CEP 811 Final Reflection

     This class has been very informative and I am taking away things that I want to implement into my classroom now. I have learned that when it comes to teaching effectively, you must think about alot of factors that come into play. Not only with your students, but with the resources that are available to you. You must be able to reach every student in your class and be able to provide some sort of modifications for those who need it. It is always a good rule of thumb to have a back up plan when technology happens to fail. Even though technology is growing and more and more teachers are integrating it into their lesson, technology can be unpredictable. My advice is to plan as if technology will not work and you will be covered for the day and not have to scramble to produce an unmeaningful assignment.

     I try with every lesson to see how I can integrate technology into the lesson, especially when every student on our high school campus has one. I try to think of ways to stay connected to my students away from school hours that will help maximize their learning potential.  For example, having set hours that I will be available online to connect over question they may be having over an assignment. With technology, I try to use it as a tool to help promote self discipline with students and put a little responsibility on the student. With technology, I now can come into class and not say a word about the assignment because I have produce all the information they will need through presentation and now tutorials that I have been introduced to.

     I have met by goal about technology integration by learning something new in each session. I am especially excited about creating tutorials for my classes to go through. Being able to create tutorials will allow me to teach my co-workers how to implement them into their curriculum, thus giving me more knowledge to become a major role in our districts technology improvement team.

     My goal for my next course is to learn a new technological integration technique that I will be able to use immediately and to find a better to improve on what I am already doing in class. That way I will be able to adapt to all the new changes that are rising to the surface and into the hands of our students. My long term goal is to continue to learn from professors and classmates because we all have something valuable that we can share with one another.

Sharing Online Teaching Experiences

     Our Middle School principal has been pushing for 8th grader to develop an ePortfolio that they will be able to update throughout the rest of their high school education.
The class that integrated this online experience with is Career Explorations. I have about 60 students that will have started a electronic portfolio that they can carry with them anywhere they go.
     Strategies that I use with my students are taken step by step. We are currently creating pages for every major subject that they are enrolled in as of now. We are taking class work that they have completed and uploaded to their portfolio to broadcast their work from various classes. I am encouraging students to be creative and separate themselves from other students who have portfolios. I have taught students the importance to what should be added and what should not be added. Along with what images are appropriate and which ones should be displayed for the world to see.
     We are finding it difficult to add PowerPoint slides that they have created for others classes. We recently ran upon a stumbling block when every student lost work that they saved on their school issued z drives. All of the work that they had saved previously was gone over night. As a class, we were able to go to their teachers and find copies of work that has been turned in and graded. As a district, we hope to see how students develop and how detailed and crisp their work become over the course of their high school years , and what updates the students will add.

Wiki's Lab

Here is the link to my wikispace:  http://clarkmsugrad.wikispaces.com/


Below is a before shot of the wikipedia article I added content to:

Here is the screenshot to the wikipedia and the content added. I added our recent academic ratings from the 2009-2010 school year.

Added content to the school section of the wikipedia: "Tatum ISD is TEA Academically Recognized District for the fourth year in row and has two Exemplary rated campuses and two Recognized rated campuses. Tatum Primary is Exemplary for the fifth straight year, Tatum Elementary has earned a fifth consecutive Recognized rating, Tatum Middle is Recognized for the third consecutive year and Tatum High is Exemplary."

UDL Guidelines - Educator Checklist

What is UDL actually?

According to the UDL Center, Universal Design for Learning is a set of principles for curriculum development that gives all individuals equal opportunities to learn. UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone--not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs.

Below is the link to the Interactive Web Features lesson plan that I created and uploaded to MERLOT.



UDL Guidelines - Educator Checklist

Personal Learning Reflection

        As technology continues to grow, educators must grow with it. If I fail to integrate technology into my teaching, then I am not giving my students what they need to be successful. I learned that just because you have a great lesson planned, you need to find a way to make it relevant to today's technology world. How can I turn that great lesson into a superb lesson? The answer is with technology. Integrating technology gets students to “buy in” with what you are teaching. Students are excited to learn away from the traditional style, a book and listening to me lecture. Getting away from lectures and worksheets, will allow the student to be more creative in their work. Technology allows me the opportunity to reach students that I may miss through lecture. Technology allows me to create presentations that students will be able to follow at their own pace. A student may not be able to understand my teaching, without seeing a visual representation. I can provide instructional videos in a variety of ways, such as creating movies or providing real life simulation on the computer. Without incorporating technology into my lesson plans, none of that would be possible.

        Over the course of the class, the blog assignment really exemplified teaching with technology. A blog opens some many windows to learning and creating with technology. Blogging allow students to connect to others and contribute their ideas with one another. Blogs become another teaching method that I can use for my classes. Students are asked to find instructional videos from YouTube or TeacherTube, that reflects what we are learning in class and post to their blogs Students are asked to make comments about the video that was posted, which gives them reinforcement. The blog assignment also will help students become organized by adding different widgets, such as calendars, and adding resources that are beneficial to their education.

       

        In my personal growth plan, I wanted to make a difference in how we use the technology that is available. In this course, I was exposed to many different tools that I used immediately in my classes. Tools such as blogs and creating a personal learning network for my students. One of my technology goals is to design a program for our CTE department that “makes sense”. I have been discussing ways to improve our department with our curriculum director. I have been asked to provide documentation and resources about creating a better CTE design. We have had meetings to discuss how we can improve our department that will be beneficial to the education of the students.

        Working through this course has given me new goals that I need to accomplish. I need to be able to work in small groups. The SIG assignment brought that weakness to my attention. My goal is to initiate group contact and be more of a presence. I will have the opportunity to achieve this goal in the next course. A second goal that I want to accomplish will be put what I have learned to use. I want to give teachers at my school the tools that I have gained through this course. My goal is to inform and educate teachers in staff meetings about how they can integrate technology into their classrooms. I plan to continue learning all I can about emerging technologies, with the help of my professors and members of the MAET community.

Evaluation of Learning Material in MERLOT

Share: Evaluation of Learning Material in MERLOT

Link to resource evaluated: How to Use a Search Engine

The software presented showed valid concepts, models, and skills needed to perform a successful search. Terms are defined, explained, and examples are given to aid in student learning. Content is core curriculum within the discipline, which every teacher that teaches a web class understands the importance of understanding how to use search engines. Content is not difficult follow and should be easy for students to learn, and is a pre-requisite for more advanced material.

The learning material presented offers students a more precise way to use search engines. Students are able to follow teacher demonstration that assesses the problem. Three case studies are provided using the curriculum to use a variety of skills learned through the presentation. Students should be able to define terms that are associated with searching the internet, be able to decide which search engine best fits their search need. Students should be able to perform more advanced searches using skills learned from the material.

Targeted learners characteristically search the internet without using any type of skills. Targeted learners are more likely to type in long search phrases, instead of short detailed ones. The presentation gives teachers the materials needed to teach, and directions given can easily be followed by students who view the content.

This software can easily be integrated into the current curriculum as a basic understanding and introduction to search engines. Students are able to receive the information in multiple ways. One being through a video lesson provide by the instructor. The second by viewing presentation, and the third by hands on application and activities.

The labels and buttons from the computer interface are consistent and easy to navigate.

Some material is harder to read than others, and the information on the slide-show can be difficult to follow. The quality of sound in the video is a little poor, but you are able to understand and hear the information. The user may become distracted with random sounds in the video, and students today may find the information not interesting.

Comments are provided about the lesson along with a reviews that provide feedback from those who viewed the lesson. Students will need Window Media to access the photo story. The information is presented in ways that are familiar for students by use of video and PowerPoint presentation. Material that is presented will easily be accepted by a younger audience, like middle school.

Learning Styles

WHAT'S YOUR LEARNING STYLE?

As a student, I was able to adapt to different teaching strategies because of my drive to be successful. I was a visual learner who wanted to see the teachers body language, view pictures in books, and watch movies over the content that the teacher was presenting. Even with information that I found boring, I paid attention and got an understanding of it through pictures and videos. When the teacher would lecture to us, I would find myself sketching images of the topic. For example, if the lesson was over Christopher Columbus, I would draw ships and pictures of what I thought he looked like. When a teacher would play a recording, I found it difficult for me to follow along. I was too busy trying to listen and understand the tone of voice that the recorder was speaking in. In college, when I was in courses that didn't relate to my major, I would find it hard to sit still and would become distracted throughout the class. If I was able to move around and actively participate, I would ask more questions about the lesson. I wanted to explore information, not just sit there for hours receiving information. Throughout college, it was difficult for me to stay focused and digest the material because 95% of class time was listening to the professor speak. I adjusted to the way information was given to me and was able to process it clearly because I had self-disclipline. During elementary and high school ages, I learned best at doing activities , which we did 75% of class.

Even today teachers in elementary and high school are trying to actively involve students as much as possible. Our focus now should be how to get students to respond to information that they do not find interesting and respect the work and ideas of others. Students today have no sense of collaboration. Having students work together is a struggle because they do not understand that people learn in different ways other than their own. Instead of finding a way to incorporate a skill that each group member may have, one student will decide to do the entire project because they feel they are smarter. In actuality they probably are, but the student that they believe can't contribute to the project, may be able to build something that can enhance the overall project. We have to put the learning in the hands of the student and not so much with the teacher. Students need to have an active role in their learning by doing, reteaching, and researching information.
In my class, I try to give only enough information so they can start an assignment.I have tried lecturing to students, but all I receive back is a blank stare from their eyes. Indicating that they are not listening or they are not understanding what I am covering. I recently demonstrated a lesson on my computer and projected it to the screen on the wall. Students could actually see it, but until they had the opportunity to do it, is when learning was taken place. During my demonstration, there were no questions because the felt they understand how to perform the task. Five minutes later, hands are raised and questions are being asked because they are individually involved.
I encourage my students to teach each other and rely on one anothers knowledge instead of running to me, the teacher, for answers. My students tend to remember and learn material better that way instead of me giving them everything. In my class I like to hand out spoons, which the kids love. On the other hand, they don't want to be the one receiving a spoon. The spoon refers to "spoon feeding" them the information like a baby. Tend to works.

Creative Commons

Photo Attribution:

Original Image: "HTML vs CSS"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eelkedekker/3166324179/sizes/s/in/photostream/
By:  eelke dekker

Released Under An Attribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Incorporating images into my curriculum will benefit the students tremendously.  The images will provide an alternate learning style to those who are visual learners. Using images in the curriculum breaks up the style of the lessons.  It adds excitement to what you are teaching.  In my Webmastering class, visual seeing the difference between HTML and CSS, students gain a better understanding if the difference.  They will be able to see that CSS is visually advanced.  Whereas, HTML serves as the baseline for designing a web page.

Photo Attribution:

Original Image: "Date Night"

By:  Marcus Clark

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55040404@N03/5104717453/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Released Under An Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Getting Things Done (GTD)

I am a little familiar with the process of GTD.  The problem that I face with it, is the commitment. I can go along with the plan for only a couple of days and then find myself getting behind which in turn results in stress.  I find it best if I use pencil and paper.  Using a computer and cell phone requires to many steps for me to go through when I'm trying to complete a task. When I can get what I need quickly, I am better off in doing what it is that I need to get done. I like to put the things that take the most time to get done first, or the harder things that require more energy and focus ahead of those things that require little time and focus. This wasn't necessarily my first time going through this process, but I tried a different approach.  Things that I could do in less than 2 minutes, I went ahead and completed those things.  Getting it Done that way, quickly eliminated items off of my list. The GTD process will help me in the future and this is something that I will pass on to my students in class. Working on getting things done that way, was better than the previous way that I was going about completing things.  This way gave me more to concentrate on the bigger projects instead of running out of steam at the end and no doing well on the projects that were suppose to be easy.  I will continue to use the process and share this helpful tip to my students.  This year our school has changed to a A day B day block and students have 10 classes instead of 4. If my students are aware of the process and could adopt it into their daily lives, it will help them be more successful in organization and completing assignments in a timely manner.

PC Maintenance and Security

The first tutorial that I watched was Protecting Your Family Online.  I will be sharing to others that they should be clearing their cache from their temporary files, and to keep an eye on their history if the have children.  If they have children and they see that the history is being cleared, the they should have a talk with them about Internet use.

Good Safety and Security Habits was number two in my list of tutorials. I will be sharing to others to not check the box to hide your file extensions. If a file is a virus, you would not know it and will receive a virus if you are to click on it. I didn't realize that you could use that option which will also help in determining what kind of files you have. Be aware of the .exe label at the end of your documents.

Helpful tip that I will be sharing is to avoid clicking on pop-ups. No matter what the pop-up is, you could be inviting viruses and not even know it. Yes it may send you to what it is advertising, but 2 out 3 times, it is not.  I have been faced with those pop-up adds that does not have a close button.  To click out of this pop-up, you can use, control W on your keypad.  That is a very helpful tip.

I wanted to view tutorials that I am faced with daily, and I learned some important facts about Internet safety and control. I'm glad I have this resource to refresh my knowledge.

Social Networking

Social networks can be a very useful tool professionally.  Social networks gives me the opportunity to communicate with educators in the same department and provides something like a team.  I am able to receive feedback from many professionals and their thoughts and opinions about a topic. 

Personally, social networks connects me to friends that I haven't spoken to in years.  The connections made and the tools that are provided by social networks, like a Facebook, syncs you with people the network thinks you may know.  That tools using the information that you input and relates it through the entire network to link you with friends and family.  I am able to talk about hobbies that I enjoy with people who have the same.

As a student, social networking is larger than life to them.  Constantly students are looking to communicate through various social networking sites.  It gives them a sense of ownership and responsibility.  They feel the need to keep themselves current and up to date to allow their friends of their status.  Whether its going out, watching TV, or just laying around the house, their network can see this and respond.   Giving them the opportunity to watch the same show and laugh about it via status updates or ask if they want to go somewhere together.

Social Networking is here and here to stay.  Each year there is a new mega social networking tool that takes the world by storm.  If we can stay afloat and use it to our advantages, educators will become that much closer to bridging the learning, teaching gap between students.

RSS Reader Page

BEFORE RSS Reader SCREENSHOT

 
 

 

 

AFTER RSS Reader SCREENSHOT

 

 

 

      

      I chose to comment on the post “The Short Lifespan of a Tweet: Retweets Only Happen Within the First Hour”, since we are in the process of exploring Twitter with direct messages and re-tweets. The gives data found about how many tweets are re-tweeted. The post says that 29% of all tweets are actually re-tweeted, only if done within the first hour. Many people who want replies to their tweets will often tweet the same thing over four times to receive a response from followers. I commented the following: Those are interesting facts and I have never really thought or paid any attention to that. Does that mean that only 29% of the tweets having meaningful content? I usually re-tweet something that has meaning or is related to me.

      Tracking the the changes to my RSS Reader Page – After I tweeted my response to the topic, there has been one person that has replied. She stated a fact that was not mentioned in the article about how twitter has its moment where it is at its peak. If you are tweeting during those peak hours, you do have a better chance of someone seeing and replying to your tweet. I have noticed that no new content from NCTE for 2 years, and the times the feeds were posted. NCTE does not show the posting without having to click on the link and going to the website to view. The days displayed for the age of the feeds, goes to 6 days, then by weeks. My reader is set up to keep 7 feeds at a time. When you log in to you reader, beside the Feeds title is a count of the new feeds that there are. When you view a feed, that number goes down each time you view a topic. Feeds that I have previously visited, are a different font color than those that I have not explored.

      I have learned from the contents of the news feeds that you are given what you asked for. You are able to view the contents without having to go to the actual website, but you have the option to. You are able to distinguish which subject that you want feeds from and nothing more. The content is related to what the title of the feed is.

      I will be able to apply the content of my RSS Reader page throughout my daily life. I didn't realize how valuable RSS reader pages could be. Some of the feeds that I am following, I can use for classwork. Most of them at some point have mentioned blogs, twitter, facebook, and has looked in depth the uses of each network. This information can be used if I am deciding which network performs better over another by reading the content of the feed, and looking at comments that have been made about the topic. As teacher, instead of students having to browse the Internet for assignments such as “current events”, if students have an RSS reader page at the disposal, you know as the teacher that the events will be up to date and credible instead of leaving it up to the students to perform a blind search. RSS Readers gives you information to subjects that are important to you and saves you time. You have all the news that you want all located at one site and eliminates advertising and other jargon that is not of any use. It gives you what you want, and information that is up to date.

      I chose the ReadWriteWeb blog because the information that was provided from the blog was related to topics that we are exploring now in our course. I wanted to use feeds that I could actually use on a daily basis that would provide support and further understanding of the topics learning in this course. The other three feeds that I subscribe to relates to the classes that I am teaching now in school. I subscribed to the New York Times – Technology and TechNewsWorld feeds because they offer information that can be used in class discussion about Podcast, Flickr, and other similar sharing networks and media pools. Students can easily relate to the feeds because each feed offers insight to the networks and media they are exposed to throughout their daily lives. CNNMoney offers tabs about personal finances that goes well with my Money Matters class, which students learn about personal financing, budgets, and gives insight to products that students are in the market to buy. Students can get reviews on the product from comments that are posted without having to search endlessly on the Internet.

Blogs VS Web Pages

Blogs are created by individuals who have something to say about whatever they want.  Blogs give individuals freedom to talk about what is important to them.  Blogs allow people to become reporters and writers.  Blogging allows us to communicate freely and express our ideas on matters such as politics, our daily lives, and allows us to have an opinion.  Guests are allowed to leave comment on material that you post to your blog and opens a steady line of communication.
There is not much difference in having a web page.  A web page is designed to be more complexed.  A blog is set up to be simple and precise.  A blog is more of a journal, whereas a web page is for entertainment, to sell and draw attention.  In deciding which is better, you must look at what it is that you are trying to show.  If its simple, go with a blog.  If you are looking for a more expanding way of communicating, go with web pages.