This is our final post for the semester and I have really enjoyed this class. I talked about this in my last post, how this class has changed in just the span of 12 years. This class is essential for us "Tech Generation" kids as we become teachers. We have learned a lot in this class.
We learned about utilizing technology in web based projects. Our main projects that have incorporated this was Collaborative Lesson Plan, WebQuest, and our last project our Web page. Our lesson plan was a group project. I worked with 3 other intelligent women. Our lesson plan was on telling time and it was for 2nd graders. Our main source of technology was the interactive white board. This is a whiteboard mounted to a wall and connected to a computer and projector. You can use your finger or a pen to operate the whiteboard and can operate things such as websites, games, and PowerPoint presentations (Maloy, 2013). WebQuest are awesome projects that allows your students to learn somewhat independently as they look and learn resources that you provide for them by themselves. I used mine to teach a subject I taught my middle school after school students, which was the 7 habits. Our last project was to make a webpage as teachers for our students and their families to access. I don't know any teacher that has done this (and by this time you know I know a lot of teachers). I think it is an amazing thing and I will incorporate it in my teaching career.
We learned how to critique in the beginning of class. We critiqued an educational website. I chose to critique pbslearningmedia.org. The purpose of this project was to teach us how to make a rubric. Which between this class and my Intro to Ed class this semester, I feel like I am a rubric making pro. The first time I heard about rubrics, I was against them. I am one of those people who can't stand how education has become a performance to the state more than it is to teach students. And the rubric seemed to me to be the critic of the performance. After doing them a couple of times, I realize, they are more common sense than anything else. If a student does bad, he gets a lower grade. If he does good, he gets a higher grade. Rubrics just emphasize this. It also holds the students (and in this case PBS learning media website) to a high standard.
We learned about legal issues such as copyright and cyberbullying. I personally learned that you need to make sure that all of your pictures and post that you post on the internet isn't copyrighted and that cyberbullying is illegal. Here is a link that I found very interesting about cyberbullying and it helped me to write my post for our Legal and Ethical discussion.
We created portfolio type projects like our Webpage and WebQuest, as well as our wiki page. Our Wiki page was another group effort. I worked again with some amazing girls as we introduced a few of Marzano's Strategies. We were able to add videos, graphics, charts, and links to further discuss our strategy that we had picked.
We researched websites that help us with integrating technology in our own classrooms. This was one of the first projects that we did, but it came in handy because we had to research for almost everything we had to do here. I chose three articles that I believe helped me then and will help me in the future. They are: How to integrate tech when it keeps changing, Why should I integrate multimedia resources into my teaching, and How 5 inspiring tablet classrooms are changing education. I know these helped me and they will be helpful to anyone who reads them.
We discussed how to teach with tech to ELL and ESE kids. Our main project for that was our collaborative lesson plan, and our discussion for that was Assistive/Adaptive Technology for students. In our discussion we had to chose a profile of a student with a disability. I have had experience with teaching a deaf student and I used most of our techniques to discuss in this post. I relied pretty heavily on website and that was signsavvy.com. For our ELL discussion we had the same kind of discussion where we had to chose a profile of a ELL student. I chose someone who had came to America from Mexico. I talked about using other spanish speaking students as well as Google Translate. My two references that I used for this post were: Supporting English Language Learners with Technology, and How to Integrate Technology with Teaching ELL Students.
All in All, I would like to say that I have learned a lot in this class and I have enjoyed it thoroughly! I hope this is what I can expect in all of my education classes. I cannot wait to become a teacher with all of this knowledge of technology.
References:
Maloy, R., O’Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
