FINAL THOUGHTS

This is my last blog post for my technology class.  I have to say at the start of this class I was really dreading the class.  I personally thought I knew A LOT about technology and how to incorporate it into the classroom.  I was COMPLETELY wrong.  I have learned so many tools that I can use in the classroom.  Many of the technologies we used could also be used for students as well as teachers. 

Throughout this course I have had personal favorites and personal dislikes for certain technologies.  Some of my favorites have been the Glogster, digital storytelling, and the portfolio.  They allowed me to be extremely creative and they are technologies that I could see me using in the classroom. 

Since my last post I have created a Webquest as well as a portfolio.  Webquests are great ways to get students involved and excited about a lesson while allowing them to use technology.  Webquest are just time consuming.  Therefore, in my personal opinion teachers would need to have a basic layout created so that they could simply put the information into the webquest and re-use it for different lessons. 

I absolutely loved the idea of an electronic portfolio.  All of my technology creations are now all in one specific spot that I can go to whenever I may need to reference something or even use it in my future classroom.  I believe that the electronic portfolio is a wonderful tool for students.  They would always have access to their work and creations, which is vital for students to see their growth in learning and developing. 

Overall, this has been a wonderful learning experience.  I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to take this class and explore various technologies.  My new knowledge will help my future students succeed in the classroom. 

EDCI 505 Post #3

Hello All!!!

I am back again to write more about what I am learning through this experience in EDCI 505. Just to refresh everyone, I am in a technology class where I am learning all about different types of technologies that can be used in the classroom to help students. It is hard to believe that we are narrowing down on our last two assignments in this class. For this blog post though, I am mostly going to focus on Wikis, Digital Storytelling, and Interactive media using PowerPoint.

Out of these three projects I would have to say that the digital story was by far my favorite technology tool. I can see this technology being used in so many different ways. For example, in another graduate course we are to take our Multi Genre paper that we are creating and turn it into a digital story, but the difference is we have to record ourselves telling the story. This is just another unique way that digital storytelling could be incorporated into the classroom.  I believe that this is an excellent tool for students to learn a variety of different things such as editing, creativity, writing strategies, and the list could go on and on.  I would LOVE to see my classmates’ digital stories.  That is one recommendation that I would have for future classes.  It is always fun to see what other people create.   
As for the interactive media, it was extremely time consuming, and as a future teacher, I personally would find it hard to spend that much time on one aspect of the classroom.  Maybe once I have been teaching for a while this may be a tool that I could use and spend time working on.  The nice thing about interactive media is that once it is created, a teacher could just change it up a little bit to fit what they are teaching.  For example, I created a jeopardy game, but I could take the questions and answers our and tweak it to what I need the game for.  It is a great way to keep students motivated while using technology. 

I believe that wikis could be a great resource for students to create.  I believe that creating a wiki could stand in place of a research paper.  By creating a wiki, students would have the opportunity to present their information in a fun and creative way.  The whole idea of a wiki is a fantastic idea, and I believe that it could be used in many different forms within the classroom. 

I continue to learn so many valuable lessons about what will and will not work in my classroom.  All of the tools that we have had the opportunity to work with have helped me gain excellent knowledge of technology. 

EDCI 505 Post #2

Hello again!!!! I have learned even more about technology since my last post.  I will have to say that I have liked some of our assignments, and I can see me using them in the classroom, but I have not liked some other assignments.  Some of the assignments I did not like because I would personally never use them in the classroom.  That is the neat thing about technology.  Not everyone has to like or use the same types of technologies.  Everyone can use technology in a variety of unique ways.  If teachers use a variety of different technologies, than students will have the opportunity to work with different types of technologies and form their own opinions. 

I had some positive and negative feelings about the graphic organizers that we made.  I like the idea of a graphic organizer, and if gives students a different way to look at, and learn material.  It is also a great way to introduce a topic.  The problems I have with graphic organizers are first they can become extremely confusing when you have a more complex topic.  I want to teach middle school education, and I believe the more complex the topic, the more complex and confusing the graphic organizer becomes.  Also, I personally believe that we hand students graphic organizers ALL the time.  I believe that they simply get old after a while.  I wish there was another way to display this information without using a graphic organizer.  I also had positive and negative feelings about the googledoc assignment.  Once everything is set up, and all the formulas are in place, GoogleDocs is a great resource to use.  On the other hand, I do not believe that GoogleDocs is very user friendly when trying to set up a grade book.  I thought it was very time consuming and frustrating at times, but in the end I guess that is what technology can be like.  These are just some of my thoughts on the past assignments that we have had in EDCI 505!

EDCI 505 post #1

It is hard to believe how far technology has come within the last 10 years.  Not even the last 10 years, but the last 5, 3, and 2 years ago.  Technology is always changing and evolving into something better.  Since I am an educator I understand the importance of incorporating technology into the classroom.  My students are 21^st century learners who NEED technology not only to be successful in school, but to be successful in their futures as adults as well.  I am part of the technology generation, but there are still technologies out there that I am unaware of how to use, and especially how to incorporate them into a classroom.  I believe that using technology in the classroom is not only vital, but it makes learning fun and memorable for students. 

I am currently enrolled in a class (EDCI 505) that is all about incorporating technology into the classroom.  We have only had 4 weeks of class, but I have already learned an immense amount of information about technology.  I have created a Web 2.0 classroom page, as well as my very own interactive poster called a glog. While creating these two pieces, I was extremely frustrated at times, and at other times it all came so easily to me.  Either way, I have learned how to do some many different things that make technology useful, fun, and memorable.  I will without a doubt use these two strategies in my future classroom.  I believe both of these types of technologies offer students a different way to learn.  I have posted my finished projects and Facebook for my friends and family to see.  I have had many practicing teachers ask me if I could sit down and teach them how to create these types of technologies for their own classrooms.  I am so thankful that I have to take a class such as this.  Without this class, I would never have the opportunity to explore the options that are out there for teachers to use in the classroom!!