Thursday, July 21, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Digital Story Telling
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Education Blog Following
From the blog entitled 2 cents worth: teaching and learning in the new information landscape, I was brought to the question of what do you call a textbook that is not a book? Bloggers wrote about how future textbooks will not be books. In specific one teacher uses Moodle for the basis of her classroom instruction as her “digital curriculum.” However, the author, David Warlick wrote that the problem with digital books or the sort is that for first year teachers, a textbook is a more uniformly tool. Whereas, a digital curriculum that has been created by the previous teacher may not be as useful to someone that is used to a hardback textbook set of instruction. Many other teachers and people in the education world had comments about the use of digital books, ebooks, kindles, and others and how these tools impact curriculum and classroom environments. I personally find reading articles or chapters off of blackboard to be hard on my eyes, but I would love to have a kindle with all my textbooks downloaded on it to make my pack lighter while on campus.
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
Another blog that I checked out was a college blog written by a college student that has completed their first year. Although this is different from the other education blogs that I have been reading I found this to be interesting in that it gives the reader an insight of how education progresses as the years continue on. For instance while reading this blog I just thought about how I have changed since my freshman year in college and how important education is for so many different reasons. I have come to find that when I return how each summer I am so happy that I have been at college because I get intellectual stimulation that I would not get if I were not attending college. When I learn information I feel better about myself because I become more competent in the skills I need to succeed in life. This blog was refreshing because I was reminded of how lucky I am to have completed three years of my college education and to be on track for graduation.
http://blogs.makingitcount.com/yearone/
Education 421a author Staphanie Sandifer brought up good information on technology, coaching, and community. She was reading up on the newly released NETS for Technology Coaches and is so happy with what is included. She states that the NETS-C provides a good framework for the development of educational technology support positions into more effective coaching positions. Apparently the NETS-C includes cognitive coaching, peer coaching, and instructional coaching models, which are highly effective. The author stated that in specific what is needed to be a good technology coach is to know what to ask and how to ask the questions. She emphasis the use of questioning techniques that engage the teacher (being coached) in an environment that does not have judgment, criticism, or evaluation. I find this information to be quit interesting because throughout this class I have found that technology in the classroom is extremely important. However, many teachers are not up to date on the newest and latest technology so they are not sure how to apply the technology to their classroom structure. In order for the students to learn about new technology and be introduced to the technology that they will be using in and outside the classroom for the rest of their lives, the teacher needs to be taught by someone else. I think that technology coaches are a wonderful addition to the education community and I hope that this idea will carry through many districts.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Global Community Education
We connect with global educations in multiple forms now more than ever because of our ever-advancing technological world. I know some ways in particular that I used to connect with children from other places around the globe was through pen pals in Elementary School. I remember specifically having pen pals from Africa that we would write to. In addition, I have found that there are more and more social networking sites where children and teachers can connect with others in an educational reference. For instance, Sun Microsystems has launched two new social networking portals intended to connect the global education community. One is called EduConnection.orgwhich is set up for the Sun’s education sector costumers. However, the Open Source University Meet up is the second social networking site that allows students to communicate between each other about open source programming tools and platforms. According to the website, “Educonnection.org offers a platform for schools to exchange information and best practices that will help them to mitigate the challenges of purchasing and implementing new technology in an era of increasing budgetary pressure. It also provides an opportunity for Sun to directly energize, engage and support the education community.” In addition to social networks, I was able to find a variety of different organizations that are designated for global education. I believe that by reading these websites and blogs, children can learn about schools in other countries and therefore be connected through technology to these schools and places. There is one website that I found for the Global Community for Education which is a website that teaching the public about building schools and changing lives in various countries where schooling is not set up. This website in particular reminded me quite a bit of the book Three Cups of Tea. I believe that because children have so many opportunities to connect themselves with their outside words now through the computer that we can all be connected through blogs, websites, and a traditional form of written print in a book. In addition I think that as a teacher it would be neat to subscribe to some of the newsletter that these various programs have in order to show them to your class. Another tool that I found to be really interesting is called Global EdNet, which is a global education website, blog, discussion board, and email. The website has global education news as well as new ideas, lesson plans, and information on different cultures and education systems globally. Some ways that students can connect are through international video conferences, international education and research network, iEARN. I found that children in rural Washington State were able to connect with international schools through research, art, and ultimately the video conference with thanks to their teacher, Krisi Rennebohm Franz. I found this information athttp://www.edutopia.org/going-global-rural-washington-students-connect-with-world. One place that I found particularly interesting and useful for students to connect with global education is the Student Circle Network. According to author Chika Uwazie, “Students Circle Network, a Kyrenia-area start-up (GirneAmerican University Roots) founded in 2010 - is an educational social network for college and high school students with interests in providing free course resources/materials, live faculty/teacher/lecturer help to students, scholarship offers, study groups and many more students services across the globe for FREE.” Some discussion questions for children can include everything from, “what do other children in other cultures eat, to what books are popular in other cultures and are their translated books that we can read I order to learn about another culture. “ In addition, children should be asked “how are classrooms set up in other countries, what tools do they use, how is our education system similar and different (funding?).
Friday, June 24, 2011
Assistive Technology Education
Assistive Technology in Education for children with autism:
Technology can be used to assist education in many ways throughout the classroom. People and students that have disabilities have been aided by technology in various forms. So what is autism? How can technology help? And what is assisted technology education?
Autism is a disability that can be caused by a multiple of reasons and it has a broad spectrum of severity and symptoms. Autism is a disorder of complex brain development. The general symptoms that a child can experience involve social interaction problems, limited interest in activities, and verbal and non-verbal communication issues.
How can technology aid those with autism? Technology can be used to give children an opportunity to interact with other children and people through other ways of communication such as email, globs, or videos. Children with autism can express their needs and desires through different forms of communication. In addition children can interact with other children while working on a project that involves computer work. Some children with autism have a hard time sitting still in class so something like a pair of headphones that they can use to listen to music while completing a writing or creative arts project. In addition children with autism can use digital images, cameras, video recorders, or instruments to express themselves and connect with the classroom.
Assistive technology is something that is extremely beneficial for children with and without disabilities. Technology is a tool to aid learner but it is important to not rely completely on technology for information and learning. Much of autism and other disabilities have relations to communication. Although we can use technology to help us communicate with one another and we need to be sure and teach children how to communicate with each other without technology. I believe that in order to stay up to date with technology teachers should use resources such as the top technology tips for classroom teachers and free technology for teachers (see citations below). When teachers are aware of the latest technology tools that they can have the opportunity to use them. It is important for teachers to stay up with the latest technology and information in order to adapt their classroom to aid the children for their future.
Evaluating, Selecting, and Using Appropriate Assistive Technology by Jan Galvin and Marcia Scherer.
http://www.edzone.net/~mwestern/
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tech Tools
I found two really cool tech tools and I could not just choose one to report back on. One of the tools is called Tux Paint. Tux Paint is computer-drawing software for children and could be used in the classroom. This is a really neat program that I thought could have multiple uses in the classroom. In relation the all children having different learning styles, I thought this program is a good way to incorporate visual learning and technology in the classroom. However, the one problem that I found with using this tool is that when you save the picture you created, it is hard to find. It is easy however, to print your creating, but emailing it to someone seems tricky. This program is neat though because it is similar to Kid Pix (a program I used to use when I was young), but has more advanced features. You can blur the picture, add cartoon, add animation, lots of colors, stamps, dialog, fuzz, and much more. This is a really fun program to play with and would be a neat way to introduce children to a new unit because the children would have a blast coloring and exploring their creativity.
The other tech tool that I think is really neat is called Story Jumper. This is a website (http://www.storyjumper.com/) that allows anyone to create their own storybook. I remember for one of my literature classes, we all had to create our own children’s book. I made my book on shutterfly because I was unaware of other ways to get a bound hard covered book that included pictures. I was able to draw and make pictures and then scan them in on the computer and place the picture in the picture section of the book. However, this website would be most useful with second or third graders. What is really cool about this site is that I was recommending the commoncraft videos to one of my friends that is a fourth grade teacher and she replied by showing me this website. This is a website developed for the use of teachers in order to make writing and reading interesting and fun. This is a great way to incorporate technology while sticking with the fundamental skills of writing and creating art.