Monday, March 8, 2010

Week 7 Peer Postings

In week 7 one of the assignments is to view 2 of our peer/classmates postings and then leave a comment on it. The first blog title that caught my attention was "Create Yourself". I decided to see what the blog was about. You can view my comment.

For my second one I chose a story in 5 photos. I had some much fun working on this project and I enjoy looking at other finished stories. This has some very pretty pictures of the different seasons.

Digital Drugs ?

I know I am a beginner when it comes to the technology of today, but I never thought I would hear the term digital drugs. I was shocked when this aired on the 6 p.m. news today. I can not believe that someone actually took the time to figure out what frequency and sound levels would affect the brain in this matter. I learned something tonight. I am glad that Mustang Schools took the initiative to warn parents in their school district. I was also glad to see that some of the student interviewed had told their friends this was not safe and chose not to download the music to their mp3 players. This is also scary. My 13 year old niece, or other children for that matter, could download these songs innocently and end up seriously hurt after listening to it. I wonder where this topic would fit into digital citizenship?


Wiki's are for more than just research

I was asked to watch a video from the K12 Online Conference 2009. This video has to do with the use of Wiki's and how to use them for collaborative learning. I was amazed at how many uses Wiki's have besides for research. I had no idea it has so many great uses. I learned a lot and had a whole new world of wiki opened up for me. The video is Parallel Play or Collaboration-Leveraging the Wiki Platform for High Quality Work. I thought that it was a great idea for the presenter, Paula White, to also set up and include a Wiki with the information for the video also.
I am glad she did because it gives me a reference point as I learn and use Wiki's.



The other information I took away was that students, of any age, have to want to be connected and engage with others. We are more likely to accomplish this if we are passionate about or interested in something. This can be motivation for work outside and inside the classroom. Paula talks about getting students to do task that she would not normally have been able to and sometimes the students take the initiative to do the task ahead of time.

I can remember when the phone was the only way to interact and work together. I had no idea that collaboration could take place (on such a global level) through the use of a Wiki. Wiki's also allow collaboration to happen 24 hours a day. Wiki's can be used when it is the most convenient for the user.

I feel that Wiki's are a valuable to for educators. I would like to use them when I am teaching. I am already thinking of ways that a wiki would work for the parents of my students. I would also provide an avenue for interacting with each other and other parents who have students in my class. The possibilities for Wiki's are endless.

Can Collaboration and Merit Based Pay co-exist in the Education field?

I have been watching one of the videos for an assignment in week 7 of my technology 4 teachers class. I am still behind seeing as how the class is finishing up week 8 & starting week 9 on Wed. I was learning about wiki's and collaborative learning.

I live in Oklahoma. Earlier today, I was watching one of the new channels and they were talking about instituting merit based pay for teachers. While watching the video I learned that using technology for our passions increase knowledge and self-directed learning. I decided to take a chance and post my question to see what my peers thoughts would be.

Everything we are learning in college has to do with collaboration and using our peers as resources. I am know wondering how collaboration is going to exist and work if Oklahoma does instate merit based pay. Will collaboration die out? If your ideas are ,what your pay is based on, are you going to want to share your really neat discoveries and idea with fellow teachers? I am not sure that collaborate would exist as freely and available as it does in our non-merit based pay world today.

What do you think?

Saturday, March 6, 2010

We're off to see the wizard

As part of our homework assignment, for week 6, were were asked to watch a video at K12. I watched the Wizard of Apps. I thought parts of this were really cute. Although, I thought all of the information provided was good. I loved the wizard of apps play that was mixed in with the information sections. I was blown away by how well they had changed the words, from the original songs, to match the their subject matter. It was cool. These students did a great job.

The main theme seemed to be digital citizenship. There is information shared on how to leave a good digital footprints and what types of technology is available to help us achieve this. There are several websites that are shared to help teachers help their students learn about digital citizenship and incorporate it into their learning experience. Information is provided to help all users to be safe users of technology and respect all copyright laws.

As a future teacher, it is import to me that I know how to protect myself and my students, when it comes to using the Internet and technology in my classroom. The more I learn, in my technology 4 teachers class, the more I keep having the same question. Is there any way to make sure our students are 100% safe when incorporating technology into lessons and my classroom. The last thing I want to happen, or find out about is that one of my students got hurt and there was a connection to the technology used in my classroom. This video gave great websites for this and I have added some of them to my Diigo account for future referencing.






While watching the video, I noticed that I had a hard time reading some of the information that was on the screen from the Internet. I was a little disappointed in that because I wanted to read some of the information shared. When I finished watching the video , I noticed that there was also a link for a slide show of the Wizard of Apps. I went to check it out and was glad that I did. I could read all the information that was hard to read from the video.





Part of this assignment is to go to one of the websites that Joyce mentions in the video. I decided to go to one of them that I had wrote down to add to my Diigo account. In the video, it talks about a website that you can go to to check on the digital footprint an individual leaves. It is a people search website. I found this intriguing and decided to check myself out. I did not figure that I would find any digital footprints. Surprise, I found my blog listed in two different places. I thought it was kind of strange that it was one of my post and not my actual blog location. It brings a new perspective when you see your actual digital footprint.

Digital Citizenship is a topic that is going to continue to grow as we continue to grow in technology. I feel that as teachers we should be educated on this subject. We are going to have to use and teach our students about digital technology if we are going to incorporate it into our classrooms.


Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Week 6 student Blogs

For this weeks assignments, on constructive commenting, I went to check out what Mrs. Kolbert's students were up to. One of the student blog's title caught my attention, so I had to check it out. It was about Discovery Education's website. I am hoping that the student will post the web address. I asked for it in my comment to the student. It sounds like a really cool website and I can't wait to check it out.

For my second student's blog, I chose one titled Mrs. Kolbert's Representative. The title caught my attention also. Had to check it out. I really had to debate about my comment to this student. In her post she talked about how miserable she was in her science class the year before. She also shared that she now loves her new science teacher and science this year.

There were a few grammatical and what looked like typing errors in the post. The last thing on the blog was explaining that her mother had typed it in for her. The purpose of this assignment is to help us develop the skills of constructive (positive) commenting. This means that I am learning myself and could make an error. I don't feel strong in this area or with this skill yet.

The last thing I want to do is post something that might hurt another students feeling or discourage them irregardless of their age. There was just something about this post that left me feeling like this student could really use some extra encouragement. Because of all of this, I chose not to mention anything about the errors, that I noticed when reading her blog. If this results in a loss of points for my assignment this week; then so be it. I would rather lose points that make an error in this commenting.