![]() What have you learned from this online class? This class has taught me a lot about technology strategies and tools. I experienced using tools that I never thought to use before. I have created projects that I thought were too difficult for me to use or even create. All the assignments in this class have proved to be very beneficial in a future classroom, and I plan to use the things that I have learned. Some of my favorite projects were the website, the google group projects, and the blog. At the beginning of each assignment, I had an overwhelming feeling, because I was so unfamiliar with everything we were learning. But I shortly realized how easy most of the assignments turned out to be. Creating a website was something I never thought I would be able to do. Once I finished, I loved how my website turned out. It took a great deal of work and time, but I am extremely happy for the learning experience it gave me. The Google Group projects were fun because they made me communicate with my classmates, who I would have never talked to if not for the project and being assigned into groups. Lastly, the blog was something I enjoyed because it gives me something to look back on in the years to come. My weak points and strong points were: My weak points were not believing in myself and thinking that I would not be able to do the assignments correctly. My number one weak point is procrastinating with my assignments. I do it in all of my classes and it is something that I really want to improve. My strong points are that I was able to finish my assignments in the time allowed. I am also somewhat of a perfectionist, so I always make sure my work is done to the best of my potential. I am also very good at following instructions and correcting my mistakes. How did I like the interaction between my peers and my instructor? I am so thankful for this class, because it gave me the opportunity to get to know my group members. We worked on the Google Group project together and we have stayed in contact ever since. We realized that we have a lot of things in common and we have become great friends. I also enjoyed communicating with Dr.Wang and Yanqing were very helpful and always willing to help with any problems we had. Dr.Wang gave us plenty of time to finish our assignments and she provided great instructions with lots of examples to follow. Reflection of communication tools used in this class: The most used communication tools used were: email, big blue button conferences, canvas, and our Weebly blog. Using these tools helped us complete our projects, get help, and communicate with each other. All of these tools were easy to use and I did not have any problems while using them. The big blue button conference tool was something I have never used before, and I found it very helpful and informative. We were able to listen to the professor give instructions and we could also “chat” with her through the chat group or by using the computer mic to talk with her. It gave us a chance to ask questions about specific projects and get our answer quickly. My experiences with blogfolio: When I first started working on my blog, I was frustrated, confused, and not happy. I was unsure how to create my blog and I did not want it to be incorrect. But the more I worked with the blog and played around, the more I began to like working with it. I like being able to go back and look at the posts I made and reflecting on things we learned about. I like being able to add different options on my blog like links, pictures, and changing font. Doing these things adds creativity to my blog and makes it more personal to me. It takes time to figure out how I want to set things up, but once I get that part finished I am able to work quickly. I love using my blog and adding new posts to it.
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![]() Integrating technology into music and art classrooms is a creative way to meet standards. It allows the teacher to show a variety of art images that are being taught, allows the teacher to demonstrate how to draw specific things, and allows the art teacher to show virtual tours of museums around the world. Technology in the art classroom also supports digital imaging strategies. As for music classrooms, technology allows the teacher to introduce different genres of music to the students, music composition and production, and display information about music history. The two main categories in music that technology will help support are: instructional software for teaching music skills and production software for music production, recording, and performing. Technology integration in music and art has the potential to transform the learning experience for every student. Issues of Integrating Technology in Special Education![]() General requirements for integrating technology in special education requires teachers to make the curriculum accessible and offer flexible instruction support. Video modeling technology is beneficial to students with ASD and it is specific to disabilities for cognition, physical, and sensory. Assistive technology services are for those students with disabilities who need hardware or special software, but as computers became common in the classroom individuals with disabilities had access problems. These problems are what created the assistive technology services, which later became known as inclusive technologies. ![]() Teachers can use web-based resources to create or develop a web-based curriculum that pertains to their class. Online classes have quickly become a very popular way to attend college. As on online college student myself, I find it very convenient to earn my degree online and still work as a full-time employee of the school. Content management systems, or CMSs, is another name for online courses. At Southern Miss, the CMS they use is called Canvas. I have used Canvas before at a previous college and found it easy to navigate and understand. There are ten steps in creating an online course, those steps are: select an online model; design and document learning abilities; create course space structure; create assignment materials; create assessment materials; create content presentation materials; create small-group activities; create resource links and other materials; decide course path; and determine and document course logistics and requirements. It is important to be available to your online students or have an assistant that can help them when they have questions. This week we created a web site through weebly. I found this assignment to be fun because I was able to create a website I felt was helpful and useful in resources for students. I liked getting to add pictures and videos to the website that I thought would be insightful to parents and students. Having a teacher website is another great way to stay connected to parents, and to answer any questions they may have about assignments or projects. The resources are great to add, videos will allow parents to see how things are taught in class and will also help them explain things to their child. My Course Site ![]() I found this week's assignment to be really interesting and very useful as a future reference. I enjoyed getting to make up my own "test" for students. I did not have any difficulties creating the test and test with answer key or the rubric using RubiStar and Easy Test Maker websites. Both were pretty easy to navigate and use. This week ties into what I read in Chapter 7, by showing us a way to integrate technology into our classroom as an effective and easy tool. It is always helpful to learn new ways to create tests for students. It is also helpful to create your own test, when other tests are not age appropriate for your class. I find this assignment to be one of my favorites so far! ![]()
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Sorting Podcast
This week we had to do a podcast of a lesson we were teaching. I have personally never done a podcast, and I don't believe I have listened to many podcasts before. I used the suggested website, Vocaroo, to record my podcast. It was extremely easy to use. You just go to the website, click record, listen to make sure it sounded the way you wanted, and save it to your computer. I did not encounter any problems using this website. The only thing I struggled with a little was deciding what I wanted to do my podcast on. I am in Kindergarten, so there were many things to choose from. I chose to teach a math lesson on sorting, because math seems to be easier to talk about and sometimes explain to kindergartners. There are so many visuals and ways to explain the lesson in math for them. Although, I do NOT enjoy listening to myself on a recording, I did enjoy making this podcast in math about sorting. Podcast Chapter 7: Integrating the Internet into the Curriculum
Chapter 7 discusses the many ways for teachers and students to use the internet as a source of learning. Student can take online classes to earn a degree from a college they are not close to, known as distance learning. You can use blended learning environments to have a traditional class with online activities or have an online class watching the teacher give a lecture. You can do either a video lecture or an audio lecture. There are so many different ways to teach a lesson using the internet, the possibilities are almost endless.
Using the internet in a classroom, is almost a must in today's teachings. There are hundreds of videos, audios, and tutorials on just about every subject. I plan to use the internet in my own classroom, not only to help with lesson planning, but also to use as an independent learning strategy, and a way to give my students extra help when they need it and they are not at school. Sometimes, students need a little refresher on lessons they have not talked about or done in a while. The internet is great for getting that extra help. ![]() I created my digital story using WeVideo. When I first started, I was a little overwhelmed since I have never used this website or any other website to create my own video. As I played around on the WeVideo website, it was easy to figure out how to create the video and edit each of the pictures. The next challenge I faced was recording my narration for the video. I am not a fan of speaking "publicly", so I made sure I was alone in order to do this part. Once I finished, I was proud of myself for creating this video and for being able to record myself speaking. This project turned out to be a very neat process, and I think it would be a great way to help students create videos about things that are interesting to them, or to even be an "All About Me" video to share with the class. My Digital Story Week 6: Online Tools, Uses, and Web-Based Development Online safety and security are very important when it comes to sharing things online. There are many reasons for this that include: privacy issues, cyber bullying, online predators, and people who try to sell things to children. It is extremely important to warn children of these problems, and to educate them on these so they know what they should and should not post on social media or any other website. Some types of hypermedia resources are: video, audio, photos, text, and graphic images. There are many different things authors can use to create and design with these resources in their web-based hypermedia. Using hypermedia in the classroom, is not ideal for kindergartners. They are not familiar enough with technology to use these type of resources. Although, using these resources in older grades, like high school, would be very beneficial for them. But they should also be educated in what to post online and what they should not post.
![]() My group had a great time getting to work on this project together. We did experience a few bumps in the road, but we got through them and continued on to finish as a group. We all were a little confused in the beginning about how to submit things in Google Documents, Google Drive, and Google Sheets. But if one of us figured it out, we were sure to let each member know exactly how to do it correctly. We also got to know each other a little more on a personal level. Which I think is was amazing, since we are technically "online" students. Our group downloaded an app called "GroupMe", in order to communicate more easily. We were able to "talk" about each part of the project as we were working on them and if we had problems, we got through them together. It was also challenging to distribute the parts of the project equally since we had an odd number of parts, but we made it work. I enjoyed working on this project as a member of Group One. I think that using Google Docs, Drive, and Sheets will be very useful as a future teacher. It is a way for several teachers who work together when planning lesson to review and edit things. Everything that is edited is automatically saved and can be seen by anyone that the information is sent too. I look forward to sharing this experience with my co-workers and using it in my own classroom. My Google Group Google Group Email: [email protected] My Story My Gradebook My Spreadsheet My Survey ![]() Chapter 3: The definition of instructional software according to its categories and their usages in the classroom Instructional software is programs designed to give or help give instructions on specific things. They are used to support learning and nothing else. Instructional software can be many different types of programs. The drill and practice program helps students practice over and over to learn different subjects. Tutorial programs help students in math, science, and history. Instructional games can make learning fun for younger students, and they will want to play them and not get bored. Lastly, there are problem-solving programs to get your mind working in different ways and make you think outside the box. We often use programs like: ABC Mouse, Starfall, sight word games, and math games as educational games for our students.They get time to play these different games when we have indoor recess or we have extra time during the day. These games are also drill and practice programs, problem-solving programs, and even tutorial programs because they go over the same information but in various forms. The students love to play these games! Chapter 4: The features and capabilities of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software tool programs, and my suggestions for how to use them in the classroom Word processing is a software used for teachers to type information such as lesson plans or newsletters. Spreadsheets are used more for graphics, data, and calculations. Spreadsheets are not used by teachers as often as the word processing software. Presentation software uses both text and graphics that are shown on slides, this software may by used more with older students. Software tools offer improved productivity, appearance, accuracy, and interaction. Teachers use these tools everyday to plan and even give instructions to their students. Word processing is the most used software because teachers type out their lesson plans, letters to parents, welcome letters, newsletters, permission slip forms, and a wide variety of other information throughout the year. Presentation software may be the next most used software because it allows the teacher to put together information to present to the class for instructions or lecture. Chapter 5: Tools that can be used to support teaching and learning tasks for both teachers and students Some tools that teachers can use are: student information systems, IEP generators, worksheet generators, electronic grade books, test generators, and lesson planning software. All of these are vital to teachers in order for them to do their job efficiently and on time. Students can use calendar/management tools, online encyclopedias, reading tools, and research/reference tools. These will all help students improve their school career by keeping them on task and helping them learn! Most of the tools for students are for older age groups in high school and college, younger children would not benefit from using these. ![]() Chapter 1: The definition of educational technology and issues in education and technology Educational technology is made up of process and tools in four major categories: educational technology in communication media, educational technology as instructional systems, educational technology as vocational training, and educational technology as computer systems. In communication media, information is being taught by playing films or slides. It began in the 1930's and was believed to be a more effective way of teaching. Instructional systems and educational technology is a way to get information out to a large number of people quickly, this method was used shortly after World War II for training purposes. Industries and vocational schools use educational technology as a way to teach students what it's like to use technology in every day life. It also helps teach students all of the main subjects in school. Lastly, educational technology as computer systems, is having computers in every classroom for teachers is use as resources for lesson planning and teaching. In my experience, technology in the school system has been very successful. Our school district provided each student from Pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade with an iPad or MacBook to use while in school. By doing this, the students are learning how resourceful technology truly can be. Of course, it does not come without complications. The students must pay a technology fee to use the product, and their parents are responsible for any damages. They must also sign a waiver stating they are liable for those costs. As far as using the iPad for educational purposes, the students are able to take reading tests on books they have read, as well as the state mandated tests. Therefore, technology can be very beneficial for education purposes. Chapter 2: Learning theories for technology integration and the technology integration planning model for teachers There are two different learning theories for technology: technology integration planning (TIP) and essential conditions for effective technology integration. TIP is how teachers use technology to plan lessons, analyze data, and revising instruction strategies. The second, is having the correct support system to keep the technology working efficiently. Teachers use TIP to submit lesson plans and research new teaching techniques. They also use TIP to go over test scores to get a better idea of how they can help the students improve. Technologies changes quickly and we must all learn to change along with it. Our children are growing up in a world where technology is everything and used around every corner. Therefore, we must learn how to use technology and its resources. I am 31 years old and I have a 9 year old daughter. I also have two "bonus" children. The three of them are the greatest blessings any parent could ever ask for. We moved to Mississippi about 10 years ago, from a small town in Missouri. It was not easy to leave most of our family behind, but I love living in Mississippi.
I started working as a kindergarten assistant about 4 years ago, before that I worked as a bank teller. I enjoyed working in the bank, but now I believe I have found my true calling. I love working with my "kindergarten babies" and I love my co-workers. The most rewarding thing for me, is watching children learn and seeing their face light up with excitement when they learn something new. |
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