Adventures in Literacy and Technology

Digital Story Telling

2009-04-27T16:47:00.000-07:00

3 Facts

1. Stories are usually short
2. Includes seven key elements
3. Uses video and graphics to tell a story

INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS

2009-04-26T17:22:00.001-07:00

Wow, Interactive Whiteboards are a great tool that every teacher should use. They are easy to use, they engage students, studies show they increase student's retention and it reaches students on a whole new level. Students really are a part of your lesson when you use this great tool. They can go to the board and work together to create projects. If used correctly they are a great tool. Unfortunately, many teacher do not know how to use them, they are either untrained or unwilling to use try them. They use them as expensive overhead projectors or as expensive movie players. This is dangerous, because they are depriving students of a great assest to learning. Our students' today are digital nativies. The things that used to engage us and get us excited are not the same for them. They love technology, are knowledgable about it and are amazed by it. That is why interactive whiteboards work so well. Today's students need the technology and the interactivity. They have the attention spans of nats, if your lesson does not involve them and engage them you will lose them. There are so many websites and other resources available that there is really no excuse for any educator to not properly use these tools!!!

Class on 04/20/09

2009-04-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight's class was interesting. We kind of reviewed our Wiki projects and the charts that we created. The charts were usefull in that it showed us how we have addressed each of the learning standards for technology in our class. Also, it showed us how by using technology and collaboration together we can very easily intergrate technology into any classroom. I think that we as educators just need to make the effort, and yes we need to be willing to give up some control and let the kids learn on their own. It will help them to develop those higher learning thinking skills that they will need when they are at a job.

I thought our group's presentation went very well. We went a little longer then the allotted time, but I felt it was ok; because we involved the class. We simply did not just lecture at them, we got them involved. Which is something that we have learned to do in this class. Technology is so well developed now that we, can give control to the class and then take it back and not have it disrupt the whole presentation. The more I see things like this, the more convinced I become that we will someday not have regular classrooms and all schools will be online.

I feel that the ICP project is going to be challenging; however, I think that it will be fun at the same time. I look forward to trying to put to use the tools that I have learned so far. I just hope that I am able to include all the requirments that are necessary. Looking at the requirments and the rubric, there is alot to include.

Creating my own quiz

2009-04-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

I created a quiz on line on ProProf. I thought that it was easy to use and that it would be good to give as an online quiz to your students. It would be another way to institute technology into your classroom. Also, if you create essay or short answer questions for your students, they can work on their typing skills. However, I think that students get enough practice typing when they are on their social networking tools. I think that it is important to continue to require stutents to use a pen and paper. I think that not enough students are good enough writers. They need work on their penmanship and essay writing. Not everything that they do at work in the furture will be online and they need to get in the habit of using good writing techniques.

ASSESSMENT - WEEK 12

2009-04-12T17:42:00.000-07:00

As this cartoon demonstrates, the nation as a whole has become test crazy. We judge everything by a serious or numbers, or a score on a test. However, that is just what they are some arbitatry number that really does not mean anything. It really does not tell us how much the student has really learned. There are too many factors that go in to a simple test to determine if they are accurately jugdeging how much a student has learned. Some of the factors that can affect test scores are, how the test was worded. If it is worded incorrectly it can confuse the student and we may not really be assessing what we wanted to assess. Also, some students may not read well, so are we assessing their knolwedge of the subject, or are we assessing how well they read? Also, what if they were not taught what was on the state test, the teacher may have taught something completely different then what was suppossed to be in the curriculum. Another problem that may arrise in traditional assessement are enviornmental factors; was it noisy, was it too hot or too cold, was it too quite, was the student sick, did they not eat dinner the night before, or breakfast the morning of, is there a divorce going on at home?, are they wondering if their parents will be able to pay the heating bill?.....There are just far too many factors that can play into traditional assessment.

The other problem with traditional assessment is, what is it doing to prepare the student for the real world. How often are asked to take a test for a job? Or for a promotion? More often then not you will be graded on the quaility of your work. Do you write well, do you communicate well with others, do you have good gramar and spelling in your reports, can you think on your feet, can you make good decisions. These are the types of thing we need to grade our students on. We need to give them essays, projects, make them work in groups so that they have to communicate and work towards a common goal, we need to assess them on things that will be beneficial to thenm in the future. Even as they move on to college and further along in their education they will be graded based more on their reading and writing skills, and their ability to make connections then if they can pass some test.

So what does that mean for us as teachers?? For one thing it means more work. We need to sit down and actually grade papers and read through essays and think about what our students are saying, rather then simply checking if a mulitpile choice question is correct or not. However, these authentic assessments are more beneficial to our students and will really be a better judge of our skill set as an educator.

Group 12 Meetings

2009-04-12T17:27:00.000-07:00

Our group meetings this week went extremely well. We first meet on Monday night and worked on the group wiki project. We put all our assignmemnts on the chart and did the best we could aligning them to the National Technology Standards. I felt that alot of our assignments for this course align with the standards. All of our assingments force us to build on prior knowledge, explore new technology as a group and individualy, we learn about new technology and we communicate via technology (such as: model, wiziq, email, gchat, aol and even cellphones on occassion). I think the harderst part is taking what we have learned and incorporating them into the classroo, so that we as teachers meet the the technology standards. What I find to be the biggest challenge at my school, is that there is only one computer lab and one computer in my classroom. It makes it hard at times to have the students do alot of exploring on the computer. I do try to take advantage of what opportunities I do have and have them work on assingments in groups or individually on the computer. Another difficult obstacle to overcome is that many of my students do not have computers at home. Many of my students come from a lower economical stratus then many other students. Their parents simply cannot afford to have computers in the home. I have been trying to overcome this by finding places that they can go close to their homes that has free internet and computer axcess. What really amazes me is how technologically savey all these students are despite not having a computer in the house. They have been using computers in school since they were in Kindergarten so they are still digitial natives.

Our second group meeting this week we worked on our power point project. I think that it came out very well. We tried to keep it to a minimum number of slides, so that we will not have the dreaded death by power point. Also, we are going to attempt to not simply read from our slides, but use them as tool to enhance our presentations. I believe that this will keep with the spirit of what Dr. S has been telling us about power point all along.

My Engrade Experience

2009-04-12T11:37:00.000-07:00

I really like the engrade site. I keep my grades for my class on an excel spreadsheet, but unfortunately I have not been able to organize it so that it would calculate the grades for me. It is pretty much like a regular grade book without the pen and paper. At the end of each quarter I have to sit there and figure out grades for all my class. With Engrade as long as you enter all the grades and their weights correctly it will give you the weighted averages and can save lots of time when it comes to report cards. Also, it takes some of the human error out of the calculations, it calculates it for you. The only thing I did not like about it was that you can not see all the grades at once. You have to move from screen to screen. If you want to double check yourself it can add some additional time. However I do not think it is a big deal. I also liked that you can keep attendance on the site as well. That is one less thing, again, that you have to figure out come report card time. Instead of sitting there and going through attendance records you can look right on the site.
However, the best part was the calendar. As a teacher we send home with our students, assingments, quiz dates, test dates, and project due dates. However, we never know if they make it home or not, till we get an irrate parent calling asking why a report you gave them a month to do, they think we only gave the student a night to do it. With this site, you can add these to your calendar and give parents the ability to log in and see it. This will keep some of the "surprises" that occur during each quarter to a minimum. Also, parents can check grades right on the site. When my students fail a test or quiz, I have them get their parents to sign it. And a couple of times I have come to find out at the end of a quarter, that the student is signing the parent's name. This could eliminate that problem and make it easier for parents to stay involved in what is going on in school.
Something that I think could improve the site would be an area for general messages. This would allow you to interact with parents and let them know what is coming up in class. It will allow parents to stay more involved as well, you could have the parents aware of the assignments that will be due in the future, before the students even know. The only negative of that, is some parents could get overzealous and have their student start the project before you have the chance to explain exactly what it is your want done in the project and what they will be grade on.
I personally think that parents and students will both like this site. We live in a world where more often then not, both parents work fulltime and do not have time to call or to come to the school to know what is going on. This allows the parent to stay involved while at work or late at night when they finally have a time to sit down and think about these things. For students should they lose the due date for a project they can check right online. Also, how often does a student walk up to you and say what is my average this quarter????? Now they can check their progress on their own.

Digital Story Telling!!

2009-04-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

I was not a big fan of this project at all!!!!! I found it extremely fustrating trying to narrate the clips and getting it to align with my pictures. I tried to stay within the limits of the assignment, yet found it difficult to do so. Also, I could not get the music to play with my narration. It would either play before or after, so I ended up leaving it out, which is also frustrating because now I will lose points on the assignment for this. I spent days trying to figure it out and was unsuccessful. I do think that some of these videos could have educational purposes, obviously, yet I will never make one myself again. It was far too time consuming and I have never been so annoyed trying to complete an assignment in my life!!! However, since my students are probably more adapt at technology then I am, I think I could have them do this as a class project. I would need someone to assist me, who could help the students when they get stuck. I think that working with the material in this manner and creating a narration, will make subjects come to life for them. For me, it was just one frustrating thing after another. I think though that there is value in struggling with something and still finding the educational value in it. I think that is the biggest thing I will take away from this assingment.

Class Meeting 03/30/09

2009-03-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

Our meeting this week we discussed the difference between Cooperative Learning and Collabartive Learning. In my opinion Cooperative Learning is more based on what students knew previously and working together to reach a desired outcome. How they get there is completely up to them, yet everyone is to be accountable for some part of the project. In Collaborative learning, the groups are more structured. The way the group reaches the desired outcome is outline for them and they may divide up different parts. One common threat amongst them is accountability and social interaction. Student's are accountable to the group for their work and they must work together in socially acceptable ways, respecting each other and others opinions.

I really like the voice thread tool we learned about tonight. It is an interesting way to learn about a subject and to give immediate feedback about a subject while it is fresh in your head. Our group had to come up with a accornym for collaberative learning. we came up with:
s - Sturctured Socilization
H - Honor System
A - Accountability
R - Respect
E - Everyone
We felt that this was appropriate because the socilization will be more structured here. Everyone is on the honor system to do their work and fullfill their responsibilities. Also, students must hold each other accountable for learning and getting the required work done. And finally we must respect each other and everyone is to be involved.

The group presentation tonight was great. Their power point was well done and looked good. I enjoyed the video it gave some great ideas on why students should blog. My only opinion was that it was a little bit of the death by power point side. However, still I thought it was well done. I personally think that blogging is important for students. It allows students to reflect on their work and to interact with each in a new and unique way. Students need to become more familiar with different types of technology and what technology has to offer. They need to learn what is socially acceptable on the internet as well, as in person. Technology is slowly overtaking pen and paper. Sometime in the future students will be doing all their reflections on line.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE IN EXCEL

2009-03-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

I think that infusing teaching how to use software into your curriculum is the best way to truly learn how to use it. Using it in a computer lab is one thing, but when you show the students that it has an actual application in the classroom or in the real world, they are more likely to take it serious and truly learn how to use the application. Also, using in your curriculum, in a project like this, will help you to make the material more relevant to today’s student. They will be more likely to learn the important material when it is infused with technology. Today’s students do not respond to lecturing, then need to be involved in the learning, they need to be engaged.

I think that a project like this would definitely help students to learn how to use excel. I learned a lot of things about excel that I did not know before. It is easier to learn a new skill by doing it rather then watching it be done. I would liken it to when you are in a car going to a new place. You are more likely to remember how to get there if you actually drive then if you watch someone else do it. Also, something like this would definitely help students learn the vocabulary. They would need to learn how to spell the words to set up the crossword itself. Also, they need to know definitions to write the clues.

Personally for myself I would not do anything differently next time. I followed the directions exactly, tried everything out, and plotted the crossword puzzle as directed. I cannot think of anything that I would do differently. The only thing I would do if I was in classroom with a group of students is to make sure that I am circulating to help them out, should they get confused by anything.

First Meeting after Spring Break

2009-03-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

This week I must say that I learned a lot about Constructivism. I think that constructivism is a valuable tool for teachers to have in their arsenal. I truly believe that students learn more and rember more information when they learn it by experiencing it. Students need to see that the things they are learning have real world applications.

As far as the webquest, I thought it was fun to do. I learned about something new and got to apply some of the things that I have learned from the class so far. It was exactly what constructivism is all about. It is good to learn about something while actually applying it.

The power points for the most part I thought were very well done. I felt that all the groups for most part had a good handle on what constructivism is and how to implement it in the classroom. It was interesting that we all seem to notice that the major problem regarding constructivism is classroom management skills. Without those skills this practice is doomed to fail.

As far as the class went, unfortunately we got a taste of some of the problems with technology. It is great while it works and a pain in the you know what when it doesn't!!!!! However, I feel that we did the best we could given the situation. I think that as we move on as a society and technology improves these problems will discipate. I think that we are still bound to eventually have school completely online!

Sunday Meeting 03/08/09

2009-03-09T17:12:00.000-07:00

This week we finished up our webquest project on Constructivism. It was fun creating the 5 E lesson plan. Not being a science teacher it was interesting to get to do a science lesson. I learned some names of house plants that I never knew even existed. Also, it was good to practice writing a lesson plan using the Constructivist method. It is definitely something that I want to do more of in my classroom. I think that students learn more and retain more information when they learn through their own experiences then from a teacher standing in front of the class and simply lecturing.

Our group did a wonderful job on the project. I feel that we all contributed in our own way. I think that we put in a lot of time and effort. I think that it really shows in the finished product. I hope to incorporate a webquest like this into my class as soon as possible!!!!!

Week of March 2nd

2009-03-05T06:47:00.000-08:00

When reviewing the factors that can affect student learning, I believe that it is important to keep in mind that not all student's share the same experiences. A student's experiences outside of school can affect their interpretation of your message. One student could take a personal statement as an attack, while another student may not think anything of it. Also, in a learning enviornment some students will be distracted by things that do not distract others. For instance a light out above a student's head could cause them to lose focus, however another student may not be. Another factor is psychological. Again some students will take a statement one way and another studend could take the statement completely differently. We must keep in mind that students have different experiences at home that could affect them. There could be outside factors at home that affect the student's focus. Some student's parents may be going through a divorce or maybe a family member is sick. These things can affect focus.

The 5 E lesson plan alligns with the inquiry model in that it allows for student's to engage in the lesson and explore on their own. This allows them to discover new things and build on their own prior knowledge. When student's discover things on their own they are more likely to remeber them then if you simply tell them. It is similar to being in a car and going to a new place. If you drive and actually make all the turns you are more likely to remeber, then if you are simply a passenger. The 5 E lesson plan encourages teachers to no longer be the sage on the stage and rather be the guide on the side.

Inspiration!!!!!!

2009-02-27T19:05:00.000-08:00

I used inspiration for the first time to make my mind map. My mind map is on the causes of the American Revolution. I really enjoyed using inspiration. It is easy to use and really does add a new element to your graphic organizer. Graphic organizer are wonderful toos for students to use. It gives them a chance to see everything laid out right in from of them. They can sit there and read about the causes and some will make the connection. Others need to see it laid out right in front of them and Inspiration does this in a colorful manner. The pictures and different colors will draw the student's attention to it. Also, being able to add hyperlinks is wonderful. Now when students are sitting there looking and studying the graphic organizer they click on the link and read more about things that really interest them.

Meeting February 23, 2009

2009-02-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

Tonight's class covered alot of different topics. I found it to be extremly informative and I learned alot. Digital literacy to me means more then simply reading and writing. It means that students must be able to look at information on the internet and be able to determine the validity of what it is that they are meaning and be able to synthesize the information. Comprehnesion is simply not enough in today's technological age, students must be able to apply the information to solve problems. Digital Citizenship covers a wide range of informtaion. One particular part that interested me was the net ettiqute. We need to teacher our students that just because they are on the internet the normal rules of society still apply. Also, we need to educate our students to be safe on the internet. The internet is a great tool, but unfortunately some people use it for the wrong reasons.

Dr. S's ppt on web 2.0 was very interesting. Web 2.0 allows all of us to work collabratively together. Everyone can publish items on the internet on subject, there is no one authority giving information. Multiple people can give information on any subject. Also, you can set up many different types of social networks to interact with people. Also, I liked the fact that she mentions that we need to move away from the industrial age, style of thinking. Assembly line and finished product. We need to engage students and challenge them to find answers on their own. The reason we need to do this is to prepare them for the types of jobs that they will have in the future.

Group 1's powerpoint was very well done. The only negative I saw, was that the resources were not done in APA style. However, what I did like learning about was th netnany. It reminds me of the chaperone mode on a cell phone, with this you can tract your child and where they are at. With netnanny you can see what your children are doing on the internet.

Web Site Evaluations

2009-02-22T12:21:00.000-08:00

Steven Zurlnick
Reflection – Web evaluations
02/22/09
Literacy and Technology

This was an interesting experience. I have never really stopped to think about all of the different things you should be checking to make sure a site valid. Usually I will find a site and if the information I need seems ok, I will just go ahead and use. However, I now realize that there is more to it, then just a brief overview. You want to consider who created the site, when was it created and last updated, is the site well put together, is it easily navigated and other such things. To me it is much like evaluating research material. You need to make sure that the book or journal article that you are using is up to date, the author is an authority, that is from a reputable source and other such things.

Group Meeting 2/15/209

2009-02-17T05:06:00.000-08:00

On Sunday night we meet for nearly 3 hours discussing class and assingments. I think that Moodle is a great tool, yet still has some bugs to be worked out. At times it moves very slow and assingments sometimes donot have a place to be uploaded. Also, I think it would be better if it scrolled from the newest week to the oldest, rather then oldest to newest.

Dr. S. stopped in to see our group tonight and stated that we are doing an excellent job and are ahead of the other groups. I think this is because we use our group time wisely, we review everything for the week and join all the required groups together. As I have stated before we are always willing to stay on longer then planned, in order to get things done. We should have no problem at all reaching the 15 required hours. We also picked our topics for the final project. I choose to do whiteboards, because I think that they are a great tool. I tried to use mine a few times a week. The kids love it and they are more engaged when I use the whiteboard, then at any other time.

Finally, we watched the video for week 5. It was interesting to get a parent's perspective on school, since I am not a parent. It is interesting to see the ways that we each view each other. I think that we as teachers need to realize that the nuclear family has changed. There are more single parent families out there then before, also we live in a materialistic world so more often then not both parents work. Children will spend more hours with us then their actual parents, so we need to step up to the challenge and teach students more then just school. We need to teach them life lessons and prepare them for a digital age and technological world that awaits them.

2nd Meeting

2009-02-14T17:38:00.000-08:00

On Wed. Feb 11th we had our third meeting. We attempted to start working on our group wiki project, however we discovered that we needed a passcode. So instead we worked on our group letterpop advertising the online text book. I think the online textbook is great, it is in depth and provides alot of great links and ideas to make your classroom more technoloically friendly. Letterpop is really userfriendly. I have used it in the past with great success. In fact it is so easy I am thinking about having my 6th graders create a letterpop advertising the book that we are reading in English. The book is Hatchet and I think that they can really come up with some great ideas. My group is fantastic and we work very hard. We were online for almost 3 hours working on our letterpop.

1st Class Meeting

2009-02-10T10:38:00.000-08:00

Our first class meeting went pretty well. Our group works well togther and I feel that we did a really nice job with our group name, motto, and the in class assignment on the Technology Standards and creating a tool box. I had standard number 2 and one of the things I thought of was a webquest. I felt that a webquest would fit this standard, because it allows students to search and discover on their own. Also, you can tailor a webquest for different groups or on an individual basis. You can have different individuals or groups work on different parts of the webquest based on their ability level or learning style. In groups you can put some stronger students working with some of the weaker students.

The major difference I see between web 1.0 and web 2.0 is that in web 1.0 users were unable to interact with the website. There author of the site was the authority and you took what they said as fact. Now in the web 2.0 generation we can communicate and comment back and forth. Web 2.0 allows for a more collaborative effort, then the web 1.0 did.

The net generation is the generation of students that are born into technology. They have always known technology and do not know what life is like without this technology. They are different from previous learners in that they donot strive for knowledge, they have knowledge at their fingertips on almost any device you can imagine. What they yearn to know is how to synthesize it and to understand it on a deeper level. The implications for us as teachers is that we need to be prepared to introduce technology to our classrooms. Technology can no longer be a side show, it must be a part of the classroom enviornment and incorporated into our lessons. Failure to do this, will fail to prepare student's to be productive members of society.

The six standards for technology is: 1. Creativity and Innovation 2. Communication and Collaboration 3. Research and Information Fluency 4. Critical Think, Problem Solving, and Decision Making 5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepting.
I think that younger teachers are more prepared to meet these standards then veteran teachers. Veteran teachers are not willing to give up the control of the classroom in order to allow these standards to be adquetly meet. Younger teachers are more integrated to technology and are more likely to incoporate these standards. The one other factor playing into this is money. If a district does not have the money, they will not have the technological tools to incorporate these standards.

2nd group meeting

2009-02-08T08:37:00.000-08:00

Today we meet up to make sure that we were all set for the coming week. Everyone seems to be getting more comfortable with moodle and navigating between all the different sites and links. We also watched the video about the Net Generation. The net generation is students who have grown up with technology. Technology has always been apart of their life. The question asked throughout the video, and it seems to me the theme of the first 2 weeks, is how how do we reach these students without using techonlogy? We as educators cannot look at technology as simply something else to do on the side that takes away from what we need to cover. We need to use technology to assist us in covering the material. If we do this we will more effectively reach students. I truly believe that you must make learning relevant to their lives or them simply will not learn.

A Tech Savy Teacher is.....

2009-02-08T07:14:00.000-08:00

To me A Tech Savy Teacher is like Micheanglo with a paint brush. What I mean by that is imagine what Micheanglo would be like without a paint and a canvass? He would not have been able to paint the materpiece that was the sistine chapel. Our students are our canvass and technology our paint brush. Combine the two and we can create masterpieces that will be able to function in our technological age! We need to relate material to students on their terms and the language they understand now, is the language of technology. If we fail to be technologically savy, then we fail our students.

The First Week

2009-02-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

The first week for me was basically a refresher. I have taken two previous courses with Dr. S and I am familar with the process of uploading files to moodle, Tapped In, De.lis.ous. making my own website, blog, and Wiki. I was actually suprised by how much I rembered! The most memorable part of my learning this week was the video that discussed moving away from simple memorization of facts, no that students can get information is at the touch of their fingers. We must teach them to synthasize facts and prepare them for 21st centruy jobs, not the jobs of the past.

So the question that I feel I need to answer is; what do I need to do to be prepared to teach in this digital age????? I think the most important thing I need to do is to keep up to date with changes in technology. There are so many different things that we as teachers can do with technology. However; in order to do that we must be willing as teachers to give up some control. That is a challenge for many of us. We must allow our students to explore and learn on their own. Students do not need to be sitting in a chair listening to us lecture and memorizing a bunch of facts. They can get those facts sent straight to them throught, personal computers, labtops, phones, pda devices and so many different forms of technology. What we have to teach our students is how to syntheize this information, analysis it and put it to use in productive ways.

My meeting with my group was very interesting. I have come to realize that I need to get a microphone. My entire group had a microphone and were talking and exploring other sites. It was difficult for me to contribute since I had to type on the Wiziq site, while everyone else was on the moodle site. It is amazing how we can all be in different locations talking on the same server. When used correctly, ie. respecting netique, talking when its your turn, listening when it isnot; this technology can allow for an amazing learning experience. We can communicate what we each see and are learning from different websites. Also, I anticipate in our class meetings that we will be able to see different presentation and hear the student's present as well. This experience will allow us a glimpse into the future of teaching, as anticipate technology improving and classes eventually being completely online.