade and they are left with just a pencil and paper? They loose those vital skills that they have learned the year before. That is why we need to have the same technology available in every grade.
I personally believe that technology has made my life better in every aspect. There are always resources to find whatever you are in need of. I think that it is unfortunate that there are grants and virtually free money out there towards technology going to waste. We should take full advantage of that. I think that as we are an ever changing society, the use of technology in the classroom should change too. As we start to get younger generation teachers in the classroom I feel that there will be a better understanding and there will be a different control of technology. I like the idea of having an international network. Not the old fashion pen pal but the digital pal that is available all hours with just a touch of a button. I am grateful to be living in the time that I am because I feel that technology has been a great light to education and I hope that soon in the future, it will be more of a constant, and not a sporadic tool.

Lessons Learned

I learned a lot from the videos and articles that I read concerning the needs of this generation of learners. I thought that the article named Millenials was one of the most informative for me. I liked hearing the words of the students wanting a smaller devices and more digital world in education to get them ready for the real world. I liked the Motorola sponsored video with the interviews of students, when I was hearing them, I thought that I need to step up my knowledge of technology. My main concern for students in the education system now is that there needs to be a consistent use of more technology in every classroom. In order to help the students we teach, they need to have a better basis of technology when they get into the real world. I think that we need to be willing to accept that students we teach know more about technology than we do. However, we need to have the resources available for our students and watching the video with the school that used the technology to monitor heart rates of cheerleaders made that important for me. I like that the school took the technology of heart monitoring a step further by having the algebra II students to analyze the data.
Something that I think would be the best for technology in schools is the virtual lab. Not only are gas prices in factor, students who are house bound or sick can use the same resources as students who are physically at the school. Also, with the virtual lab, there can be wireless updates and the programs can be continually updated with out having to buy a new device every couple of years. This was a lesson learned because I need to be more open to technology that I can't physically see. Behind the scenes is where I feel technology will thrive as updates are made and ever changing. I think that it is important to involve students in technology and not have them be the viewers of technology. While technology is ever changing, so are the students we are going to be teaching. This should not be a factor to not use technology it should be a reason to let it thrive in our classroom.

Strengths and Weaknesses

My strengths with technology in the UNI survey where eye opening to me. I was apprentice on most of the questions when I expected to be higher. I have taken many technology classes, I was involved in distance learning in high school and got most of my associates through that service. I had to do many things online and I feel that I know all of the basic functions computers and Internet. I also like to record songs with my guitar, and I know the basics of the programs involved with that. I feel that I can look up ways to troubleshoot effectively and don't need a lot of guidance when given an assignment. On the UNI survey, I needed more experience with video conferencing, making educational websites, video recordings and databases. In regards to the video recording, I prefer a camera instead of a video camera, thus I do not have as much experience with it. If money were no object for me, I am sure I would be better and video recording. I need more experience with databases and how they work, and how to back them up. I haven't had much experience with databases either because I save most of my items online.
My goals for the classroom regarding technology are high compared to my standards. I want to write a grant to have the most technology possible with the most free dollars I can find. I would like to have a smartboard, elmo and a laptop Mac lab that I can use for any subject. When I teach technology I want the students to be involved. I do not want any of the instruction to be direct because the students will not make the technology their own. I like the idea of having a digital set of text books because they can be updated at will with out having to have a reprinted version. I think that having these items in the classroom will help me with my weakness of databases because I will have to know the programs database to update the programs. To help with my video recording weaknesses, I would like to take a videography class to record our experiments. I think that putting together educational websites will come with research like the webquest website that we watched on teacher tube. I think that I will assess the needs of my classroom in order to make webquests and digital stories according to what they are studying.

Webquests

Learning how to do a webquest is a very good teacher tool and one that I think that will become one of my most often used tools. As my group and I have been going through the process, we have come up with a lot of good ideas. Along with the Digital Stories, you can make webquests fit any subject matter you are teaching. That is a very useful tool in my eyes. If there is something that you are teaching and want a good hook to engage the students, webquests are the way to go. I personally think that I will utilize my time by making webquest. Not only are they discovery learning based, which is a good strategy because the students own the subject, they are very useful to incorporate other skills as well, like reading comprehension. Using webquests in a classroom will be very time efficient for student learning, which time is the worst enemy in the classroom. I can see myself using webquests because I can make them fit the needs of the learners in my classroom. There can be different levels of webquests and each student can learn the same information at the speed appropriate for them. This will also make it possible for accelerated students to cure the everlasting case of boredom because they will be given different tasks from the majority of the class. The same is for the diverse learners that need accommodations to the webquest. Having different variations with webquests on the same subject will be private and students will feel comfortable being more accelerated or accommodated because they won't be doing different subject matter. It will be the same, with different tasks. I really am enjoying making our webquest because we are doing a kindergarten sight word webquest and we are recording the instructions which will make it user friendly for younger grades. I am really excited to implement this tool in the classroom. I hope the school will be accommodating to my needs of technology and the students will engage in learning better with the use of webquests. I found in my field experience when we did a condensed version of a webquest that they were engaged because they made it their own. Discovering something for themselves really gives the students a sense of power and for the teacher, a mobility to use it in any subject.

Technology Interview

1. What did you learn from this interview?

I learned that the technology in the classroom has a lot to do with the grants you are able to apply for or write and the socioeconomic status of the area you are in. I was very impressed with the technology in our school and classroom. It was more than I have seen in a school before. They have two computer labs and that are well used. There is time before school and after school that students can use the lab for free time. The teacher can check out the lab for their own use and it is readily available. I really liked having that lab to my disposal. When ever we had to spend more time on a webquest it was there. One thing that I was turned off my this schools outlook towards technology is that the technology specialist said that she felt it was the responsibility to the parent to teach the students to use e-mail. Even thought it is a standard for the district, she just shows the students how to e-mail once and then she is done with that. I know that it is a basic function to technology and students already know how for the most part. It was just her attitude towards the students and technology. I feel that students are more engaged with technology when they use it, verses viewing it. She claims that she does not allow the students to e-mail because she cannot control the content of the e-mails. I thought that was a poor attitude towards embracing technology and hopefully things will change in the future.

2. How will this experience affect you as a teacher?


This experience was definitely eye opening because we were in a high income area and there was a lot of technology in our school. Not to mention just our class, the school had two computer labs. I can picture myself being in a school like this. The teacher was able to have a grant that allowed her to have a smart board, Elmo and projector. She used the technology to help the students connect with any subject and it was very fun for the students to draw on the smart board or have everyone see their work on the Elmo without having to make a transparency. I feel in love with the technology in the school I was at, however, I would have had better placement for the technology that was in the classroom we were in. The teacher was not organized and it was hard to use the technology sometimes because it was not accessible because of clutter. I also would have the smart board in a better place. The teacher did not utilize the space in the classroom because the smart board is ideal for any situation besides sticking something on it like a magnet or post it note. I did a lesson where we had the students write on post it notes and there was only a 2 foot by 2 foot area on the whiteboard to put all of the post it notes. I would have put the smart board over five feet and it would utilize the space better. I really liked that the teacher incorporated the students with technology by asking them to draw graphs on the smart board or having the students use it for presentations.

3. How did this experience change your thinking about the use of technology?


This experience was eye opening for me because it made me want the technology that was in that classroom very badly. I found that I would really like to have that type of situation in my school with having two computer labs and the technology in my classroom. The students are getting computers in a couple weeks that are just for their class. The possibilities are endless with technology because of all the freedom it brings. If your class does not have manipulative blocks for math you can find one that is online and have your students do it on a computer. I also noticed that the students were very engaged with the activities that had to do with technology. I felt like as I was teaching the students were more engaged with what they were learning because it was something that they could relate to. I also learned that when your lesson calls for technology you need to have the students fully involved because they are so far a head of you. Direct instructing students with technology is a big mistake because they will quickly disengage and will not learn as much if they are discovering and doing it on their own. I really would like to learn more about grants so I can have technology readily accessible in my classroom and I learned a lot of valuable things about it in my field experience.

Saying "Good Bye" to the Smart Board...

After the privilege of using the Smart Board and the Elmo, I had to say good bye. It was a great experience learning how to use this technology and it was a lot of fun. Something I noticed is that when you are teaching something with technology it is important that it is not direct instruction. We are working with digital natives here and they have to be hands on to be on the level of understanding, because they know more than we do. I am very impressed that whenever there was a problem with a students' computer an other student was already fixing or knew what to do. I am very grateful for the experience to have learning this strategy of teaching with technology because I don't want students to ever find technology boring. I was glad we did the webquests in our class because in the final project I did the students mostly said things that they learned on their own on the webquest discovering it on their own. I am glad that I learned the students did better actually doing it instead of just being showed the site and me telling them what to do. It was harder to have all of the material for all five of the civilizations for every lesson, however, discovering their own was the most beneficial of them all. I am glad that technology played a role in the discovery because the students were able to connect with the abstract of ancient times better to their daily life. Some students even engaged with their civilization they did research online at home and the next day came to me with facts about the civilization. I am also grateful for the school I was at because they have two computer labs, which made for easy access. It was never a problem to schedule it and I am glad that those students have access to the lab before and after school. The students do use the lab to their advantage. I never was able to see the students that were there before school, but there were some that were there after school. Overall I had a good experience and I learned a lot from the experience. One thing that stands out to me is that nothing EVER goes as planned. Nothing is more constantly than change and I definitely learned that there had to always be a plan B.

Technical Difficulty

I had my students do a webquest this week on ancient civilizations and it was very difficult to find sites that were modest. It was the strict request of our cooperating teacher to have modest art. It is very difficult to have an Ancient Greece webquest that doesn't have a naked statue or something like that. Anyway I finally make a webquest for the five ancient civilizations that I am doing and the whole time even though I knew that the sites were "kid friendly" my heart was racing that they would navigate to something and I would be the one to blame. Even though I knew that they were good. It is interesting to be in an area that is very conservative. I remember when I was in 6th grade that we looked at picture after picture because our teacher explained. I don't think harmful, however, I am complying with my teacher and area of students. I also had a glitch with technology this week when I was trying to put my rubric for a presentation on the Elmo. Our teacher has a very disorganized station where she keeps her technology like laptop, elmo, remotes and it also has piles of paper etc... So I felt like I was invading personal space when I was clearing off some of the papers because I couldn't get the paper to lay straight. Needless to say I love of the technology our teacher has in the classroom, I would just set things up different.
I also like that the computer teacher in our school really enforces typing. She doesn't use technology just for games. Each student is individually tested which I think is interesting because in my elementary we were graded by our class average. I think it was just easier on the teacher. One thing I didn't like about the teacher is that one of the standards for the school is to learn how send e-mails. She does a presentation on how to send an e-mail and doesn't have the kids manually do it. I think it is sorta weird they do it that way, she also said it was the parents responsibility to teach their children to e-mail. I thought that was an interesting outlook.

SMARTBOARD MANIA!!!!

I touched a smart board for the first time in my life at it was AMAZING!!! I want one so so so bad there are so many things you can do with one. We drew pie graphs of the election on the smart board and they students are able to save the work they do on one. Unlike a real board that once it is wiped it is gone for ever, no with the smart board. You can save the work you did on the board as an image and then add to it later. It is amazing. Also, not to mention the marker doesn't run out or you can have any color you image as a marker. Also, with our technology rich lesson we were able to pull up a website on indigenous people, which is the unit we are teaching. It was great to be able to pull up the definition on the projector and compare the sites definition with the definition we made up. I loved using the smart board because you can do so many things with it. It took me a little getting use to the tools of the smart board. The kids really think it is cool. When you call someone up to use it you can see the excitement in their eyes. If I were to have a smart board in my classroom I would have it in a different position in my classroom. The way our teacher has it now it is kind of in the way, and not all the students can really see what is going on. So either, she needs to move her seating or the board. I am sure it is easier to move the seating, but anyway that is my opinion. I really liked being able to do a power point in our lesson because we were able to show things to the whole class at once. That is also like the Elmo that is in our classroom. The teacher is able to show the whole class a student who did a good job on an assignment and make things clear to the whole class on the spot instead of having to make a transparency. I have taught two times and it is going really well. The kids are really smart and they are good at taking instructions which is great. Being in this classroom has taught me some things that I know for sure I will not have. Our teacher is a MESS. She has piles of papers all across the room and in order for me to even use the Elmo, I had to clear a space for me to even lay something under it flat. Needless to say she is disorganized, but it has taught me a lot of things just being there for one week.

Technology in The Classroom

At my school that I am assigned, I feel like it is hard to have a technology rich lesson plan that is super new and exciting to the students. They have a projector, smart board, Elmo, surround system, digital cameras and laptops. So to say the least, a technology rich lesson plan can totally happen, it is just that I want something that is new and exciting. I feel like I would be able to incorporate all of those things into a lesson, I feel like the students will have a "so what?" attitude. I'll have to ask my teacher how she keeps things new and exciting because I am excited about the opportunity to learn how to use all of this stuff. I am most excited about the Elmo right now because we won't have to make over head transparencies. I really like that our teacher is just letting us role with all of these resources in her classroom because I could see someone being protective over it. I think that I would be like that, just because you want things to last, even though technology is ever changing. In psychology, we learned about 5th and 6th grade classes in Nebo school district that have wiki's that they are able to talk about their homework outside of class and help each other. I really like that idea of making a community of learners digitally. It will allow for shy personalities to shine through and students will be able to learn from each other, which is where the best learning happens.

Online Access

Learning Google Sites has opened up the possibilities for contact as a teacher. This is a great way to keep the parents of your students informed about what is going on. The sites you can make are endless to the possibilities that you can create on keeping parents up to date on what is going on in your class. I like the idea of the Home Page being a way of welcome, and you can have your contact on the very first thing they see. That is easy access which is a great tool for those people who really need to get a hold of you for some reason or another. I really like the announcements page and calendar page. This is what will keep a classroom moving smoothly because the parents can get updates on what is going on or what they are responsible for. This is also a great outline for a teacher as well. I like to be organized and this is a great way to keep everyone on the same page. Not only for events coming up but for classroom instruction as well. I like the Homework page as more of a reminder for the student. I think it would be fun that they student would have to go home an get their assignment instead of just getting it the old fashion way on paper. It would be neat to have links the students could use for homework help and really practice rather than learn new things. I think children of this day would really open their minds up to something digitally rather than having to do homework in a way that is not practical for them. This is something that they will for surely be using in the real world and I like the possibilities of having this site for classroom use. I thought it would be fun to have the students granted access to the site for a week and they can submit their book reports on the site and display it for the parents. We could also show this in class and just connect to our site. I see this way of doing a book report a lot more eye catching for students then the old poster. Sure students will have the same information on this, it will just be in a cooler hip form.

Digital Story (continued...)

So we have put the final touches on our digital story, the experience was very good for us. I really feel like if you wanted to integrate technology in a fun and inviting way, this is a good for that. I thought that our story came together well and I particularly liked learning the Audacity program. It is amazing what you can do with it. I really like that you have such mobility with it because you can put in so many aspects that you other wise can't in Photo story. I also thought that looking for music was one of the funnest parts because I really feel like music is the something in a story or movie that makes you feel what the person is trying to make you feel. I think that scary movies wouldn't be as scary with out the music; it just gets you in that anticipation mode. I thought that the music we chose was good for our story, it gives the feel of our topic. Also, it was really easy to find pictures, just it was hard narrowing down what you wanted, and what worked with the content. That was probably the hardest part for us. It was fun doing the recording and it was amazing that our microphone was so good. People were turning on the computers and it was making noise, there were printers printing and some really considerate people next to us were talking really loud. However none of that was picked up, which was really nice. I had fun with the recording too, it is always weird to hear your own voice played back to you.
Now to some other class content, my group for Classroom Management has decided to do a PowerPoint, no big deal. It was interesting to me to hear one of our group members say that when there is a PowerPoint she learns the content of what the other groups are trying to portray better than with out one. I thought it was interesting because not every class the teacher has a ready and waiting PowerPoint. That made me think that technology is not only tapping in to the visual learners it is tapping into the auditory too, like our digital story that has narration and music. I thought it was as good learning experience to hear how she learns, because that will help me in the future if there is a student that learns better with a PowerPoint then why not put one together for them.

Technology in the Classroom

So I went and met my cooperating teacher and her classroom ROCKS!! She has a super technology filled classrom. She got a grant where she has to take two years of classes and she has technology in her classroom in return. This grant is only for upper grades so they were able to have this technology implimented in their classroom. So she has some really cool things, like, a Smart Board, an Elmo, a PROJECTOR, digital cameras and hopefully by the time I am in her classroom the laptop cart is coming in November. It was so eye opening because she let us in her classroom while she took the students to the lunch room and I was looking around, I saw the celing and there was the projector. Then when she came back to explain what she wanted us to do and then she showed us around her classroom. She explained the Elmo, it is awesome! No more making transparencies you just put the picture on the Elmo and you can even zoom in to see the fibers in a shirt. I am really excited to learn how to use the Smart Board, she was saying that you can save lesson plans on it. Oh and also, her classroom has a sound system. A surround sound system. It was funny because she was explaining all of their resources like it was everyday for them. There are very few classrooms with the type of technology that hers has. Also something that I am excited about is that their school has two computer labs, one is for classes where they have a specialist and one is for check out. There are a lot of resources at this school and I am really excited to learn how it all works. I have only heard how cool the smart boards are but have never actually touched one. This is going to be fun!!

Digital Story Cont...

Earlier I talked about how as a teacher you could make Digital Stories to pertain to any content you need. I think that digital stories are a great tool because of this flexibility to do anything with them. If you can't find an interesting way to present a topic or can't find a video to go along with a unit of topic you are introducing, you could make a digital story. The only drawback I see to this is that it is time consuming. If you weren't able to find time to squeeze this in, it could be difficult to get the quality of digital story you want. I think that this would be a great as a project for older grades, I personally would want students to do one on a topic that we are studying however, I think it would be fun to see what they would choose as a student choice topic. The only draw back I see to this is, in elementary school, everyone shares the computer lab, unlike high school, or my high school each subject (English, math, and science) all had their own lab and then we had an additional lab. So there was always a computer lab that you could check out. In the elementary schools that I have been in, the have one lab that you get to use once a week. However, I really want to get a laptop station grant so that my class or as a grade we could have our own so that we could have the opportunity to actually use these great tools.
I think that this digital story is going to be a lot of fun. My partner and I have started our story board and I really liked the sticky note idea. I really like the mobility because it doesn't have to be concrete because you can just move the sticky note. We are doing our digital story on volcanoes and I am enjoying relearning things about them. This is a great tool, I just hope that my classroom will be able to have the opportunity to use it.

Digital Story

This is a very helpful tool! I am scared by digital stories because I was just introduced to them, but I think that they are very useful. I really think that I would use them for introducing a topic or and event that I would be teaching. I have chosen Mount Vesuvius which is a volcano that erupted and preserved the community. There are pictures of the findings that I am going to put into my digital story and I think it would be an amazing way to show primary sources and really engage the students in the topics they learn. I have thought about just getting a video for lessons but you have to find one that really fits the learning content, so why not make a digital story that can be exactly what you want the content to be and the exact facts or details you want to have students know. I am really impressed by the digital stories we looked at in class, students did one of how their parents met, and how their family got to America with real photos. I really think this would be a fun project to do of your class. Each student could contribute a picture of themselves and facts about their life and we could make one up of all the students. I would use the digital stories to report information to any grade level, but for an assignment I would have upper grades make their own. This is a great tool because you can have your students do any subject matter in their digital stories. It would be fun to see what they would do as a topic that they chose and one that I gave them. I really think this would be a lot of fun and I am looking forward to learning more about them!

Web Page Mania

The class we had on Wednesday I found to be very helpful and easy. I really thought that this web page could be used for many aspects of the classroom. One idea that I thought would be fun would be the students could make a web page of a country that they wanted to visit. They could look up places and pictures online and then we would be able to show them on an overhead projector of what each student picked. That would be a lot more fun and interactive than a formal essay on a country. This would have to be done in older grades but younger grades could do something similar. I really like the idea of being able to have an open web page where others can't comment, it is just there for information or viewing purposes. As a teacher I think that I would have a personal web page that I would have my contact information for parents of my students. I think that this would be better than just passing out a piece of paper that is going to be lost, they know the URL they are able to find me. This is a great tool that I really want to use in the classroom. Another idea I had was that the students could do an invention or do something like start a fake business and make a web page on their business that was only for our class to view. Then we could go through each persons website and again, I think that this is more interactive and fun verses doing a traditional essay or project. It would make the students feel equal because they don't need to do anything at home, they can do it all in class time that is provided. Also, it will have more of a chance of getting done and getting to the classroom because it is an interactive, fun activity that is done in class and there is nothing physical to turn in so the students are going to have a better time doing it. Also those students who struggle with English can have a buddy system and they could make a group web page. I think that this is a great tool for teachers to know. It is easy and effective. One other thing I thought of is that you could make this into a portfolio of all of the things you have done over the year and it can show students progress. It would be a nice visual way that doesn't take up any space in your classroom for the end of the year (if your school allows it).

Yes I Love Technoloy.... Not as Much as You, You See

I think that using the wiki in class really helped me understand how I could use it in my classroom. I thought of an idea to use wiki and incorporate it in lessons related to science. I thought that we could go to a near by stream/pond and take pictures with digital cameras of the insects, plants and take samples of the water and take a picture of the sample. Then when we get back into the classroom we can upload our pictures and make a wiki of what is at the pond/stream by our school. This I find easier to do verses chatting on the document, however, I think that it is beneficial to use a a group planning a lesson or using a wiki in a lesson if at different times we are all uploading, creating, and adding to the wiki. Our group during class had a hard time getting synchronized with all of our ideas going different directions with our wiki. In lower grades I think making a community wiki is more realistic and in older grades they can make their own. Something I really like about the wiki is that you can use it with any subject in your class. I thought of something that an older class could do with a wiki that I did on a poster in sixth grade. On a poster we drew and wrote steps of how to do something in 5 sequences or less. I did "How to Hit a Golf Ball," then put the appropriate steps. Now on a wiki they could take pictures of the particular thing they are describing and then put it in sequences on their own personal wiki. I really think this has super potential to make concepts concrete.

Technology In the Classroom

I am really excited to start this class because I realize that as we are in the program not only our end of program assignment is electronic, our students will be electronic. I am amazed by my little sister who is seven. She can play games for fun and learn important facts on the internet. I remember I played a game at home when I was in fifth grade the game was called Jumpstart Fifth Grade. I put the knowledge I learned from that to good use. For example, in the game you had to move the mouse to stack boxes on top of each other or add fractions to make drinks and I thought that was really innovative! I was really suprised that when my sister who is seven, her game that she likes to play on the internet already does fractions and she is in second grade!!! So my thoughts of putting technology in the classroom is that it needs to be available. In my sisters school their second grade teachers wrote a grant so they were able to have two computer carts with laptops. So when they are doing math they connect on to a program they have on their laptop and add fraction pizza pies together or they can read a story that is on their laptop. The interesting thing about the way her teacher inplements it is that they mostly just use it for a reward. I think that that is wrong. They are rewarded by getting to use the laptops when I think they should be more integrated in the classroom. The sad thing I think is that they are used to having this technology now and when they hit third grade it is lost.