Reflections of Blogging

As I look through my blogs from the beginning of the school semester, I found it hard to understand as person just reading it. I say that because I am putting myself as a person just reading it and not actually understanding what we know it to be as a class. I basically wanted to get the assignments done and just put in the effort of what needed to be said. I felt by the passing weeks I knew more about technology and how it can be an effective teaching tool. I know how spreadsheets, podcast, word, and much more can be incorporated into lesson plans. Not only for the teacher to use but for the students as well. Giving them hands on experience is a great way for them to understand and knowledge to use technology. It's important for them to learn at such a young age because our ever changing world. In my first entry into my blog I talked about my goals. I said that I never blogged before, or used a wiki, and wasn't sure what else the class had to offer but I knew that I would come out more strong minded about technology and how it is used. I feel comfortable with WIKI's by just using it for the class, but learned that WIKI's are created for any type of information and how they could be used in the classroom setting. In the past few weeks I seen that I put forth more effort into my writings and made sense of what I was talking about. I made people understand that "Today in my EDU class we were talking about "...... and I would state what it was and what I learned. In the past few weeks I noticed that I tagged more than from the beginning about what my blog was about. Look I even embedded a video into my blog and I didn't know how to do that before. Knowledge is power, and I feel great about this class and what it had given me. I now feel confident going into the education field and come up with great innovated ideas for my future classroom.

Weather Youtube Video In My Classroom

I chose this video because I am doing weather for my final unit plan. I enjoyed watching this because my target students are older and not really meant for something kindergarten-like. I want my students to understand how weather works and how we predict weather and the importance of meteorologists have in our lives. I could use this in my classroom for such reasons for the facts of the video has. It covers precipitation, clouds,how storms are even formed. But there might be some obstacles to face when trying to use youtube in the classroom. I feel that teacher really need to watch the whole video before playing it in the classroom, which can be time consuming but it is our right to prepare and be ready to use in the class. Also it might be hard to have all observe at once unless using some type of smartboard to display it to the whole class. But with any type of learning with technology has their pros and cons. We as teachers just need to weight them before using them. Study what you are trying to incorporate into your classrooms, if you understand, it's easier for your students to understand.

TILT Iphones in the Classroom

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tilt-teachers-improving-learning/id75789488

This week in my EDU271 class we had to find a podcast based on technology being introduced into the classroom. I found this one in my Itunes be going to podcast on the side then in the search bar, I typed "technology in classroom". I first did "education" then other words like "education technology" but I found this one podcast called " TILT iphones in the classroom." I thought it was pretty interesting because to me, I don't think of an ipod as a learning source but after watching the video I was intrigued at the idea of incorporating one actually into my lesson planning. I am doing weather for my lesson plans (5th grade) and feel that this would be an amazing example to use! As a parent, my 5th grader loves her iphone. She is with that thing 24/7 and all I mostly see her do is download apps and text a whole lot. LOL but she is a good girl. ( Just thought I'd add that) But to get back to the point, the speakers name is Danny Maas. TILT stands for Teachers Improving Learning with Technology. I thought this was perfect for the class assignment for podcast.
There are four elements of the iPhone which make it a great educational tool for a teacher and students:

• Still/video camera and apps to edit/enhance photos
  
• Audio recorder
  
• iPod/iTunes
  
• Blogging apps

It was such an interesting 1omin podcast and after watching and listening to it, made me understand how it can be incorporated. He was talking about how children can take pictures with the iphone of something they did in class or for a project during class. They audio recorder can be used to record class lessons, student response to questions, and memos. Ipod/itunes can be used to find videos for class lessons, books, podcast, and much more. It varies on how you can use this in the classroom. My favorite part was about the applications (apps) that can be downloaded to your iphone for classroom use. For an example, me (myself) have a hard time with MLA format sometimes. There is an app for the iphone obviously not for all types of work cited but the main ones. Book, journal, magazine, website, and newspaper. It was pretty cool to use and self explanatory. Its called "iCitation". But what Danny was talking about in the podcast for the apps could be anything from math, social studies, pretty much anything you can think of for educational purpose. He even found one for word typing. You can actually type up a paper and do it on the iphone! You can also link up your iphone to a projector to be able to share with the class. Pretty cool huh!
I can use this or even give an idea to a teacher ( I don't work in a setting yet), but to use this in so many ways. Truly an iphone isn't just a phone/ gaming device. It also has features you can use for education technology wise. I would use this in my future class by having the students record their findings from a project. Say about dinosaurs and their features. We can then play it back to the class. The next group would say what certain dinosaurs ate and so on. I would more than definatly tell someone else about this podcast that I came across. However I did find it in my itunes, but if you go to google and put in "TILT iphones in the classroom" it comes up a whole page of podcast for examples of technology in classrooms! I pretty much chose this offhand because like I said before, I had no idea what iphones could be used for in the classroom! Great post and long but I enjoyed looking up this podcast.
After you click on the link provided above, it will bring you to the website of all TILT podcast. The one I viewed is the 4th one down.

Databases In My Classroom

Databases are pretty similar to spreadsheets. You can store a vast amount of information with databases. A database can be used to keep up with any information which you need to collect. I plan on using databases in my classroom by keeping track of my students.

• names
• attendance
• telephone number of home
• email of parents
• birthdays

There are a variety of ways to incorporate this into the classroom use. Depending on the topic/lesson involved, students can also insert data and process information from the database.
Advantages:

• create a visual for learning
• allow users to organize and manipulate large amounts of information
• compare and contrast data, rank importance

Disadvantages:

• Database systems are complex, difficult, and time-consuming to design
• Substantial hardware and software start-up costs
• Damage to database affects virtually all applications programs
• Extensive conversion costs in moving form a file-based system to a database system
• Initial training required for all programmers and users

Spreadsheets In My Classroom

Spreadsheets can be used for a variety of things. I can use it for myself as far recording the students in my class, what assignments are given and what are missing, to attendance too. But I can also use this in my classroom with my students as well. Children can better visualize numbers and how they vary from day to day; to say if the temperature has changed or not. I can use the spreadsheets in the classroom with lesson of weather across the USA. We can record different cities weather conditions and graph the information found.
Advantages
*children can visually see that if it rains in NC it might not be raining in other cities
*fun activity for all as a whole class
*can use something as easy as a smartboard instead of computers for every child
Disadvantages:
*lack of participation from students
* some children might not have access to computers at home to get recordings


I think this is a great way to get the students to understand the realization of weather can affect different areas at different times. Critical thinking and technology and concepts of the NETS are used in this spreadsheet idea.

Word Processing In My Classroom

I would use word processing in my classroom with creating a poem about how rainfall goes through each stage, water cycle's vocabulary (precipitation, condensation, evaporation, etc). assigning a group of three with writing a story about the adventures a drop of water has through the water cycle. Students can insert pictures, change the fonts, play with the outline whether its to be centered or not. Student can review before printing and share the poem with their class.
Advantages:
*students can use their creativity and innovation
* thinking of the lines with their groups in collaboration and discussion
*fun learning and not just your average handout
Disadvantages:
*time wise and limited source of computers
*would probably have to do rotations with the groups
*can create chaos in the group if one doesn't agree with the others ideas

This uses the NETS standards through creativity and innovation (poem), technology in the classroom (computers/printing) , and group peer work (group project).