Technology in Education

Here is our final project. We interviewed students from around the university about their thoughts of technology. Enjoy!

Reflecting on the Past and the Future

It seems like only days ago that we sat in this very room, for some of us for the first time and some experienced in the faculty. I began this class, I’ll admit, a little apprehensive and questioning how much technology can actually enhance a classroom but now today as we are in our final stretch I know that I would like to take back my previous thoughts. I feel that through this class I have gained the most knowledge that I can actually apply to my everyday teaching career. I will be able to enhance my lessons and encourage learning through the use of technology. Technology is a hands-on learning tool that helps visual and kinesthetic learners. It is an important part of classrooms today and many teachers are not using it to its full potential, however I have full intentions of using it within each classroom. By completing this class I am reminded that I am one step ahead of many current teachers because I have a whole collection of projects and tools to use. The most significant part of this class was considering the issues raised when one uses technology within a classroom. I now think that technology should not replace teachers, but more as a means of enhancing our lessons. This class was very helpful and I learned a great deal from it, I would highly recommend taking this class to anyone.

Slowing down…

School got so out of control unbearably unbearable. Everything was due at once and no one knew the stress you were under, especially the teachers. They did not care they were just trying to do their job too but did they all need to do it at once. After surviving the last two weeks and never want my students to undergo the same stress I hope to coordinate with other teachers and plan our schedules so that teacher do not purposely put that much stress on our students. I do not want to put that stress on anyone and I definitely do not anyone else to understand that stress, so I am going to prevent it. I will have you know that I am better now and school is finally slowly coming to an end. We only have one more EPS assignment, two more math assignments and only one more English essay. I cannot wait, in less than a month this “chunk” of stress will be over and I will be sitting on my couch watching One Tree Hill DVDs and going tobogganing with my brother. You are probably thinking I am way to old for that, but it is something I enjoy and I am going to do it anyways.

Tech Task #7

a) A wiki allows people to easily create a website with exactly what they want on it. It allows users to easily edit and link web pages. They are usually used to create a collaboration of websites. It is really simple to use and really simple to create.

b) Wikis could be used within the classroom to connect the world to your class and your class to the world. I would use a wiki to post a variety of websites that my classes could use to aid them with their math homework. I would have practice tests and quizes set up so that my students could practice on their math skills before a test or exam. I would make sure I posted the homework for each class, we have all forgotten to write down the assignment at some point. I would even keep a calendar with a list of important dates and reminders for each class. I would even have an area on my wiki for blogging. The students could ask their questions on the wiki and other students could respond to it and answer them. Students would also have a mark comprised of answering their peers on the wiki so that no question goes unanswered. When I am finished school I will be a secondary math teacher and I feel that a wiki would be very helpful for my students. And when my students are succeeding and learning, so am I, its a win-win situation.

Of the tools outlined in the wiki I choose voicethread.com as a very helpful classroom tool.

a)  Voicethread is a tool to create presentations using pictures, videos, and your own voice.  Basically you use your own voice clips to tell and explain a stroy based on the photo that is seen on the screen.  Students can upload photos from Flickr, Facebook or straight from your computer.  Then you can add your voice clips to each image and upload them to the site.  It is very quick and easy.

b)  Voicethread is a very helpful tool to be used within the classroom.  It can be used within each subject and grade level in some way.  For instance a grade three Language Arts class could each create their own story and bring it to life, where as a grade twelve biology class might use it to explain the process of mitosis.  This tool can also be used by the teacher as an aide to his or her lessons which would help explain the concept at hand to the class.  Without this tool students would only be able to create regular stories and this allows them to narrate and pause their own creations that they can eventually share with the world on the internet.  This goes beyond regular story telling because it allows students to also use their kinestetic and visual style of learning as well.  As a teacher I will surely use this tool within my classroom.

My First Day of School

Here is a picture of my partner and I on our way to our first day of interning in the “killer- THE GRANDMA KILLER aka my really old car”:

Interning

I am now moving in to my fifth week of interning. I now know the kid’s names pretty well and they are finally acting normal instead of misbehaving when I am there. They have realized that I am a ‘teacher’ too. I barely know these kids, I have no idea about their lives or family not even about their hopes and dreams. But yet I like each one of them and I have a special place in my heart for all of them. I care about them and I desperately want them to succeed. Will I be like this when I have my own class? Will I pick favorites? I hope not, but I have this quality about me that I fall in love with the kids that need my love, with the kids that are ‘different’, with the kids that don’t quite fit in, with the ones that need me. Will this be helpful within my classroom? I hope so because I want this care and compassion to help them and give them a desire to succeed. I know I will fall in love with each of my students but I have tremendous concern that I will fall more in love with the ‘different’ kids but I hope that the other ‘not different’ students can see the benefits of this.

Why me?

Last week was not a good one. I was doing very well as the first one to move away from home. In two months I had yet to miss home until last week it really hit me. And it hit me hard. Stress was everywhere I looked and everything I encountered, but why? Why did one test that I prepared myself really well for cause so much of it? Why did it make me miss home so much? I was afraid, scared, worried, and mostly alone. When I was at home my mom and I were good ‘buds’, we faught occasionally, and when we did it wasn’t usually fun, but in the end she was always there for me. Now that I am here I have lost that secureness and the ability to ask for help and get it right away. I have lost my momma, but not the way my momma lost her momma when my momma was my age (that was a tongue twister in a way) I didn’t have a good week, I ended up having to phone my mom every night in tears. This weekend I wish to travel home to see her. I am not going home for the long weekend and won’t be able to see her then so I need to go this weekend. I miss my mom and lil’ bro, not to forget my baby (for those of you not keeping up with my blog I am not a mother, I have a cat I refer to as my baby)

Keep your stick on the ice!!!

Grad

Here are the videos that our class had at our grad ceremonies:

21st Century PowerPoint

Today in ECMP we began to use this free program that is offered on the internet. It is such a neat tool and could be used in any classroom to tell stories to students or even offer them todays lesson that they missed. It is so easy to use and could potentially help students in so many ways. Even your students could use this within a classroom. Kids could use their imagination and create their own virtual story on the internet. That way the students could share their stories with everyone, such as grandparents and parents, aunts and uncles along with friends and neighbors. Students will enjoy creating stories on the computer because it is much more interesting than the traditional way of pencil and paper. This magical tool is available at no charge to anyone, you just need an account and it can be found at voicethread.com I highly recommend using this tool within your classroom.

PowerPoint

When I was in school, like back in the day (just kidding, I just graduated), PowerPoint was a cool tool that your teacher let you use if she was being nice. you used it basically to put up your entire presentation on the wall, bore all of your classmates including your teacher and never really new how to make it better. But now that we are using it in ECMP, when I am a little older and a little wiser plus a lot more interesting, we are doing things with PowerPoint I should have been doing years ago. For instance, timing the slides so that you don’t have to click every single item onto the page, not putting the entire presentation on each slide and beefing it up with sound and pictures. Now I know how to use PowerPoint to explain lessons, make presentations to the public and even teach my students how to use it. Thank you ECMP for not embarrassing me in my future career.