Thursday, March 10, 2011
My Classroom Newsletter
Nets I, III
Using Microsoft Word, I created a classroom newsletter to share with my students and parents.
Using Microsoft Word, I created a classroom newsletter to share with my students and parents.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Journal 5- Learning Connections: Find Free Tools and More (NETS I, II, III, V)
Ribera, M. (2011, March/April). Learning connections: find free tools and more. Learning & Leading, 38(6), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Learning_Connections_Find_Free_Tools_and_More.aspx
Adam Bellow who is the director of technology for College Board Schools and a 2010 ISTE Emerging Leader created an awesome website called EduTecher (http://edutecher.net). The site is completely, 100% free, as well as ad-free. It has a boatload of educational and technology resources and it is great for teachers. The website is very broad; it is able to accommodate everybody. It doesn’t matter where you are from, how old you are, or how familiar you are with technology, there is something for all teachers and all learners. Note: Although EduTecher has no ads, many of the sites on its list do. Bellow’s site has thousands of links and he adds to the list on a daily basis. The site contains explanations as well as webisodes that tell the educators how sites can be used in the classroom. Each link has the capability to receive feedback by users so you have an idea of what the link is. EduTecher is the very first educational website to release a mobile application. It is available for both the Android and the iPhone. Over 8,000 people have already downloaded this app.
Q: Do you believe that by creating a mobile app for EduTecher, Bellow has created a new trend as far as mobile education is concerned?
A: Although there are numerous Wikis and other educational apps available for mobile download, I think that Bellow has started a something new. His app has a focus. Many educational apps are very broad and can be used to research a little bit of everything. Bellow’s app on the other hand is based on technology in education. With this being said, I believe that many others will begin creating both resource sites and apps that pertain to a certain subject and have a true goal.
Q: Do you think that regular EduTecher users are use the site regularly or are they just “web surfers?”
A: Because the site so particular in its motive, I believe that those who use the site are probably pretty loyal to the site. It’s hard to find great resource sites that focus on a particular topic and disperse dependable sources.
Journal 4- It's Time to Trust Teachers with the Internet: A Conversation With Meg Ormiston (Nets I, II, IV, V)
Schaffhauser, D. (2010, December 1). It's time to trust teachers with the internet: a conversation with Meg Ormiston. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/Articles/2010/12/01/Its-Time-To-Trust-Teachers-with-the-Internet-A-Conversation-with-Meg-Ormiston.aspx?sc_lang=en&Page=1
Restraining internet policies and lollygagging IT departments are making some teachers’ lives a world full of stress. Current teachers have faced a nearly impossible scenario; they are required to incorporate modern teaching techniques into their curriculums but aren’t allowed to use the tools that the job entails. Meg Ormiston, who has had various positions in education, consults with schools on adopting a modern, computer based curriculum to tend to the technology savvy students of today. Although Ormiston agrees that there are some obstacles to surpass to use computers in class such as the limitation of bandwidth, she believes that the primary reason that technology isn’t implemented in schools is because schools just don’t trust teachers. One of the reasons is because some they feel that some teachers can’t draw the line between which websites are and which aren’t acceptable for their students. From a parent’s point of view, Ormiston believes that the children’s well being and protection is a priority. She also feels that as long as the proper sites are blocked then responsible computing needs to be taught. Students need to learn about social networking and how to make the right choices as far as networking resources go. Ormiston thinks that sources such as YouTube should be filtered. Although YouTube has a lot of inappropriate videos, they also have many educational ones.
Q: Do you feel that most students’ parents would support Meg Ormiston’s argument?
A: I feel that Meg has a very solid point. Our generation and the generations to come will be doing a lot more typing than writing. Some of my peers have already forgotten how to write in cursive because the write so seldom. Also, everything that comes in book form is now available in iBook form. Research is far more commonly obtained on computers than in actual books nowadays.
Q: Do you think that Meg Ormiston’s suggestion/argument will soon become actuality?
A: I do believe that within the next ten years technology in classrooms will rise at an alarming rate. I do not feel that typing will overcome writing in a primary and secondary school basis anytime soon. With the way our nation’s capitalistic ideals are, not all students (lower class) will have the opportunity to be exposed to these resources.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Journal 3- 100 Things that make me happy
100 things that make me happy...
1) Technology
2) Computers
3) Music
4) My mommy
5) Sleep
6) Traveling
7) The San Diego Chargers
8) Movies
9) Friends
10) My GF
11) Board games
12) Winning
13) Flying
14) iPhone 4
15) Painting
16) Learning
17) Skateboarding
18) Instagram-ing
19) House Chicken
20) Lakers
21) Dave and Busters
22) Hot Wings
23) My Brother
24) Days off
25) Cough drops
26) Sushi
27) My Cats
28) Summertime
29) Padres
30) Writing
31) Stone Brewery
32) Money
33) Bowling
34) I.P.A.’s
35) Lobster Tail
36) Hawaiian Pizza
37) Oceanside Ale Works
38) Las Vegas
39) New shoes
40) Coupons
41) Kitkats
42) Kim Kardashian’s ass
43) Jack Daniels
44) Reading
45) Snorkeling
46) Skittles
47) The Pursuit of Happiness
48) Jim Carey
49) Murs
50) Car shows
51) Sports
52) Photography
53) Santa Barbra
54) Legos
55) Pinot Grigio
56) Dave Chapelle
57) Ocean Breeze
58) Karl Strauss
59) Clean Linens
60) The Zoo
61) The Beach
62) Crown Royal
63) Art
64) Mike Epps
65) Sunglasses
66) My Watch
67) Aqua de Gio
68) The Sun
69) Love
70) Hats
71) Mingling
72) Swimming Pools
73) Roller Coasters
74) Spending Money
75) Angry Birds
76) Wii
77) Fruit Snacks
78) Bacon Western Cheeseburgers
79) Haircuts
80) Pizza Port
81) Road Trips
82) Drive Ins
83) Live Music
84) Aloe Blacc
85) Being Healthy
86) Amazon.com
87) Aztec Basketball
88) Button Ups
89) Gum
90) Jameson
91) Sailor Jerry
92) Gym
93) Cheesecake
94) Crystal Light
95) Teaching
96) Seeing others happy
97) Dumb and Dumber
98) Bob Marley
99) UFC
100) ESPN.com
1) Technology
2) Computers
3) Music
4) My mommy
5) Sleep
6) Traveling
7) The San Diego Chargers
8) Movies
9) Friends
10) My GF
11) Board games
12) Winning
13) Flying
14) iPhone 4
15) Painting
16) Learning
17) Skateboarding
18) Instagram-ing
19) House Chicken
20) Lakers
21) Dave and Busters
22) Hot Wings
23) My Brother
24) Days off
25) Cough drops
26) Sushi
27) My Cats
28) Summertime
29) Padres
30) Writing
31) Stone Brewery
32) Money
33) Bowling
34) I.P.A.’s
35) Lobster Tail
36) Hawaiian Pizza
37) Oceanside Ale Works
38) Las Vegas
39) New shoes
40) Coupons
41) Kitkats
42) Kim Kardashian’s ass
43) Jack Daniels
44) Reading
45) Snorkeling
46) Skittles
47) The Pursuit of Happiness
48) Jim Carey
49) Murs
50) Car shows
51) Sports
52) Photography
53) Santa Barbra
54) Legos
55) Pinot Grigio
56) Dave Chapelle
57) Ocean Breeze
58) Karl Strauss
59) Clean Linens
60) The Zoo
61) The Beach
62) Crown Royal
63) Art
64) Mike Epps
65) Sunglasses
66) My Watch
67) Aqua de Gio
68) The Sun
69) Love
70) Hats
71) Mingling
72) Swimming Pools
73) Roller Coasters
74) Spending Money
75) Angry Birds
76) Wii
77) Fruit Snacks
78) Bacon Western Cheeseburgers
79) Haircuts
80) Pizza Port
81) Road Trips
82) Drive Ins
83) Live Music
84) Aloe Blacc
85) Being Healthy
86) Amazon.com
87) Aztec Basketball
88) Button Ups
89) Gum
90) Jameson
91) Sailor Jerry
92) Gym
93) Cheesecake
94) Crystal Light
95) Teaching
96) Seeing others happy
97) Dumb and Dumber
98) Bob Marley
99) UFC
100) ESPN.com
Journal 2- Join the Flock! & Enhance Your Twitter Experience (Nets I, III, V)
Ferguson, H. (2010). Join the flock!. Learning & Leading With Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Join_the_Flock.aspx
Miller, S. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning & Leading With Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607#pg16
A PLN (Personal Learning Network) is a community of learners around the world who connect online. Twitter is a virtual meeting place to house these learners. These learners start out as strangers but after connecting their primary commonality, the love of learning and education, they create a community where they collaborate and maximize their education experience. Creating a PLN takes a little commitment and some socializing (finding friends to join!). You have to set aside a little time, whenever it best fits your schedule, if not your PLN will surely fail. To start your PLN, the first thing you need to do is create a twitter account. Type a bio that states what you truly love and make sure you upload a pic! The next thing you need to do is begin following people. Find people who inspire you or who you can learn something from such as educators or historians. Now just watch and learn. Read tweets, explore blogs, and learn. Give a little something, or a lot of something! It is like a chain reaction, the more you give the more you get. As people check out your tweets and add follow you, the more networking becomes available. You can tag your tweets by using a hashtag (or # sign). This will give it even more exposure. There are also twitter organizers which help you organize your tweets. This separates your tweets into columns. Twitter is a great way to network and it has a lot to offer. You can even get awesome invites to national educational events and places like ISTE.
Q: Is Twitter used more widely as a social networking tool or an educational networking tool?
A: It is both. For all of the pop culture gurus out there, celebrates and their dirty gossip is being spread throughout the twitter nation every second. It is also a great music tool. Great way to follow your artists and get updated tour dates and what not. Twitter has greatly grown into an educational warehouse. There are hundreds of thousands of intelligent minds out there who willingly share their knowledge everyday. Twitter is great.
Q: What is the best way to find a good PLN?
A: A PLN is what you make it. It is your own personal learning network, therefore you have the power to decide who has the most intellectual bullets to shoot you with. I would recommend following some of your favorite professors and authors. Or finding those who discuss a particular subject that intices you and simply click: FOLLOW.
Miller, S. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning & Leading With Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607#pg16
A PLN (Personal Learning Network) is a community of learners around the world who connect online. Twitter is a virtual meeting place to house these learners. These learners start out as strangers but after connecting their primary commonality, the love of learning and education, they create a community where they collaborate and maximize their education experience. Creating a PLN takes a little commitment and some socializing (finding friends to join!). You have to set aside a little time, whenever it best fits your schedule, if not your PLN will surely fail. To start your PLN, the first thing you need to do is create a twitter account. Type a bio that states what you truly love and make sure you upload a pic! The next thing you need to do is begin following people. Find people who inspire you or who you can learn something from such as educators or historians. Now just watch and learn. Read tweets, explore blogs, and learn. Give a little something, or a lot of something! It is like a chain reaction, the more you give the more you get. As people check out your tweets and add follow you, the more networking becomes available. You can tag your tweets by using a hashtag (or # sign). This will give it even more exposure. There are also twitter organizers which help you organize your tweets. This separates your tweets into columns. Twitter is a great way to network and it has a lot to offer. You can even get awesome invites to national educational events and places like ISTE.
Q: Is Twitter used more widely as a social networking tool or an educational networking tool?
A: It is both. For all of the pop culture gurus out there, celebrates and their dirty gossip is being spread throughout the twitter nation every second. It is also a great music tool. Great way to follow your artists and get updated tour dates and what not. Twitter has greatly grown into an educational warehouse. There are hundreds of thousands of intelligent minds out there who willingly share their knowledge everyday. Twitter is great.
Q: What is the best way to find a good PLN?
A: A PLN is what you make it. It is your own personal learning network, therefore you have the power to decide who has the most intellectual bullets to shoot you with. I would recommend following some of your favorite professors and authors. Or finding those who discuss a particular subject that intices you and simply click: FOLLOW.
Journal 1- Do Web 2.0 Right (Nets I, IV, V)
Light, D. (2011). Do web 2.0 right. Learning and Leading, 38(5), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-february-march-2011.aspx
Daniel Light and his colleague Deborah Polin traveled around the United States to figure out how teachers are creating successful activities for their classes using Web 2.0. Web 2.0 are those frequently used internet tools such as wikis and blogs. These tools are exposed and used commonly in popular culture, therefore they are great tools to get students involved in writing and learning about the world of technology. Daniel and Deborah interviewed 39 educators from 22 schools. They were interested in the various ways that the teachers were using Web 2.0 and how it was improving the student’s learning. The two researchers discovered that the teachers who had the most success were those who created ongoing conversations among the students. The most successful way to use Web 2.0 is on a daily basis rather than for occasional projects or what not. Although these tools are often used for social purposes, they take on a whole new spectrum when incorporated in education. Some blog activities just failed because they were open to the public. If the blog topic was too personal or if was an embarrassing topic, students became skeptical self-conscious. Audience plays a large role when it comes to student blogs. Teachers are worried about other adults viewing their students blogs, while students are more worried about other young people reading what they’ve written. Most of the schools only chose certain sites or blogs, this divided the viewers into three groups: the teacher and parents, the broad internet, and fellow classmates. Another important factor is behavior. Students don’t view these blogs as social spaces, but as educational environments. Students are expected to give critical yet respectful feedback.
Q:What is a good way to incorporate Wikis in a classroom curriculum?
A: Because wikis are public adjustable information boards, students could use them as a sole informative source for a research project. Another possibility would be to have the students try and locate faults within the wiki documents, comparing them to published sources such as encycolopedias.
Q: Do you think that the majority of schools will someday be teaching and using Web 2.0 tools in America?
A: I just can’t see it happening anytime soon. With our school’s test scores as low as they are and the goals set by NCLB (no child left behind) I can’t imagine our nation grating out youth that privilege yet. I thinkif we based it on social class, all of the high-class and ¾ of the middle class will be using Web 2.0 in at school. They are the “privileged” ones.
Daniel Light and his colleague Deborah Polin traveled around the United States to figure out how teachers are creating successful activities for their classes using Web 2.0. Web 2.0 are those frequently used internet tools such as wikis and blogs. These tools are exposed and used commonly in popular culture, therefore they are great tools to get students involved in writing and learning about the world of technology. Daniel and Deborah interviewed 39 educators from 22 schools. They were interested in the various ways that the teachers were using Web 2.0 and how it was improving the student’s learning. The two researchers discovered that the teachers who had the most success were those who created ongoing conversations among the students. The most successful way to use Web 2.0 is on a daily basis rather than for occasional projects or what not. Although these tools are often used for social purposes, they take on a whole new spectrum when incorporated in education. Some blog activities just failed because they were open to the public. If the blog topic was too personal or if was an embarrassing topic, students became skeptical self-conscious. Audience plays a large role when it comes to student blogs. Teachers are worried about other adults viewing their students blogs, while students are more worried about other young people reading what they’ve written. Most of the schools only chose certain sites or blogs, this divided the viewers into three groups: the teacher and parents, the broad internet, and fellow classmates. Another important factor is behavior. Students don’t view these blogs as social spaces, but as educational environments. Students are expected to give critical yet respectful feedback.
Q:What is a good way to incorporate Wikis in a classroom curriculum?
A: Because wikis are public adjustable information boards, students could use them as a sole informative source for a research project. Another possibility would be to have the students try and locate faults within the wiki documents, comparing them to published sources such as encycolopedias.
Q: Do you think that the majority of schools will someday be teaching and using Web 2.0 tools in America?
A: I just can’t see it happening anytime soon. With our school’s test scores as low as they are and the goals set by NCLB (no child left behind) I can’t imagine our nation grating out youth that privilege yet. I thinkif we based it on social class, all of the high-class and ¾ of the middle class will be using Web 2.0 in at school. They are the “privileged” ones.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)