Exit Slip

Alex and Katie started off class with a great presentation on Chapter 4 and showed many resources that we can use to incorporate writing in the classroom. Gliffy and Polleverywhere were two of my favorite tools that we saw today. My freshman year, when I took Intro to Educational Technology, we used Gliffy. Back then I was not impressed with the tool but I believe it has been improved tremendously over the past year or so. I love reading and hearing how we can use technology in other subject areas and will make a conscious effort to do this in the future.

Parentella is a cool tool that Jordyn introduced. This is a very useful tool and is closely related to my inquiry topic (the home-school connection). I definitely plan on researching and becoming more familiar with this site and others that are similar.

Am I or are you addicted to the internet? I sure hope not! Today we learned about internet addictions and discussed if they are a problem. We can waste so much time doing mindless things on the internet. I myself even spend too much time on sites like Facebook when I could be looking on useful information. The internet is a very useful tool and has helped our society in many ways. We just need to be careful what we are actually using the internet for. I like the point Katie made about being addicted to "something" not just the internet.

We also talked a little more about podcasts and learned about Garage Band. I'm glad I finished mine already and I will be blogging about the experience soon!

Reflecting on Chapter 4

Chapter four discusses how teachers can support writing with technologies. Writing is not just something we need to do in school, it is apart of our everyday lives. Writing through emails or through other technologies such as Facebook is something that is a part of most people's lives. When writing something, especially papers or formal letters, it is a great idea to organize your thoughts to figure out what to say. Concept mapping (p. 62) is one form of organizing ideas. We learn this concept in elementary school and keep refining it all the way through high school. This year in my college science course, we learned about an online tool that can be used for concept mapping. Cmap is a tool that is free for users and can be downloaded onto any computer. Students and teachers can use this to organize and plan out ideas and explore ideas about different topics. As students use this tool, they could start off by working together to explore broad topics and then continue to narrow them down. It will also help them to synthesize sources of information and find the important things they need.

Supporting creative and collaborative writing can also be accomplished through technologies. Students of all ages like to see their work displayed or published in some form or fashion. Publishing students work on the internet is a great way to get them motivated and excited to write. The book describes a few sites where students can publish their work and I am sure there are many other sites out there. This How-To talks a little more about publishing students' work and this is a site where you can: Student Online Publishing. So far, I have learned that collaboration is key in the elementary classroom. Therefore, we should also have students write collaboratively to learn from each other and see how different people write. Roles could be assigned to students such as editor, reporter or leader and these roles could change when different assignments are given (p. 73).

We all know that writing is something we do daily, but using these technological tools can be useful and will help engage students in the writing process. Students can organize their ideas, create several drafts of a piece, publish their work, and work together through technology.

Exit Slip

After reading the chapter, I was a little confused about the different terms presented. Brittany and Lauren did a good job introducing the terms and explaining their differences with the time that they had.

We also had a few cool tool presentations and learned about tools such as twitter, wordle, and symbaloo. I really like wordle and think it's a tool I will definitely use in the future for personal uses as well as in the classroom. I could have students describe certain words, books, etc. and create a word cloud. Symballo is also a tool I think I will use on my personal computer to organize the sites and tools I like to use. Having this on the school computers would also be a good way for students to organize games and research sites they like to use.

A few of my peers shared information about contemporary issues such as internet safety, online education, and gaming (virtual world). I have never been a fan of online education; mainly because I truly value the social experience that school provides. Personally, I understand that students can have social experiences in other aspects of their life and may enjoy virtual school more, it's just not my personal preference.

Each week this class challenges me to open my eyes and see issues, tools, and information from another perspective. Sometimes when I share my opinion I feel like I am being attacked by others, but I will keep sharing because that's how I feel. I am an open-minded person who is willing to learn new things but I feel as though some people aren't willing to listen to what I have to say.

Reflecting on Chapter 3

Chapter 3 explains how students can "experiment" with technologies. The book describes experimentation as something that "involves investigation or examination with the expectation of finding something important" (p. 44). When I think of experimenting, I immediately think of science and the scientific process. Experimenting with technologies has a very similar concept including steps such as hypothesizing, conjecturing, experimenting, speculating, and testing (p.44). As I was reading this chapter I couldn't help but think about all of the technology we have to day that we did not even have when I was in elementary school. Terms like microworlds, interactive physics, and SimCalc were very foreign to be before reading the chapter. I might still be a little confused about microworlds, but I believe it is an internet based problem that resembles a problem in real life. The interactive physics and simcalc are subcategories underneath the microworld that include physics and math respectively.

I particularly thought the section about simulations were interesting. Simulations are "imitations of something real" -much like the microworlds- (p. 48). I think simulations would be good to use in the classroom because students can manipulate and play around with different parts. I've heard of games such as SimCity and I believe games like this could be good for challenging students' creativity.

Gaming and "virtual worlds" are not something that I know everything about or fully understand, but as a future teacher I know it is important for me gain more knowledge about. Students that I know love video gaming and online tools, so hopefully I can find ways to incorporate these into the classroom curriculum in a way that is meaningful and will help the students learn.

Exit Slip

A lot of information was sent our way today in class. Two of my peers gave a great presentation on chapter two and gave us many resources to use in the future. I am very interested about the "filters" issue in school and home and will potentially research the topic further for my contemporary issues presentation.

With the help of Jeff and the class, I decided my inquiry question for the semester project: "How can technology be used to facilitate the home-school connection?" This topic really interests me because we did not have as much technology when I was in school and I want to become familiar with these tools before becoming a teacher. Parent involvement in school is very important and I would like to include them as much as possible.

Creating a Podcast is something I've always wanted do. I'm excited to come up with a topic and explore this new and interesting tool in technology. I am involved with Campus Crusade and they are looking for someone to take over the Podcast on Thursday nights so I am thinking about taking on that role after this assignment.