Technology Autobiography Update

Since taking this class my technological knowledge has probably doubled. I have learned and used many different applications that I will be able to employ in my teaching. Movie Maker is something that I had no idea existed, but now I have seen how easy the program is to use. I can imagine a many future learning experiences with this program. I also learned how to create true web searches and web inquiries. This can be directed by me by using trailfire and other programs. I was also introduced into the world of podcasting which opened the door to endless possibilities. My students will be able to create/publish oral histories and radio broadcasts so that their parents and community members can see what they are learning. All in all as a techno weary person I have started to feel comfortable with using technology so much so that I plan to implement it with my students.

Trailfire

Dear Mr. Administrator,

I would like to take a few minutes of your time and tell you about a new piece of technology that I learned about in my graduate class on technology. This program is called Trailfire and is a web based tool designed to help guide students on the study of a simple question or concept.

Trailfire is a very unique tool because once the teacher decides on the concept to be studied then the teacher can surf the web and find important websites before assigning the project to the students. The teacher can then put notes on the website so that students may quickly identify important content that resides in the webpage. The student can then access a link to the next website that the teacher wants the students to review.

This tool would be very useful in our schools because it allows students to interact with the world wide web, but at the same time be guided by a teacher so that students may stay focused on their assignment. This also makes learning more efficient because students do not have to sift through unimportant information, because the note authored by the teacher directs them to the relevant material on the website.

This is a nice tool to use because it is student centered and teacher controlled. Students are able to interact on their own, but the teacher establishes the parameters of the research that the students are carrying out.

Here,http://trailfire.com/aberry/trailview/39357), is an example of a Trailfire project over cheetahs that I worked with in my graduate class. I hope you will be able to review this and meet with me regarding any questions you may have about this tool.

Thanks,

Michael Turner

Digital Story Telling

I was so intimidated by digital storytelling before I completed mine. But now I am a huge fan of the technology. I think this is more effective than having kids create a poster or a visual. Instead they can sharpen their knowledge of computers and technology. I do have some reservations regarding using this. In order to do this the class would need extensive time in the computer lab, which can be difficult to acquire in some schools. Also, underprivileged children could be put at a disadvantage in completing a digital story because they may or may not have twenty four hour access to a computer. So the challenge as a teacher is to find a way to incorporate this technology while being fair to all of the students.

Chapter 4 (Richardson)

As a Social Studies teacher reading this chapter I of course have to start off by attacking Wikipedia as a valuable source for information. Despite what Steve Jobs says, there is no academic accountability regarding information on Wikipedia. Using Wikipedia as a source is not real research. This does not require you, as a researcher, to utilize primary sources. Wikipedia serves primarily as a text book that can be written by people with little to no knowledge on the subject.

I will have to say that I can envision Wikis being useful in a Social Studies classroom. I have wanted to have student write a research paper collaboratively as a class. This paper can have multiple parts so that each student has a role. A wiki would be a good format to complete that task as all students can participate.

Synching up with the iKid

"A recent survey by CDW Corporation shows that teachers are more likely to use technology to ease the administrative requirements of K-12 education than to utilize it in instructional applications. More than 85 percent of respondents in CDW's Teachers Talk Tech survey say that while they are adequately trained on Internet, word processing, and email software, 27 percent have little or no training with integrating computers into lessons." This is one of the main problems that I recall as a student in school. The teachers used the classroom computers just to enter grades and e-mail. Part of this problem is that classrooms only have one computer and there is so much confidential information on that one computer that it could be a risk to let students work on it. As a student teacher I worried about this problem frequently, but still tried to allow time for students to utilize the in class computer. Also, I was intimidated to incorporate technology, because my knowledge of what was out there and what was possible is quite limited.

Flickr Collaboration Project

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8836442@N03

Kentucky Core Content Standard:

SC-HS-3.4.7
Students will:
· classify organisms into groups based on similarities;
· infer relationships based on internal and external structures and chemical processes.
Biological classifications are based on how organisms are related. Organisms are classified into a hierarchy of groups and subgroups based on similarities that reflect their relationships. Species is the most fundamental unit of classification. Different species are classified by the comparison and analysis of their internal and external structures and the similarity of their chemical processes.

Chapter 7 (Richardson)

While I was reading this chapter I immediately thought of Parent/Teacher night. When ever they come around teachers always want to show parents what has been going on in the classroom, but it is very difficult to prepare a presentation and often times parents only see the work that student have been working on that day or week before the conference. However, FLICKR would allow me to collect pictures from an entire semester and show parents what the students have been working on in that way. It would give me a chance to show off my activities that I carry on a day to day basis, and show student interaction.

Using FLICKR can also help me in creating student-centered assignments. For example If I were teaching a lesson on state capitals. I could have students find photos of all the state capitals and display and annotate them using FLICKR. This would help many different students because it would utilize many different intelligences such as spatial and linguistic.

Chapter 5 (Richardson)

On page eighty one Richardson talks about how RSS feeds bring relevant material to you so that you don't have to search for it and he also talks about how this can be used for grading. As soon as I read this I immediately perked up, because it makes assignments like blogging more feasible for me to assign. I would be less likely to assign blogs because I would have to go to thirty different sites regularly to grade them, but if I can have them all in front of me then I am more tempted to play around with it.

I also thought that as a Social Studies teacher RSS feeds can be very useful in helping students complete research assignments or discuss current events. All that students or myself would have to do is type into the feed what you want and then allow RSS to do all of the work.

Chapter 3 (Richardson)

On page forty seven, Richardson writes, "Put your name on your work, but make sure you understand the ramifications of doing so... and remember too that what you write stays with you." I fins this to be a very important quote because it is something, as educators, that we need to remind our students. Many of them have personal websites like Facebook or Myspace where they post pictures, but I don't think that they realize that those pictures or quotes are published on the web and could be used against them someday. So when beginning our blog with students we must model good use of technology, but also warn the students of possible future problems.

Chapter 2 (Richardson)

In chapter 2, Richardson discusses how he created a portal for his students and it received a great response from students, faculty, and parents. However, my first thought is what about children who do not have internet access at home? How do we address this issue? While this is an outstanding tool in collaboratively working with parents and students, we must recognize that we put some students at a disadvantage and could alienate them fromt the classroom environment.

In a k-12 setting can we require blogging after school? If so, do we need to educate students about "internet cafe's" or public libraries so that they can access the internet to complete assignments?

When I was student teaching at Ballard I had students work on computers a great deal to carry out research, but at the same time it was very difficult to get the students access to computers on a regular basis while at school, because of students working on portfolio's or lack of lab availability. So a regular blogging assignment could be very difficult to carry out.

I do like the E-portfolio idea and I think for an English class this would be outstanding. It would make it easier for students to complete their portfolio for their senior year, but like the blogging can we be sure that the necessary resources are going to be available?

Chapter 1 (Richardson)

"53 million American adults or 44% of adult Internet users had used the Internet to publish their thoughts, respond to others, post pictures, share files, and otherwise contribute to the explosion of content available online. " --- This quote shows the tremendous effects the Internet has had on our life and shows that within a time span of fifteen years the Internet has become a major part of every American's life. As teachers we must take this in to account when we prepare our lessons. Later on in the chapter Richardson discusses safety and with Internet use sky rocketing it is important for us to teach proper and ethical use of the Internet. This must be done by modeling and making sure inappropriate sites are blocked from school computers.

Technology Autobiography

My experience with technology began "fairly" early in my life. When I was six my family bought an Apple Macintosh personal computer. I learned how to use my computer by spending countless hours during childhood playing on it. The games and programs on my Macintosh were quite primitive in comparison to today's computers, but at the time they seemed like something from an episode of Star Trek. From that point on I would always possess a personal computer.

My elementary, middle, and high school had computers, but often times they were only utilized for recess or word-processing. Nonetheless, during school I became involved in the Student Technology Leadership Program and spent a great deal of time after school participating in that program. The program had its strengths and weaknesses. It taught me a great deal about navigating around on a computer, but the program was only available to to members of the gifted and talented program.

As a teacher I feel that implementing technology in the classroom is imperative in preparing students for future careers and life. It can be very difficult for Social Studies teachers to implement technology because of financial limitations and the nature of the content, but technology can be used t enrich the instruction.

Computers can be used in a Social Studies classroom through a variety of ways. They can be used for online research such as web quests or researched essays. They also can be used to create projects, such as digital stories and online blog discussions that can help students learn material more effectively.

There are some obstacles in utilizing technology in instruction. Many underprivileged students may not have access to computers at home and long assignments that require the use of technology can put that student at a disadvantage. Therefore, when there is a student-centered technology assignment the teacher must give enough in-class time for the students to complete their work.

Technology is now a major player in the global economy and in order to prepare students to compete in the job market we must make them familiar with the latest technological innovations and the challenge for teachers is finding a way to incorporate those innovations into their curriculum.

First Post

Test 123