Reflective Post

Reflective Post

Introduction to technology for educators or EME2040 was a very different class compared to all the other classes I have taken for my education major. I got to read every chapter and understand many key concepts that helped me enhance some of my technology use for this class. Although we jumped a couple of chapters it was well organized for this class. This all started with the different types of technologies that a teacher can use to enhance technology in the classroom. The different features that one as a future teacher can put into a lesson plan as (Maloy, et al p. 5) mentions using technology as teacher does not require using computers in every teaching situation but rather continually asking: "What can teachers and students do with technology that cannot be done without it?". This article I found was very interesting and had some great information on how teacher's struggle with technology.

Another of the most important things that I learned in this course was teacher centered learning and student centered learning. The goal of a teacher is to teach and find their own way of making it work so that the students can take all that information with them. Teacher's should always put their students and learning first and this concept was what transformed my way of thinking as a future educator. This concept combined with student learning I think would work best together because the teacher and the student are both actively participating. Although student centered learning is a challenge for the students because they are using all of their known knowledge to learn and participate in the assignments that come straight from the teacher the real challenge is combining these two things learning features together.



Lastly, next generation web 2.0 presentation tools such as prezi, animoto, and glogster. These are some of the tools that I learned how to use while in this course. Thanks to the blog posts I have enhanced my use of technology I learned about web tools that will help my students be more interested in what I have to say. I can show them visually while they take notes and they can even create their own in due time depending in their grade level. Technology has advanced and it will keep advancing at a fast pace, but for now here are some examples of the web tools that this chapter showed me would be useful in the future.

1. Prezi allows teachers and students to create visual displays collaboratively online using nonlinear approaches to information presentation (Maloy et, al p. 224).
2. Animoto is also another next-generation tool, in which teachers use video clips, pictures, sound, and text to expand how information is presented and received (Maloy et, al p. 224)
3. Glogster lets teachers and students created digital posters (called glogs) that combine the use of images, sounds, and graphics with text (Maloy et, al p.224).

My introduction to technology was very unique and I loved it my professor taught me a new way of using technology to teach in my future as an educator. Transforming technology into a way that both teachers and students can enjoy is what I learned throughout this course. Technology in the classroom should be something that is understood by both the teacher and student because what can be done with technology can also be done without it.



Resources:
Jeimy, R (September 18, 2016) What would you do. With powtoon

Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

 Powtoon. "Introduction to Technology." Youtube. N.p., 24 Feb. 2015. Web. 8 Dec. 2016.

Digital Blog Post L

Digital Blog Post #L

Inclusion or infusion of technology in the classroom what would you as a modern educator use? This was a hard question for me to answer as I read this in this chapter. With modern times it is very hard to determine whether to use inclusion or infusion technology in the classroom. Inclusion means that computers and information technologies are used mainly fro transferring information and practicing skills. Infusion on the other hand, means that computers and other information technologies are ongoing features of teaching and learning in al academic subjects at all grade levels.





In order to decide whether to use infusion or inclusion you have to determine what stage of technology integration you are at as an educator. There are five stages of technology integration. The following are the stages and an overview of what they each are:

1. Entry Stage- At an entry stage, a teacher needs to gain specific skills in how to use computers and technologies before she or he is able to think about how to apply new knowledge to classrooms situations.
2. Adoption Stage- At the adoption stage, a teacher know s enough to use technology in the classroom, but only at a basic level and only occasionally.
3. Adaption Stage- At an adaption stage, a teacher is using technology regularly as part of teaching.
4. Appropriation Stage- At the appropriation stage, a teacher is using technology as both an inside the classroom and outside the classroom tool.
5. Invention Stage- At the invention stage, a teacher is exploring new ways to creatively use technology in and out of the classroom as well as adding emerging technologies to a personal repertoire of professional skills and practices.

What stage are you at? I feel as if I am the Adaption stage and this class has helped develop my technology skills getting thus far.

Automate or Informate

What is automate and informate technologies? Automating happens when a new technology essentially recreates existing practices, usually at greater speed and sometimes with greater efficiency. Informating signifies a different process, where a technology changes an activity by fundamentally redesigning and refining it. This two concepts are just an enhancement of how much you can add to technology now. For example, before we could get our report cards sent home in an envelope now we can access them via email or on the school website that is automate technology. While with informate technology we exercise and our phone would be able to track every mile and step we took. Would that be great for gym class?

In this modern age the integration of technology is one of the main priorities for some teachers because it helps keep the students engaged and interested. For us upcoming educators knowing what to expect and being prepared is all the we can do. The way that we choose to set up, run, and teach our classroom will determine much of our success as well as how much technology we integrate into our daily class time.

References:

E. (2012, December 12). An introductin to technology integration. Retrieved November 26, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d59eG1_Tt-Q

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Ruiz, J. (2016, November 26). Inclu/Infu. Retrieved November 26, 2016, from https://magic.piktochart.com/output/18501941-incluinfu

Digtial Blog Post J

Blog Post #J

Democratic schools and classrooms is the movement for democratic schools and classrooms to increase the involvement of students in educational decision-making and academic learning (Maloy et, al p.283). I feel as if this is a great way to engage the students into participating in decisions about the classroom activities, climate, and rules. As a student I feel like being involved is a way to spark up the interest of students. Critics of democratic classroom have dismissed the idea by suggesting that students will make silly, ill-informed, or self centered choices, if given the opportunity to do so (Maloy et, al p. 284). Giving students the opportunity to pick how they want to learn things is not exactly how critics suggest it will happen. A school might become a democratic school to infuse democratic values as well as use teacher practices to engage students by having them participate in everything that they are learning by selecting the little such as materials or reading topics.

Digital portfolios for students is a change from paper to digital form and also a change in how students exchange information about themselves and their learning. A digital portfolio contains the same thing as a paper portfolio but this increases the amount of people that are able to view your portfolio. For example, this blogpost is a like a digital portfolio of important concepts that I have came across reading every chapter. Although there are advantages and disadvantages to digital portfolios it is a new way to teaching in this technology era and being able to keep track of the most important work that we need to keep stored.

Reasons for teaching with clickers is something that was a new practice when I was graduating high school. I have gone back to school as an observant and I've had the chance to see teaching with clickers in use. Clickers are a way of active learning because all students get to give an answer without having to worry about others being right and you being wrong. This gives the teachers instant feedback to see what students need more help. The thing that I was most intrigued about was question centered instruction. In question centered instruction, students are given a challenging question and asked individually, in pairs, or in small groups to consider possible answers (Maloy et, al p.288).

Overall, this chapter has my mind full of ideas of what I can do in my own classroom. There are many challenges as a new teacher that make some students think about if they really want to go into the field but, this chapter is just proof that I have the right mindset I just have to overcome the challenges. Democratic schools and classrooms have the right idea in letting the students and teachers collaborate in certain things not all things. With digital portfolios we are preparing our student for the future of technology as it increases. Finally clickers are just the best way of active learning, student involvement, real feedback and question centered instruction which lets the teacher know how to get to every student.

Resources:

Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Ruiz, J. (2016, November 5). Digital Portfolio Pros and Cons. Retrieved November 5, 2016, from https://magic.piktochart.com/output/17829613-digital-portfolio-pros-and-cons 

Ruiz, J. (2016, November 5). Democratic schools and class. Retrieved November 5, 2016, from https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/dFl1kovdBMJ/?mode=movie#/

Digital Post H

Digital Post #H

Next generation web 2.0 presentation tools such as prezi, animoto, and glogster. These are tools that we use on our blogs. Thanks to our blogs I was introduced to these great tools that I have had a fun time creating and this is just practice for when I do become a teacher. This concept was great for me because I learned about two new web tools and I learned a little more about prezi.

1. Prezi allows teachers and students to create visual displays collaboratively online using nonlinear approaches to information presentation (Maloy et, al p. 224).
2. Animoto is also another next-generation tool, in which teachers use video clips, pictures, sound, and text to expand how information is presented and received (Maloy et, al p. 224)
3. Glogster lets teachers and students created digital posters (called glogs) that combine the use of images, sounds, and graphics with text (Maloy et, al p.224).

YouTube, handcrafted videos, and streaming video resources are different tools that focus on different things. This concept specifically stood out to me because I did not think you could use YouTube as a tool because when I was in school it was locked for students use. YouTube is a video hosting and sharing website where people upload videos that they have made and watch those made by others (Maloy et, al p.225). Some teachers even have their own profile on where they post video material. I noticed that some of my professor have their own channel so that they can guide us through some of our modules. Handcrafted videos are videos where the camera focuses on words, numbers, images, and even paper cutouts as they appear and move around a whiteboard or white background (Maloy et, al 226). This type of video I found like a great idea for me because it would help me a lot in my math classes. Handcrafted video also does not show any faces so it would be perfect for privacy issues. Finally, streaming videos are the simultaneous transfer of a video, voice, and data from one computer to another (Maloy et, al p. 226). This type of video is handy because it can be viewed either from a smartphone or computer. These type of videos are available for free to schools and they are growing constantly. These video tools as a future teacher is great to know what they are good for so I can know when in my lesson I can use them and how. The only video tool I knew about was YouTube, but I thought it was very limited now I know there is an educational part in it.

Strategies for using videos with students was a concept that was very helpful to me even as student. This concept explains how each strategy allows the student to contribute and interpret their own ideas.

• Pause and rewind videos often. Pausing or rewinding to review video segments engages students in lively ongoing discussions about what they are viewing, making the experience interactive. 
• Ask the students to write responses. As they view video, students can take notes or write reactions to parts of what they are watching. By pairing different modes of learning video viewing and expressive writing teachers enhance student involvement.
• Integrate video into lessons. Showing brief segments of a video rather than watching and entire program facilitates and interactive viewing experience for students. Alternatively, when the teachers show one or two short scenes or sections from a video, it is easier to promote discussion and analysis because student attention is focused on the important academic material in the lesson.
• Turn off the sound or the picture. Eliminating sound or picture dramatically changes the video experience.

This concept has taught me how to use these strategies in the classroom and its given me some examples as a future educator. This is a way to make enliven the classroom experience for students specially for me that I do not usually use technology much.

Overall, this chapter was full of ideas and technology tools that I could use in the future. These three concepts were specially useful to me because I feel as if I can use them in my own classroom and feel comfortable using them. I have a variety of web 2.0 tools to choose from that thanks to blogging I have been able to learn about more and more and expand my use of. The use of videos in the classroom from YouTube, handcrafted, and streaming are different but very useful in specific ways. Finally, the strategies that will help enhance the use of videos with students. All these things combined together for me have given me many ideas on how to use them in the near future as an educator.

References:

Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Ruiz, J. (2016, October 22). Strategies. Retrieved October 22, 2016, from https://www.powtoon.com/my-powtoons/#/

Ruiz, J. (2016, October 22). What would you use? Retrieved October 22, 2016, from https://magic.piktochart.com/output/17388471-what-would-you-use

Digital Post G

Digital Post #G

Differentiated Instruction as defined by the text is an instructional approach in which teachers create different educational experiences as ways to meet the learning needs of individual students (Gregory & Herndon, 2010; Tomlinson & and Imbeau). This is what got me I immediately thought this concept is great and has a lot of information. The different groups that are assigned to learn in differentiated ways are great examples of how to keep the student engaged and allowing them to do different activities with partners, groups, or the teacher. Another great concept of differentiated instruction is how student learning differences rise in four different areas:

• Readiness. How students' prior expenses have prepared them to learn academic material
• Interest. How curious or committed students are to learning what is being taught in school.
• Learning profile. How students learn best in formal and informal situations.
• Affect. How students regard themselves as learners, and how students regard the school as a place to learn.

Although this concept has a lot of information the only problem would be the challenges the teachers and students face because there is not enough time to accommodate every single student such as special needs, English learning students, or gifted and talented. Differentiating activities is only a way to engage the student and helping all students participate in class. It is not the best way but it is one step to keep the students minds learning while in the classroom.

Universal design for learning (UDL) was another great concept for me because it is like defines multiple ways to represent, express, and engage students. UDL emphasizes instructional goals, strategies, and materials so that almost every student to increase students leaning opportunities. The example the book uses was for a hearing impaired student that thanks to a powerpoint the student was able to see and read the definition of the vocabulary words this also being a great way to help other students because they also read and saw the material not just hear it. UDL is applying different ways to learn information, provide different ways of showing what they know, and increase their motivation. This is great for the students because all students learn differently and changing the learning situations can increase learning.

Multicultural education in the 21st century, had a lot of great information on diversity which is now seen more and more in schools. The best concept I have read because it gives credit to the all the people it makes the people one person it does not define race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality; what it is doing it is presenting the opportunity of multicultural education in different ways. It contains great resources for the teachers such as how to integrate the stories and histories of multiple people into every subject area. The students learn how to connect their school assignments with issues and concerns they are experiencing in their own lives. This sample lesson plan on multicultural education is great example of a lesson for diverse students. Multicultural education has grown quite a bit and with that has came the use of technology more than before with student's being able to research their own cultures, language, and background through technology this concept by far has it all to help the delivery and enhance the learning of the multicultural children of the 21st century.




Resources:
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc

Education, A. (2015, January 30). Using differentiated Instruction to support all learners. Retrieved October 14, 2016.

Institue, T. E. (n.d.). Multicultural education online. Retrieved October 15, 2016 from teacher education institute

Ruiz, J. (2016, October 14). UDL 222. Retrieved October 14, 2016, from https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/fgf3UKjRtWx/?mode=movie#/

Blog Post #E

Blog Post E

Teaching problem solving with computers something that was not completely established when I attended school. Computers were used by some teachers, but we learned through the board, books, and each other. This chapter showed me a different view in problem solving and how computers can be an awesome tool for teaching problem solving to the students. Problem solving through computers will basically be what us as teachers assign. As the book states there as software programs, apps, learning games, and intelligent tutoring programs which will all provide students with challenging problems to solve (Maloy et al, p106).  This is something that I will definitely will love to try as a future educator because it may help the students engage and enjoy more while using a new concept of problem solving through computers.




                   Creative commons credit to By: Lucélia Ribeiro(flicker)

Higher-Order and Lower-Order thinking is something that I experienced for myself when I was a seventh grader and having gone through this is why I can relate to this very well. Lower-order thinking is basically just learning how to spell vocabulary words for a test or quiz. Higher-order thinking is learning how spell the word its definition and then write an essay using all these words with the correct meaning. I had to do the higher-order thinking because I was placed in a ESOL class for English learning students and this is one of the best things that has happened to me because although I was in that class by mistake it was a challenge to me to do all this and I was able to expand my vocabulary by the end of the year. When this happened to me computers and gamification were not used as much. In this chapter I learned that " to successfully promote higher-order thinking, a game should earn a score of between 15 to 20 points on the rubric created by John Rice, meaning higher-order thinking features are consistently present" (Maloy et al p, 162). If I would have been challenged in my time with a game instead of a full definition and essay I think the different opportunities of the game would have helped me getting a passing score on the rubric.

Online Software selection resources for teachers which was such a big help for me as a college student. This concept I think is very important and something that we should be aware because it is very helpful. They have edudemic directory which offers reviews on technology resources such as laptops, cell phones, apps and more. Entertainment software rating board ( ESRB)  is an independent evaluation group that assesses and rates new pieces of software a year. Evalutech a free review service for teacher and families it offers more 10,000 software and print resources for k-12 teaching. Stopbadware.org is a software watchdog whose goal is to identify destructive software (Maloy et al p, 164). This resources I had never heard of before reading this chapter and I they would be very useul because as a teacher you will always have many thing on your computer specially in this era of technology.


Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Creative commons credit to flicker retrieved October 1, 2016 from flicker

Holmes, M. (2011, December 3). Blooms taxonomy. Retrieved October 1, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__YdXxwBZ7Q

Blog Post D

Blog Post #D

Internet information challenges and responses, is something that we have faced for a very long time and many of us probably did not notice. After reading the content in this chapter this was one of the main concepts that I found important to me. As a researcher I have never been good at finding credible and real information, until I started college where I learned about "data bases and search engines". Most of the information from outside sources such as google, yahoo, and Wikipedia can be misinformation, malformation, messed up information, or useless information or as the book states "what seems useless to one person maybe vitally important to another"(Maloy et al, p. 113). Although we have all of this in a regular high school they have certain restrictions on the way students research for projects and schools can manage and control strategies. Censorship, filtering software, labels, and critical reading which "Burbules and Callister refer to as "hyperreading" or "giving students the tools to identify, criticize, and resist what is dangerous and undesirable on the internet" (Maloy et al p.114).This concept all in all tells me that reading is the main key concept into finding the right information and getting the work done correctly whether the information is through technology or a hard cover book.

Plagiarism and cheating, are the most punishable acts of dishonesty that one can do while in school. This concept caught my attention because every professor has this on his/her syllabus. Many students plagiarize by assuming that they are putting someone else's thoughts into their own words just because the information was found freely on the internet. Cheating has become easier with the help of smart phones which can now easily take pictures while the teacher is not looking. In a survey that was done of "nearly 30,000 students in 100 schools nationwide 36% of high school students said they use internet to plagiarize an assignment" (Maloy et al p.119). This type of technology was not available to me while I was in high school and this concept just makes me thankful that I was able to learn the difference between someone else's work and research while already in college. Cheating on the other hand has only grown easier thanks to technology but it can be prevented through different test for or quizzes for every classroom.

Although plagiarism and cheating is something that might be done unintentional there are strategies for preventing both. Instructor's are using this webpage to verify the students work and be certain that students work was not plagiarized. As I mentioned earlier I never did research through technology before, but I have notice that many of my professor's use the same webpage to verify my own personal work. This chapter gives several services that schools can use to directly check work that was turned in by students. Cheating can also be preventing by letting students build their own answer to the questions the instructor is asking this in my point of view is excellent. By directly addressing the student to give you an answer which as the book states " when students are asked to locate information and analyze the material, they have fewer ready-made opportunities to copy other people's work" (Maloy et al p.120).  This is a great way to build students out of cheating because they know what kind of questions to expect in the future.

All in all, the internet has made it so much easier for students to find misleading wrong information. It has also created a way for students to plagiarize assuming that everything that is easy to find on the internet is free to use. Cheating has been made easier thanks to smart phone photographs and web access at high speed. Our goal as future educators is to teach our students how to use our resources the best way possible.

Resources:
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.


Ruiz, J. (2016, September 24). Plagiarism and cheatin. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from https://www.canva.com/design/DAB_s0tyPfI/AWqQIorsU_cs_sSQvsx18A/edit?utm_source=popup&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=bloggraphic&utm_campaign

Library, O. (2015, December 11). Evaluating information. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB60cBsPfng

In, T. I. (Fall). Turnitin. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://turnitin.com/