end of semester refection

This is a reflection on the entire semester in Tech'n Ed class.

Before, I had knowledge of technology and uses of it, but I did not understand some of the little "things." Things such as Web 2.o., Smart board, website building, pod casting, etc.
I'm not saying i know everything now, but I have a better understanding of multiple tools now to help with my career as an educator.

not only will it benefit my profession, it will benefit the students by offering an up-to-date education. Well, at the rate of technology advancements, "up-to-date" is relative. Hopefully I will be able to provide what is necessary for the future generations.

One great thing about technology is that there is so much available that creatively is endless. On the other side, you do not have to use all that is available, only that that is important or useful for my classrooms.

Progress made:

NETS #3 Model Digital - Age Work and Learning
a. throughout my projects in Instructional Design I tried to incorporate as much technology as possible, without overloading it. I tried to use smart board, but the features of smart board are not to my liking. I believe Active board may be better. During my lesson that I created, I used PowerPoint. I believe that I utilized many features of power point, along with other technologies such as the document camera.

Though I was to focus on one NETs, I have found that I have been reaching other NETs with other project ans lessons that I have created such as:
- Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity
- many of many projects have shown a sense of creativity and have expanded my abilities to use more tools that I have not utilized before.
- Just with my Final project in Tech'n Ed. I have shown the need for student to interact with the digital age tools and resources by providing opportunities to explore online.

Mostly I have touched on areas of most of the NETS. I plan to continue to strengthen every area of all NETS so that I may become a better educator and to provide an education that student need for today and the future.

Reflextion #11

This class bog we have is nice. In a sense that it is interesting to read everything every one has and follow the comments made. It's neat to see people's different points of view of certain topics and to know that we do not think collectively similar thoughts on every subject.

This may be a great way o understand how students think in schools. In the class room many may be afraid to speak an opinion, and on line it no problem. This also could become a concern, but as educators we should be able to have a balance with our classrooms and students.

Part #2 assignment 4

Mr. Angleton's Website

Features Used:
link button
page button
music player
mini page creator
backgrounds
tabs
animations
video/media
comments/blog boards
contact board
menu creator
wigits
galleries
clipart
podcast page for government section

Issues encountered:
The main issue encountered is that I can spend many hours developing a website. Another thing is that you must continually save, if anything happens you can lose all progress. Other than these two things, it is very simple to use.

This project mad me very excited to create a web page for myself and my classes. At first I was not digging the idea of a website, but as I worked on my project I developed a huge want and need to build it.

I will definitely use either this site builder or one very similar to it. You are able to be as creative as you want or as simple as needed. As shown in my project, it has ways to keep students engaged and interactive with technology. Also, it has many ways to keep things organized and easy to navigate.

NETS:
Teacher:
1.Facilitates and Inspires Student Learning and Creativity
- how the site is built creates a model of creativity encourages innovative thinking and inventiveness.
- parts of the project get the student engaged in real-world issues and events. Such as the Shuttle launch.
- supports the idea of student reflection.
- student are able to interface virtually through blog and comment boards


2. Design and Develop Digital -age Learning Experiences
- uses various web tools to create a site that allows for digital interaction
- allows student to be free to explore the option given through digital online resources
- site is customized for student use

3. Model Digital -Age work and Learning
- allows for student input to help increase accessibility and easy, easy to learn from student input

Student
1. Creativity and Innovation
- student are able to use resources provide online. there is a moment board that can take suggestions to help improve the site with student ideas and needs
2.Communication and Collaboration
- student get to interact with other sudents and teacher via blog/ comment board
3. Research and Information Fluency
- student get to use provided online resource on site to help with research: sites, media, etc.
6. Technology Operations and Concepts
- student are able to show digital understanding using the site; it is created to be as easy as possible to understand and operate.
- use of blog or boards can help with troubleshooting either assignments or online issues
- Students show understanding of technology systems by performing assignments given online on the site.

Overall, seeing that the teacher is creative enough to spend time build a site that is engaging, may show the students that I am interested in their learning styles and can help make their education fun, interesting and engaging.

The entire site is incomplete due to the want to put more work than necessary into it possibly. If I spent more time, more than the many hours already put into it, I could figure out how to meet every NET. But I will just have to wait until I create a web space for my real classes.

Future of technology in school

So, most everywhere I look, articles, Internet, etc., I see that technology is stressed to BE IN THE CLASSROOM; the future is changing so should the way students get educated; technology mean less paper used, less textbooks (can be on computers, etc.); all around, technology means an improvement in a student's education.

But, there is one thing that I question. Where are the funds to support receiving, updating, and continuing advancements going to come from. For now some schools provide it, some teachers provide it, or some parents provide it. But when it becomes IT, who pays? Will the government? Or will the people (most likely in one form or another, taxes)?

I do not disagree that technology needs to be used, it's just expensive. At least right now.

Reflextion #10

Check this out! Robo-teacher in Tokyo. It is a neat idea to show new technology in the classroom. I pretty sure humans have nothing to worry about for a long time though.

I don't think that a robot can replace a person as a teacher, there would not be a connection that I think is vital in a teacher-student's relationship in education. A robot, for now, can only be vocal. And we already know that continuous lectures get boring, how would a robot make it better?

Aside from that, it is amazing to see where technology is going and what the future holds.

Word Excel Power-point

Word:

• Spellcheck
• word count
• header
• insert image
• copy
• cut
• paste

Excel:

• do not use

PowerPoint

• add image
• text
• backround changing
• copy
• cut
• paste

List of projects:

• Power point- group presentation
• Excel- statistics project (ie. population growth throught history)
• Word- research paper that includes title page, glossary, index, etc...

On-line learning experience

One main session I viewed was Options for Building Your Teacher Website and Why YOU Should by Cyndi Danner-Kuhn of Manhattan, Kansas.
Cyndi goes through many options of website building sites and which ones best help teachers with different capabilities with site building. Some of the reasons why she says all teachers need to have a site are:

• a teacher web page helps gain teaching time
• students gain access to more curriculum resources
• student come to see their teachers as more connected
• communication with students, parents, families
• allows students to gain valuable digital experiences

I found that the information Cyndi provided to find a web page builder was very helpful. I now have options to chose from to help with my final technology project.

These are a couple other sessions I looked at:

Digiteens: Digital Citizenship by Digital Teenagers

Bridging History Using Web 2.0 Tools

To Those Who Want to Rock-Don't Suppose Compose!