Final Blog Post of 2011: Reflections on Technology

Well, this semester I have used quite a bit of technology and learned a lot of new things about how to utilize it in the classroom. It has been rewarding and I have enjoyed the course a lot. Now, I feel confident that I can very easily go into a classroom and use technology to enhance my lessons and make them more enjoyable. Of course, the great instruction of Mrs. Mislevy certainly plays a role in that preparation. Not only I am well versed in the respective areas of basic software to SmartBoard technologies but also I can now create a website to showcase both my own and my student's work.

I am very pleased to have learned all of this knowledge and see as the only challenge choosing which items to incorporate and which to not in my classroom. It will probably be a trial and error period as to how I choose what to use. I will evaluate my teachings and have my students do that as well. Technology is very valuable in today's day and age and in the classroom it can make all the difference to a student understanding or not understanding an important course concept.

What's up with all these graphics?

I must say almost everything we learned in class about Photoshop was new to me. I had never worked with Photoshop before so it was a new experience to me. To be honest, I do not really like working with graphics a whole lot and just like to put pictures into a powerpoint and use them as a plain visual aid.

However, I do think it is important to learn. I can now certainly add to my web page in the future and enhance the visual stimuli for students to learn from. I believe  that it is important that I know how to use these skills. It is cool to be able to take a simple image and transform it into something that looks really neat and comprehensive. I can certainly make my website more appealing visually now because I have these skills.


I do not really think this should be taught in schools because I don't think outside of a possible computer science class it is very relevant. It is also very expensive to purchase the programs and there are schools who cannot necessarily afford them. It is important but I think it is advanced for students even in high school to learn and sometimes difficult to explain things. As a social studies teacher, I do not see the value for this in my curriculum. However, that is my opinion and if I was asked to instruct students on these skills, I would certainly explore it.

Copyright: It's Everywhere!

 Copyright for teachers is something all teachers must be aware of. We cannot just show things in class without proper permission or notifying the correct people. One may say: "Who's going to catch me?" However, I just would rather not take that chance at all. I learned that I need to have the rights to a video in order to show it and if I do not have an Elmo, cannot just copy pages as freely as I please out of a book. I knew copyright laws were strict but it did surprise me a little bit at how strict they actually were. Teachers really cannot freely do things as they please with regards to copyrighted works. No matter whether it is a small video clip or a full length movie, teachers need to make sure they follow all the copyright rules.

I have seen people in schools show things that I knew they did not have permission to do and even play music that they probably downloaded illegally. Out of school, illegal downloading happens all the time and I know that people have been caught before. Copyright violations are a serious issue that people do not take lightly at all. 

For my students, I will try and teach them what copyright is. I would like to do hands on activities where they are given a scenario and need to tell me whether it is copyright infringement or not. I think it is important that they know so they may protect themselves in the future. It is not always hard to not break copyright law but it is important that all aware of what they can and cannot do.

Lights, Camera, Action

What an experience it was to create a video for Ed Tech last week. My partner and I decided to make one about "How to Register Your Car on Campus." We used the Office of Public Safety to aid our message to new students as well as some good practical ingenuity to make a pretty nice video.

Several things worked well on this project. 1. We had a real clear idea as to what we were trying to accomplish and how we planned to accomplish it. 2. We understood how to use the equipment (after a short time) and did not have many technical difficulties with it. 3. We were able to focus and not lose any valuable time being distracted or anything like.

Some things I would change though in the future. I would certainly make sure that we used our first day to get a lot of footage rather than plan out the video. Additionally, I would make sure we did not have to cut most of the middle just to stay within our time limits. I would decide before going out to film what our definite plan was for the video rather than changing how we would introduce ourselves or even close it out once or twice. However, in spite of all of that, we put together a pretty nice video and I am going to take some skills away from it. I am proud of what I accomplished with Windows Movie Maker and the audio software. I feel I am proficient with both and can make my own movies now. I am not the biggest fan of videos but would possibly assign them in the future to a class.


Sample Video Project Lesson Plan

Grade Level: Grade 10
Course: American History
Content Area: 20th Century Events


Project Objectives: 
SW be able to identify the basic context of a specific significant event in the 20th Century U.S. History
SW analyze the causes and effects of each of the following events: World War I, World War II, The March on Washington, the Stock Market Crash and the Vietnam War
SW collaborate in groups to produce digital videos on a specific topic listed by the instructor



Preparation for teacher:
1. Reserve video equipment such as cameras, chargers, tapes and media lab to edit video
2. Practice video editing software techniques
3. Create handout for students for the project to follow with specific instructions and guidelines on how to use software, equipment and overall be successful on the project

Timeline
Monday
  -discuss project and assign students to group-Groups will pick a topic and write up a preliminary proposal on how they plan to portray the topic
Tuesday
   -Groups write out storyboard for project and submit to instructor for approval
Wednesday
   -Lab time to go over how Movie Maker and the other software needed works
Thursday
   -Begin filming and answer any final questions about software
Friday
   -Continue filming, editing and all of the above

Monday-Week 2
  -Finalize filming, editing and post to Youtube
  -Explain in class how to post and create Youtube accounts

Tuesday-Week 2
   -Show videos in class and discuss them
   -have students evaluate project

Checklist for Students
1. Does your video answer all of the questions in the packet?
2. Does your video fall within the time limit established by the instructor?
3. Does your video use transitions, sound and other techniques discussed in class?
4. Did you have fun with your video?

Challenges for the Project
1. Students having problems with AV equipment
2. Students not fully understanding directions-I need to make my guidelines as clear as possible

I think the project will work out well but I know it will be a lot of work on my part to make sure it is successful. That's all Folks!!

Smartboards Everywhere!

In classrooms these days, interactive whiteboards are all over the place. They present a new way to teach and a new way to convey information. Smartboards and are other technologies enhance teaching because now teachers can utilize many different manipulatives and mediums all on one technology. The interactive whiteboard allows teachers to combine the elements of the internet, Word, Excel and even aspects of Publisher all at the same time. However, although this technology is great, it is not always easy to learn to use. There are many specifics of it that I myself found challenging at times. It takes diligence and patience to succeed with the Smartboard. Not everyone wants to have that patience but I believe proficiency with an interactive whiteboard is essential to being a truly effective teacher.

Students nowadays need to be motivated to learn from external sources and the interactive whiteboard allows them to remain engaged and be a part of the lesson. The pros are numerous for one of these in the classroom: student participation, a multiple amount and a wide variety of materials at one's hand to use to teach and the ability to bring content from all over the place to one individual notebook page on the Smart software. Some cons, however are that the lesson can lose its importance if there are too many Smartboard gadgets and the like or that the students may expect there to always be something interactive and pressure is placed on the teacher to deliver. Just like Powerpoint, the Smartboard can create bad tendencies for a teacher such as looking at the screen rather than focusing on the class. If his back is turned to play with the Smartboard, he will miss waht is going on behind him, whether it be learning or not.

For myself, I wish I had known how to use this in the past. I would definitely had worked on creating Smartboard elements and the lesson activity toolkit specifically to use as class assessments each day. I think it is always a matter of balance between how much interaction to have versus straight up instruction. Every teacher must face that but there is no doubt that interactive whiteboards are an extremely valuable tool for classroom instruction.

Software Skills and Productivity

Throughout class over the last week, we have explored many different software applications and programs. I learned how to use Word in news ways, Publisher for the first time extensively and Inspiration.

It took a lot of time to learn the various skills associated with these programs, but I believe it was also very beneficial. I have now learned and practiced using the software effectively for both classroom instruction and teacher preparation. The most beneficial to me in the future I think will be learning how to organize tables better on word and Publisher skills. I plan to use a lot of table and text boxes when creating assessments in the future and I certainly think now that I know how to keep things organized now when I create something. I believe it is extremely crucial as a teacher to make sure everything handed out looks professional and well done. I knew how to do some things before, but now with the acquisition of these software skills, I can be even more proficient with my work.

Publisher also allows me to create works and make things interactive for both students and parents. I can have students create a newsletter to send to their parents or post things on the class web site that were created in publisher or word. These software programs make the lives of teachers that much easier and innovative both in and out of the classroom. Just as most things in the course have been valuable for the future, having these skills I believe makes me a better teacher already.

What's your Inspiration?

Inspiration is a great software for classrooms. Not only can a teacher or student create graphic organizers to represent a concept in the course of study, but also he can also move that concept map into Word and make it even more productive from there. I think it is an awesome tool and I would definitely invest in it for my classroom. As a social studies teacher, I am always looking for visual stimuli to keep my students interested and excited about learning. Additionally, as a future secondary education teacher and hopefully grades 9-12, I like to keep things challenging and enriching in the classroom. I believe that Inspiration helps me to accomplish both of those tasks.

That being said, here a few ideas of how I would like to incorporate Inspiration into my classroom.
1. Trace the causes of wars: specifically WWI and WWII
2. Explaining the branches of government
3. Describing the process of how a bill becomes a law
4. Explaining the characteristics of the multiple types of government
5. Explaining the U.S. system of checks and balances
6. Describing the phases of the French Revolution
7. Explaining the American Electoral system for the presidential election
8. Explaining the foreign, domestic and monetary policies of a particular president
9. Describing the three major world religions and their basic tenants/principles
10. Explaining the Circular Flow Model of Economics
11. Explaining the political spectrum in a particular era of history


In class, the web resources we have used have all been extremely helpful. In the past, I have found multiple resources to use but not some of the great databases that were introduced in class. My favorite are the NCLOR and UnitedStreaming. Once again, as a social studies teacher who may use several power points throughout my teaching it is great to be able to illustrate a point through a video clip. Unitedstreaming has a wealth of videos at hand that may be accessed and I plan on using them a lot both to stream and download. They also have links to PBS videos which is also wonderful and Frontline documentaries are one of my favorite sets of historical and informational classroom videos. My teachers in higher level classes showed them often and I plan to use them myself to add life to my classroom.

As for NCLOR, I absolutely love it. I found sites such as historyanimated.com from it that animates the movements and progression of troops in almost all majors wars in history. Also, from NCLOR, I found a huge multitude of lesson plans and classroom resources. The maps are found are phenomenal as well. I know that with these resources at hand, I can become an even greater teacher and add technological life to my classroom!