How can we help students learn

We can help students learn by motivating them and encouraging them to seek new ideas and information. We need to present students with materials that are challenging to them and that are relevant to their life. When we relate our lesson plans to the real world we encourage students to becaome more involved in their learning experience. Students are better able to contribute to lessons because it is something that they use in real life. When students contribute to their lessons this gives the opportunity for other students to learn from their peers which can add a different dynamic to lessons and oppen up new opportunities for learning. Students will retain more information about what they do than what they here so creating interactive lesson plans will ultimatley help students not only to learn but to retain the information and use it in the future.

Digital Nation

The video digital nation brings up some very serious concerns regarding how technology will affect today's youth. I completely agree that we need to take a better look at what all of this digital media is doing to our children's minds. I have always worried overuse of technology causing over stimulation and a constant need for instant gratification for all people not just children. However, I also feel as though we have created a world where students must be accustomed to do these types of things. How can we tell students not to multitask on the computer when they will grow up in a world where things like multitasking are essential to getting their job done and living their life. I know very few successful people who sit at a desk all day and focus on one thing.
I was interested in the comments about teachers noticing how students writing has changed from long drawn out thoughts to short paragraphs of changing thought. At first this worried me a little, but then as I began to think about it,I realized that the reason that their writing is changing is because they are adapting to the world they are living in. They are living in a faster paced society. Nobody focuses on one thing for very long anymore. People need to get to the point in as few words as possible because there is not enough time to sit and concentrate on one thing for long. So although it is definetly a different way of writing, I don't nessecarily think it is a bad thing. My question is there a need for the old way of writing which was brought about in a much slower world where people had time to follow long drawn out thought processes, or should we focus on preparing their minds for a much faster paced future. The potential loss of traditional writing is still sad but we cannot lose sight of the fact that we are preparing our students for the future not the past.

Growing up online

A couple of things struck me about the video growing up online. For one thing it is completley apparent that children are now completely engulfed in technology from the moment they wake up in the morning. This is a scary thing for most adults because it is new to them. It is natural for us to resist it, and to fear the worst. Throughout history with every new advancemet and invention there was fear that it was going to disrupt society or cause harm to our youth. I prefer to look at the positive side of kids growing up with technology. One of the things that i disagree with in the video is that parents are worried that their children are having completley private lives online. I completely disagree. I don't see how their lives could be any more public. They post pictures, videos,tweets and comments about everything they do. Essentially teenagers have always been secretive about what they do, they have always lived private lives. Parents always have difficulty finding out what they are up too. The difference was that before kids were out with their friends doing things privatley away from the adults in their lives and now they are sitting at home under parental supervision living a "private life" on the computer. I think that technology can actually be used as a tool for parents and kids to communicate better. For instance kids can text parents where they are going and privatly communicate with them via text while with their friends. This eliminates the emabarrasing phone call home to check in and allows kids to check in more often and look way cooler doing it. Parents can follow their kids on twitter and face book and learn more about their lives and their friends than their kids will ever discuss around the dinner table. If parents are willing to stop rejecting the new technology and instead embrace it and learn how to use it as a tool they may realize what a valuable tool they have for improving relationships with their children and finding out what is going on in their life.

This is the first class that I have taken towards my masters degree and what a great class to start out with. It has opened up a new world of teaching for me. I have always focused my lesson plans around student centered learning but opening up teaching to technology takes that to a whole new level. It opens up so many more opportunities for interactive lesson planning than traditional teaching. Another thing that I noticed the other night while I was using an old lesson to create an improved lesson using technology is that the materials list becomes much smaller with the use of technology. Rather than a list of crayons, paper, glue sticks and so on, I now had 2 materials on my list, computers and internet service. When schools consider the cost of investing in technology it would also be helpful for them to consider the expenses they may be reducing or eliminating which may help to justify the expense of the technology.

I am very interested in learning how to post podcasts. I think that this is a very powerful tool to allow students to enhance their learning experience by sharing it with others. I would love to learn more about this topic.

Educational Technology Tools

One of the technological tools we discussed in class last week was podcasting. I think that this is a great tool to use in order to keep students engaged in the lesson. First of all kids love playing with electronic equipment. Second of all they love to see or hear themselves on camera. Finally, if they know that they are going to be recorded then they are going to want to make sure that they have gotten their work done and know the information. If this is something that other people will be able to see/hear and know it is them I believe that they will take it much more seriously. It opens up a whole knew audience for the learner. Rather than just writing a paragraph about a topic and handing it in to just the teacher and only having the teachewr view it, getting it back and probably throwing it in the recycle bin;it can be viewed by classmates from other classes as well as their own families and it is posted on the internet forever! This is exciting and new and gives them a reason to take more pride in their work. I recently accepted a job offer as a health/technolgy teacher in a school that has access to alot of technological equipment. I plan to use this tool to keep my kids on their toes when we are researching health subjects! I found a great website with information about podcast production. http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/

Equal Access

Equal access to technology is a very important topic to discuss. In the years to come our students will be exposed to and expected to navigate and utilize many new types of technology. They are going to be expected to be comfortable with using technology that exists as well as adapt quickly to changing and expanding technology. Therefore, providing equal access to students through education is very important because students who do not have access to technology will be at a disadvantage.

I can think of a few things to do in order to create equal access to technology. First of all, we can incorporate technology as much as possible into our lessons at school. This way we are slowly introducing it to students over time and allowing them to learn to incorporate it into their every- day lives. This leaves the issue of what to do for students who may not have access to computers or technological equipment at home. The last school that I substitute taught at had a computer club that met after school a couple of days a week. This club allowed students to use the internet for educational purposes. In some schools there are technology based clubs such as: podcast club. These clubs allow students to get together and become creative about technology. They give them access to video cameras and editing equipment that many of them may otherwise never get the chance to use. Schools could also increase student access to technology by obtaining and lending out technological equipment to students through the school library just as they would do with books. Many libraries offer free computer courses and free internet access. If students and their families were made more aware of these resources then they may utilize the services more. Schools and libraries could bridge this gap by working together to promote and establish educational technology programs that are relevant to students’ lives.

Another important point to discuss regarding equal access is how to provide access to students in developing countries. This is a very important issue as well. Many of the problems in the developing world have a lot to do with misinformation and lack of communication/education. Technology is essential to bridge the communication gap we are faced with concerning developing countries. It is also an easy way to bring free information and education to their doorstep. Programs such as 1KG are a great solution to this problem. Developing more of these types of programs would be extremely beneficial to create equal access to technology for the developing world.

K-12 Online Conference "Ways of Working"

K-12 Online conference
Ways of Working
By: Maria Knee
December 17, 2009

This particular conference was presented by Chris Betcher from Australia. During this conference Chris explains many different ways to take an ordinary learning experience and enhance it through the use of technology. He explains how to use the Internet to research different events which students may be learning about by using news trackers,blogs,twitter and flicker to receive updates. He also speaks about a useful tool that you can use to organize and track all the sites from one spot. He discusses sites you can use to upload photos to create digital sotires, and turn them into comics; as well as interactive art sites which you can use to inspire creativity and learning about particular subjects.

I found this web conference extremely useful and inspiring. This presenter was very excited about technology and the way he presented the information made me feel as though it was important and easy enough to incorporate into many lesson plans. One of the things I found most useful was the site he recommend to organize Internet information on. I always find it amazing all of the different resources we have on the web but so overwhelming at the same time. This website (http://www.netvibes.com),allows you to organize all of the different websites about a topic in one specific spot. You can make your own web newspaper about a specific event that is updated every time there is a new post about your topic. You can go to one spot and get all of the blog, news, flicker, and twitter feeds without going to each individual site. This information will make me much more likely to use the Internet to engage my students in following events electronically by helping me organize more and become less overwhelmed with all of the information. I think that this is a simple and fabulous resource to engage kids in current events. All of the presenters points were very simple and straight forward ways to incorporate technology into lessons. He also provides a long list of the valuable websites that he talks about so that you can easily access them after the conference. I would definitely recommend taking the 23 minutes to watch this video, you wont be disappointed.