Personal Learning Reflection

Throughout the CEP 810 course I learned a lot about technology in education.  Someone could go overboard on integrating technology into education, but that does not mean it is all effective.  In order to be effective in teaching with technology, I believe that there needs to be a mix of different medias used so that students do not get bored.  I also think that students need to be able to interact with the technology so that they can learn by "doing."

Integrating the Internet has helped me to think about uses of technology in a few different ways.  For one, I had never been introduced to blogging in an educational setting prior to this course.  I had no idea that there were students who wrote blogs that related to school topics and that other students would follow the blogs and respond to them.  I had also never thought of Wikis as anything other than a resource to answer a question that I needed answered.  It had never occurred to me that students could create them and add to them, nor did I even really know what they were.  The RSS feed on Google Reader has also helped me.  This was not a tool that I ever knew about before this class, but have found it useful to keep up with readings that I could often not even find.  Reading other people's blogs and some of these articles has helped me to add new ideas to my repertoire of teaching tools.

Of all the assignments that I have turned in, I feel that the Prezi I created with my group member has best exemplified good teaching with technology.  In this presentation, we proved that we could use a new tool to create a presentation to teach a topic.  Not only did we use this new tool to get the message across, but we also proved that we have been using the SMARTBoard to engage our students in learning in the classroom.  We showed the various ways that our students interacted with the technology to learn new material.

At the start of this course, I had set some goals for myself.  So far I have not used Google Docs in the classroom, but I have definitely begun to use the SMARTBoard.  I have found resources for interactive games that students absolutely love, and have done lessons that go with our writing plan.  In writing, we read a non fiction text to students, then students came up with sentences about "How Animals Use Their Ears." I wrote their statements on the SMARTBoard and printed the notes out for each of them.  Once they had a copy of all our sentences, we went through and crossed out what we didn't need, put some together that had similar content, and finally, wrote an organized paragraph.  Because I could write on the board, show the work of crossing out what wasn't needed, and then add writing where needed, the students got a great handle on the concept we were trying to teach.

I am still working on the goals I set back at the start of the class.  I would like to keep growing and learning as an educator and plan to do so by taking the next two courses in the MSU program.  Another way I plan to grow as an educator is by keeping up with my RSS feed and contributing to threads on Twitter. I have already learned so much and can't imagine what else I will gain in the courses I take and am excited to use the tools that I have been introduced to.

PC Maintenance and Security

I watched a few tutorials about PC Maintenance and Security on the Atomic Learning site and I'm posting my findings below.

The first tutorial I watched was titled "Using Firewalls."  I learned that if you have a wireless Internet connection, you will need both a hardware firewall and a software firewall.  One thing I'd like to share with others is a protection agent called Zone Alarm.  There is a free version of this available and the free version is enough protection for most systems.  What most surprised me was that hardware firewalls don't block spam emails and they don't stop me from spreading viruses.  I need to take precaution and start protecting myself better.

The second tutorial I watched was called "Making Emails Safer."  Recently I was made aware that my email sent out a "spam" email to most of my contacts.  I have never had this problem before and was extremely interested in how I could stop this from happening again.  It is worth sharing with others that there is a program called "Mailwasher" that can be downloaded free and will help prevent the problems with spam emails.  I was surprised to find that there are so many options in setting up an email account (on hotmail, gmail, or yahoo) that allow you to better protect yourself.  After watching the first video in this series of tutorials, I went right to my hotmail account and changed my settings.

The third tutorial I watched was "Helpful Website Resources."  I am always looking for resources that will help educate me in one way or another.  I can honestly say that I have never "googled" or searched for websites that will help give your computer a "tune-up."  I would like to share the website "PC Pitstop."  On this site, you will be able to give your PC a tune-up.  It will give a status on your computer in comparison with others who have similar systems as you.  Also, you can go to Gizmo Richards' Tech Support Alert and get free tools to help make your computer safer.  It surprised me that there are so many different free options out there to help keep your PC secure.

RSS

This is a screen shot of my Google Reader subscriptions.  As you can see, I have tried to organize my subscriptions into folders based on the content of each one, but it is still a work in progress.  I use the RSS Reader to follow different articles from various sites and professional organizations, blogs, radio shows, and online journals.  At first it was very difficult for me to spend the time sorting through the new items that flooded my feed each day.  To be honest, I forgot about the RSS Reader for about a week once I got it set up in class.  When I logged back in at the end of the week, I had a better attitude towards using it (probably because I wasn't on "overload" from sitting in class all day) and found that it was actually a great learning tool.  

So far, I've enjoyed reading the blog postings and responses to the "Latest Activity on SMARTBoard Revolution" subscription I am following.  I have noticed that people are posting questions and responses rather quickly, and everyday; while other blogs, like the Fountas and Pinnell blog, have not seen new posts for a few weeks now.  I have also really enjoyed the articles from the "Creating Lifelong Learners" subscription.  I specifically liked (and starred) the article titled "Six Ways Teachers Can Improve Education This Year."

Although it has only been about 3-4 weeks since I set up my RSS Reader, I have been able to learn a thing or two from my subscriptions.  One of my favorite postings in "Techlearning" was "Top 25 Sites From 2010" by David Kapuler.  It included a lot of really great sites for teachers to use in their classroom or as a resource.  I have joined the "We are Teachers" social network (#25 on Kapuler's list) and spent some time looking through the various topics the site contains and will definitely put it on my list of "go to" sites.

Keeping up to date with the newest trends in education and technology is not an easy task.  However, using my RSS Reader has already been able to help me in this area.  I am definitely more knowledgeable about ways to incorporate technology into my classroom.  I actually feel like I am a better teacher because I've stepped outside of my "box" and chosen one of the many ideas I've read about to start in my classroom soon.  The first goal on my list is to establish a blog for my classroom that will allow my students to connect with others and share their learning.  There is so much positive feedback from teachers who have introduced this into their classrooms and I would like to try it myself.  

Creative Commons

Photo Attribution:

Original Image: "Baby Pig"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ariels_photos/2986028657/sizes/s/
By: Ariel Waldman
Released under an Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

I often use images from the web to put into documents that I am sending home (so they look pretty, of course), or to spruce up the Power Point presentations that I use to teach from.  I often pull up pictures that I can paste next to text for the students that are not able to read all the words.  The images help me to reach all learners. I chose an image of a pig because my class recently went to the farm and they absolutely LOVED the baby pigs.  I thought I could use this image when I am showing students how to make a life cycle.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ckzgws3nJZ7ySZUPccvaBQ?feat=directlink
The link posted above will take you to a picture that I uploaded to Picasa and includes the Creative Commons license.

Social Networking

After exploring the numerous social networks available, I am completely shocked that this many exist.  I explored and joined the MSUEduTech Group on MACUL Space and have started to "Tweet" on Twitter... which I never had ANY interest in.  I can definitely see the advantages of using Twitter to connect with others out in the education technology world.  After learning the lingo, it was simple to search for threads related to SMARTBoard technology or the MAET program.  I was most surprised to see that people are "tweeting" valuable thoughts and information, even giving links to useful resources.  I am confident that Twitter will be a new resource for me as well.  I am training myself to go to Twitter first, asking for any tips on "blank," before doing the typical Google search.  I know that there will be hundreds of people who can help with whatever it is I am looking for.

I have also been reading articles and blogs about elementary students using social networks as a tool for learning in school.  WOW!  After reading Michelle R. Davis's "Social Networking Goes to School," I can see how beneficial it can be for children to connect with each other about topics that they are learning in school.  Children always learn better when they can apply what they are learning to "real world" situations.  By participating in a blog or even a micro-blog like Twitter, students are able to converse about topics related to their Social Studies or Science curriculum in a meaningful way.  They can even ask for help or give tips on specific math concepts, not to mention that they will be boosting reading and writing skills in the process.  I think that social networking in school is going to be the newest component of the many teaching strategies I already use.

Getting Things Done

Not only is this GTD "stuff" good, but I can't believe I had never heard about it before.  I am someone who  likes to keep organized and for the most part I do a good job of it.  However, when it comes to the papers and planning in my classroom... whoa!
1. At first I decided I would use my computer where I could create folders and lists.  I soon realized that if I don't have my computer with me, then I won't be able to access my in box.  Next, I looked through my blackberry to see if it would be useful, but still was not doing the trick.  It was when I got the paper and pencil going that I could see my organization a little clearer.  I made an "in box" for student work (that needs correcting), another "inbox" for the work I need to do with this class, and finally one for emails that need follow up (if I can't answer them right away- which I always try to do.)

2. It was not as easy as I thought to go through this process the first time.  I am on auto-pilot with so many tasks that I realized I probably make way more stress and work for myself than needed.  I had to be very consciences about all things that I had to do.  At first this made me more stressed out because I was using a system that I am not used to, but when I realized I never had a system to begin with I started to give it a chance.

3. I do think that this process will help me eventually.  Right now it is still kind of stressful since I'm learning a new way of doing something, but I can see that down the road I will feel much better about using it and it will become a natural way of organizing and completing tasks.

4. I would like to continue to use this process for a couple of reasons.  One, I realized that I do not have a good way to manage all of my tasks, so this way is better than no way.  Also, I like to try new things and this is something that could become extremely useful when used correctly.  I would like to give myself some more time to play around with the GTD process.

Websites vs. Blogs

Simply said, a website is a place that holds information in a more permanent fashion.  You may reference a website day after day and the information will probably be the same.  A blog is ever changing based on the conversations had by the blog owner and it's readers.  The owner and readers are able to converse back and forth about a given topic.  On a typical website there is not usually an option to correspond in such a fashion.