This week, while checking out flicker, I came across this cool picture. I am currently living in Washington DC and get to see this all the time. I thought the Kansans reading my blog might like to see it!
I love to be able to share my pictures with friends and family online. Generally, I use facebook to do this. I have tried to use Flickr in the past, but for some reason, I don't find it very user friendly. Maybe it just isn't set up the way my brain works. I do love the option of being able to search other people's photos. I use this for school a lot when I am doing powerpoint. Being able to pull high quality photographs easily is defiantly a plus to Flickr. The keyword search is very good and always provides pictures that work for my purpose. It also always cites where you are getting it from, so I can feel good about sharing them.
I also use shutterfly a lot. On shutterfly, users can create photo books that you can order for pretty reasonable prices. I have never used this with students, but we could use it to publish our writing and photographs. They would be really motivated by that!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Week Three: Online Meetings
Today, I listened to the webinar "Ebooks and Libraries". Tom Peters at the Wisconsin E-book presented this webinar on the importance of ebooks. I found the information really interesting. I have been interested in getting ereaders into our schools and this webinar made it clear that it is time. He mentioned that libraries are really behind the rest of the book community when it comes to e-books. He calls the work we need to be doing around the idea of ebooks "murky". I feel that way a lot about technology. It seems like we all know that something needs to be done, we just aren't sure how to do it. He also talked about the idea of publishers not liking libraries. I had never thought of it that way. Publishers see libraries as a drain on their income. Peters said that we should be retraining the publishers to think about libraries as developing a culture of readers. Brilliant!
All in all, I found this webinar to be helpful. For some reason, I was having trouble finding a webinar that would come up with audio and the powerpoint slides. I get really distracted when it is just the audio without any visuals.
I see the public using webinars a lot in the future. As the 23 Things Kansas site mentioned, budgets are getting tighter. It is not always feasible to send groups of people to conferences. Webinars can help by cutting down on the cost of attending. I also think that webinars make it easier for more people to receive information. Most people have a computer, headphones and a microphone. If you are interested in learning more about something, there is probably a webinar out there for you!
All in all, I found this webinar to be helpful. For some reason, I was having trouble finding a webinar that would come up with audio and the powerpoint slides. I get really distracted when it is just the audio without any visuals.
I see the public using webinars a lot in the future. As the 23 Things Kansas site mentioned, budgets are getting tighter. It is not always feasible to send groups of people to conferences. Webinars can help by cutting down on the cost of attending. I also think that webinars make it easier for more people to receive information. Most people have a computer, headphones and a microphone. If you are interested in learning more about something, there is probably a webinar out there for you!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Week Two: Online Communities
I decided to use the Online Community Facebook. I chose this because I already have an account and I know how it works. I like how it works because it is easy to control your privacy settings and most of my friends and family use it. Actually, my mom just joined last week! I use Facebook to communicate with friends. I use status updates to let people know what I am up to. I think it is fun to share pictures with people who live far away. It helps me to feel up to date on everyone. I think in the future, we will use this to communicate more and more. It is so easy and instant. I would like to see a library use it as a tool to communicate with its users. A lot of other organizations use pages on Facebook to get out information, share upcoming events, and post pictures. I think it would be a great tool to help people become informed about libraries. If anyone would like to be friends with me on Facebook, send me a email. I will "friend" you. I am not searchable of facebook because my students are on facebook and I don't feel comfortable being cyber space friends with them :)!
Things that make me go hmmm.....
1. Why is it so challenging to print at my school? It think our ITC has tried to make it easier by making printing wireless, but I can never seem to install my printers.
2. At my school, we get very little space to save anything. This baffles me becuase they want us to use technology more, yet if we save a notebook file from smart board, we are at 99% capacity.
3. I am still working with the idea of doing a blog with my students. I am still unsure about how to make it confidential, yet create a real audience.
4. Since our school just now got oulook, I am hearing myself saying hmmm a lot about that lately. I am so far behind the rest of the world with this, so I feel silly asking!
5. I am wondering how I can use technology to connect my classroom with other classrooms around the world. I want to do this, but I am still figuring out logistics.
6. Why is it that when you check the laptop cart out, it is always the student with anger issues that gets the one that doesn't work???
7. Is it just me, or does the internet in your school always seem to go down the first week of school? I have realized that without it, we are totally paralyzed!
8. What is the point of buying teachers laptops if they have to be locked to our desk. Isn't the point portibility?
9. Why do we complain about technology when the truth is, even with its glitches, our lives are so much easier!
10. Hmmm... how can I get a grant to get kindles into my room??
2. At my school, we get very little space to save anything. This baffles me becuase they want us to use technology more, yet if we save a notebook file from smart board, we are at 99% capacity.
3. I am still working with the idea of doing a blog with my students. I am still unsure about how to make it confidential, yet create a real audience.
4. Since our school just now got oulook, I am hearing myself saying hmmm a lot about that lately. I am so far behind the rest of the world with this, so I feel silly asking!
5. I am wondering how I can use technology to connect my classroom with other classrooms around the world. I want to do this, but I am still figuring out logistics.
6. Why is it that when you check the laptop cart out, it is always the student with anger issues that gets the one that doesn't work???
7. Is it just me, or does the internet in your school always seem to go down the first week of school? I have realized that without it, we are totally paralyzed!
8. What is the point of buying teachers laptops if they have to be locked to our desk. Isn't the point portibility?
9. Why do we complain about technology when the truth is, even with its glitches, our lives are so much easier!
10. Hmmm... how can I get a grant to get kindles into my room??
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Instructional Design
"Education has missed the boat, with respect to instructional design. Teachers come up with lesson plans on the fly, with little thought to why they are presenting information or even who their audience is. Teacher training, at the university level and during Professional development, needs to focus on helping teachers become comfortable with instructional design principles."
As I was reading and watching the videos for this course, I realized that instructional design is the way I think about lesson planning, but I rarely have the time to complete all these steps. When I was in undergrad, I learned the basics of instructional design. Before designing our units, we would come up with what the problem was. We would then make a blueprint for what we needed to teach. We spent a lot of time learning how to write objectives and investigating different learning strategies. Then, we would spend time developing what and how we are going to teach. At my school we were lucky enough to implement our lessons and actually deliver instruction to real students. During class the next week, we would relfect and evaluate. We would ask ourselves, did it work?
There is no doubt that this is the process we should all go through when we are developing units and lessons. It is the best for learners when we know where we are going, why we are going there, and how we are going to get there. However, I agree with the WikiBooks article when it said that this method is rarely used in real life. The lessons we developed in undergrad took hours upon hours to design one 45 minute lesson. When you are an elementary teacher, teaching five to six different subjects every day, there is simply not enough time to do this with every single lesson we teach.
That being said, I do think I work in a district that has done a lot of that leg work for the classroom teacher. At the district office, they generally identify the problem and write our objectives. Because this is the age of standard assessments, the objectives are directly tied to our state standards. As Gustafson and Branch said, sometimes we are told what the delivery method needs to be and what instructional strategies we are to use. Teachers are the ones that develop the lesson plans, but we have long range plans that help us pace our teaching and really good materials to pull lessons from. I don't always use what the district gives me, but sometimes it is a mandate to use the provided lessons. It is always my responsibility to deliver instruction and I do get some room to do what is best for my students. I always give pretests so I know what instruction is needed and what we can skip. I find it really hard to find time for the evaluate step, but I want to get better at making time for this.
After learning more about instructional design, I do think it will help me slow down and intentionally plan lessons. However, I don't think it is just because teachers come up with lessons "on the fly". Teachers would love to have the time to go through this process with each lesson, but that is not real life. I also think there are a lot of outside influences that make it difficult to let teachers teach specifically to their particular students and teach to their needs.
As I was reading and watching the videos for this course, I realized that instructional design is the way I think about lesson planning, but I rarely have the time to complete all these steps. When I was in undergrad, I learned the basics of instructional design. Before designing our units, we would come up with what the problem was. We would then make a blueprint for what we needed to teach. We spent a lot of time learning how to write objectives and investigating different learning strategies. Then, we would spend time developing what and how we are going to teach. At my school we were lucky enough to implement our lessons and actually deliver instruction to real students. During class the next week, we would relfect and evaluate. We would ask ourselves, did it work?
There is no doubt that this is the process we should all go through when we are developing units and lessons. It is the best for learners when we know where we are going, why we are going there, and how we are going to get there. However, I agree with the WikiBooks article when it said that this method is rarely used in real life. The lessons we developed in undergrad took hours upon hours to design one 45 minute lesson. When you are an elementary teacher, teaching five to six different subjects every day, there is simply not enough time to do this with every single lesson we teach.
That being said, I do think I work in a district that has done a lot of that leg work for the classroom teacher. At the district office, they generally identify the problem and write our objectives. Because this is the age of standard assessments, the objectives are directly tied to our state standards. As Gustafson and Branch said, sometimes we are told what the delivery method needs to be and what instructional strategies we are to use. Teachers are the ones that develop the lesson plans, but we have long range plans that help us pace our teaching and really good materials to pull lessons from. I don't always use what the district gives me, but sometimes it is a mandate to use the provided lessons. It is always my responsibility to deliver instruction and I do get some room to do what is best for my students. I always give pretests so I know what instruction is needed and what we can skip. I find it really hard to find time for the evaluate step, but I want to get better at making time for this.
After learning more about instructional design, I do think it will help me slow down and intentionally plan lessons. However, I don't think it is just because teachers come up with lessons "on the fly". Teachers would love to have the time to go through this process with each lesson, but that is not real life. I also think there are a lot of outside influences that make it difficult to let teachers teach specifically to their particular students and teach to their needs.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Educational Technology Is...
After reading these three articles, my view about what educational technology is has shifted a bit. To me, educational technology is the way we look at how people learn best and design instructional materials and processes that meet their needs. It is about changing the way we present the content to our learners. In the 20th century, we would present content through the teacher, the chalkboard and the textbook. We know so much more about how people learn now. We need to change the way we instruct them so we get optimal results.
Educational technology effects every part of the school system. It is a way to share information, not only with students, but between colleges, parents, and the greater community. When I think of educational technology, I think of smart boards and computers. It is so much greater than that. It is a holistic way of thinking about our school system and all the ways we can solve problems for students and staff. This shift takes a great amount of trust from staff and students. It can completely change the role of the student and the teacher. Through educational technology, the teacher becomes a facilitator that helps the student along in their journey.
Educational technology effects every part of the school system. It is a way to share information, not only with students, but between colleges, parents, and the greater community. When I think of educational technology, I think of smart boards and computers. It is so much greater than that. It is a holistic way of thinking about our school system and all the ways we can solve problems for students and staff. This shift takes a great amount of trust from staff and students. It can completely change the role of the student and the teacher. Through educational technology, the teacher becomes a facilitator that helps the student along in their journey.
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