My Beliefs

I believe that using technology in the classroom is a great idea. At the rate technology is expanding and growing, the students in our classrooms will need to learn the basic uses of technology at a young age so that they will be able to use more complex technology when they get older. It is really obvious how technology is becoming such a large part of the students' lives, and if they are interested in technology at home, it is a good idea to bring that technology into the classroom so the students express that sense of interest in school. As teachers, it is important to take advantage of opportunities given to you, and technology is definitely one of those opportunities. I know many older teachers may see technology as being unnecessary, but since we are still young and have had experiences with many technology tools, we know the advantages of using technology and know how to integrate it into the classroom.
However, as I mentioned in the blog entry below, I don't feel that students should get too comfortable with technology. School is school, and there is no room for LOL's and :)'s in classroom education. As teachers, it is important to enforce rules about these careless and easy mistakes crawling into the students' papers. I think that if teachers really make an effort to drill it into the students' heads when to use these and when to not, it will benefit the students in the end. It will help with the professionalism of the students when they are older, and it will help them to have more control when they are writing their future papers.

Lessons Learned

I feel that, especially in the era that we will be teaching in as up and coming teachers, technology will be a very important part of the classroom. Students in elementary school may even have their own cell phones, and so texting may be a huge part of their lives. Other than emails and phone calls, texting may be a new way for students to communicate with their teachers outside of school. Video chats may be a new way to communicate as well. From these readings, videos and websites, I can really see how much of a big deal technology in the classroom is. It is coming at us and it is coming fast, and we can't just let technology pass by. It needs to be utilized at its best and be brought into the classroom to engage the students and enhance their learning.
However, I do have some concerns about using technology in the classroom. Even I have fallen into this bad habit, but students may feel that using spellcheck is all they have to do to edit their documents. Spellcheck doesn't catch everything, so it is always important to review the paper after spellcheck goes through. My brother just published his first book, and in there is "stated" instead of "started", but spellcheck didn't pick this up. Apparently, neither did his editor. Also, students are so used to not capitalizing their letters or using slang like "LOL" or emoticons in their everyday life, such as instant messaging or texting. If they bring those habits into the classroom, as their teacher I would have to dock them major points because it is very improper grammar. There is a fine line between when to use proper grammar and when it's okay to be careless, and that line must not be crossed in the classroom.

Strengths & Weaknesses

What were your strength/weaknesses according to the UNI survey and NET Standards? I'm going to be pretty honest here. According to the UNI survey and the NET Standards, I am pretty average when it comes to knowledge about technology. I'm not about to go video chat with parents, but I am able to do a newsletter and make brochures. I understand technology and can use it to do research and teach my students to do research. I believe that I can plan strategies to manage student learning in a technology-rich environment. That's pretty much where I hit my peak when it comes to technology, leaving much room for improvement. I was mostly a "practitioner" on most of the survey. However, I did consider myself "Novice" for video chatting. I don't have much experience with video chats other than Skype, but even that is difficult for me to navigate in. On the NET Standards, I feel that I'm lacking in the department of using "technology to communicate and collaborate with peers, parents, and the larger community in order to nurture student learning." I know that I can email and have a classroom website, but as far as taking communication to the next level, like video chatting, I have no clue what to do. Another thing I need to improve on is using databases "to collect, organize, and analyze data and produce meaningful reports to aid in problem solving." I'm no good at spreadsheets, especially if we are dealing with Microsoft Excel.
Establish goals you would like to accomplish as a beginning teacher who will integrate technology in instruction and in the classroom. A goal I would like to have is for the students to become familiar with using technology. I would like them to feel comfortable emailing me from home, as well as emailing attachments (so they can submit assignments from home). They would also be able to chat with me from home, so I would like them to feel comfortable Skyping me if they had any questions. I would also like the students to become familiar with several technology tools, like Windows Movie Maker/iMovie or Adobe Photo Shop. I think that by using these tools, they would be able to take their learning to a new level and use their creativity and imagination to expand their learning. Another goal I would like is to become more familiar with spreadsheets. I think that by using spreadsheets I will be able to stay more organized with keeping track of the students' grades.
Identify 2 mini-workshops, short-courses, pod casts, or 2 on-line tutorials you would take that will improve your weaknesses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpCaVZCURZQ. This tutorial would help me improve on my spreadsheet skills. I would learn how to use formulas and calculations to create a grade book in Microsoft Excel. Through this tutorial, I will be able to learn the basics of Excel and learn how to keep track of my students' grades on the computer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sodMDs7rEEk. This tutorial will help me learn how to chat online with Skype. I think that it's good to have just in case students or parents at home want a quick way to get in touch with the teacher. This tutorial will help me to learn the basic skills to set up a Skype account and learn how to effectively chat with others through this technology tool.

Week 6: My Digital Story

Seeing as we didn't have class this past week, I will reflect on what I did for this class outside of school, which was work on the digital story.
How will my digital story help me communicate with my students? My digital story will help my students learn the benefits of recycling. The way our digital story is set up is that we have a can that is decorated to look like a girl, Candy the Can. The students follow Candy through the process of recycling, as well as going through the garbage. In the beginning of the digital story, we ask the students/viewers "What would you do with Candy?" That's a good question to use overall in the unit of recycling. Teachers using this video can easily replicate Candy using any kind of can and can use it as the "mascot" for that unit. Using my video, the students could write their own comic about Candy or any other recyclable item of their choice.
How will my digital story help me communicate with my students' parents? The parents will be able to view the video from home since it would be online. They would know what their children are learning in school and what method is being used to teach them (i.e. using technology). Parents are very protective of their children and want to know what's going on while they are at school. A lot can be done through the digital story that can be Incorporated into the home and family. They can keep a weekly log of everything they recycle as a family.
How will digital story help me collaborate with my colleagues? Other teachers in my school could use the video to teach about recycling too. We would have a competition between the classes in the school/grade to see which class can gather the most recyclable items, and whoever wins gets to take a field trip to a recycling plant and bring all of the items from the school and watch them be recycled.
In which ways might I employ my digital story to achieve classroom objectives? My video can be used to achieve any classroom objective that teaches students about recycling. Since it shows the pros of recycling and the cons of throwing out recyclable items, the students will be able to learn how to make environmentally correct decisions. By the time I teach in the classroom, the environmental crisis may be so bad that it might be more important to emphasize recycling in the classroom. My digital story can help the students learn why it is important to recycle.
What are the pros and cons of my digital story? The pros of my digital story are that it takes the students through the process of recycling as well as throwing out garbage. That way, the students can see why it is important to recycle. Another pro of my digital story is that it is geared toward a young age level with Candy the Can being the focus of it. This way, the students are more engaged in watching the video. A con of my video is that it is low quality and some students may lose interest because it was "home made". Another con of it is that it isn't interactive. The video isn't a lesson in itself, but it has to be used in a lesson to learn more information.
Video Reflection: The Millennial Generation video wasn't very accurate. The group of people they interviewed was not consistent (mostly white males). However, the things they said hit close to home with me, because my mother and I have the same cell phone and she's always asking me how to put it on speaker phone or text pictures. My father, who has his AS in computer technology (but is now over 50) has a hard time with computers today. He says they are completely different from when he learned about them in college. With the rate that technology is going, it's crazy to think about the different kinds of things that our own children will be able to use in the future.

Week 5: Windows Movie Maker

What did we learn in class? Today in class I learned how to narrate my story on Windows Movie Maker, and I learned how to do more things on Movie Maker. Stephanie has the microphone, so we will be narrating our story later on this week, but I did learn how to add audio into the story. I am the one in my group who has experience with Movie Maker, so I was off in my own little corner as everyone emailed me the pictures. Today I began to put things together, but I will be able to visualize the entire story more once we have the narration complete. I'm just really glad that our POD finally agreed on an objective to do our story board on, because if we had stuck with the transportation idea, we would not be cooperating the way we do. Also, recycling is a topic that can be made fun, and that's why we created our little critter out of an aluminum can!
How will I be able to use these tools in the classroom? The students will be able to narrate the stories they make on their computer using the knowledge I gained in class today. It will be wonderful for the students to be able to use their imaginations and turn their knowledge into a story with pictures and music and their own voices. I think students get excited when they hear their own voices on the computer or played back to them. I know I always did! I remember observing in the classroom one time, and the teacher was making a class video of their artwork to put on the class website so their parents could see all of their artwork (this was third grade). The teacher took one student at a time and had them record their voices into iMovie. A lot of the students got so excited they spoke too loud, but the teacher showed them where on the volume bar their voices should be so it didn't turn into static. I would love to be able to show my students how to make a story.
How will the use of these tools in the classroom affect how the students learn? The students will be able to be creative and give their stories a personal touch. I just think it is so dull for a teacher to hand out worksheets all day and study textbooks. When students are learning hands-on, going to the library to do their own research, visualizing the material and turning that vision into reality, they are doing much more than taking in information; they are actually processing it. I think that today, a lot of teachers who have been using the same curriculum and lesson plans for the past 20 years are falling into a rut where they don't get creative often enough. 20 years ago, the lesson plans most likely would not suggest using tools like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, but thank goodness for us UVU students! Here we come with our technology tools and desire to get creative!
Video Reflection: I'm going to say a little about both videos. The "Did You Know" one wasn't very exciting. Honestly, I think most of those statistics were made up, and it wasn't something that I would even consider showing to my students. I don't think it got a very strong message across, but the music was very peaceful. I really liked "A Vision of Students Today" video. I felt that they pegged students perfectly. It is important for teachers to recognize how much college students take on each day, and that it's very frustrating (and time consuming) to get a professor in college who thinks their class is the only class that matters (or their students are taking). Because they feel this way (for whatever reason), they load on the work, causing the students to be stressed out even more than necessary. I've always felt very strongly about teachers needing to put themselves in their students' shoes. It's terrible to get teachers who have a "no exceptions" policy, because the truth is, there are exceptions to homework being late or students not being in class. Things go on in students' lives that many teachers feel they are too superior to even acknowledge, but a good teacher is one who can put themselves in their students' shoes.

Week 4: Digital Stories

How will these skills help my students create? The whole point of this program is to have the students use their imaginations and create what they want to. Through these skills, the students will be able to portray several moods in their stories: emotional, humor, informational, etc. This program is wonderful because it allows the students to be creative in thinking what they would want to create. I know in my POD, our imaginations took off once we finally decided on a topic, and I would like nothing more than to have that same thing happen to my students. By being able to experience that feeling first-hand, I was reminded how it feels to be able to take what's in your mind and apply it to whatever you want, allowing yourself to show your creativity to the classroom and the world.
How will these skills help me collaborate with my colleagues? By using these skills, I will master them the more I use them. This way, I can share my knowledge with my colleagues and recommend this program to them to share with their students, and it will be able to spread throughout the school. I think this program can be used in any grade; either the students make individual stories (older grades) or the class as a whole can make one put together by the teacher (younger grades). This way, by sharing it with my colleagues, we could show examples made by other classes.
Why are these tools so popular with my colleagues? These tools are so popular with colleagues because they are usable in any grade, either first or tenth. They allow the students to be using their imagination, and that is so important today. If you sit the students down with worksheets about the Revolutionary War and a textbook, they can learn only so much. This involves no use of the imagination whatsoever. However, if you were to divide the class into groups and have them make group storyboards of the Revolutionary War using other resources other than the textbook, the students can use their imagination. I am a huge believer in having the students use their imaginations as often as possible.
In which ways might I employ these skills to achieve classroom objectives? I can apply these skills to any classroom objective, whether it's a spelling test or learning about the 50 states. There are many ways to achieve classroom objectives, and I would much rather choose a way that allows the students to expand their creativity and apply their knowledge of the material in a much more fun way than worksheets and tests.
What are the pros and cons of Digital Story? There are many pros of Digital Story, and the way I see it, there are much more pros than cons. As I've said repeatedly in this blog, Digital Story allows the students to use their imagination and be creative. It allows the students to explore the impact music has on a story. It also is able to be used in all age groups. The students can use it in any subject as well, from art to history to science. I feel like it is a more modern approach to a book report, and it allows the students to give their final product a personal touch. A con would be that not all students would be able to catch on to the technology as fast as other students, and if the students were to work on it in a group setting, all it takes is one person who doesn't know how to use the program and that person does nothing to help out in the group. In the same way, if there is one student who understands the program better than others, it is very possible that that student does everything on their own and the work is not distributed throughout the entire group.
Video Reflection: I really liked this video. I would totally use this in my classroom to show the students an example of a well done story. I would present it to my students in the same manner that Doc Waters did to us. I would ask the students about the mood of the video and how the music affected it. I would use this as an example of how music can completely change the feel of a story. I would play a portion of the video again but with happy music in the background, and ask them how the change in music changed the feel of the video. I think that would really make the students think about what music would be best to put to their story.