Welcome to the Future… In Educational Technology

When making my digital narrative, I felt that what I was discussing was a good summary of everything I had learned over the quarter in this class. I had a lot of fun taking pictures of my students actually using technology in the classroom, but I noticed some interesting things. I saw that students were very familiar with using some aspects of technology in the classroom, while other technologies are not so wide spread. For example, most high school students are fluent in most Microsoft office programs, including Word, Power Point and Excel. Students can surf the internet with ease, though have trouble with determining whether a site is reliable or not. I also did not see a wide use of blogging in the classroom. Although students are familiar with social networking with facebook, myspace and twitter, they do not really use blogging. Blogging can be used for student collaboration; students can teach each other by explaining a concept in their own words. As blogs are public, the students’ work is being published. Students will work much harder if they know their work is being read and scrutinized by their peers, and the rest of the online community (November, 2006). If I were to have students begin a blog for the creative stories we write about science concepts, they may work harder to make sure it is their best work, and we could even talk about other ways of publishing their stories. Incorporating these kind of projects for students fulfills EALR 1 component 1.1 and EALR 2, component 2.4 of The Educational Technology Learning Standards.

I feel that are doing a pretty good job of preparing our students for their future careers, but we can do more. I think introducing them to technologies such as wikispaces, videoconferencing, or even website building would benefit their preparation immensely. Technology classes in schools may do this, but I think all students should be given sufficient practice with these programs. I think if we keep working to incorporate problem solving and creativity, such as incorporating computer games (http://medmyst.rice.edu/) or real life simulations (http://www.youdagames.com/online-simulation-games/) into our teaching, we will have prepared our students very well for their future careers. This incorporation will fulfill EALR 1, component 1.3 and EALR 2, component 2.4 of The Educational Technology Learning Standards.

I think we do a good job of talking about multiculturalism in the classroom, but the only way our students learn first-hand is if a student in our class has traveled, or if a student has moved to the US from another country. Using services like global-leap.org, we could connect our classrooms across the globe. Students could work with students from another country to compare ecosystems surrounding their schools. For example, my mentor just did a lab with her IB Environmental Systems and Societies class where they studied the numbers of three types of trees in the environment surrounding Skyline High School, as well as looking at what other organisms and biotic factors are present. We could connect with a classroom in other country (for example, somewhere in England or Australia) and run the same experiment, comparing the ecosystems and making conclusions about why the ecosystems are similar or different. This project could be used to fulfill all components of EALR 1 of The Educational Technology Learning Standards.

Students are excited about using all the modern technologies available today, but they do not necessarily know the safest practices for using them. Our students need to know how to protect themselves and their identities against predators, especially those online because it may not be apparent that they are present. We can use interactive means, such as the PBS Official Web License. We can also help counteract cyber bullying by reminding students to report any name calling or mean commenting they encounter. These interactive means fulfill EALR 2, components 2.1 and 2.2 of The Educational Technology Learning Standards.

Often times, students respond more strongly to their peers than they do to authority figures, even if both are relaying the same message. If students can discuss legal, ethical and moral issues associated with modern technologies with each other, their thoughts may have a greater impact on each other than my own thoughts. This is probably one of the reasons the commercials countering pirated music now star children and teens. If we can have a serious class discussion about what students consider appropriate actions when it comes to using modern technology, such as creative content posted online, the students may consider looking at creative content differently than they have in the past. We want to see a change in their behavior and perceptions towards content posted online (Microsoft, 2008). These discussions would fulfill EALR 2, components 2.1 and 2.2 of The Educational Technology Learning Standards.

References:

Freedman, Terry. (2006). Coming of age: An introduction to the new world wide web. Great Britain: Terry Freedman Ltd.

Global Leap. (2006). Videoconferencing in the Classroom. Retrieved from: http://www.global-leap.org/about/.

Microsoft. (2008). Digital citizenship and creative content curriculum. Retrieved from: http://www.digitalcitizenshiped.com/Curriculum.aspx.

Public Broadcasting Company. (2007). Get your official web license. Retrieved from: http://pbskids.org/license/result.html?a1=n&a2=n&a3=n&a4=n&a5=n&a6=n&a7=n&a8=n&a9=n&a0=n&name=Kirstin&x=125&y=36.

Educational Technology Creed

For this narrative, I had a lot of fun taking pictures of my students actually using technology in the classroom. They got extremely excited when I was taking pictures of them working, and they kept trying to pose. This made it difficult not to get too much of their faces in the pictures. What I thought was interesting, was that as I was taking pictures, I saw that students were very familiar with using some aspects of technology in the classroom, while other technologies are not so wide spread. For example, most high school students are fluent in most Microsoft office programs, including Word, Power Point and Excel. Students can surf the internet with ease, though have trouble with determining whether a site is reliable or not.

I also noticed that students can be very excited by technology use in the classroom. even though we are doing the same demonstrations in class, students are much more excited when we watch the same demonstration on youtube.com. This is a neat technique to be aware of because there are many videos and simulations online that can be used to engage student interest.

I really enjoyed using Audacity and Windows Movie Maker to create this narrative. I was not familiar with either program, but both were very easy to use. I was even able to add in some music, something I was not sure was going to be possible because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to figure out how to use the programs. I love the animations for transitioning between pictures. It makes the movie much more interesting. I am glad that I needed to use programs I wasn’t familiar with because it reminded me how easy it can be to learn how to use really neat programs. I will remember this experience when I am looking for new things to do in the classroom, or need my students to make a cool documentary.

My script!

Innovation in the classroom

In the readings of this week, there was much information concerning introduction of new technologies into the classroom. There are many different ways to use innovative ideas and technologies in our classrooms. Many of them were very simple ideas while incorporating different technologies. I especially liked the project, scenario E, described on the NETS Implementation website. For this project, students are required to simulate an election, creating a campaign complete with pamphlets, stickers/buttons and flyers to handout, a speech containing a slogan, as well as a commercial made, in this case, with Photo Story 3. For this class, the project was a big success. Fortunately, each student had a laptop for their own use for the entire school year. This resource is not available to every school. Skyline High School, for example, does not have this kind of technology available to their students. I had students create a commercial for a specific organelle (small structure within the cell). I gave the students the option of using technology. Only one group (out of approximately 30 groups) chose to try to use technology, and then the commercial was messed up in editing, because all sound was lost. Although we have a very wealthy clientele at Skyline, we cannot assume that every student had access to all technology, especially specific software such as Microsoft Office, Photo Story 3, and Quark. Schools would need to have all technology that students would require for any project, and that is not always possible, especially in the current economy.

One thing we can do to incorporate technology that the school has access to in the classrooms is to give students class time to use the technologies required while brainstorming, collaborating and planning using free technologies at home, such as webinspiration and wridea. These technologies can allow students to do all their brainstorming and planning at home, while using their class time to actually work on the assignment, allowing more productive use of the time that students have with the technologies required for the assigned project. This would require students to have a computer and web access at home. At Skyline, this is not a problem. However, I could foresee issues with this at other schools.

It is very difficult to incorporate innovative technologies when schools have few resources. I think that there would need to be much in-class work planned in order to fulfill the technology standards. This would take much planning, especially to incorporate all subject material we must, according to the Washington state standards. This may be difficult, and I do not know whether it can be done, unless there are very few projects that incorporate technology. I would think that it is possible, but it would require a lot of planning, possibly including tutorials for each piece of software or technology we use. I think technology can be implemented if a teacher tries hard enough.

Resources:

Technology Operations and Concepts. (2009). Retrieved from ISTE Wikispace: http://nets-implementation.iste.wikispaces.net/Technology+Operations+and+Concepts.

Changing times

Technological advances have changed our society a lot in the last few years. Especially since the creation of social networking sites, such as facebook.com, myspace.com, and twitter.com, interaction on the internet has increased. Many teachers, including those at Skyline now have websites that allow students to keep up with their homework, print off class notes, or reference the power point for the current unit. Some keep up an additional social networking site (usually facebook.com) to interact with their students outside of class, such as answering questions about material and/or homework.

These sites can also be used to allow students to work on and complete group homework assignments or projects when they cannot get together outside school. Many times, the students’ schedules prevent them from getting together outside of school. This new technology will allow students to work from wherever they can, and even allow for students needing to work at separate times (Johnson et al. 2009). I think this gives students much more freedom to collaborate on assignments with other students.

Asking students to work with technology to complete school work may help empower them to complete their assignments. They are surrounded by these technologies every day, and often times, students see these technologies as part of the real world, but school work is disconnected. If we can use technology to show that school and the real world are connected, maybe we can give them long term goals for connecting what they learn to what they want to do when they grow up.

Some advances we have seen may not help as much as we would like them to. The sixth sense technology described in the video, The Thrilling Potential of Sixth Sense Technology, shows how cool technology can be. We could give this technology to students to complete outside projects and assignments, and they could get very creative with what they record and describe. I could imagine students having much more freedom to create videos and spreadsheets that answer a scientific question. Students could be given an assignment to look for chemical bonding in their everyday lives. They could take pictures, then insert pictures of molecular models of those bonds they found and finally overlay shapes to show geometry of the bonds. I think projects like this are very beneficial because it connects students’ lives to the material they are learning in school.

However, I foresee many issues with this technology if it is widespread enough that students are using it consistently outside the classrooms. If students have access to this technology and can bring it in to the classroom, they would have access to their cell phone, the internet, and a camera extremely easily. With only their fingers as the interface, a student could take a picture of the first page of a test, send it to their friend, have their friend look up the answers and send the picture back. The picture could even be sent to the entire class. I think cheating in this fashion, or in similar fashions, could become rampant if this technology is allowed to spread. I think we would have an even larger issue with cell phones than we do now, because there is no way to separate the technologies, so students would always be able to access their phone. Technology can greatly benefit education, but there are always drawbacks to the best of intentions. I hope we can find ways to limit the inappropriate use of technology in the classroom so that we can use the upcoming technology to its fullest extent.

References:

1. Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., and Smythe, T. (2009). The 2009 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Podcasts: a new perspective on content

When we think about ways to use podcasts in our classrooms, many teachers immediately jump to the idea that students can still listen to lectures even if they are absent. Pair that with a power point, the students can easily make up missed classes. This is a beneficial technique, especially when teachers use power points as visuals rather than drawing on the white board (there would be no way for students to see that material first hand). However, there are other ways of using podcasts in the classroom.

I thought of a few other ways podcasts can be used, aside from recording our own lectures. The first idea I have is to have students listen to podcasts from other teachers. This way they can gain a new perspective on the material. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, students do not understand our way of explaining the concepts. If we have our students listen to a way someone else explains the concept, the students may understand more readily. New viewpoints can also give a fresh perspective, to help students apply the knowledge they understand to alternate situations. Podcasts are available at sites such as, http://www.learnoutloud.com/contents/LearnOutLoud.com-Podcasts/9/21, http://education.podcast.com/, and http://epnweb.org/index.php?openpod=18#18.

Another way to use podcasts in the classroom is to have students create their own for specific topics. Often, the most effective way to learn is to teach the material to someone else. Through podcasts, students can teach others about the material, and then refer back their recorded podcasts for revision. By the end of the year, there will be a full curriculum of podcasts, and they may be used to help give the following year of classes a new perspective. I think podcasts would be very beneficial when used in education because it gives students a new way to teach other students about a specific concept as well as giving them a different teaching strategy to learn through, rather than reading out of a textbook for a different perspective on the content.

Of course, the biggest issue with podcasts would be getting the students access to them. As the reading discussed, one easy way is to create a blog at wordpress.com and install PodPress plugin (Ovadia 2008). This will allow you to link podcasts to your blog, and allow students to subscribe to the blog so that they can receive notifications when a new podcast is added. I do not think that students will have a rough time with this as they live immersed in technology every day. The biggest problem would probably be gaining access to technology to record lectures. Either a teacher would have to re-do the lectures by the computer with a microphone or find some way of recording effectively in the classroom. Having students record podcasts may be difficult as well, because all students (or most students) would need to have access to a computer with a microphone.

References:

Ovadia, Micah. (2007-2008). PoducateMe. Retrieved from http://www.poducateme.com/.

New technologies, new issues to worry about…

This week’s readings revolved around new ideas that we must consider in light of new technologies that are now used in today’s world. Most teenagers today (this includes most junior high and all high school students) surf the web on a daily basis. Many of these teenagers are participating in social networking sites, such as facebook.com, twitter.com and myspace.com, and various chat rooms. The internet opens up a whole new way for teenagers to communicate, aside from their constant text messaging. The fear is that if they do not know how to be safe on the internet, they could put themselves into very dangerous situations. Most teenagers do not see the real consequences of giving out personal information on the internet, nor do they see a problem with meeting someone on a social networking site or in a chat room and then proceed to meet them in person. We need to make sure that our students understand that information is not safe on the internet, and the potential dangers of not knowing who one is interacting with online.

One thing I have learned from previous experience was reiterated in one of the article assigned for reading this week. Parents (and teachers) should help students stay safe online, but not overreact when a teen has been exposed to inappropriate content or has not been following the rules (Internet Education Foundation 2008). Teens do not usually respond well to authority figures trying to control what they believe to be something completely safe. I know I got really upset when my dad took away my e-mail in junior high because my friend was sending me inappropriate chain letters. I had already tried asking my friend to stop sending the messages and deleting them as they came into my inbox. My dad blamed me for the e-mails, even though I had tried to get out of the uncomfortable situation. I should have asked for help in preventing the e-mails, but the sender was my friend, so I was not sure what to do. I think I would have responded much more positively to my parents (or teachers) trying to help me deal with the problem rather than get mad at me for something I felt that I could not control.

I think teens have heard many internet safety talks over the course of their childhood, so another information session would probably not do very much. Students could review the FEMA Online Safety Rules, discuss why certain safety precautions might be important on the internet and then give a few examples of what might happen if students are not careful (real-life examples, not fabricated examples). Students could also go through the PBS Web License site, which is formatted much like an online quiz through ten categories of web access. Another activity could be showing students how easy it is to create a fake profile on a social networking site. It would be easy to incorporate lessons about technological safety into the classroom, especially if the class will be using the internet frequently in the class. By requiring students to use the technologies listed above, including academic research on the internet, it is also a teacher’s responsibility to teach students how to safely and effectively use these technologies. It would be silly to allow a child to play with fire before teaching him, or her, the dangers and safety precautions to use around fire. This is essentially what we would be doing if we asked students to use the technologies provided through the internet without first teaching the students how to use the technologies safely.

References:

Federal Emergency Management Association. (2009). Online Safety Rules for Kids. Retrieved from http://www.fema.gov/kids/on_safety.htm.

Internet Education Foundation. (2008). Online Safety Guide. Retrieved from http://kids.getnetwise.org/safetyguide/.

Public Broadcasting Services. (2007). Get your web license. Retrieved from http://pbskids.org/license/result.html?a1=n&a2=n&a3=n&a4=n&a5=n&a6=n&a7=n&a8=n&a9=n&a0=n&name=Steven&x=0&y=0.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving in Today’s Society

The ability to think critically and solve problems is extremely important for any person who wishes to be successful in the world today. Every job involves the employee somehow thinking critically. The world today is not perfect, and there are problems of every kind present in everyday life. For example, a building manager may be working on a large project, and one of his employees has a fever and must stay home. That employee’s part in the work today is not going to get completed and the deadline may need to be pushed off. The manager cannot just say, “oh well, I guess things are just going to be delayed”. He must figure out a way to either get the work done, or to keep on track for his deadline without the work being done. This situation asks him the think critically to solve a problem.

Managers are not the only ones with problems. Problems happen at many levels, even when work isn’t an issue. Let’s say a woman is driving to pick up some groceries to make that night’s dinner and her car breaks down in the middle of the road. First, she must figure out how to get off the road so she can exit her car safely and not cause an accident by her car being stopped in the road. Then, she must figure out how she is going to get her car fixed (let’s say she has no cell phone). Finally, she must figure out how she will get home and then what she is going to do for dinner. In each of these pieces, she must think critically to solve her current problem. If students are not taught how to solve problems, they will have a hard time getting through life.

In the reading, I really liked Meg Griffin’s Scenario D. It showed a very applicable way (for a science teacher) to incorporate problem solving into a relevant lesson. I especially liked the real-world application she incorporated into the end of the lesson. (NETS Implementation 2008) My goal is to have several of these types of lessons built into my curriculum, where students are given a problem and must design a procedure to explore and fix the problem. When a teacher relates relevant lessons to phenomena students see outside of school every day, I think they are much more interested and much more willing to complete the assignment. They may even have fun doing it.

There are many ways to integrate technology into problem solving and critical thinking, and I think that students have a lot of fun using these technologies. I don’t think they feel like they are learning anything, which makes it more like fun and less like school work. On my delicious tag this week, I mentioned several computer games that I feel incorporate critical thinking and problem solving into the fun of the game. Some of these games are Super Solvers © Gizmos and Gadgets, Cyan World’s Myst, The Learning Company’s The Oregon Trail and Moby Games Mixed-up Mother Goose. These are only a few of all the games out there that incorporate critical thinking and problem solving. One other website that one of my classmates found discussed interactive simulations that give students a scenario which they can interact with, see an issue, and then try to figure out why it is happening. This website had several simulations with science topics, and they are varied from physics to biology to chemistry to earth science. There are also a few simulations about graphing. I think these simulations could be used very effectively to help students explore new concepts and figure the concepts out on their own. Allowing students practical experience with critical thinking and problem solving is, I think, the most effective way to teach them how to think critically and how to hone their skills in this area.

References:

1. NETS Implementation. (2008). Retrieved from NETS Implementation Wikispace: http://nets-implementation.iste.wikispaces.net/Critical+Thinking%2C+Problem+Solving%2C+and+Decision+Making.
2. University of Colorado at Boulder. (2009). PhEt: Interactive Simulations. Retrieved from http://phet.colorado.edu/index.php.

Implementing 21st Century Technology into the Classroom

As I browsed through the readings and the delicious posts of this week, there were many different ideas about 21st century skills and how to implement them in the classroom. There are many skills that the articles deemed “21st century.” One of the skills the articles discuss is the different forms of technology that are used in the world today. Students need to be familiar with them when they graduate so they will be marketable employees. 21st Century Skills, Education and Competency Guide discusses how other countries are teaching their children the technologies required, which mean children of other countries will be more marketable for 21st century jobs than American children. If our children are not marketable once they graduate, then our country will slowly fall behind in the global market and economy, which is something no one wants (21st century skills 2008).

The job market today requires their employees to have a different skill set than past generations. Today, employers want their workers to be able to work out complex problems, both individually and in groups, communicate with others effectively, both locally and over long distances, and be able to efficiently manage information. All of these skills could require some type of recent technology, such as Skype, facebook.com, blogging tools (i.e. wordpress.com) or wikispaces (Nielson 2009). We need to prepare students for this essential skill set for their future.

In order to help students learn how to use these tools appropriately and effectively, we should work on incorporating these technologies into our lessons. For example, we could have students record a phone call on Skype at home, where they are using all the elements, including vocal communication, instant chatting, and sending documents, pictures or videos. They could collaborate on a project, each doing one part and then sending those parts to each other. They could keep a log of their collaboration (chat does this automatically) and record their vocal communication. In another project, students could collaborate on a wiki or blog to present a concept for their peers. The project could involve students creating their own website, viewing and commenting on their peers’ sites.

This idea has huge implications for education. If we want to ensure that the next generation of Americans is on par with the rest of the world, we may need to create laws and policies to guarantee that every classroom provides the technology training for the students. If policy dictates that we must provide this technology training, we must be provided with the resources to give students experience with these technologies. This will probably require a lot of money, and may not even be possible in the current economy. If we do not have the support money however, it will be very difficult to ensure that are students will graduate with the skills to operate some of these technologies. We need to do the best we can to introduce, and possibly demonstrate these technologies, even if we cannot provide students the opportunity to individually experience them.

References:

Nielsen, Lisa. (2009, August 14). Ten Ideas for Getting Started with 21^st Century Teaching and Learning. Message posted to http://www.techlearning.com/

(2008). 21^st century skills, education and competitiveness. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php

Collaborating with Classrooms across the Globe

This week, we read a few articles about different ways that we can collaborate with classrooms across the country and around the world. I was particularly interested in the information presented about sites that connect classrooms to each other, allowing them to work together on projects. One of the tools these sites talked about was video conferencing between classrooms. Another article talked about wikis, a website that can be updated periodically by many different people (Freedman 2006). I also thought classrooms could set up a blog or website where they could communicate without the necessity of being in the classroom at the same point in time across different time zones. I think if all of these communication tools are combined, the experience in the classroom will be very beneficial to the students.

I especially liked this idea in terms of science classes. I have been observing an environmental studies class and the readings this week gave me a great idea for a project in this class. This site, Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, has done a project in the past in which students from all over northern Indiana studied the environmental problems surrounding Lake Michigan. I think this is a great idea, especially if students are exchanging data, and building conclusions based on data from multiple classrooms. I think this project would be even more valuable extended beyond the United States. If the project could be made in to a study of, for example, different environments surrounding lake bodies in different countries, students could learn about different environments while learning about different cultures. Students could set up a blog or a website to exchange data and discuss their findings. They could even upload pictures of the sites they are using and background information on each of the sites. The students would be able to see how students from other countries explore the world, maybe see the different ways they approach a problem. In the same way that student to student interaction gives students a new perception on their way of thinking, working with students from other countries can give our students a new perspective on a problem.

I think this idea of student collaboration across countries is very valuable. It gives students a new way of completing projects as well as new perspectives on material they have been studying. They can get a multicultural perspective as well, and even learn about different cultures and their way of looking at problems. Students will learn about different environments through studying the environments familiar to other students while teaching other students about environments familiar to them. I would love to be able to implement this project in a classroom. I think students would love to participate in this project and I think they would learn a lot from it without even realizing it. I think this project would make learning fun for students, and give them the opportunity to learn outside the classroom.

References

1. Freedman, Terry. (2006). Coming of age: An introduction to the new world wide web. Great Britain: Terry Freedman Ltd.

2. Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration. Lake Coastal Waters: Students Engaged in Community-Centered Science Inquiry. Retrieved October 18, 2009, from http://cilc.org/c/education/Lake_Coastal_Waters.aspx.

Blogging in the Classroom

As I read through this week’s articles, I saw many new suggestions for ways to use blogging in the classroom. Terry Freeman’s article, “Coming of Age,” discusses many teachers who were strictly against using blogging in the classroom, who then completely changed their minds. One teacher even uses a blog for the students to create their own “textbook” for the pre-calculus class they are taking (Freeman 2006).  I think these ideas are very creative and the students would like them very much. I would very much like to incorporate some of these ideas into my own teaching methods.

However, I am afraid of some of the same things the teachers in the article were afraid of. I am worried that my students would not take the assignment seriously and would not be mature enough to comment appropriately on other students’ posts. I agree with Anne Davis (Freeman 2006) that teenagers can easily use blogs inappropriately and should be taught the proper way to use blogs. However, I struggle with the idea that I may have to teach one more concept in a high school science class, in which I already feel stressed and short on time. It may be a good idea for students to have a class on blogging alone, or at least use a very restricted version in a classroom so teachers would not have to teach blogging and their curriculum.

I do think making the textbook was a very cool way to use technology to learn specific material. This was one idea I thought I might be able to use in my classroom, maybe for a specific unit. If I start teaching an IB class, this project may be a good idea for a year-long project. I especially liked a student blog, connected to Darren Kuropatwa’s blog that was a peer tutoring aid, explaining different concepts discussed in the class. I like the idea of students helping each other, especially using technology (Freeman 2006). This student uses fun examples in the blog and explains how different concepts fit together and work off each other.

After reading all this material about technology that can be used in the classroom, I have found many similarities in the time it takes to implement the strategies. All the different strategies have very good intentions for the students, but I think there is a little too much work for the teacher. For example, if weekly blogging was graded, it would take way too long to grade 150+ students’ blogs, even if they only wrote a single paragraph. If blogging were used occasionally, and maybe mixed with other types of technologies, I think it could be doable. I am excited to try to integrate blogging into at least one of my projects this year and I hope that the students will be able to handle it.

Reference

1. Freedman, Terry. (2006). Coming of age: An introduction to the new world wide web. Great Britain: Terry Freedman Ltd.