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.