Assignment # 4

Mckenzie's Education Site is a site I created to be useful to me (when I become a teacher) as well as to my students. Through this class, as well as other education courses I've taken this semester, I've learned the importance of incorporating technology into the classroom for a variety of different reasons. One highly beneficial way to use technology as a teacher is to create a website for your class to better communicate with your students as well as with their parents. In learning about this effective means of communication, I decided to create a website for myself that could be assessible by my future students as well as by their parents. This website has a variety of cool activities to help ESL students engage with the English language through some creative and fun activities. The features of technology that I learned through creating this weebly site are: first and foremost how to create a website of my own. I also was able to learn more about and get better acquainted with the flip video and how to upload it to my website. Other features I was able to use and learn more about were different SmartBoard activities to provide on my site, as well as how to use to the actual Smartbaord in the classroom. Other technology features I used on my website were that of a blog and different pages containing links to articles, more lessons, etc... Through this project, I also stumbled upon a website called Piclits.com which is a creative writing site that provides hundreds of pictures for users to choose from and then creatively describe/ write about the picture. This technology website is great for getting ESL students to have fun with writing.
Some of the issues of I incounterd in doing this project were: intially I was really nervous about what I was going to do for the project. For some reason, the assignment really intimidated me. But, once I started messing around with the weebly website, I began to have fun with it. I did have issues with uploading the links, but after simply playing around with the website for a while, I was able to figure out what I was doing wrong.
This project turned out to be a really great learning experience as well as a great way to get me mroe comfortable with playing with new technology. I tend to have a fear about the unknown, which was the case with this project, but after learning new and fun ways to use technology and incorporate it into my teaching, I've gained an appreciation for its usefulness and uniqueness. The site that I created is something that I will continue to add to and possibly draw from when I am a teacher. Like I said before, I now know how to create a professional website for myself that I can use as a form of communication between my students and their parents. I can put homework, future assignments, callenders, practice activities, etc.. to help the students out with their language learning experience. All in all this project broke me into really enjoying using new technology and applying it to my classroom.
The NETS standards for students that are covered by my project are the following: Creativity and Innovation (students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology). This standard is met with the PicLit activities which require students to choose a picture and then creatively write about the picture. Another Standard met is Communication and Collaboration (students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. This standard is met by the online learning website I posted on my page which I would encourage my students to create an account with. Through this website, ESL students are able to communicate with other ESL students attempting to learn English. They are able to practice chatting with eachother (in English), which is very beneficial to the language learning process. Another standard that my project met for the students is that of critical thinking. I included various activities and games which require the students to think in English and solve a problem (via spell words, correct grammar, and so on...)
The NETS standards for Teachers that I covered in my project are the following: facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. I did this by providing various activities which I found fun, and thought would be fun for my future students. Another standard that I attempted to meed was modeling digital-age work and technology. I met this standard by the very fact that I created a website in which the students can go to find activities which will coincide with their current lessons and learning, a place where they can read different blogs that I've written, as well as respond to me (their teacher) about anything and everything.

Future of Education and Technology

In doing research on the future of education and technology I was really encouraged by the possibilities of the future. One statement that stood out to me was that of Gordon Moore's, the founder of Intel. He predicted "the exponential growth of technology. Moore's law postulates that the processing power and speed of any electronic calculating device will double every 18 months. At the same time, the price for that technology will decline approximately 35% a year relative to the power." The idea that technology will continue to expand is common knowledge; however, it is shocking to realize the rate at which it is continueing and growing.

An interesting fact that is telling of the emphasis that our schools are placing on education is that schools are being judged based on the ratio of students to computers. This ratio is further instrumental in classifying the schools as being able to provide a “quality” education. This fact struct me as particularly interesting because I graduated from High School not too long ago, and I don't hardly remember using computers in High School. This just goes to show the rate at which technology has already influenced education in the last couple of years.

Other interesting research that I found was that of schools becoming dependent on online learning. I did a reflection on this subject a couple weeks ago, and then we further talked about it in our technology class about it. In brainstorming ideas about the benefits of online learning, we (as a class) came up with this list: online learning is beneficial for students who need extra time with learning, have special needs, have a learning dissibility, are advanced learners and want to get their school work done in their own time, etc...

These are just a few of the topics I found when researching the future of technology in education. As a future educator, it is so interesting to learn about and think about the new things which will be available to use in education.

Reflection 10: Using Youtube in the classroom

What: Lately, I have been realizing how often Youtube is being used in my classes by both the teachers and the students. In my Instructional Design class, we are learning how to create lessons and further experimenting with developing out our lessons. In almost every lesson, a clip from Youtube has been used as an attention getter tool prior to the presenter giving the lesson. Another class of mine where Youtube has been used quite often recently is Methods and Materials for TESL. In this class, we have been asked on two different occasions to choose a song and play it to the class via youtube. We are then asked to create an activity that goes along with the youtube song and video.

So What: This use of Youtube in the class is very new and interesting. I've found that as a student, using technology to incorporate a musical activity into the classroom really makes learning more fun. Although we are taking time to watch the video and listen to the song, we are then responding to the music and getting something educational out of it.

Now What:In paying attention to the dynamics of a class when technology and music are brought into the curriculum, I'm encouraged to use it when I become a teacher. The Youtube activity really broke up the classroom time, and in a sense, gave us students a little break from having to think too much while listening and watching the music video. After the video finishes, the students are refreshed and again ready to continue the lesson and educational activities.

Microsoft Word, Excel & PowerPoint

Word: I use Microsoft word for everything! The specific features that I use are:
* spell check, Synonyms, font variations (size, collor, type, underline, bolding, italicize), edit undo, copy and paste, cut, spacing, save as, open file/ document, new paper/ file, insert footnotes, header, footer, and probably many more than I even realize.
Excel: I actually don't use Excel for anything. At one point in my education, I was in a statistics class, so I was forced to dabble with excel, but that was years ago and I don't even remember the basics.
Power Point: As timid as I am to admit this, I haven't used Power Point in years either. However, I am giving a presentation on Thursday and I think that a Power Point will really add to my presentation. So, I will experiment with it tomorrow, and attempt to create a power point presentation.

Some possible projects that I could give to my students in which they would be required to use these three sources of technology are:
Word: Write a research paper on the affects of exercise on the body.
Excel: Create a basic timeline of your life so far (track birthdate, special events, tragedies, happy times, etc...)
Power Point: Creat a power point based on the research paper on the affects of exercise on the body.

Reflection # 9: Spreadsheets are very useful for teachers

In an article entitled "Language Arts Lesson Plan," Melissa Johnston emphasizes the many ways in which spreadsheets could be used in the classroom. Johnston states that "although it's not always the easiest to learn, the benefits are well worth the time speant mastering the spreadsheets." Some useful ways teachers can use them in the classroom are things such as: caluculating student averages as well as chart their progress, create activities simultaneously keeping track of materials and supplies, and many more...

For my purposes as an English/ ESL teacher, Johnston explains in detail how to incorporate the spreadsheet into a language arts lesson. For example, one activity she describes is "Explain it!" This activity involves students listing adjectives to describe nouns. They type out the adjectives on a computer, more specifically in a spreadsheet to stay organized. Once they've done this, they can print out their list of adjectives and keep them for review in an organized manner. This activity gets the kids working with technology while simultaneously learning the functionality and characteristics of the langauge. I found this activity very influential and interesting.

Reflection #8: iPhone Apps

Upon reading an article entitled "Apple’s app store proves lucrative for some businesses" I was enlightened to the fact that the release of the iPad has brought much business to software businesses. Because the nature of the iPad is that of various creative application, software businesses are getting creative and inventing new apps to sale to Apple. "Everybody wants to be on board with what Apple is bringing in,’ says Andrei Iancu, who teaches iPhone app development at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. ‘It is like the dot com boom when everybody became a web developer but not everybody was a good developer. This is a gold rush." The article spotlighted John Mcintosh who has created very popular applications for both the iPhone and the iPad. Mcintosh invented the app "Scratch" which he first developed for the iPhone and then later developed for the iPad. "Scratch" is a programming language that lets children create their own interactive stories, animations and other projects. According to McIntosh, it is now easier for developers to get their applicatioins available on the market through Apple.
As a future educator, this article interested me in that it illustrates how much technology is affecting our economy and therefore will affect my students. As mentioned above, Andrei Iancu is a professor at British Columbia who solely teaches iphone apps. This shows the influence of technology in our generation as well as the importance of teaching it to the students. This article encouraged me to get more familiar with the iPhone and iPad and all that it has to offer so that I can incorporate it into the classroom.

ED TechTalk: The Online School for Girls

In an interview with Brad Rathgeber, the president and founder of the Online school for girls, via ED TechTalk, I learned how an online school functions as well as why a good number of people prefer online schools. Rathgeber explained that there online school for girls is based off the book “Disrupting Class” by Klayton Christenson. This book touches on the innovation of technology in learning and the advantages it brings to learning. Builiding on this, Rathgeber also explained that there have been extensive studies on the ways in which female students learn and succeed in education, which this school aims at adhering to; This was their purpose in making the online school single gendered to that of females. Some example of some ways in which females learn are the following: making connections, collaboration, social interaction, and many more. The online courses require participation in voice threads, discussion boards, chat sessions, and similar technological ways of communicating with the other students in the class. In the interview, Rathgeber touched on the fact that, in light of the fact that it is an online school, it's interesting to realize how much the interaction between the girls means to them, as well as the relationships they form during their classwork. The feedback given by parents whose children are enrolled in this school say they love the flixibility as well as opportunity to take courses that would not have otherwise been offered to their children.
In reflecting on this online school for girls, I am encouraged by the type of learning it enploys as well as the way in which the school approaches education. They have analyzed the ways in which girls learn the best, and structured their school around that. I think this is really cool! What I liked most about the idea of attending an onling school, is the flexibility. I remember hating to have to sit in school from 8 to 3 monday through Friday. The timeline was inconvenient as well as annoying to me. But, with this onilne school, the students can do their education whenever it is convenient for them.