CEP 810 Reflection

So far, in CEP 810, I am achieving my main goal of increasing my confidence in using new technology.  The more technology I am exposed to, the more quickly I am able to grasp new programs and concepts.  I am also using new programs more regularly and even considering using them in my everyday life. 

I am much more comfortable with many “tech” words that my students use.  The word “blog” is no longer foreign to me, but a part of my everyday language.  This is helping me feel more confident that I can teach my students more about things that they have already learned about through their everyday experiences.

I had hoped to get more comfortable with online office tools such as Google Presenter, but I have been pleasantly surprised to be learning about Prezi as a presentation tool.  I had never heard of Prezi before, but now I am very excited to learn more about it, use it in my teaching, and share it with my colleagues.  I am also happy that I have been able to learn to use it on my own- this shows me that I am becoming more of an independent learner of technology.  Even though I wanted to become more comfortable with the basics of the online office tools through Google, I realize that I must be gaining skills if I am able to apply my knowledge to a technology that is brand-new to me, like Prezi.

I think Prezi will also be a great resource for me in the future as I work to incorporate different teaching and learning strategies into my classroom.   Prezi will allow me to integrate audio, video, images, text, and other formats to reach a variety of learners.  Seeing Prezi for the first time reminded me that it is important to teach in a variety of ways to capture the interest of all students. 

This course has not yet given me an opportunity to create a learning tool for my students, but learning to use Prezi has definitely given me opportunities to create more for my students.  I have also been pleased to learn more about copyright and fair use, since part of my job is helping students understand the importance of copyright, citation, and plagiarism. I have also been happy to come across many useful websites and resources to show my students.  

The SIG project has taught me a lot about how audio devices such as ipods can be useful in the classroom.  I will definitely apply this knowledge in the future- either by using pre-created online audio tools, or by creating my own audio books for my students to use. 

I am surprised to say that one of the simplest assignments, the list of annotated resources for the SIG project using diigo.com, is one of my best examples of teaching with technology.  The internet is an infinitely-long list of ideas and resources to use in the classroom or for professional development. Creating and annotating a list of good resources shows the ability to not only find and evaluate resources for a specific purpose, but it is also one of the fastest and most useful tools I will be able to integrate into the classroom.  I create research projects for my 4^th and 5^th graders and hope to use sites like diigo or delicious to provide them with resources as well as give them opportunities to help me add to the list. 

At this point, my main goal is to continue using technology in ways that helps my students learn more and also saves me time in the long run.  I would love to create more presentations and lists of resources that I will be able to continue to update and use year after year.  One of the ways I intend to continue learning about and using technology is to keep talking with my students about the technology they use and integrating it into the classroom in educational formats.

Learning Styles

I have always been a combination of a visual learner and kinesthetic learner.  Simply hearing information has never been enough for me to remember it.  

During high school or college lectures, I always needed something to look at while I listened- either a Powerpoint presentation, demonstration, or at least my own notes.  I’ve always had a really hard time staying focused when I am supposed to just sit and listen without anything visual to focus on. 

The best way for me to learn something is to actually do it.  It helps for me to follow written directions, rather than oral directions, so that I can go back and double-check my steps to be sure I am following directions correctly.  I need directions to be in logical order and presented in small steps. 

The things I remember the most are when I am involved in creating something.  Even though I would generally prefer to work alone rather than in a group, I enjoy having a final product, whether it is a summary, poster, picture, diorama, or any other display of learning.  

Since so many kids have so many different learning styles, teachers need to find ways to incorporate at least two different styles into each lesson and make sure that they vary the learning styles they are focusing on.  Instead of just lecturing, teachers can talk while they draw or display diagrams on a smartboard.  Rather than only having students read, teachers can then have students listen to an audio file, act out, or draw a picture of what they learned.

In elementary classrooms, teachers are lucky enough to get to know their students and their learning styles.  Because of this, teachers of younger students should think about which students are most likely to struggle with each concept and try to teach to the learning styles of those students for those lessons.

Using Creative Copyright

Photo Attribution:
Original Image: "book shelf project 1"
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/1/729822_25ba163c9a_m.jpg
By  hobvias sudoneighm

Released under an Attribution 2.0 Generic License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

I found this image using a search through Firefox for items with Creative Commons licensing.  This means that I searched specifically for a photo that the author had already given permission to share.  The specific license allows people to share or adapt the photo as long as the author is given credit. 

I chose a photo of a disorganized-looking bookshelf because it is a photo that I could use in my curriculum.  As a Library Media Specialist, one of my duties is to help children understand the importance of organization of books in a library.   This photo could be a great way to get kids started on a discussion about how to organize books and the challenges of having books that are not organized.  

Here is a link to my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/56457312@N06/5216503486/

My RSS Reader Page

I created an RSS reader page through Netvibes for this class. (see screenshot above)

One blog I subscribed to is called Collecting Children’s Books.  It is mainly opinions and ideas written by a man who used to work in a school library and now in the children’s section of a university library.  I find that he has interesting things to say and sometimes points out interesting current events.  I commented on a blog post of his from October 17th.  The author posted pictures of scarecrows dressed as storybook characters for Halloween.  I thought this would be such a fun idea to incorporate into a childrens' library!  I also commented on his post from November 7^th.  I was happy to see that I am not the only one skeptical of the idea of replacing paper books with technology for our children.  There is something about having an actual book in your hand and creating the voices and movement in your head that technology completely takes away. 

Another blog I subscribed to is called the Joys of Children’s Literature.  I like it because it has much shorter blog posts and many of them include topics about technology and education.  There was one post about using author’s blogs to teach, one about using voice threads, and another about using Skype.

One of the main things I have learned from viewing RSS feeds and searching for RSS feeds is that there are not a lot of news sites or blogs related to childrens' libraries or childrens' literature. 

I really like the feed I found for Activated Stories, and hope that if I keep up with it, I can find some useful ones to play aloud in the library.   It is not updated often (every few months) but might turn out to be useful. 

I am also finding a few good ideas in blogs that will be useful in the library or for my family.  Some people blog about books they like or remember, and it gives me ideas about books I can read to my kids at school. I was really excited to find (on School Library Monthly blog) a website that I knew nothing about- bookpig.com.  It is a site like Netflix, but for children’s books.  You can pay to have books shipped to your house, keep them until you’re ready to return them, and then send them back for more.  It starts at only $8 a month.  I know that it seems a little silly since libraries are free, but it going to a library takes time and they don’t always have the books kids want.  This seems like a great option for busy parents who want to keep their kids reading without always buying the books or going to the library. It may also turn out to be useful for me at school if I find that there are a lot of books I want to read with my students that my library does not have. 

Having the RSS sure does make it easier to access everything in one place, as well as view a summary before I spend time reading and article or blog that may not be useful to me.

PC maintenance and security

As part of CEP 810, we are learning about PC maintenance and security.  We were to choose 3 tutorials to view and then reflect upon them. 

The first tutorial I chose to view was “Protecting Your Family Online”.  It taught how to view and clear browser history.  It also showed how to change settings in Firefox and Explorer to protect children against viewing inappropriate material.   I didn’t even realize it was simple to view browser history.  I was surprised to realize that computers save ‘temporary internet files’ and they should periodically be deleted.  I also did not know that there are different reasons for keeping or deleting cookies.  I was happy to learn that Google has options for search preferences, ranging from strict to moderate to none for restricting inappropriate content.  I was also happy to find out that Explorer has a content advisor available that allows users to set levels between 0 and 4 to restrict content.  It even allows users to create lists of always and never approved sites. 

The next tutorial I viewed was “Intrusion Detection and Prevention”.  This tutorial taught about some programs that help catch problems with your PC that anti-virus and anti-spyware software won’t always find.  I was surprised that anti-virus and ant-spyware software do not catch everything.  I was interested to learn that Intrusion Detection Software (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Software (IPS) look for computer problems in a different way- by tracking your computer’s behavior.  The look for things like changes in startup programs, launches of new programs, stopping key programs, and browser home page changes.  Luckily, there are some free programs available for download, such as WinPatrol 10.

The third tutorial I looked at was “Clean-up and Speed-up Your PC”.  Generally, when my computer is going slow, I do two things- restart, and run my virus scans.  Now I have a lot more options and better solutions.  I learned that one thing I can do is to remove unwanted and unnecessary programs by going to “add or remove programs” on my control panel.  I can remove duplicates, demos, old versions of programs, and similar versions of programs I have.  I can also use the disc cleanup to free space on my computer to keep things moving more smoothly.  There is also a downloadable program called Windows Cleanup! That will help me clean my computer.  Using Microsoft Config is another way to clean my computer by selecting or deselecting boxes that do not need to start up each time I start my PC.  If I am no t sure about which boxes to check, there is a website called Startup Programs and Executables Listing that I can check on.  I was surprised at how many different ways there were to speed up my computer, and at how fast and simple they are to use!

CEP 811 Reflection

In this class, I learned to think about the teaching strategies I use as I teach with technology.  I used to sort-of think that using technology was a strategy itself.  Now I am realizing that I need to be careful and still find ways to encourage kids to think, analyze, discuss, and reflect while they are using technology as a learning tool.  I used to think of technology as more of a collection of resources for finding information, but now view it as a medium for making connections to content and other people while learning material.

Learning to use more web-based technologies make me realize how much more we need to teach kids about technology.  Technology is not simply to be used as a faster way to find information.  Web-based technologies can encourage students to think deeper, to debate with each other, to learn from experts, and to create presentations that can demonstrate their knowledge as well as teach others what they have learned. 

One of my main technology goals was simply to be exposed to more technology and online resources.  I now am aware of and can use wikis, RSS pages, webquests, blogs, google docs and other google tools, and many other sources that I had little or no prior experience with.

My new goals are to become more proficient with the technology I have been exposed to.  This means that I want to start using some of it on a regular basis and exploring different uses of each resource.  I want to feel as comfortable with the new technology as I was before with programs like Microsoft Word, Facebook, and Powerpoint.  I know that the best way to get better at using new programs is simply to continue using them.  I need to find ways to integrate them into my everyday life or my teaching.

Online Experience for Grades K-12

I think it is very important for students to have experience learning online before they graduate high school. 

Educational games are one of the easiest ways to encourage students to spend time online and review their skills.  

Webquests are a great way to get kids started using the internet.  They can be created for any topic or any age level.  They can provide students access to the internet in a very limited, focused way.  They are a great way for students to learn basic internet functions while exploring quality online resources.  One of the best pedagogical strategies to use with webquests is simulation and problem solving.  The task gives students a problem to solve, question to answer, or project to complete and then gives students resources to use to complete the assignment.   Webquests are also great for scaffolding since they are created in a number of steps that  can be more complicated as the learner moves through them.  

Wikis and blogs are another great way to expose students to the internet.  However, they should be used for students who already have some internet knowledge and typing skills.  They are a great way to encourage collaboration and discussion about any topic.  They can be used for students to give examples (deductive learning), to students to collaborate to make sense of an idea (inductive learning), and to scaffold learning by pushing students to answer questions and question each other.

Podcasts and Videocasts can be used in very simple or more complex ways.  A teacher could simply provide the resource to students as another example of what they are learning (deductive learning).  A teacher could also ask students to find resources to support their learning or their position on a topic (inductive learning).  More advanced students could be asked to create their own podcasts or videocasts to demonstrate their learning.

I think I would be less likely to use RSS Feeds, Learning Management Systems, and Electronic Portfolios because they require more technical expertise or decision-making by the user, and my students are elementary students who would not be ready for that.