Thursday, July 31, 2008
Web 2.0- Photo Sharing/Journal 4
After looking at the discussions about photo sharing I discovered many new ways to share your photos with family members and the public. Before reading these posts I had only been familiar with the Webshots website which is pretty limiting in terms of posting photos and sharing them with people you know. Animoto is a website that allows you to make your own video slideshow and add music to your pictures. Not only can you upload photos, but you can also add effects to them just like the tools in the imovie software. One teacher commented on this software program stating that her students had already been using Photobucket, a program similar to Webshots, and she found the students were not being creative enough. The website is free for small shows, but larger ones cost more. I think that this tool would be great to use in the classroom because my students would be able to add so much more to their presentations and photos in front of the class.
After looking at the discussions about photo sharing I discovered many new ways to share your photos with family members and the public. Before reading these posts I had only been familiar with the Webshots website which is pretty limiting in terms of posting photos and sharing them with people you know. Animoto is a website that allows you to make your own video slideshow and add music to your pictures. Not only can you upload photos, but you can also add effects to them just like the tools in the imovie software. One teacher commented on this software program stating that her students had already been using Photobucket, a program similar to Webshots, and she found the students were not being creative enough. The website is free for small shows, but larger ones cost more. I think that this tool would be great to use in the classroom because my students would be able to add so much more to their presentations and photos in front of the class.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Journal 2
McFarlane, Sarah H. (2008). The laptops are coming! the laptops are coming!. Rethinking School Online, 22 No 4, Retrieved July 17, 2008, from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/22_04/lapt224.shtml
In this article a high school teacher, Sarah McFarlane, talks about her experience with technology in her classroom. When her “exurb” school received a grant for technology her classroom transformed into a media and digital rich environment. Assignments were being done online and students were engaging in online discussions. At first Ms. McFarlane was thrilled to see this advancement in education take place, but with time she also saw her class and her working environment transforming negatively. Her students were not interacting with each other at class parties, her staff development time was allocated primarily for technological discussions, and she saw an overall decrease in student- teacher connections throughout the school year. After looking at the positives’ and negatives of integrating a vast amount of technology into the classroom, Sarah McFarlane realized that there has to be consideration of issues such as social justice when considering the addition of laptops and technology to the classroom. Without realizing it, educators can potentially include or exclude a group based on the use of computers in the classroom. Instead of letting technology take control of them, Ms. McFarlane feels that students must “see themselves as controllers of technology, able to use it to help build the world they want to see”.
How will I incorporate the use of technology with ALL of my students, including those who are learning the English language?
-I am planning on teaching in a bilingual classroom, so this will definitely be a challenging issue for me as a teacher. I can only say that I will make every effort to develop lessons and assignments that involve students on all levels when it comes to computer-use. In order for my ELL students to better grasp the material I will try to provide audio recordings of the presentations I post online or wherever.
Should there be a limit on student- computer use in the classroom?
-Absolutely. When Ms. McFarlane was re-telling the occurrence of her students on their laptops while others were sharing a personal experience I was appalled. In addition to providing an education for children, I think the main purpose of schooling is to promote respectful and healthy social interactions from our students. There are many times when technology seems to be leading us off that course, in the situation stated above for example. In my future classroom I will use computers to enhance student- learning not as a way to escape or disconnect from the classroom.
In this article a high school teacher, Sarah McFarlane, talks about her experience with technology in her classroom. When her “exurb” school received a grant for technology her classroom transformed into a media and digital rich environment. Assignments were being done online and students were engaging in online discussions. At first Ms. McFarlane was thrilled to see this advancement in education take place, but with time she also saw her class and her working environment transforming negatively. Her students were not interacting with each other at class parties, her staff development time was allocated primarily for technological discussions, and she saw an overall decrease in student- teacher connections throughout the school year. After looking at the positives’ and negatives of integrating a vast amount of technology into the classroom, Sarah McFarlane realized that there has to be consideration of issues such as social justice when considering the addition of laptops and technology to the classroom. Without realizing it, educators can potentially include or exclude a group based on the use of computers in the classroom. Instead of letting technology take control of them, Ms. McFarlane feels that students must “see themselves as controllers of technology, able to use it to help build the world they want to see”.
How will I incorporate the use of technology with ALL of my students, including those who are learning the English language?
-I am planning on teaching in a bilingual classroom, so this will definitely be a challenging issue for me as a teacher. I can only say that I will make every effort to develop lessons and assignments that involve students on all levels when it comes to computer-use. In order for my ELL students to better grasp the material I will try to provide audio recordings of the presentations I post online or wherever.
Should there be a limit on student- computer use in the classroom?
-Absolutely. When Ms. McFarlane was re-telling the occurrence of her students on their laptops while others were sharing a personal experience I was appalled. In addition to providing an education for children, I think the main purpose of schooling is to promote respectful and healthy social interactions from our students. There are many times when technology seems to be leading us off that course, in the situation stated above for example. In my future classroom I will use computers to enhance student- learning not as a way to escape or disconnect from the classroom.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Journal 1
Shifflet, R (June-July2008). Extreme Makeover: Updating Class Activities for the 21st Century. Learning & Leading with Technology, Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjheil65.googlepages.com%2FJournal1.pdf&images=yes
This journal article was good to start off with because it gave us an intensive overview of web-based tools that we can use in our future classrooms and for future assignments in this class. I think the best thing about teaching lessons and introducing assignments via the Internet is that students and teachers can share information with other classmates, classes, schools, etc. I can already see the benefits from websites like U-tube, Blogger and Delicious because my stepmother, a high school Spanish teacher, is currently using them. In order to plan for her A.P. course next year, she has accessed these various websites in order to collaborate with fellow teachers in the district as well as view other teacher’s lesson plans all over the country. After gathering all of this information she has been able to condense all of the class resources into a webpage that her students can access. While reading this article I could picture all of the tools my Step mom has been using and how accessible they all are. I think that I will use tools like Zoho writer in my classroom because it encourages students to be extra creative and thorough. As incentive I think I would choose two or three essays from my class to post publicly on our class blog or class website. I also like that fact that this application stores and saves all of the student’s writing so that I don’t have to keep so many files in my class that take up space.
How will I cater to my students who do not have Internet access at home?
-I think I can include these students by giving them the option to use the computer lab on campus or the in-class computers in class while the rest of the class is working on an in-class assignment.
How will I incorporate the technology mentioned in the article if I am teaching a lower grade like kindergarten or first grade?
-I think I can use technology to benefit my kindergartners and first graders by incorporating online presentations or videos found on websites like Flickr. Although my younger students may not be able to publish their own writing they will at least be familiar with what online resources look like and be able to access thee presentations with their parents at home.
This journal article was good to start off with because it gave us an intensive overview of web-based tools that we can use in our future classrooms and for future assignments in this class. I think the best thing about teaching lessons and introducing assignments via the Internet is that students and teachers can share information with other classmates, classes, schools, etc. I can already see the benefits from websites like U-tube, Blogger and Delicious because my stepmother, a high school Spanish teacher, is currently using them. In order to plan for her A.P. course next year, she has accessed these various websites in order to collaborate with fellow teachers in the district as well as view other teacher’s lesson plans all over the country. After gathering all of this information she has been able to condense all of the class resources into a webpage that her students can access. While reading this article I could picture all of the tools my Step mom has been using and how accessible they all are. I think that I will use tools like Zoho writer in my classroom because it encourages students to be extra creative and thorough. As incentive I think I would choose two or three essays from my class to post publicly on our class blog or class website. I also like that fact that this application stores and saves all of the student’s writing so that I don’t have to keep so many files in my class that take up space.
How will I cater to my students who do not have Internet access at home?
-I think I can include these students by giving them the option to use the computer lab on campus or the in-class computers in class while the rest of the class is working on an in-class assignment.
How will I incorporate the technology mentioned in the article if I am teaching a lower grade like kindergarten or first grade?
-I think I can use technology to benefit my kindergartners and first graders by incorporating online presentations or videos found on websites like Flickr. Although my younger students may not be able to publish their own writing they will at least be familiar with what online resources look like and be able to access thee presentations with their parents at home.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Introductory Letter of Katy Jones
Hello, My name is Katy Jones and I am 21 years old. I grew up in various parts of the North County area in San Diego and live here currently. I attended Lake Elementary School in Vista, Valley Junior High in Carlsbad, and Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego. I am both a Liberal Studies and Spanish major with a minor in Linguistics at Cal State San Marcos and will be finished this Fall. Afterwards, I will apply to the credential program in the Spring. I wanted to leave my home town of San Diego, so I spent my junior year studying abroad in Madrid, Spain. I fell in love with the Spanish culture and desperately want to move back to Spain again someday.
I wouldn't consider myself technologically savvy, but I am relatively familiar with applications like the Internet, E-mail,PowerPoint, etc. I am much more comfortable when using a PC, but I am becoming more confident navigating with a Mac. I depend on technology quite often, but I actually wish that I had better access through the use of a personal laptop. I'm hoping to get one after graduating. I believe that on my PC at home I am using a 2006 version of Microsoft Office.
The mission statement was not a deciding factor in my decision to attend Cal State San Marcos, but I did attend this University because of the outstanding reputation of the teaching credential program. The portion of the mission statement that most speaks to me is the sentence reading: "Our practices demonstrate a commitment to student-centered education [and] diversity". I am planning on teaching in a bilingual classroom, so diversity and cross cultural exploration will be very important components in my future classroom (s). I think that teachers have done a successful job when their students independently reach out to others who are unlike themselves and make connections with their peers.
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