Chapters 10 and 11

I thought Chapters 10 and 11 were wonderfully instructive, and a good summation of what we have learned throughout the entire book. Essentially, it is our job as teachers to model our instruction so that it is understood by all the different learners we have in our classroom. It is important to observe the students in our classroom and figure out each individual student's preferred learning style. Not all students learn the same of course, so in any kind of instruction, with or without technology, it is essential that the teacher makes the lesson comprehensible to all. This way, top-notch results can be expected from every student.
When it comes to technology, I enjoyed reading assistive technology, which essentially support student efforts and minimize obstacles to their learning. Assistive technologies are great in that they level the playing field for achievement and simultaneously allow students with disabilities to reach their full potential. One great assistive technology is JAWS (Job Access With Speech) which is basically a screen reader program that allows blind and visually impaired students to use interactive technologies. I have a friend who uses JAWS and he is always able keep up and even be ahead of coursework in an online class! Assistive technologies really open doors that would otherwise remain closed.
Chapter 11 was also informative in that it discussed reflective learning, which I found to be extremely important. Reflective learning encourages and promotes deeper thinking rather than just learning something to be memorized. A good strategy to encourage reflective learning is to keep a journal, perhaps even an online blog post such as this one where students can discuss assignments, exams, etc, and what they enjoyed or did not enjoy about them. Providing focus questions is a great way to provide a guideline for the students to answer what the teacher wants to know.

Chapter 7 and 8

In Chapters 7 and 8, I discovered the importance of learning games. The authors explain "Digital games  for learning (also known as serious games) are computer and web-based games that have been designed  with educational rather than entertainment goals in mind" (171). Admittedly, this is a tricky area to navigate as a teacher. When I was in Rome, I worked with students in the Roma community, who did not attend school regularly due to political discrimination. Specifically, I worked with a child named Leonardo, an eight year old who had problems focusing. I would try to introduce typing on the computer on a Word document but he could NOT focus. Whenever I brought out my computer, all he wanted to do was watch youtube videos on car racing. It made for a couple of frustrating months before I figured out that I could use my computer to engage him in interactive lessons online. When I introduced typing games in which he could race against the clock typing out words, Leonardo was so engaged and he kept wanting to do more. This was an important lesson for me to learn; I cannot expect my students to be involved in a lesson that is boring both to them and to myself. Once I found something engaging in which he could still use the computer to complete the assignment, he was happy and was striving to do better. This theme resounds in chapters 7 and 8 as the authors introduce fun activities that students can complete and in which they are learning simultaneously.

Google Cultural Institute & Takeaway Notes

Oh my gosh! This is my new obsession, no joke. BUT it is making me sad and making me really want to travel again. :( I will soon.

For a class, I was thinking of having a lesson on the seven continents, so I think the World Wonders section of the Google Cultural Institute would be a great way to introduce the students to our amazing earth. We would discover the website and then I would have the students do a report on any World Wonder that they choose.

Today was a great class, can't wait to get started on the video! It seems like it will be a fun project.

Chapters 5 and 6

In Chapter 5, the most important section that really resonated with me was the discussion on cyberbullying. I firmly believe that kids in our society are never too young to learn about respecting other people both in person and behind a screen. Cyberbullying is such a scary thing, as I assume that most parents are unaware of their childrens' outrageous behavior online. A child can LOOK like a complete angel, but can be terrorizing someone online so much that they tragically choose to end their life. I am extremely passionate about this issue because I think it is entirely inexcusable and horrific. It sickens me when I hear that another young person has committed suicide because of ongoing taunts and mean teasing behind a screen. Bullying of all kinds is terrible and cowardly, and if done behind a computer screen the perpetrator should be tried in the same way as if they actually came into physical contact with their victim. I really can't stress it enough: a true, serious discussion on cyberbullying and its effects should definitely be had in any and EVERY classroom. To me, this is a crucial component of being a digital citizen. Technology is all fair and well until we hear of another online victim. It happens far too often to be dismissed or deemed unimportant. We need to hold our students and kids to extremely high standards when it comes to behavior on the internet.
I enjoyed reading Chapter 6 and found particular use in the different educational websites and apps that the authors listed for use. Sometimes it is hard to think about the internet as more than just Google, CNN, Facebook, Yahoo, etc! These online educational resources are great, and an awesome way to use technology in a safe and fun way.

Take Away Message October 8

So today in class we were able to see some of the AMAZING lesson trailers! Good job to everyone, seriously. I also quite enjoyed our discussion on digital citizenship, as this is such an important and topical issue. I am excited to begin my WebQuest project, as I had a great time completing the lesson trailer. These tools are helping me see the excitement and benefits of interactive learning.

Chapter 4

Of everything that was discussed in Chapter 4, what I most enjoyed reading about was electronic grading software. To especially technology-savvy teachers, electronic grading is probably old news and nothing to be excited about, but for me, I am really looking forward to using it. When I was in elementary school, all of my teachers carried around the old-fashioned grade books, which had pages that looked like graph paper and where they would record in each little box the grades of every student for the assignments that were given. Then, when progress reports were due, they would either calculate the grades themselves or use little charts such as EasyGraders. For the most part, this went smoothly, but I remember that one year, my older sister's teacher had her grade book stolen. The grades were not recorded anywhere but in that book, so the poor teacher had to scramble around and start from scratch in order to come up with grades for her students.

Now, it is so much simpler and more convenient with online grading systems. What I like best about this can be summed up in the words of the authors when they state, "Students have immediate access to their grades, and families are continually informed about a child's progress in class" (Maloy et. al, 86). Growing up and progressing through school, I was always a super competitive student and for a long time I was focused on being the best. (It was an unhealthy attitude to have, I can now realize, but it was how I felt for a long time!) Being that I was so focused on getting perfect grades, I remember that it was always agonizing when a teacher would give a test on a Friday and I would have to wait the whole weekend before finding out my grade on Monday. This was always a source of great anxiety and I could never really enjoy my weekends when this happened. Reading this section of the textbook made me wonder how different it would have been if I could have known my grade right when the teacher was finished recording it! I probably would have rested a lot easier. Anyway, as I look forward to having my own classroom, the part I like best about online grading is that it provides for more parent involvement. If a parent checks their child's grades and sees that they did poorly on a certain assessment, they'll be able to contact the teacher and discuss what went wrong and how to help their child succeed.

Technology is certainly changing every aspect of the classroom, from lesson planning to assessment and recording grades. A lot of this is making it more convenient for teachers who would otherwise be bogged down with calculating grades and trying to come up with creative lessons. We just need to be careful not to let technology take over every interaction we have with our students!

Message from Tonight's Lesson

Tonight's lesson helped me to understand different methods through which teachers are using technology in their classrooms. We learned about such apps like Class Dojo, and even learned about how to make interactive lessons on PowerPoint. I came away from tonight's lesson excited about the different ways in which I can reach my future classes. Another important thing we learned today was about Behaviorism, and the other theories that discuss how children, or indeed how anyone, can learn. We watched a lot of interesting videos on this subject.