Research Article #2

Last week in class, we talked a little about interactive white boards. I wanted to learn a little more about them, so as I was digging, I decided to find a research article on interactive white boards. The one I found was written by Dr. Mary Ann Bell and can be found at http://teachers.net/gazette/JAN02/mabell.html

Dr. Bell first became interested in interactive white boards for middle school and library instruction. She thought that this technology could be used for large or small groups as well as distance learning. She found that student's attitudes improved towards writing instruction when using technology.

The author then gives a brief description of what exactly interactive whiteboards are and how they can be used in general and in the classroom. Dr. Bell then gives her "baker's dozen" reasons for why she is so enthusiastic about using interactive whiteboards in the classroom.

1-They are great for demonstrations. Adults and students alike can present things simply by using their fingers and everyone will be able to see the board.

2-She then describes interactive whiteboards as being a "colorful tool". There are many options for changing colors and sizes and students respond to displays where colors are used.

3-The board allows students with all types of learning styles to be involved: audio, visual, hands-on, etc.

4-The white board is a tool that can be used for all ages!

5-Interactive whiteboards are a great tool for distance learning. They can be connected and displayed for distant learning at more than one place around the world.

6-If you have limited computer use in your classroom, the white board allows many students to get involved instead of just one person at a computer.

7-Dr. Bell also says that the interactive whiteboard is a great thing to have for the constructivist educator. They are extremely adaptable and do not need additional software.

8-They are clean and attractive. No dry-erase markers, no chalk; simply the use of your finger or pen that comes with the interactive whiteboards.

9-This whiteboard makes it easy for student that have limited motor skills. Sometimes it's hard for students to use a mouse-this way, they can simply use their fingers.

10-It's INTERACTIVE! The teacher can be at the computer while the students are at the board. They are allowed to physically contribute their ideas.

11-Images and videos can easily be displayed on the whiteboard and students/teachers can mark on them or add text.

12-You can save any work that is done on the interactive whiteboard or print it.

13-Dr. Bell explains it as a "kid magnet". They are drawn to the board and are excited to use it whenever possible.

Research Article #1

For my research article, I came across archived information from the U.S. Department of Education. The title of the article is "Effects of Technology on Classrooms and Students". The specific people that conducted the project are Dr. Ram Singh (U.S. Department of Education) and Dr. Barbara Means (Education and Health Division of SRI International).

There were seven areas that it covered:

• Change in Student and Teacher Roles
• Increased Motivation and Self Esteem
• Technical Skills
• Accomplishment of More Complex Tasks
• More Collaboration with Peers
• Increased Use of Outside Resources
• Improved Design Skills/Attention to Audience

The "role-changing" for students that it talked about was basically that students change from passive to active when using technology. The students are actively making choices and thinking about what they're doing while evaluating the whole process. The teacher changes roles to more of a facilitator of the activity rather than giving direct instruction. When using technology, usually the activity is more student centered and the teacher is there to support.

Next the article discusses the practically universal report of increased motivation in students when using technology in the classroom. The motivation that was reported ranged from wanting to work on computer skills in general, to the sense of accomplishment students would feel from the immediate response of the technology. It also discusses the increase of student self-esteem when using technology, which I thought was interesting. Students became more confident as they learned the technology and saw what they were capable of when using technology. Students relate technology to the real world and realize that they can accomplish a lot in life simply by using technology.

The article briefly discusses technical skills: The students will learn basic technical skills by using technology. Even as technology changes in their future, students will have that base knowledge and be able to adapt as changes to technology are inevitable to occur in our culture. Students will also accomplish more complex task by using technology because of it's supports and capabilities.

The article also stated that students will work collaboratively to teach each other basic skills of technology. Students that are familiar with these skills are very willing to share their knowledge and help others learn. There is also an increased use of outside resources that was found when using technology such as telecommunications.

Finally, the article goes over how technology improves design skills and attention to audience. There is greater awareness about the audience from students when they're presenting a multimedia project because they want to see the peer reactions to their work with technology. There are many different applications students can choose when doing a multimedia project. They can decide which application they want depending on what they are focusing on and what the best way to show it would be. One negative to this is that the students are spending less time on the content of their project and spending more time on worrying about the minor details of the design, such as the font.

http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/effectsstudents.html

Blogging in My Classroom

I think that the main purpose of writing a blog is to share your thoughts, ideas, videos, pictures, podcasts, etc. with others. The keyword here is share. In my classroom, I could make a class blog with all of these aspects to be able to share with parents, other teachers, and the community. Although I would have to do most of the work of recording this information in the class blog, I definitely still want the students to be involved. For example, if we went on a field trip, I would have the students give me their feedback--by video or podcast--of what they learned on the trip. Another thing I could do is post pictures of the students in the classroom. I could write a description of what the students were working on and attach pictures to view.

I could also include my teaching philosophy & different things I am experiencing as a first year teacher. Sometimes, like students, parents view teachers as ONLY teachers. It can be weird or funny to see teachers out of school or know anything personal about them. I would want the parents to feel like they can get to know me a little more personally through the class blog, so I might include some personal information (my favorites, interests, activities, etc.). This way, they would know my interests and hopefully they feel like they could come to me with any questions. I could describe some of the professional developments we have so that parents will be aware that teachers constantly continue to strive to do their best job at teaching their children. I could also post current news about the school and/or flyers for upcoming events.

There really is a LOT of different, exciting, interesting things teachers can include in a class blog. I think one of the keys would be once you start it, stay consistent with your posts. This makes it more exciting for others to check out on a regular basis. Also I think it's important to "mix it up"--use of videos, podcasts, discussions, posts, pictures, etc. This way it shouldn't get boring for the viewer.

Pondering...

As I was thinking about what I wanted to write for this blog entry, not much came to mind. Then I started to think about what the class is all about: Technololgy & Literacy. There are several things we learned in class about how we could use technology with literacy: ipads, digital storybooks, the I-spy activity, software programs, etc. I'm wondering how teachers could use technology with literacy if they didn't have the resources in their district. I know most teachers would not go out & purchase an ipad just because they don't have resources and wanted to use it in their classroom. What are some other ways to be creative in using technology that wouldn't be expensive if there were limited resources? The only thing I could really come up with was buying a stereo with headphones for a listening center-but even that is around $60. Not saying that teachers absolutely couldn't afford some of these things, but what are some inexpensive options, if any?

My brain is a bit fried for this week-and it's only Tuesday! Let me know if anyone has suggestions!

Follow-Up

This is sort of a follow-up on another blog I posted recently. I was discussing having educational technology workshops available for teachers. Well, the Smart Board workshop was held in my room yesterday & only 5 teachers (including myself) were there for it. I thought it was also interesting that one was a kindergarten teacher, two were first grade teachers, and two second grade. This made me think about the upper grades and their interest in technology. Why was it that k-2 were at the workshop? All students can benefit from Smart Boards: k-12 and even college students. Again, frustrating that only 5 people showed.
The technology support person for our district was the one that gave the presentation. This workshop was mainly for the purpose of learning how to set up the Smart Board and how to download the software needed on your computer. I got the software all downloaded (finally!) and now I can actually play with it on my computer without having to hook it up to the Smart Board. I like this because I don't have to be at school to learn about the programs that I downloaded. I will just have to keep in mind different ways that students can interact with the actual board when I do hook it up and callibrate it.
I have seen Smart Board presentations before, but I didn't actually have a chance to interact with it myself. I am excited to try it out and am so thankful that one Smart Board (out of 2 in the building) is in my classroom. One of the bad things about only having 2 Smart Boards in the building is availability. If several people wanted to use it (hopefully!) we would have to come up with some sort of schedule and then worry about moving it out of someone else's room. Another thing I don't like about the Smart Boards we have is that the projector is not attached to the top. Because I have to use the infocus for the projector, it is easily uncallibrated if moved only a little bit and I know that my first graders will be bumping the infocus!

Okay, my rant on workshops/Smart Boards is over :) Hope everyone is having a great week!

Digital Storytelling

Last week in class we learned about the digital storytelling project and got to see a few examples. They were all done very differently and I liked how we got to see these differences because it shows that we can take many angles to our story. My favorite one, by far, was the wedding one where the audience found out in the end that the whole story was really about her husband's brother! I really want to try to think of something that clever for my story, but I know it won't be that easy. I also know that I will have to find a few days to work on it because I haven't done anything like this since my freshman or sophomore year in college. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to remember. It will definitely be a good re-learning experience. I also would like to have my digital story be something that I could show my first graders. I think they would enjoy it and I could have an extention activity afterwards, depending on what my story is. I also liked the different points of view we got to watch in the examples. That is going to be another huge part of my story-deciding which point of view I would like to use. All in all, it sounds to me like I have a lot to think about and get started on!!

Workshops

I think in one of my last blogs (or someone else's) we talked about getting teachers interested in using different technologies by having some kind of workshop for school buildings. These workshops could include how to use technology & also how to use it effectively in your classroom. Last week, the technology coordinator in my building sent out an email asking teachers to sign up for Smart Board training. Only THREE people responded!! It was myself, another 1st grade teacher, and a 2nd grade teacher. This was just crazy to me. I know that we only have 2 Smart Boards in our building, but they are portable. I guess I don't understand why teachers wouldn't want to at least attend a workshop to see what the Smart Board can do & then decide if they're interested in using it in their classroom. Maybe teachers think that whatever they're doing in their classrooms now is working for them, so why change it? I don't know what exactly the mindset is, but I now think that instead of only offering workshops for technology, they should be required! I don't really like the idea of forcing technology on teachers, but I want them to at least see and know what technology can do in their classroom. Most importantly, they should learn how it can greatly benefit the students. Hopefully when I find out more details about this training/workshop, I will be able to recruit more of my colleagues!

Hope everyone is having a great week...

Rentals Anyone?

It took me awhile to decide what I would write about for this week's blog. I started thinking about conferences this week and what I will be sending home with parents. Then I thought about how nice it would be if all of the families had a home computer (or easy access) and I could give them some educational websites to go to with their children. In my school, I am positive that most of my students don't have computers at home. From here, I started thinking about when I was an undergrad and what I would do if I (or any of my collegues) wanted to use technology for educational purposes. The CTLT of course! They have a wide variety of technology available for check out & the people that work there also have knowledge of how people can use it. Now that I'm working with students & their families, I'm wondering if there's any sort of rental system like the CTLT in the "real world". Please share if there is because I would really like to recommend it to parents!!

Digital Portfolios

Next week, we will be having conferences. My team always works together on everything and in the past they have put together portfolios to show at conferences. There are six different areas of the portfolios. Within these six subjects, we put 4 pieces of student's work in the portfolios throughout the year. This way, the parents can see how much progress their child has made in each of the areas throughout the year. (Hopefully this all makes sense!)



Anyways, I've been thinking a lot about different ways to show "portfolio-type" work digitally. Something that came to mind immediately, and maybe obviously, was taking pictures throughout the year of different activities we do in & out of the classroom. I know when I was in elementary school, the school counselor would take lots of pictures and videos of each classroom every year and when we had our 5th grade graduation, we got to view all of the pictures throughout our elementary career. It was so awesome! She would also video-tape us & ask questions about ourselves. We got invited back to our elementary school when we were graduating from high school to watch the slideshow again! It was just as fun when we got older to see ourselves in elementary school. Something that I wish could have been different about this experience is that we could actually have gotten a copy of the slideshow so we could come back and watch it any time we wanted. I would love to do something like this for my students so they could have it forever. I could take videos and pictures and put them on a CD for parents at the end of the year. I would also somehow like to include student work that they complete throughout the school year. I know it will be a lot of work, but I'm really excited!



Can anyone else think of anything more I could add to the digital portfolio?

Google Earth

Last week was super hectic at school & I didn't get a chance to write so I'm writing two blogs this week to make up for it! For social studies, my first graders are learning about maps & globes. I think it would be awesome to show them Google Earth by using the infocus projector. I've been looking through materials for map-type worksheets and using Google Earth would be a great follow-up activity. We could look up the location of our school and talk about what's located around us. I think they would also be interested to see different parts of the world. I know that I love to Google Earth places around the world, so I'm sure my students would think it was awesome! It's also a good source to look at different landforms. I could even take a screen shot of our school and print off copies. Then we could make a key together and decide what kinds of symbols we could use to describe what's around our school. After I test out this lesson, I will have to write another blog explaining how well (or not so well) it went.

This past week has been very stressful and overwhelming for me as I finished setting up my classroom. Today was my first day of teaching. I didn't realize it until now, but there is not enough time in one day! It feels good to finally have the job I've been working towards for so long. Teaching is definitely a lot more work than I thought, even with all of my practicums and student teaching.

I've been going around my building observing the use of technology in classrooms. What I found the most use of, with no surprise, were teachers using an elmo. As strange as it seems, kids are actually engaged by the elmo. I'm not sure if this is because it's something different that they don't get to see all the time or because they actually use it hands-on, but I could clearly see that the students were focused. This led me to thinking about all the teachers that have elmos just sitting in their rooms gathering dust. Why not use it? It doesn't hurt to try. It doesn't even have to be a transparency-it's just a paper magnified so the whole class can see. I was also thinking of literacy centers and thought of a way to incorporate the elmo into poetry. The students could have a poem and put in on the elmo to point to & read. There could be 3-5 students in that center group and some of them could be pointing/reading on the paper while the others are following along and reading as it's projected. I'm sure there are many other creative ideas that have been done with the elmo. I'm still trying hard to have a TPACK mindset and not a technocentric one!

My Exciting News

Today, I found out that I got a first grade teaching position!! I couldn't be more excited, anxious, nervous and thankful! I start next Monday (9/20), so the rest of this week will be very busy getting my classroom set up. I am interested to get to know the curriculum and the first grade team I will be working with.

I have a very good friend who also teaches first grade in another city in Iowa and I'm already thinking about ideas for ways our classes could collaborate on activities. I truly learned a lot last week from the TPACK approach, so right now I am focusing on the content. There is a lot to think about right now, but I am hoping that eventually my friend and I can work something out for our students. I am also very excited to learn more in 556 about technology & literacy and how I can effectively use them in my new classroom.

Integrating Technology in General

Integrating technology into the classroom can be a struggle for a lot of teachers. Especially if teachers are older, they are sometimes afraid to try to do anything using technology that they aren't familiar with. If El Ed students don't have educational technology classes in college, they too might be skeptical about integrating technology into lessons.

If the teacher can keep in mind the objective of the lesson they want to plan/teach and the standards that they are trying to meet, integrating technology should be easier. On the first day of 556, we used Wordle. There can be numerous ways that this could be integrated into a lesson. This particular application shouldn't take too long, as some teachers might fear. Integrating technology doesn't have to be a long process. It can be something as simple as listening to a story on a CD. When the teacher begins to feel more comfortable, maybe he/she could take on a bigger project using technology.

Maybe the answer to getting more teachers to use technology is to have workshops in schools about different ways to integrate technology into the curriculum. Any other thoughts on ways to help teachers feel more comfortable with technology in the classroom?

Skyping in the Classroom

Skype is an amazing technology tool that is convenient for many reasons. When I went to Puerto Rico for student teaching, I couldn't use my cell phone, so Skype is how I contacted my family & friends back in the States.

For classroom use, I think Skype would be a great way to show students how to connect with other cultures and people without physically going outside the room! The teacher could contact another teacher in another state (or even country) and set up an activity/lesson that each of them could do with their students using Skype to communicate.

One idea might be to partner students up in the different classrooms and ask questions about each other's culture. Before the Skype session, each teacher could talk to the class about what kinds of questions they might want to ask, what appropriate questions would be, etc. This could be sort of a "mini" project with several lessons before and after the Skype session. After the students were done Skyping with the other classroom students, the teacher could compile a general list of the answers the students found as a whole-group lesson. This might lead into a book they'll read about this culture and they could compare the book to what they learned from their Skype partners.

One problem I can think of is downloading Skype at school. The school might not have enough computers for each student. If this was the case, the class could work as a whole group on one computer and Skype with just one person. Then, the teacher could talk about the Skype session immediately after Skyping.

There are definitely many, many possibilities for using Skype in the classroom. I think that students would think it was a fun activity, and also meaningful as they see how it connects to literature.