Reflective Post...

It never fails that when the start of a new semester comes around, we always seem to think that the end of that semester is eons away. In actuality when you start getting into the class and doing all the work it involves you start realize how close and how fast the end is.

When I first started this course, I honestly thought I was going to be learning about technologies that teachers used in their classrooms on a day to day basis. Now you might say well some teachers do use what we learned in Intro to Tech every day. True, but I thought that we going to learn about projectors and Mimio boards, not the vast array of technology that we now know how to use. Before coming into this class I would've never imagined that I’d be making my own teacher page or that I’d make my own digital story or even knew what WikiSpaces was. Being in Intro to Tech has opened my eyes to a world of technology and way on how to implement that tech in my future classroom. It has also taught me not to be scared of technology. Just everything else in the world technology can be good or bad it just depends on how you use it. There are so many ways that technology can help your students learn or help students get engaged and hooked on what is being taught. For example, doing a collaborative project with students like the Wiki we had to do. That project helped encourage teamwork and helped, me at least, talk to and get to know other classmates.  Another great resource (that I thoroughly enjoyed) was the “Poll Everywhere” site. Many schools have a “No Cellphone” policy, but why? If students like to be on their phones and let’s face it so do some teachers, why not use that to our advantage. You could have you students take a poll at the beginning of class to see what their prior knowledge about topic is, then lecture or even watch a video, have them take another poll, and start a discussion from their poll answers. They’d be learning without even realizing it. Another resource I found that would work great in a classroom was having students setting up their own blog. Any student can write a summary about what he/she read in a chapter and then answer some questions, but when a student knows that what they write is out there for everyone to see, literally, then they take much more pride in what they say. I also enjoyed the website that were given to us as tools such as Delicious.com and FreeRice.com How many times can you honestly say that you come across a cool website and want to tell your friend or whoever but can’t recall the name and say “I book marked it on my computer”. Well with Delicious you can retrieve your bookmarks anywhere.  Overall, I can say that I really enjoyed the class and yes the work is a lot but it’s well worth it. I think maybe if the journal posts weren’t due at the same time that a big project was due, like the lesson plan or the Webquest, it’d be easier and less stressful. But again, all the work that you do in this class isn’t busy work, its work that helps you practice whatever new technology you’re learning.

Chapter 11: Engaging Students in Performance Assessments and Reflective Learning

Focus question: How can students and teachers use digital portfolios as tools for learning?


Answer: Both teachers and students can use their digital portfolio as a learning tool by going back through their portfolio and reflecting. Reflection is a process of self assessment in which the learner  examines past actions to see what to keep or change. Whether you are an "old" teacher who has been teaching for many years or a new teacher, a portfolio (digital or not) can help you see how much you've grown and changed. The good thing about digital portfolios is that you can store all your accomplishments online and chances are that you'll never loose them, especially is you use apps like "iLife" and "TaskStream".  Students who are going for any type of career goal can use portfolios as well to keep a record of all their accomplishments either for a certain class or just because they want to see their progression during their time in school.



In this chapter we talked about, exploring the possibility of using student participation systems as learning assessments. Participation actively engaged students in whatever content is being taught at the current time. This can allow the teachers to conduct quick assessments to see whether or not his/hers students have grasped the concept. One example the book gave was classrooms using Clickers. Clicker have many advantages including real time feedback, they encourage active learning, and promote student involvement. In the chapter it was also discussed how involving students in the process of their performance evaluation and in the process of "how to teach" a certain concept can help a student be more engaged in learning. Just because a student is involved in the decision making does not mean they are in control. Teacher would still be responsible fro delivering the curriculum and assessing said curriculum but how learning happens and how evaluation happens would be formulated through honest discussions, debate, and decision- making between students and teachers. Such mentality is found in Democratic School and Classrooms. In these types of classrooms students take responsibility fro making decision about classroom rules, themes for study and how they set personal goals and document their progress. A great way of documenting progress is by creating an e-portfolio or a digital portfolio. By creating such portfolios students can access them anywhere, they would be more portable than regular paper portfolios, and they can enhance a student's computer skills. There are some drawbacks like users needing to be computer savvy, or some students may not get feedback from their classmates or readers, and some students may spend more time on the aesthetics of their portfolio than actually highlighting their work. Portfolios can be another way for educators to asses students and their work. Teacher can also use online surveys to preassess what students know about a certain topic. Websites like "Zoomerang" or "Surveymonkey" are great tools, or to incorporate technology in the classroom a teacher can use an app like "Poll Everywhere" where students can text in their answers. Assessments will always be central to a teachers line of work, whether it's your supervisors assessing you or you assessing your students.

                                                  Photo credit to Wesley Fryer via Flickr
                                                  **example of a Poll Everywhere poll.

Chapter 10: Promoting Success For All Students Through Technology

 ¿¿ How can technology engage and inspire learning for diverse students??

Technology helps diverse learners by breaking the boundary that may "separate" or "alienate" students from their peers in the classroom. Technology makes it easier for students to participate in learning by helping make connections from what is being taught in the classroom to the "real world" or a student's life outside the classroom. Therefore making learning more interesting and relatable. It also allows for events in history to be seen in a new light. Students from other countries may find our history boring or any history for that matter, especially if seen through a standard textbook.But if students were to see actual footage of lets say Pearl Harbor or the Iraq war, history is then seen in a new light which keeps students engaged. Creating class websites and blogs, doing research and projects collaboratively is another way technology helps bridge the racial, gender, and language gap amongst students. A great example of a group project would be having students use Goggle Docs to do a research paper. Google has a program similar to Word that allows you to see what all the people in your group type and add to the paper. What better way to get everyone to work together.

Photo Credit to Dell

A child with Autism using the Accent 1000 to communicate

Chapter 10 talked about the many ways that technology can promote success for any and all types of students. Everyone thinks of technology as just computer where you can type of a research paper or create a PowerPoint presentation but technology has become way more than that. Beginning with students with disabilities, assistive technology has come a long way. From text reading software, speech recognition software, and interactive electronic storybooks are ways that even a child with a disability can learn. Even if students do not posses any type of disability, technology can still do wonders. For example all through school you are taught about "Main Idea", word cloud can help those students who don't fully grasp the concept of main idea or are struggling to find it by showing them the words that appear most often in a given text. The use of word clouds, handheld dictionaries, Google Earth, virtual field trips are all examples of having and implementing a universally designed classroom. Universally designed classroom are great because they  change the way the curriculum is delivered. Implementing UDL (universally designed learning) keeps students constantly engaged, especially among students with different learning intelligences.

....I like the song in the background :)