Week 8 - Where do we go from here?

I have had a lot of "a-ha" moments during the last eight weeks. Every week I learned about something that was new to me. Sure, I'd heard of blogs and podcasts and wikis, but I had never used any of them! I really cannot stress how lacking my technology education has been until now. I have learned so many things that I will be able to use with students in a classroom, to communicate with parents and other faculty members, and just for my own personal use. To answer the question "Where do we go from here?", I think for me the answer is practice. I need to continue to work to learn more about these different forms of technology and figure out how to best incorporate them into my lesson plans.

I think the thing I enjoyed most in this class was the wiki. I think it will be very useful in the classroom. It is made for students to work with collaboratively and will also be a great communication resource to use for many purposes with other teachers.

Concept Map

Week 7 - Do You Google?

For the technology project this week I created a lesson plan on "Famous Texans" to use for 4th grade Texas History. I decided to use Blogger, a Google Sites wiki, and Google Search. Students will research, respond to prompts on a response blog, and create a summary of information about a famous Texan to add to a class wiki. I chose these Google Apps because I felt they were simple enough to use with students who may not have had much computer experience, without taking up a lot of instructional time. I would also have students work in groups on projects like this so that they learn from each other as well.

I think this is a type of lesson that students will enjoy. There are many different parts to it, so students aren't just doing research and writing a report.

I do view instruction differently than I did at the beginning of this class. I see every week that there are so many ways to include technology. Actually thinking out a lesson plan this week showed me that it is not difficult to include technology once you have a good variety of tools and apps available to use.

Week 6 - Can you hear me now?

I finally got the podcast done for the week 6 assignment. I had a lot of trouble with this assignment. I think I was just making it way more difficult than it really was.

If I had a magic wand I would wave it over myself. There is a lot of responsibility that goes along with all of the technology we will be teaching. It's going to take a lot of work and patience, and knowing (and admitting) that some students probably know know more about what I'm teaching than I do.

Week 5 - Wiki Week

I did not have any experience with wikis before this week, but I really had a lot of fun playing with it. I have come up with so many ways to use a wiki in an elementary classroom - classroom newspapers, newsletters, collaborative group work, projects that the entire class contribute to, etc. However, I decided to create my wiki for personal use instead of classroom use. A few friends and family members have recently started a new book and movie club. I created my wiki for the group to use to exchange information and ideas. I felt like this is something that I would use and learn from as well as share this technology with others.

I feel like wikis would be an engaging activity for digital natives. Even thought they may already be familiar with wikis, I think they offer a lot of available features that students will be interested in learning ore about and using (audio, animation, etc). I have a daughter who is a junior in high school. She hopes (hopes is the key word here) to go on a class trip to Italy next year. The first thing she said when I asked her about wikis was that they should use one for organizing the trip.

I haven't had time to explore the eLearning Tools much this week, but I have seen several things that look really interesting. Some that I want to spend more time on at Storytelling, Animation and Concept Mapping.

Week 4 - E-Portfolios & Assessment

Week 3 - Critical Analysis of Information / Delicious

I learned quite a bit doing the MAPping Information Activity this week. I missed several questions on the Information Literacy Quiz but after completing the activity I now know several new ways to check the validity of a website. I just got my undergrad eled degree a year and a half ago and it really surprises me that there was not more focus on technology. I understand that most people are way more tech savvy than I am (to say the least), but the only thing I learned about looking for reliable sources on the web in my undergrad classes was not to use Wikipedia!

We need to make sure students know to make sure they are using reliable websites when using the internet. The quiz has some really good activities that can be used to help students learn how to make sure they are getting valid information.

I had never used Delicious before and I really had a lot of fun playing with it. I had a random mess of crazy bookmarked and after deleting quite a few, I think they're fairly well organized. I like the fact that I will be able to access my bookmarks from other computers.

Week 2 - What is the meaning of Educational Philosophy?

After reading through several articles and websites over the last week, my definition of educational technology is really simple. To me, educational technology is using some sort of technology to enhance learning. Our students already have so much technology that they use on a daily basis - computers, cell phones, digital cameras, iPods, video cameras, and much more. As teachers we need to learn to use this technology in the classroom as teaching tools.

The "Did You Know 2.0" and "Pay Attention" videos were eye-opening to say the least. It's amazing to see how rapidly the world we live in is changing, and just how big a role technology plays in our lives. It shows that teachers have a huge job ahead of them if they hope to keep up with the constant changes in technology.

Week 1 - Educational Technology Philosophy