Wiki Page

I really wanted to say I spent a lot of effort all semester on this project, but I would be lying.  I waited to even start this assignment until way into November because I was prolonging it so I could consentrate on my other studies and also I was still working on my coaching field study.  So I basically had to really do a lot of my research in the final two weeks of the semester as I was completing other assignments for finals.

The value of completing this task to me was to basically get more experience with a screencast and being able to take a look at scholarly information about a question I have had since I started working with Interactive Whiteboards.

This task really impacted my future teaching because a lot of my resourses told me ways to implement interactive whiteboards not only to my math classroom, but also to the school in general.  I really can't stand doing screencasts on campus or on my computer for the fact of issues I have had with connection problems either cause of the school server or with my computer.  Now I have to wait to submit my screencast because the room I am currently in must have issues with blocking my connections.

BWP Chapter 5

An RSS feed is something that I always saw and never really understood what it exactly was.  I knew it had something to do with reading articles since it was always around possible news feeds I'd read online.  As chapter 5 states, I was rather correct with my assumption on what a RSS feed was.  I thought it was more of a hassle to have an RSS feed because I thought it was something that needed a paid subscription or specific tool (ipod, kindle, etc.) that you needed to read it.  As the book stated now that I have a google account, I can set up my own free RSS feed to track content that interests me.  That tool can be used by students and teachers alike to track topics for homework assignments through the year.  Using an RSS feed would empty my email and mail inbox from constant incoming mail about news subscriptions cluttered with knowledge that may not be something I would want to know.

Rethinking Chapter 10

Many times in this chapter, there was a tough time trying to distinguish if there was really any new learning or just recapping what the book covered.  The final chapter really decided to put the focus of the previous chapters into the thinking of teachers in today's society.  The chapter points out that by utilizing technology for students will allow them to broaden their perspective outside of school and not be in constricted in their learning in school.  They even stated that teachers were looking for games to help them teach their lesson, with technology they can research games much faster, and set them up just as quickly.  I remember playing the usual jeopardy games made out of construction paper, with technologies the teacher can just hook it up to their projector screen with a computer or interactive whiteboard.
From my learning as a coach is that motivation is a tough thing to accomplish with some older students.  One thing I also noticed with them is that they'll be on their cell phones or listening to their ipods when they're not in practice.  The book states that in a way to boost motivation one helpful thing would be not only put material in ways those technologies can access them, but also to have games that can be accessed on the technologies too.
Now that this book is done, I am glad I was able to get a peek at what technology means to education.  In high school, my parents thought I should go into a technological or computer field since I knew how to set up and troubleshoot various items like computers, gaming systems, sound systems, and was good working with my hands.  So when it came to using technology in education, I felt that I had a step up on everyone.  Little did I know that before taking this course and reading this book, I knew little compared to what I needed to know.  I am glad that I got the opportunity to have my eyes opened up to see the various uses of technology but to see both sides of the fence when it comes to technology uses.  There is more to life than just Powerpoint.
In my future teaching endeavors I plan on really keeping technology into my classroom to some aspect although I feel that it may be somewhat tough with middle school mathematics.  But as this book repeated several times, just be open to new technologies and keep yourself to finding new resources.  Through trial and error in this class, I really am looking forward to using technology to make my classes fun and interesting for students.

Rethinking Chapter 7

In this chapter, there was a lot of talk about the various losses and gains in education if we go further into what looks like education with technology as a primary or secondary tool.  The chapter expresses feelings that in America that schooling has become more about "getting ahead' in life through getting the better education and going to a more prestigious university.  They feel that parents who have more financial gains are able to pay for other resources that a student with parents who are not as financially well.  A fear is that the thought process will steer children to a certain profession instead of broaden their horizons like education was originally intended for once the industrial revolution came around
Some of the gains of this type of education are the spread of items that can be used no matter of your financial situation.  For instance the chapter points out that many educational resources can be accessed through education at the University of Phoenix online.  The optimists feel that the use of technology like computers will not be the same for all students making them robotic, but will create a way for each student to use the technology to what suits them best.  The move to getting each student a laptop to learn from can enhance their educational resources in and outside of school.  Not to mention the computers allow students to learn in their own way that will really aid in creating discussion in classes when they access resources given by the instructor and by technological resources.
This chapter will effect my teaching by reminding me to be open to the thoughts for and against using technology in my classroom.  I tend to do a lot of my learning of useless knowledge much like the chapter explains how the students will be able to access additional resources, through searches and articles.
I feel this chapter will remind me that no matter what articles say as a skeptic on technological changes in the classroom that no one will really know how well the technology would work without trying it.

Rethinking Chapter 6

In chapter 6 it covers the three eras of education.  The initial era of education is the apprenticeship era.  The second era of education is the universal schooling era.  The upcoming era is going to be the life-long learning era.
Initially Horace Mann helped move education from the apprenticeship era to the universal schooling era where he and his fellow educators had brought the students to the same page academically instead of having them at all different levels of educational knowledge.  In the apprenticeship era the parents taught their children the same way they were instructed growing up.  Most of the time they were taught many aspects of the jobs their parents are a part of because that is what they were taught.  Many of the parents would end up deciding what profession their child would then be a part of.
The universal schooling era brought in the aspect of assessment especially through testing.  Compared to just being observed like you would be in the apprenticeship era.  Many times it feels like we are moving to a combination of the two, especially when completing the SOE work where we need to not only do well on standardized tests but also prove we know what we're doing in teaching lessons to peers and willing students in the area.
Some things I will take out of this chapter is the fluctuation of the schooling system as we know it in the past in our future.  When I was in high school and they offered apprenticeship opportunities to students who wanted to learn items like construction, nursing, and a few other technical courses I cannot remember off hand.  I thought then that an apprenticeship was just something that was new and was for kids who didn't want to go to college or high school classes in their junior or senior year of high school.  Instead it was a perfect way to get a head start to the profession they want.
One thing I will take with me as a teacher from this chapter is that for over a hundred years schooling has adapted and changed the entire time.  If I plan to be a successful teacher in my future I have to remember that in order to be successful I will need to be willing to adapt with the changes and advances that will come up over the years.

Rethinking Chapter 5

In the different phases of schooling mentioned in this chapter I really believe that homeschooling has the ability to grow to be more resourceful and educational than brick and mortar schools with technology changes.  With all these technological improvements, and schools inability to adjust due to budget restraints we see many opportunities for school age children to flourish in programs that would not be considered typical schooling.  Learning Centers and homeschooling really have an opportunity to grow and be more popular with more individualized teaching that can be available with resources out to be used.  Many students who struggle find Learning Centers to be a help through thinking out of the box a bit when it comes to content and ways of instruction by using technologies some classrooms fail to use.  One of the topics brought up in the chapter was Distance education.  I am one of the many people that has used it and really liked how it worked out.  With D2L at UW-Marathon County I was able to take my EDUC 351 & 381 equivalents from an Ed-Psych professor in UW-Marinette County.  All of our course handouts were sent through D2L while our lectures were done through video and screencasting in a live setting.  It was an awesome experience because the handouts were available online all semester and a lot of our lecture questions were asked and answered from not only my campus, but with other campuses on the live network in our lecture.  One big thing I take out of this chapter is that I should be open to new technologies for my classroom and to be more opened to being individualized more in my teaching and if I can't be, point my students to places they can get that kind of education.

Rethinking Chapter 4

Reading this chapter I get constantly reminded of Professor Brewer's history class where we talk about the industrial revolution and the effect it had on various aspects like schooling.  The chapter highlights how schooling became how we know it today.  The examples show how schooling started out as parents teaching their children the tricks of their trade like farming followed by the shift of schooling to the responsibility of the states.  Ironically, schooling in America as grown just like the technologies that some believe are unrelated to school.  In fact most of the technologies outside of schools needed some sort of instruction that had to be learned in schooling.  Various adaptations to the one room schoolhouse that shows that adaptation in education is possible were graded classrooms, tests, textbooks, standardization, improved structure in high schools.  This reading impacts my learning because it shows that even if computers are barred from school it is a parallel technology that schools need to instruct students to learn much like they did back when agricultural technologies improved and teachers adapted their teaching to prepare students for the upcoming changes in production in various ways.  One thing I will do differently is to try to keep myself prepared in technology changes related and unrelated to the classroom because they can influence what students need to learn once their brick and mortar schooling is finished.

Rethinking Chapter 3

After reading the prior chapter I was really enthused about making sure I can find educational advancements through technology, and with reading this chapter I still feel that way.  Technology skeptics bring up good points on not having enough resources or time to be able to implement and use technology in the classroom.  I chuckled when I read a statement from a skeptic about the need to turn on a computer, log in, and set up the lesson.  They make it seem like the teachers who use technology do not anticipate issues with setup and closing time in the classroom.  Just like a teacher would prepare an overhead sheet to use on the bottom lit projection screen by making them prior to class to start, a teacher who needs  to use any bit of technology would take transition time to start up their media.  This chapter feels like it is written by teachers who like to use the same lessons for years on end without changes.  Probably the largest factor that helps the skeptic's argument is the cost of implementing technology on a widespread basis.  Schools cannot afford a major overhaul of their curriculum to bring in technology because of the cost issues up front.  Skeptics forget that if you really calculate costs that if you were to go with a one to one style the upfront cost would be alleviated when you no longer have to buy new books given access to comparable knowledge through the Internet.  I just feel biased while I read this chapter since I really like the thought of using technology in schooling.

Rethinking Chapter 2

I think this chapter changes my thinking about technology's role in teaching and learning because of how the chapter highlights the many changes in education because of technology.  One of the various tools that this chapter reminds me of is the game Mario Teaches Typing which is simply a game that is used to be able to learn how to type on a keyboard.  In this chapter it shows how teaching and learning have changed to not think of computers as just an occasional tool you use once a week for its games, but more as a primary or secondary source for learning.  Another game we used in my generation was the Oregon Trail where you learned about the hard times of westward bound pioneers.  These were the technological connections to lessons of their times.  The chapter covers simulation games that can be used as learning tools now days.  If I would have told I was using Madden 95, 97, 2000, and so on as learning tools to work on math and finances, my parents would've taken it away from me.  Using popular games like Call of Duty would help me simulate history lessons to middle school students on warfare.  As a teacher I will try to keep an open mind when it comes to using games as a tool in teaching not just going to traditional educational games that can be considered lame by older students.  This chapter generally focuses on the individualized instruction that technology can bring.

BWP Chapter 10 & Epilogue

I really liked how this chapter brought out the facts of how education has evolved much like it has illustrated the book, but also mentioned old technologies that my teachers were handcuffed into using.  As much as I liked the comment of using the filmstrip, I know that some schools/teachers only use or know those resources.  Chapter 10 reminds me that technology that will be out there when I start my teaching will be extinct in 15 years (That was about the same time period it was since I was first exposed to filmtrips, no pun intended).  The fact that this chapter says how there are many print resources that can be used in the classroom, but they are being digitized more and more each day.  Resources now days are just a quick a click away.  The simple click away is not just to a website but to other teachers who may have tried a similar lesson you are planning to do.  I am reminded that efficient teaching is not just standing in front of the class and lecture the students, but to basically be a mediator in conversations based on the objectives of a lesson.  I may have to purchase a later edition of this book when I get into the field just based on the reminding that the final chapter does telling me to not get in the rut that many teachers tend to fall into by not "thinking outside the box" and using different ways of teaching.
The epilogue is a rather cool way to imagine what a technologically inclusive school would do to impact a teacher.  In the 15-20 minutes detailed, it runs through the teacher's morning and shows how care-free and easy it seems to prepare the day of school with the various updates in many aspects of the day.  I can relate to the routine because when I am able to sit down in the morning I tend to do my own style of a prep time.  Instead my routine usually starts with checking my email, then off to facebook, check my fantasy football teams, check on my teams' injury reports, and read news headlines I find interest to me.  When I got into teaching I never expected that I could stay up to date with assignments and school news just as easily as going through the routine I just listed.

Exit Slip 12/9

To start this day off rather confused because there is no week 14 agenda on D2L.  There is a link, but it goes literally nowhere.  Well ok, it actually goes to an empty google site.

In my middle school math classroom I would like to integrate an interactive whiteboard and possibly a SMARTTable so my students can have a more hands on way to learn their geometry than just drawing the angles on a chalkboard.  I would hope to be able to create more interactive games to make the subject more entertaining to the students.  I would use a networking site such as twitter, blogger, and/or wikispaces to list homework, answer homework questions and post notes for students to have access to outside of class.  I as a former student at that age has gone ahead and left out notes that I realized I needed later outside of school and did not have access to a secondary means of attaining important notes other than calling a friend/classmate.  Since I would like to use an interactive whiteboard (SMARTBoard) I would like to also create screencasts of the SMARTBoard lectures (if you would like to call them that in middle school) to post on my blogger site for students who were absent from class or even for my substitute to use in my absence.  Of course, being like 10 years from now I'll be asking Professor Boyer during Ella's parent teacher conference about newer technologies that I may have not been keeping track of as much as him.

I am really bummed over the changes that were "wikileaked" to us about changes not only to this class but also to our Professional Portfolio.  The changes on the book would've really helped me to complete the tasks on time without having to scramble to fix all the posts.

When I originally thought of technology in the classroom I really thought of the media of projector screens, televisions, calculators, and computers and really not about what is being used on them.  After going through this class I have learned probably more resources and got to try a new technologies I never would have heard of or tried before.  My new best friend is probably SMARTResourses with its collection of lesson plans on there.  Prior to this class I had one professor at University of Wisconsin Marshfield/Wood County who used the SMARTBoard as a whiteboard than for its actual resources.

Exit Slip 12/2

Miss Bobiash has integrated technology into her classroom and basically allowed her students to thrive by using it.  For instance, her SMARTBoard wasn't just a tool for her to use for teaching, but also for her students to actually interact with.  Her students also participated in online collaborative projects with students in the area and worldwide.  Miss Bobiash went ahead and started using blogging as a way to tell students what the upcoming assignments were.  No only did it preview but also reflected on assignments.  The blog also gave a chance to allow parents to see what was going on in the classroom.  She opens up a lot of technology like laptops to the students, but we were not sure if they were given to each student or offered on school grounds.
The Jigsaw conversation piece was a rather fun and interesting way to break down our discussion.  I was in group #2 and we talked about creative ways to gain technology (making it yourself, buying it yourself, spearheading fundraising).  My second topic was talking about not using your school computer at home for personal reasons.  I felt that using your work computer for personal reasons was a way for people to get a look at a personal side you may not want people to see.  I became long-winded in our group so then our group had to explain our piece to the class, oops.

BWP Chapter 9

Social networks are plain and simple to me as places you can meet people to stay connected.  A few of the popular sites that I have had contact with before this class and even before this chapter were MySpace and Facebook.  I use those sites for ways to connect with extended family and friends from high school and junior college.  I opened a MySpace account because it is easily customizable to show your character.  Another reason I opened a MySpace because at the time Facebook was still a eligible college networking site where you needed a valid school email address to join.  I only learned about another networking site before, Twitter, with everyone talking about tweets and Facebook making adaptions to their original format to mirror Twitter.  Ning is still a site that is rather new to me.  Ning is basically as customizable as a blank website where a teacher can develop it with posting personal profiles, photos, video links, groups, discussions, and blogs.
Before reading this chapter, I never really thought of any of these social networking sites being a tool I would use in my classroom, much less not knowing all of these (Ning) existed.  I could see using Facebook as a way to connect with fellow teachers in my school, in my state, in my content area, and stay connected with the people who went through the education program with me in college.  I guess because of hearing all the professional athletes using Twitter to make a joke of themselves I just found Twitter a public way to create a story.  I never really put thought into using Facebook/Twitter as a way to give students links on related content to class or even forwarding classroom/school news to parents and teachers alike.

BWP Chapter 8

Chapter 8 covers various ways to present materials through audio and visual means through your computer or other devices.  Originally when I heard the term podcast, I seriously thought that it was something that can be only played on an ipod and nothing else.  The chapter not only points out that a podcast is more than just an audio file that can be played on anything that can play an mp3 audio file.  I knew that a podcast was basically an informational audio file prior to reading the chapter because my favorite baseball team Chicago Cubs announcers have been doing podcasts for the last season and a half so I have become aware what it is about.  The video features talked about in the chapter of screencasts and streaming video were rather simple not only by name and popularity.  Screencasts are simple to figure out just by the name that it would be a telecast basically of what is on your computer screen.  Before reading the checking the chapter I really wasn't sure of how it worked, much less what can be used to make a screencast an effective school tool.  A couple tools that I feel are popular for not only home, but also school use are youtube and even live streaming audio.  Many of my colleagues use youtube as a way to show samples of lessons they are presentations they're doing basically being the lead example of how youtube can be used in schools.  I use youtube to post videos of events I have attended that I would like to share with the public.  I listen to live streaming audio shows of music that my friends have produced and put on their respective outlets.  When it comes to live streaming video, there are outlets like the sample of ustream from the book where you could use in class for news students can use.  Other outlets I have seen are Stickam and Justin.tv.  Some television networks offer tape-delayed video on their sites while some even offer live feeds of their news casts.

BWP Chapter 7

Chapter 7, Fun With Flickr highlights the positives and advantages of using a media sourse like Flickr to post, edit, customize, and label pictures for use with the students or parents.  I am more inept with a similar program photobucket to post and share pictures for others to see or use.  As the chapter points out that Flickr can use a RSS feed to give me as a teacher a way to tag a topic and if someone posts a picture with that topic, I'll know about it.  I think that would be way easier than just going ahead and using  a search site like Google to constantly try to find a picture on a topic.  I really like the option to be able to tag portions of the photos and give a description through text for viewers to understand what is going on in the picture.  I would find that helpful describing what was done on a field trip to explain to incoming students, fellow staff members, and other teachers inquiring about the field trip location.  Not only can you post/view pictures but also video to describe what was going on.  That also can be done on describing pictures taken on lessons in the classroom.  As a future teacher, this chapter really opened my eyes to using visual media like Flickr to show my parents different aspects that they can't see on a daily basis.

BWP Chapter 6

Chapter 6 The Social Web: Learning Together showcases the new ways of communicating and sharing between people over the Internet.  After being prefaced in the chapters before about wikis and RSS feeds, the chapter starts off with ironically a combination of the two in Twitter.  Twitter is essentially a free RSS feed that people can get information about other people and their interests.  Before reading this chapter and discussing the topic I really had no use for Twitter over Facebook.  I would only use Twitter as a way to post assignments for my students and to keep parents updated on in class tasks.  Facebook started out with short ways to communicate much like dry-erase boards on doors in college dorms with ability to show pictures and I would not want to use that as a educational resource over Twitter which can use pictures but is more based on the limited 'microblogging' Twitter offers.  Another feature of this chapter was the topic of social bookmarking.  I really never thought anything like social bookmarking was around.  I was one of the people prior to using Delicious in class that if I didn't have the bookmark from my laptop to my disposal I would have to search and hope I found the right site.  I will more than likely retain my Delicious account after completing it for the assignment because it is way easier than to just transfer favorites from machine to machine as you toss out computers.

BWP Chapters 4

Chapter 4 is simply titled Wikis and talking about its nuances.  When I heard the term wiki tossed around in this and another of my classes, the first thing I thought about is wikipedia.  I couldn't figure out why we needed to make a wikipedia page but of course that was all my knowledge of anything termed wiki.  I found it rather interesting that in the chapter it said that a purposefully incorrect post on a wikipedia page was corrected and edited to become correct in a matter of hours.  I never thought that a wiki was like a blog version of a live encyclopedia when it comes down to wikipedia.  Oddly enough the chapter points out that people find wikipedia to be the most accurate encyclopedias.  Some other people are more skeptical because of the ability to easily edit posts.  But much like encyclopedias, wikipedia is made up mostly of siting sources.  Wikis are more that just known as wikipedia, but in the classroom teachers and students can create a wiki to list their knowledge on a topic related to a task in class.

BWP Chapters 1-3

Reading the beginning of chapter one I really had to laugh that the beginning of the Internet started back when I was only five-years-old back in 1989.  Not to mention that Internet became simpler when I was in the second grade.  I found that interesting because we didn't get our first computer in our house until 1995 because my older sister could use the resource in high school.  I want to say that we got our first dial-up Internet connection under two years later.  Of course then Internet was much slower and I didn't consider it a teaching/learning resource because it was faster to just page through books than crawl on the Internet.  Not to mention I didn't know what a blog, wiki, or podcast was and even when I heard about them I imagined tech nerds with their glasses, pocket protectors, and DOS manuals.
One thing that I found helpful in the chapter was the fact that it provided tips on what is a good website and what is not for research.  I always thought that the .com sights were not effective and the sites like .gov were.  I'm glad I know that a little better now.  I found it interesting to use blogging for many concepts of in-class work and providing ideas, for instance, the AP Calculus class the book used as an example.  The teacher can post ideas about the new chapter to give the students something to prelude/reflect on.  Of course, that is very much similar to what I am currently doing for this class.  Of course for younger students it is best to go through what is expected on the weblog and even the security settings.  It would even be smart to keep parents and administrators in the loop about what is going on and expectations of the blog.

Rethinking Chapter 9

Chapter 9 talks about how technologies that children use are usually not understood by their parents.  One of the technologies that they mention is the video game Madden football.  If I told my parents that I was playing Madden on Super Nintendo, Playstation, and Playstation 2 while I was in middle and high school as homework, they would've taken the systems and hid them in a closet.  Believe it or not, but I actually used Madden and football in general to help become faster in my multiples of 7 to do better on my times tests when I was younger.  One of my friends mentioned how the sevens are just like scoring touchdowns.  So then the next time I played the video game I was more aware of the score and became faster on my seven multples.  Of course growing up as technology has increased from being like a one dimentional video to being two dimentional and now even three dimentional video.  Many of the games can be used as simulations for missions like the new video game Call of Duty Black Ops.  Between the systems of Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii there are many games that can be used to help aid in curriculums, even physical education with the latest advances in all three systems.  Not only video games, but also just watching tv has been benefical to academics believe it or not.  As the book pointed out that people can watch their favorite shows and then post on fan sites or blogs related on the shows.  That is where the students practice their writing skills and interpersonal skills.  With these various skills it leaves the schools in a place where they can impliment technology inovations as a suppliment in education or be replaced by more progressive schooling.

Exit Slip 11/18/10

Well, today's class started out with going over the grade updates and I found out my cool tools screencast bombed.  The outline I decided to use wasn't very effective because as I transitioned between points I used the "uhms".
Discusssion plus/Delta on Chapter 10.
One positive we used in our presentation was right away we broke into a jigsaw discussion groups.  The group made serious effort to make colors and shapes to divide the groups.  A related delta to using the jigsaw is to actually call it a jigsaw discussion to improve our terminology vocabulary.  The group did a positive job using multiple tools like the interactive whiteboard and using the document camera instead of focusing on one tool.  A delta is to watch the "uhms" again, which I find to be a problem with myself.  Another positive that they went over the directions prior to moving into the groups to avoid confusion and getting off task.  They also had good movement roaming between the group but a change would be to coordinate it differently so once one instructor leaves the group another doesn't arrive.

I found the media search rather fun when it came down to finding items to get one of the five topics of an online video, a podcast, a SMART Notebook lesson, a Scratch project, and an online game.  I found it kind of fun to do a quick search.  A lot of the material I searched to begin was just to get the ball rolling and that I wanted to get at least three, but instead I got four.  My topic that I would like to teach is mathematics in the Elementary or more likely the Middle School level.  I found it interesting that I found a person who posted youtube videos of homeschooling mathematics.

Contemporary Issues Podcast

I think to start off this podcast one issue I had was trying not to narrarate the article although I am sure I have been docked already for that.  I also wasn't sure if my article was long enough for the podcast to be effective.  I really liked the topic because our chapters have talked about how schools could use the faster updating internet as a tool over books in the classroom.  I think creating and sharing a podcast for our peers just gets us ready and more prepared to use the technology to communicate to others in our field.  Probably the largest thing I liked about the podcat was that I was able to edit out and change parts of it without having to start from scratch.

Lawmakers eye use of mobile technology in schools

"Did I do that?" ~ Family Matters Courtesy of moviewavs.com
Breaking glass ~ CD.textfiles.com http://www.cd.textfiles.com/
Theme Music:  Go Buy A Boat by Matt Rosinski (used from cd)

Exit Slip 11/11

We started class going over what is due in last week's Screencasts.  There was a bit of time to go over SWOT analysis and change screencast since Dr. Boyer was finally able to go ahead and start going through his collection of screencasts submitted.
Next we broke into our presentation/discussion about chapter 9 in Rethinking Education. I think our group breakup was kinda nice and different because it was a random, predetermined list so there was no way to try to formulate a group so you can determine one person to talk.  I really wasn't sure what to do when it came to answering our group question.  The using of the sketch page was a good idea but it did not work as planned.  I wasn't sure how well the conversations would have been in the instant message setup of sketch.  The sketch did actually fall into the ideals of the chapter by how people use social networking and becoming used to not doing face to face conversations.

Screencast Reflection

Cool Tools Screencast of Google Maps

New Screencast

When it came down to starting my Cool Tools Screencast I picked Google Maps because it was something I was familiar with because I like using it to find proximity of locations I travel to in order to find out what is near it in order to keep from getting lost.  So a lot of my preparatory work was done way in advance of starting my recording.  I spend probably a half an hour playing with all the tools on the website to become familiar with them to avoid issues while recording.  The recording of my screencast probably took me close to two and a half hours.  Between issues with my computer and Jing and my poor timing the Screencast took longer than I expected.  At time when I was recording I would try to pause and resume only to find out a couple times it didn't pause.  That was rather frustrating but I chalk that one up to my five-year-old computer.  Also I really wanted to do a basic overview of the tools, which I scraped that idea since it took me way over the time limit.  So then when I recorded it I used the basic, more classroom resourceful tools.  I originally wanted to show how easy it was to customize directions, but found it irrelevant when I needed to fit my time requirement.
I find that doing a screencast can really aid in teaching your students when you are unable to be there to aid them.  I feel that if I wanted to make a substitute teacher's life simple that they could play a screencast of my taught lesson and supplement to it instead of trying to just construct the lesson from the lesson plans.

Exit Slip 11/4

To start today off I realized that I am a moron and wrote down the wrong due day for the cool tools screencast and put Friday (11/5).  I kept trying my microphone plug-in on my aging Dell computer but since the old Mac microphone isn't working I'll need to snag a microphone and do both screencast and podcast.

Today's chapter presentation on chapter 8 the presentation was "graded" on the following positive aspects of how the selected speaker of the presenters was at a designed random selection, they even tied the relationships of the main themes, and finally used the Venn diagram to tie themes together.  Some of the changes are that the Venn diagram be split up a little better and when filling in the group information to do something other than write with he marker like typing.  Another issue that came up with the presentation was that the groups were split up without going over the process first.  I won't deny that I was a little confused at first on what exactly our group needed to do to get our discussion started.

I am really freaking out about my Annotative Bibliography because I seriously overlooked it on the C-Contract and put myself very far behind the rest of the class on that assignment as I was looking to doing my screencast and podcast.  I will just complete the screencast and podcast prior to fixing my Annotative Bibliography issue.

Rethinking Chapter 8

As I am reading chapter 8 I am constantly being reminded of the teaching strategies I am learning in my Ed 302 class where we go over instructional strategies that are not the standardized or "reading to a worksheet" homework assignments but to enhance literacy through practice of reading and writing.  As this semester has rolled on I found that a complete overhaul of education to technology would be something that would take a lot of money and time before the takeover would possibly happen.  As the book states that right now America is really focusing on standardizing their testing in order to be able to keep up with the rest of the world.  Even watching President Obama's speech Wednesday where he acknowledged the democrats got killed in the elections he even stated that now America has to retain money in education in order to keep our students on pace with the rest of the world with the growing global economy becoming an issue.  Back to my point, the generic skills certifications would allow the students and teachers to use the technology available to adapt to each student case and become successful in which field they choose.  With the students creating a portfolio one could say it is much like the School of Education department here in UWSP where students would need to make a portfolio in order to graduate therefore it must be completed in order to receive their certification/diploma.
As this chapter rolls on it reminds me of chapter 6 were we talk bout parents selecting what the students need to learn.  One major difference is that the parents wouldn't be selecting topics for their children to take over the family farm, but guide their children to studying topics that they notice their children are interested in.  Using myself for and example I would be geared to learning about physical activity and sport.  Which oddly enough, I agree with what the book said about adapting games like Sims, SWAT 4 and World of Warcraft as tools to better meet content goals in problem solving and leadership skills.  Ironically enough I would like to think that my coaching, dealing with adversity, and problem solving comes from dealing with various tactical issues that arise from playing games like Madden where you deal with unforeseeable issues like injuries where you have to adapt to them.  Also, a couple years ago our coaching staff used either Madden or NCAA Football to show our quarterback what the defensive coverages looked like.  I won't lie that it was an unorthodox way of teaching it but it was effective.

Group Presentation Thoughts

I really enjoyed being the sacrificial lamb when it came down to presenting the book chapters in the lab section one.  My group presented chapter 2 from the Rethinking book.  We decided to jump at the first group to attempt in order to kind of 'get it out of the way' and avoid being overshadowed by an unbeatable presentation from a preceding group.  There was a couple times leading up to our presentation for the chapter that we worried about presenting Chapter one.  Once we stopped worrying about how we were gonna align our work we met with Dr. Boyer with our ideas.  I felt that our meeting with Dr. Boyer really helped solidify our thoughts and backed the direction we were heading since no other group has modeled the discussions before.  One problem we had was finding time to meet after that original meeting to practice our lesson.  Jim started the Prezi and granted us all access to the project which was nice so we were able to toss information on there without meeting with a partial group.  One big problem was that in the last 24 hours our Prezi fluxed in the amount of pages and changed in order due to some conflicts of interest in our group.  The difficult part of our project was that we did not connect in the same programs which left one group member as a mediator, but also left me out of the 11th hour discussions when the slide order conflict arose.

When it came down to our presentation of the chapter I believe it went very well considering we went over the slide order minutes before class started because they were changed that close to class.  I believed our flow went well in our presentation.  We might not have moved around as much but wanted to point out our slides that were in the section we selected for ourselves.  I really focused on the video games that were out there in my grade schools when I was growing up and how they were like a simple stepping stone to what our chapter was focusing on.  I knew that I could zoom in on the pictures I had on my Prezi slide, but when I was aligning them on the slide on my computer I zoomed in and due to an issue with my computer it didn't retract immediately.  So then I was afraid of doing that during my presentation and embarrassing myself.  When I spoke of course I had in the back of my mind the thought of not saying the "ums", "likes", and "what nots" but of course I caught myself saying them.  I feel that I used my coaching voice and was able to project my voice well, but know that sometimes I get a increasing speed in my speech and become tough to understand.  I felt really proud after watching a couple other presentations that we were trendsetters with our presentation model.

I liked doing the project assignment because then it helps us teachers actually teach before being tossed into the classroom during our practicum.  Not only do we get to teach, but then we have discussions about the chapter which help us understand if we interpreted the chapter the same as our peers.  Probably the best part of the presentation is that we are able to get feedback from our peers and instructor on what they did and didn't like in the way we brought fourth our material.  When we get out in the field we usually won't get constructive criticism from our students on what they did and didn't like on our classroom presentations.

Exit Slip 10/28

To start off today's class we covered the progress the class' Delicious accounts and how many links were on the accounts.  Our section had the most production out of the four sections.  Of course it is because we are like ahead of the other sections calandar-wise.  Another thing we went over was the way we responded to the class mid-semester survey.  Everyone felt that the work amount is too high.  I feel that it was high, but because the reading is all front loaded to give us time to work on projects towards the end.  As for the group discussion at the begining the organization was a little odd.  The group went over chapter 7 and separated us in two groups on each side of a line about pros and cons of how could we operate with or without technology in our classroom.  But then we got evened out in proper groups.  Found it kinda funny how a part of the conversation came down to competition in the classroom, especially when Dr. Boyer used competition earlier with the modeling of the Delicious account.  We covered Elluminate an online webinar tool that can be used to make contact with people.  Watching class play with the Elluminate was pretty interesting because it shown that we could operate on it properly.

Exit Slip 10/21

Today we covered chapter 6 from Rethinking Education.  One of the major steps I really liked that this group did was the group used suckers to separate groups.  The group I was in was the strawberry group.  I really liked how the group has done was identify where each group had to go and were boken up evenly.

Exit Slip 10/14

Well, today we started off the day with the presentation of Dr. Boyer's new ipad.  I thought that was really cool coming from the technology in education instructor because if he doesn't stay current with the new instruments, how would we know about them.  The group that presented chapter 5 from the Rethinking textbook I felt right away did have some very vague reaction and responses to our answers and also did not allow other groups to comment on the information we all have submitted.  I liked their innovative way to separate groups by choosing the color cards therefore keeping the groups uniform in size.  One catch with separating the groups as they did caused some confusion of where to go because areas of the classroom were not designated by color so the groups had to wander and settle to do the process.

Exit Slip 10/7

The initial thing I learned today was that Dr. Boyer wants to make sure that our work is completed and is generous on exactly when it is handed in.  I feel lucky to some extent that I can still finish my work and also catch up now that my football coaching season is winding down to the last month depending on playoffs and opening up free time to really dig out of my hole.  This is still no excuse for my lagging behind but it saves me from frantically worrying about my current status in the class.
The group's presentation started out seeming like it was rehashing the information in the book.  I feel that way because before class started I read most of the chapter again so it was rather fresh in my head. The group really needed to speak up because it was difficult to hear over the computer fans and keyboard keys clicking as students were critiquing the presentation on their blog sites.  Another change that could help is that the group could have divided up groups better because my group was the largest group we had.  Instead of giving the first group multiple parts, they could have split up my group to finish the other topic.

Exit Slip 9/30

I really felt today that our group's presentation went well for the most part up until the awkward ending we had where the tone of voice became kind of defensive on a comment about one side's opinion.  As a class we commented that the format was being somewhat overused because of the pro, neutral, and con about the chapter.  In a way I found that part of my group's fault by looking at the pro and con prospective we gave which recapped our chapter and forshadowed into today's group's chapter.  I didn't find the quote about "what we learned in Kindergarten" to tie in well into the group discussion.  The quote, I feel did not aid the benefit of meaningful conversation for the people who want technology.  With the quote I felt that it shown a little bias towards not using technology in the classroom.
I also just realized that I never listed my technology inquiry question of In what ways can an interactive white board or SMARTBoard be utilized in a junior high mathematics setting? and now I am unsure if I can use it since someone else is doing one related to my question.  I did not want to attempt to post it during class since I figured and later confirmed that people were rushing to the site to edit their questions.  I will have to access for questions for later.

Exit Slip 9/23

Immediately I learned today that although Blogger allows you to text your blog posts to your page, the texts do not all send in one piece so blogger had my information broken up and was missing parts of my exit slip from last week.
I learned that although I didn't want to say "umm", "ah", and "like" that I subconsciously ended up doing that when I was getting ready for wait times.  Although our project didn't exactly have a conclusion I felt that our chapter was able to flow a little better until that point.  I felt that I could have had a general wrap-up but since we rushed to end, I partially panicked just helped with just considering ending the presentation.

Exit Slip 9/16

Although Blogger claims I can text in my blog posting, I found out that it doesn't work if you do it in a multiple text outcome.  So far the segments below were posted and I need to find the posting in my phone.

4 One major factor I found out in today's class is that I am one of a few that believe that brick-n-mortar schools will still be around. with the push of d
4 h technology will excell and expand with internet schooling.

Rethinking...: Preface & Chapter 1 Reflection

When I was reading this assignment I started to realize on how much the schools I attended before college basically used technology as a separate learnign tool by having classes where you learned how to use the technology but rarely used the technology in the classrooms.  Many times there we would just use the computer for word processing and rarely for games.  I am a little older and was in the dates of the green computer screens and the five-inch floppy disk. Many times then our computer work was restricted to math games and typing accuracy.  The book points out that the technology that is currently used in classrooms are very simple instructional tools like paper, pencil, overhead projectors, and even the calculator.  Those technologies, much like the newer ones today, took a while to be implimented into the classroom but still are rarely the forfront of the classroom.
As a future teacher I would like to keep an open mind to implimenting new technologies like more open computer access for students in the classroom as well as things like smart boards.  Of course I see a smartboard as a possible way to impliment it to coaching football if and when I would be able to use the markers while watching video to instruct as we would see while watching highlights during televised games.  In the current way for pointing out key points whether it be for something like football or even an educational word find, on a projector board instructors need to use a pointer of some sort instead of being able to just draw on the video board without causing damage to highlight their key point.
Another thing I would like to use is something we do in this class and that is using a website to document what we did in our class.  We all have been in school before when we got a bad cold, flu, or injury where we are unable to be in school for a period of time.  Then we have to rely on our siblings, friends, and/or parents to get the information from our teachers on what was done and what is due.  By using a blog or wiki the students would be able to access an up-to-date script of what was covered in the class so they are not too far ahead of or beind of the class when they return from their illness.

exit slip 9/9

I really am happy that we went over what the class wiki was going to be used for because I tend to just become distracted testing out the resources from class. I really like delicious because I never really knew that it even existed before class. I could prove that by showing my favorites bar on my computer because it looked like the one on the video, long and cluttered. I still need to find my invite for the organization wiki but I am sure I'll find it before Monday.  On Monday I was able to put on my information easily on the organization wiki.  I think it was just information overload for our wiki instead of my user error.  Well, maybe not.  Another thing I learned for this class was that I did the first half of my exit slip via my cell phone internet.  I am very happy to know that now since I will probably need to do so in future class blogger assignments.

Digital Autobiography

Picture Collage

When I started this project I really wasn't sure the difficulty level or how well I could organize it. One problem I came across was that I tend to not have many pictures of myself and that was something I really wanted in my collage. I would admit it was minimal effort because I probably should have put transitions between my pictures and topic changes.
I felt that when we completed this task it was allowing us to find ways to create a home made way to present information to our students in a way we would prefer instead of whatever the book decides or provides for us.  Also in a way it was a way to show how creative we are in presentations for the group.  I really didn't go all out on my slide show because I really don't take many pictures of myself and really did not feel like raiding my facebook pictures for visuals of myself with people I didn't want in my digital autobiography.  I guess you could say I am a perfectionalist when it comes down to some things like that where I'll just leave out a couple pictures because they had people I didn't want to show in my collage.
By completing this task it has allowed me to know that there are online programs like vuvox because I probably would have done this project with the most common  Powerpoint.  Without doing this assignment I probably would have never known about all four of the sites for future use with other related projects.

Thoughts on Technology

Technology is a form of aid that a person uses to make a process simpler to complete.




Technology integration in a classroom looks like a classroom with aids that help the students and teachers in daily life. For instance some of those materials that may be found in an integrated classroom would be a projector screen, film projector, video projector, television, calculators, computers for teacher and students, and in some more advanced situations a smart board.