Reflecting on 505

I must admit I put this technology class off until the end of my time at Ashland University because I was slightly nervous about the content and I heard that it was going to be a great deal of work.  I wish I would have taken this class earlier in my graduate school career.  There was a great deal of work that went into this class, however it has also been one of the most practical classes that I have had while attending graduate school.  I have used my knowledge from this class several times this semester in other classes.  I have created a glog, used PowerPoint, and shared work on Googledocs several times this semester.  I see far reaching applications for many of the technology formats that we learned in this class.  I do have a slight reservation about over use of technology in the classroom.  It might be more of a suggestion than a reservation.  There is no doubt that our students will need technology knowledge in order to be successful in the twenty first century.  My only concern is that we prepare our students with the tools they need to be successful while using technology.  Preparing the human aspects of creativity, morals, and higher order thinking should be the foundations for our teaching while we introduce technology to our curriculum.   There is also the issue of safety when it comes to technology and young students.  Many of our assignments provided a platform for students to have access to the World Wide Web.  It is important for teachers to prepare their students for the world that is out there and how to use technology safely to enhance their learning experiences.

Googledocs and the classroom

Today's students are more technologically savvy than I am.  Their lives have been infused with cell phones, the Internet, and X-box live.  They communicate with one another and collaborate with one another in a very new way.  It has become imperative for teachers to adjust their teaching technique to this changing generation.  Through my technology class I have been exposed to many new forms of technology that have their place in today's physical or virtual classroom.  One of these has been the use of Googledocs.

I recently used Googledocs for a science class that I am currently enrolled.  My assignment was to work collaboratively with three other students on a presentation that would cover human fungal infections.  We all live in different areas of central Ohio and we all have extremely busy lives.  Googledocs allowed us a place to hold our PowerPoint presentation and for people to make comments on the groups progress.  It was easy to see that everyone was contributing to the project and that we were literally on the same page.

I can see Googledocs have a great impact on the classroom that I will enter someday.  Googledocs gives students a great tool for collaboration in many content areas.  All that is needed is access to the web and gmail email accounts that are free. Students can communicate and work in real time.  They do not have to wait until the next time they are in class or the next time they will see each other.  This technology also allows students to work with students in different time zones.  Why not collaborate with students on the other side of the world for a project?  Just remember to set good parameters about social media and putting your written word out in to the public world.

Really can't ask for help, when I don't have a clue how to ask.

So I am running in to technology problems while taking a technology class.  I am not a technology native and there is a whole new language that I have to learn.  Blog, Glog, URL, pdf., and rtf.  I am learning more vocabulary in this class than I am in my Language Arts classes.  Do not get me wrong I like the challenge and I am learning more than I could have imagined.  I find the tools that I am gaining will help me as a teacher in the future.  I will be able to communicate with my students who will be technology natives and prepare them for work in the Twenty-First Century.

Teaching using a blog is a great way to communicate with your students, parents, and other teachers.  The information that can be shared between these groups is vast and invaluable to a student who may not have learned as much from a more traditional form of an assignment.

Google Documents appears to have the ability to help teachers with time management.  If you are able to design assignments, quizzes, and homework for your students and it can be graded and the results are submitted to a spreadsheet, you can save some precious time.  It also gives you the opportunity to look at trends in your classroom that may help shape your future teaching and assignments.

The only draw back that I have experienced thus far with this process is that I do not learn well in this interactive world.  I am a traditional learner.  I like to be face to face with an instructor and able to ask real time questions.  I believe that communicating electronically can also be dangerous and has potential to cause problems.  We are not able to read peoples tones, inflections, and body language when we only communicate through electronic means.

I have a lot to learn and a lot to share. 

New Literacies

When I was in school we spent hours upon hours learning how to make our cursive letters look like the examples in front of us.  I remember students asking the teachers why it was so important for our handwriting to look the same.  They would usually answer with something about our handwriting needed to be legible.  Little did they know that my generation would proceed to turn our work in with word processors, laser printers, and later Google docs.  Who knows what the next generation is capable of?

I was recently in a curriculum meeting where the decision was made to no longer teach handwriting to third graders.  They would now concentrate on key boarding skills.  The students of today will be focusing on 21st Century skills.  I am on board with this decisions.  However, I won't get into the skills that might be lost when we no longer teach handwriting.    

I wanted to share an excerpt from a book I am reading.  I found it to be very pertinent for technology, reading, and writing in the 21st Century.  It comes from Content Area Reading Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum by Richard T. Vacca, Jo Anne L. Vacca, and Maryann Mraz. http://www.amazon.com/Content-Area-Reading-Literacy-Curriculum/dp/0205410316 

"Being a literate person in today's society involves more than being able to construct meaning from a printed text.  A literate person needs to be able to "read" and "write" and learn with texts that have multimodal elements such as print, graphic design, audio, video, and nonstop interaction.  In a twenty-first-century, media-driven society, a teacher needs to have at least a basic mastery of reading and writing using modes of communication that were previously left to the art, music, theater, and film teacher.  Reading and writing aren't just about print anymore, as we move from a page-dominated literacy to a screen-dominated literacy."

To be a relevant teacher, you have to stay relevant.  It is a never ending journey of knowledge and we need to model this for our students today so there tomorrow can be brighter and successful.

When did technology get away from me?

I have created this blog for a technology class requirement. In order to receive my teacher's licence next year, this requirement must be met.  I was supposed to take this class at the beginning of this journey and I wish I would have.  I was too afraid to admit that the technological advancements in education were far more advance since I was last in school.  I won't tell you how old I am, but I did not have an e-mail account in college and I had to walk to a computer lab to type, edit, and print my work.   My eyes have been opened to a whole new world of possibilities.  Students today are preparing for jobs and technologies that have not even been created.  It is going to be my job to prepare them for the 21st Century and provide them with the skills they will need to survive.  I will also need to demonstrate life long learning to my students.  I can easily say that I am learning a lot in this class.  I had no idea what a Glog was up unitl a week ago.  Here is my first attempt.  http://505glog.glogster.com/heathers-glog/ I might just be a little dangerous with this new knowledge.