Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Week Five: RSS and Feed Readers
I had a difficult time with this one in the beginning. I chose to use Bloglines for my feed reader. Evidently the website has changed since the tutorial videos were made. I tried to follow them, but my screen looked very different from the ones in the videos. After a long time of trying to figure it out on my own, I clicked on the Help icon on the Bloglines homepage and got some of my questions answered. I finally succeeded in adding three RSS feeds to my reader. I added USA Today, MSN News, and I also found an RSS feed for my district website. Although I had some difficulties with this assignment, I was glad to do it. Before today I had never really understood what RSS was. I heard about it all the time but never knew exactly what it was. Now I have a much better understanding. :)
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Ten Things That Make Me Go Hmmm About Educational Technology
Most of my ten things are in question form, and a couple are in statement form.
1. Why does technology change so rapidly? Schools purchase technology items for teaching, such as iPads. Next thing you know the iPad 2 is out, and iPad is outdated. Schools can't afford to keep up with all the technology advancements.
2. What will educational technology look like in twenty years? Educational technology looks very different now than it did twenty years ago. How much will it change in another twenty years?
3. Will online classes ever become more mainstream that traditional classes? I first heard of online classes when I was in high school (just 6 short years ago), and I thought that sounded crazy. Now here I am doing my entire masters program online.
4. There seems to be no solid definition to educational technology. We all defined eductional technology in our own way, and we built an "Educational Technology is..." map with ideas that just kept growing.
5. Kids today must be exposed to a lot of technology before they even begin school. My librarian is also the librarian at another school in the district. She is at my school every other day. She told me last week that she was teaching mouse skills to the kindergarteners at her other school, and it seemed to her that many of them had never really used a mouse. She said they wanted to touch the screen or put the mouse on the screen. She said they must be used to using iPads.
6. How do most older teachers feel about educational technology today? I would think it would be difficult to change the way the they teach after teaching so long with limited technology.
7. Are kids more interested and engaged when using technology tools in the classroom? When I was in school it was exciting to use technology tools, such as laptops. Now technology is used a lot more regularly. Are they excited about the technology, or is it just everyday school work to them?
8. Will Kindles replace library books in the future? Since I've started this program my dad has asked me that question several times. I tell him I don't know, but it's definitely a possibility.
9. How popular is the flipped classroom concept? I've never heard of it outside this program. Statistics show that it is very successful.
10. Are there still many classrooms that don't have an interactive whiteboard, such as a Smart Board? My hometown just built a brand new elementary school, and they have Promethean Boards, but the old elementary schools that it replaced still had just white boards and chalk boards. That reminds me of a funny story. Last school year I was subbing for a first grade class, and the teacher had left me a transparency to use on an overhead projector for an activity they were doing that usually involved the Smart Board, but she was going to a meeting and had to take her laptop, so the overhead was the best alternative. Apparently that was the first time those first graders had ever seen an overhead projector. They were in awe over it and kept saying how cool it was. I felt ancient when I told them that's what my teacher used when I was their age. :)
1. Why does technology change so rapidly? Schools purchase technology items for teaching, such as iPads. Next thing you know the iPad 2 is out, and iPad is outdated. Schools can't afford to keep up with all the technology advancements.
2. What will educational technology look like in twenty years? Educational technology looks very different now than it did twenty years ago. How much will it change in another twenty years?
3. Will online classes ever become more mainstream that traditional classes? I first heard of online classes when I was in high school (just 6 short years ago), and I thought that sounded crazy. Now here I am doing my entire masters program online.
4. There seems to be no solid definition to educational technology. We all defined eductional technology in our own way, and we built an "Educational Technology is..." map with ideas that just kept growing.
5. Kids today must be exposed to a lot of technology before they even begin school. My librarian is also the librarian at another school in the district. She is at my school every other day. She told me last week that she was teaching mouse skills to the kindergarteners at her other school, and it seemed to her that many of them had never really used a mouse. She said they wanted to touch the screen or put the mouse on the screen. She said they must be used to using iPads.
6. How do most older teachers feel about educational technology today? I would think it would be difficult to change the way the they teach after teaching so long with limited technology.
7. Are kids more interested and engaged when using technology tools in the classroom? When I was in school it was exciting to use technology tools, such as laptops. Now technology is used a lot more regularly. Are they excited about the technology, or is it just everyday school work to them?
8. Will Kindles replace library books in the future? Since I've started this program my dad has asked me that question several times. I tell him I don't know, but it's definitely a possibility.
9. How popular is the flipped classroom concept? I've never heard of it outside this program. Statistics show that it is very successful.
10. Are there still many classrooms that don't have an interactive whiteboard, such as a Smart Board? My hometown just built a brand new elementary school, and they have Promethean Boards, but the old elementary schools that it replaced still had just white boards and chalk boards. That reminds me of a funny story. Last school year I was subbing for a first grade class, and the teacher had left me a transparency to use on an overhead projector for an activity they were doing that usually involved the Smart Board, but she was going to a meeting and had to take her laptop, so the overhead was the best alternative. Apparently that was the first time those first graders had ever seen an overhead projector. They were in awe over it and kept saying how cool it was. I felt ancient when I told them that's what my teacher used when I was their age. :)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Week Four: Photo Sharing
I chose option A of exploring Flickr because I don't have a Flickr account, and I don't really know of anyone off the top of my head who has one that I could share my photos with. Occasionally I upload photos on Facebook. That is the extent of my photo uploading. Lol.
I looked at many of the links that were provided on the 23 Things Kansas website for Flickr. I took the tour on the Flickr website, and that helped me to understand more about it. It looks very user friendly.
When I first began looking at Flickr I found the photo I wanted to use right away. I clicked on the explore link on the 23 Things Kansas website and it gave me an option to choose a month. I chose September 2011 to see recent photos. Then it brought up a calendar with a thumbnail photo on each day. The photo on the 10th caught my eye, so I clicked on it to bring up a larger image. It was a beautiful tribute to the 9/11 Memorial! The photographer is Ryan D. Budhu.
This is the thumbnail photo. I couldn't get it any bigger without it being blurry. To get a better look at it, here is the link.
I looked at many of the links that were provided on the 23 Things Kansas website for Flickr. I took the tour on the Flickr website, and that helped me to understand more about it. It looks very user friendly.
When I first began looking at Flickr I found the photo I wanted to use right away. I clicked on the explore link on the 23 Things Kansas website and it gave me an option to choose a month. I chose September 2011 to see recent photos. Then it brought up a calendar with a thumbnail photo on each day. The photo on the 10th caught my eye, so I clicked on it to bring up a larger image. It was a beautiful tribute to the 9/11 Memorial! The photographer is Ryan D. Budhu.
This is the thumbnail photo. I couldn't get it any bigger without it being blurry. To get a better look at it, here is the link.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Education HAS Missed the Boat
"Education has missed the boat with respect to instructional design. Teachers come up with lesson plans on the fly, with little thought to why they are presenting information or even who their audience is. Teacher training, at the university level and during Professional development, needs to focus on helping teachers become comfortable with instructional design principles." After watching the videos and reading the articles about instructional design, I would probably have to agree with this quote. I didn't know that instructional design was so in depth.
After I graduated with my degree in elementary education I substituted for a year and a half, and shortly after the beginning of the second semester last year I was hired to teach third and fourth grade Reading for the remainder of the school year. My job only lasted for four months because the position was no longer available this year. I have to admit that when I made my lesson plans during that time, I did not think about all the parts there are to instructional design. I did put good thought into what I was doing but not to that extent.
In college, I was taught how to make lesson plans, stating the objective, anticipatory set, standards, benchmarks, indicators, etc. That was required for assignments, but the instructors said that probably wouldn't be required when we actually teach, but we needed to know how to do it. In fact, they said that it may not even be required to turn in lesson plans. They were right. I wonder if that is a contributing factor as to why teachers don't always focus on instructional design.
The models of instructional design, such as the Morrison, Ross, Kemp Model and the ADDIE Model, might be considered too limited or too broad for what the teachers are trying to do. That could be another reason as to why instructional design is not always used.
I agree that teacher training should focus on helping them become more comfortable with instructional design. The more comfortable they are with it, the better educator they will be, and the more students will learn.
After I graduated with my degree in elementary education I substituted for a year and a half, and shortly after the beginning of the second semester last year I was hired to teach third and fourth grade Reading for the remainder of the school year. My job only lasted for four months because the position was no longer available this year. I have to admit that when I made my lesson plans during that time, I did not think about all the parts there are to instructional design. I did put good thought into what I was doing but not to that extent.
In college, I was taught how to make lesson plans, stating the objective, anticipatory set, standards, benchmarks, indicators, etc. That was required for assignments, but the instructors said that probably wouldn't be required when we actually teach, but we needed to know how to do it. In fact, they said that it may not even be required to turn in lesson plans. They were right. I wonder if that is a contributing factor as to why teachers don't always focus on instructional design.
The models of instructional design, such as the Morrison, Ross, Kemp Model and the ADDIE Model, might be considered too limited or too broad for what the teachers are trying to do. That could be another reason as to why instructional design is not always used.
I agree that teacher training should focus on helping them become more comfortable with instructional design. The more comfortable they are with it, the better educator they will be, and the more students will learn.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Week Three: Online Meetings
The webinar I watched was called Using Technology for Time Management. Susie Quinn was the host. I thought it was really helpful. She discussed how to use a smart phone to develop time management skills. I'm pretty good at managing my time wisely, but I think this is something my husband needs to watch. :)
This was my first time to watch a webinar. I think webinars are a convenient way to get information. People don't always have time to attend workshops or conferences, and this is a great way to be able to "attend" without leaving the house. Archived webinars are great for when people don't get a chance to watch them live.
In the next ten years I think webinars will be even more popular than they are now. I can see librarians using this tool a lot in the future to keep up to date on technology and other things.
This was my first time to watch a webinar. I think webinars are a convenient way to get information. People don't always have time to attend workshops or conferences, and this is a great way to be able to "attend" without leaving the house. Archived webinars are great for when people don't get a chance to watch them live.
In the next ten years I think webinars will be even more popular than they are now. I can see librarians using this tool a lot in the future to keep up to date on technology and other things.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Educational Technology is Very Broad
I believe educational technology is many different things put together. It has a very broad definition. Educational technology involves teaching and learning. It can easily be confused with technology in education, which is applying technology to a subject. Another common mistake made about educational technology is that it is the actual media that teachers and students use, such as computers, a Smart Board, iPad, digital camera, etc. I, myself, have confused this with educational technology. All of these things make up educational technology. It's essential that educators in the field of educational technology keep updated on technology because it's constantly changing.
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