Can technology be a bad thing?

Today there is still a computer class because we are in the process of shifting over to technology. Right now we are learning about the tools so that we can better learn how to use them for learning. Most of the articles talked about how we need to stop saying the word technology and I agree. People are hung up on that word and think that if something is typed, you have automatically used technology. Technically they are correct, but that technology didn't enrich their learning. Teachers are at a little bit of a disadvantage because we didn't grow up with Youtube and Facebook. I didn't get a computer in my house until I was in high school. I was trained how the articles said not to train teachers - in a lab with no students. I have to say I am getting better at simply finding something meaningful to the curriculum, explaining to my class what the purpose of the assignment is, and letting them loose. We can learn together. Since I teach 2nd grade, I think we do need the computer class to teach typing, placement of the hands, how to navigate a page, etc. because most of my students don't know how to do that. Unless they have been on a website before and it's mostly clicking, they can't figure it out on their own. However, I do have another piece of technology that the students and I both use. It is the Interwrite. I am able to write on it, pass it to them, and have them write on it as well for the whole class to see. We make proofreading marks, circle the verb, manipulate base 10 blocks, and all kinds of things. I will say I did have to force myself to use it, but now I use it everyday! I think anything new and different will take time and you have to want to make the effort. Overall I think people are confused about what integrating technology really means and that is a huge reason it is not integrated into the classroom.

effective TIS

Effective instruction is important for TIS instructors because they will be the ones who will support teachers in the classroom. They need to know how to be an effective teacher so that they can teach other teachers how to be effective. Most teachers know there needs to be certain things in place in order to be effective in your classroom. It will be the TIS's job to refresh those strategies and give teachers new strategies to fit their specific classroom. Some of the things a TIS will look for will be classroom environment, quality lessons for quality instruction, classroom management, and all of the components needed to have an effective outcome. How can a TIS do this if they don't know what an effective classroom looks like or ever experience being in the classroom.

The role of the TIS is to observe and then bring in those strategies for the teacher. The TIS and the teacher should be able to collaborate, brainstorm, and discuss the new resources that the TIS brings to the table. That is also part of the role of the TIS: to find new resources and ways to teach strategies so that different teaching styles can accommodate those strategies and teachers can use them in their classrooms.

concept map

 Both articles give components to being an effective teacher. The first article talks about four main components that make up QAIT. These four items are having quality lessons and presentations of those lessons, lessons being at the appropriate level  so that students are engaged, not overwhelmed or bored, incentive to learn, whether it be intrinsic or extrinsic, and having the time to correctly implement all of these things. The time part is the biggest challenge for me. For example, we only have 45 minutes a day allotted for a math program that calls for 90 minutes a day. I fit in parts of it where I can, but I do feel we move too quickly in math. One way I help diffuse this problem is that we are allowed to have an intervention day on Fridays. I use this day to work with students in small groups on those skills that they were struggling with during the week. While I work with them, other students are working on enrichment activities. I really like using this time on Fridays and I feel that students are not left behind because I can give them more individualized attention.

The second article talked about principles of an effective teacher that were very similar. However, this article focused a little more on the atmosphere in the classroom and the emotional well-being of the students. The first article mentioned it because it is needed to get students to learn, but I think the second article really centered on that concept. There are students in my classroom right now with some pretty big stuff going on at home and I am working hard to show them I care while keeping my authority and not let them get away with things. It is a very careful balance. Some days is seems to be working really well! Others, well, can't get it right all the time but I try to focus on the positive and then something else good usually happens.

week 9

Instant messaging reminds me of high school. It does come in handy to chat with someone really quick when you are on your computer or if they are at theirs. For example, I have a friend who was at work but needed to talk to me about an upcoming trip. We used Google Talk and she was able to email me things and chat with me while I was looking at them. She was also able to look at her work while waiting for my responses. (PS she was working after hours, just to clarify!) I think instant messaging can be convenient at times, but I would still rather talk on the phone or Facebook. I think that is safer, also. However, if you never go to meet anyone in person, I guess chatting is pretty safe, too. Just don't give out personal information.

week 8

Google Docs was my mission this week. I worked on a page at the same time with other people and entered in data from our students. It was pretty cool to see the other cursors from the other peoples' computers! I also like how we can change anything we need to at our own convenience and then share it with anyone we need to. We simply type in their email address and add them to it! Very cool! We actually use Google Docs and Google Calendar as a building and it works out really well!

Week 7

My Twitter username is maurer_melissa. (Creative, I know!)

Honestly, I am not a huge fan of microblogging. Sadly, I don't have a lot going on in my life that I want to Tweet about every 5 minutes. If there is something I would like to share, I use the phone or Facebook. Also, if I have a question I can post it in one of the teacher blogs or look it up online and usually get an answer.

I did find Twitter easy to set up and use. If I can do it easily, anybody can!

I started following 23 Things, Rachel Ray, and Librarians. So far, I could look up anything posted in their Tweets if I needed to know it.

I do see how microblogging can keep you in the know and updated on current events. That is something I definitely need to work on! It can also help with networking.

PowerPoint presentations

I had no idea that it was okay to be funny and not completely rigid in a presentation that you give in front of adults, possibly even your boss, but it would definitely make it more fun! I did learn that PowerPoints should be short and that you shouldn't type everything you are going to say on the slide. I did have a class over the summer where we had to answer questions on the slide so I wasn't sure how to do that without writing a bunch on the slide, but it worked out. I knew that you are supposed to keep the colors and fonts to a limit so it's not too crazy and disjointed. I didn't know about the pictures that you could add. I'm really excited about that!

digital native or digital immigrant!?

I am a digital immigrant, but I am so fluent that it would be difficult to tell. I had to laugh because, after I read the first article, I wanted to print it out to read it instead of reading it right there on the screen. Kind of gives me away! Although, I did read it on the screen and was fine. I just seem to gravitate towards the old-fashioned way of doing things for some reason. However, in this world and work place, I have to get fluent in technology pretty quick.
I am working on becoming equipped to teach the digital natives in my classroom. Luckily, my natives are 7 and 8 years old, so they don't have much on me. I do have some You Tube frequenters and I tell them to email me links for soemthing and we will watch them if they are appropriate for class. We also use You Tube quite a bit to help reinforce concepts. The kids are glued to the screen. I try to use Brainpopjr and You Tube a lot to keep my students interested. I also try to switch things up to keep them interested.
This class is helping me a lot to keep up with technology and new trends and ideas and activities. Using the blogs also helps. I have a co-worker that watches a couple of blogs and gets the cutest ideas. I usually collaborate as my main means of expanding my knowledge of multimedia. I'm a talker.
My kids only see the videos that I show them. When we get on the computers, we have a very specific website to go to because most of them can't navitage quickly yet. You would think they could, and they are very good at Webkins, etc., but most can't type their own name very fast or know where to click to do something they haven't done before. I know there is editing software out there that lets you cut the ads out and there is also software that lets you edit and just show a part of a You Tube. Those are good ways to show just what you want.

tagging

I think Delicious is a great website to keep all of your bookmarks in one place. However, I could nit for the life of me figure out how to use the send button. I watched the little video and did what it did on there, but there was no send button for me. Other than that, I really like how you can use it anywhere you are. That will be nice to be able to find things at home and access them at school. I don't know how many times I have emailed myself links. I still do it, but I will try to start using Delicious more and give my email a break!

RSS feeds

Well, if I understand this correctly, I already have a RSS feed on my Delicious account. I can set it up to where it will pop up anytime I want something tagged to show up. For example, if I want to see every time someone bookmarks something with whales, it will pop up. I also use it on Facebook. I don't look at anything else - just the little orange icons that pop up telling me something pertains to me. I did check out the Feed My Inbox website and that was pretty cool. You can search for feeds or have it pop up whenever there is a new feed and it will email it to you. I personally don't want that many emails. I don't check mine enough as it is, my family will tell you! But that is neat that you can set that and it will do the work for you.

10 things that make me go HMMMM about technology in education

1. How are we supposed to use more technology when we have to share 1 laptop cart with the whole building?
2. Why does technology not work for me when it works for everyone else? Seriously, this is not a complaint. Famous story of mine: I was Editor in Chief of the high school newspaper. I was laying out a page. I tried to put a byline under someone's name. You literally copy and paste it. Called the teacher over. Watch this. Did it right, still didn't work. He did the EXACT SAME THING that I did and it worked for him. He laughed, I refrained from throwing something at him.
3. I wonder why people feel the need to post important information that is private on social networks such as Facebook. Is there a list of guidelines somewhere telling you what is appropriate?
4. Because, if adults aren't being ethical with their technology, how are children supposed to learn ethics?
5. Why does our funding get cut when we need technilogical advances but football players go on strike when they make more in one year than I will make in my lifetime?
6. How am I supposed to keep up with everything in technology without losing my sanity!? (It's already slipping...)
7. What happened to paper?
8. How do you teach a 7-year-old about the Internet when they can barely type their name under a minute?
9. How do I get an attitude ajustment to teach that 7 year old about the Internet, let alone 20 of them? :P
10. The only thing that stays the same is everything changes. I stole that from a country song. It's true though. My question: Why can't something stay the same? Is that really so bad???

23 things photo story

  This was taken by Meleah Reardon in Canada. She actually caught the sun on the mountains at just the right time. Here is the link to the bigger picture

http://www.flickr.com/photos/meleahrubino/6117755348/in/faves-67393067@N02/

I thought Flikr was very easy to use! I went ahead and opened an account since it was free. It literally took less than a minute. Everything was easy to find. I haven't uploaded anything yet, but I saw where to do it at and it looks just like loading them onto Facebook or something. Definitely something I will be playing with in the future!

23 things webinar

    Fascinating Fiction for
Teens and Kids

I watched this webinar from OPAL. It was about how the library chose books either in Braille or in audio to get sent to them every month so that they were able to have them available for people. It was actually pretty interesting because they only get so many books a month and they described how they broke down the percentages of fiction and non-fiction books as well as what titles they selected. The neatest part was that you could ask questions and they would stop right there and answer your question (this was a recording of a previous one). It was very interactive and that's how they wanted it to be. I think webinars are fantastic! So many people already use them and they will only continue to grow. Even  small businesses will be able to utilize webinars because they are cheaper than flying someone around the country. They are also more convenient, especially since they are interactive. I think they are here to stay!

National Library Service

for the Blind and Physically Handicapped

 Library of Congress

Jill C. Garcia

 Selection Librarian

Collection Development Section

Instructional Design

"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."

Teachers come up with a lot of things on the fly, but it's because something comes up and they have to. I do think that teachers tend to go with lesson plans from last year and forget to make revision if the lesson went well. In college during my undergrad, I had to write out these lesson plans that were two pages long for one activity to make sure I got every part of instructional design covered - I had to put who my audience was, what special needs their were, how I was going to keep them engaged, design assessments to make sure the objective was taught, etc. Once I became a teacher, I tried to do that, but it takes forever! Also, the basals that we use have most of those components in them and it's easy to simply rely on that and add supplemental  activities only when time allows (which, let's face it, is hardly ever!) As a grade level, we do look at our students, their needs, and our objectives.  I do try to tweak lessons to fit my class, but I could do more. That is why I am still learning and working on it!

Online community

• I chose Facebook, like so many others I saw. That's one of the reasons I chose it - everyone knows about it and almost everyone uses it!
• I use this to keep up with people, but also as a PLN. I can ask any of my teacher friends that live in a different state how they do Back to School night or Meet Your Teacher night and get lots of great ideas. Then other friends can reply, telling what they remember that was a fun activity.
• I don't see my library using it, just because my school is small and it only has students K-2. Parents would have to do most of the writing on the wall/checking on it/etc.

I believe educational technology is...

I believe educational technology is how you use technology to help you learn anything. If you don't use it the right way, you could actually create more work instead of saving yourself work. Learning how to use the technology to your advantage is the key. Educational technology is using your critical thinking skills and applying them to move forward in this generation where a new technological toy or program is popping up every day.

Week 1: blogging

My name is Melissa and I teach second grade. Currently, I am working on my master's from Pittsburg State University and this blog is one of our projects. I'm pretty short and to the point, that's just my personality, so if you ever what to know something, just ask! :)