Online Courses

So after all of the time I spent learning about incorporating technology into learning, I have realized that even though I was raised in a highly technological age, I am much better not using technology to learn.  I took my first online course this term and I am finding it very difficult to navigate.  I have found that the conversation in classrooms gives instant feedback and allows for a lot more open discussion.  Online learning involves a much more strict and less flexible conversation structure because it seems to require a large amount of information all at once and then a long time waiting for any response.  It also seems hard to clarify thoughts because I can't see faces and see expressions or hear intonation to have a better idea of what people really mean.

I think I am too old school to learn in this new school.  I can incorporate technology into the classroom, but I think face to face learning is more impacting, at least for me.

The final Blog post for this course

This class was such a great experience.  I thought that I was going to be board and not learn anything that I didnt already know.  Although we did cover a good deal of things I did know how to do, I was really happy to learn about things like the online k-12 conferences and all of the digital manipulative that are out there for all different activities. 

I like having a blog for my education work and hope to continue posting throughout some of my other courses.

I also am thrilled to know how to put together a Web Quest.  I know that I will use that in the future without a doubt. 

Incorporating technology into the classroom is a lot easier than i thought it would be and a whole lot less overwhelming too.  You don't have to use technology for everything but being able to use it in a way that makes sense to your students will be a lot easier for me.

Thank you for everything Prof. Chamberlain!

Students and Plagarism

In today's world it is so easy to do plagiarism even if you don't mean to.  There is so much information at your fingertips it can be easy to forget to cite a source.  However there is and always will be a problem with students claiming others works to be their own because they don't want to take the time to do it themselves.
As a teacher I want to be able to know my students work is their own because grading the work done by someone else means your student hasn't learned it.  There are always the options of cutting and pasting parts of papers into a search tool online and seeing if the work comes up as someone else.  There is also a time tested way of knowing your students work.  If something seems off about a paper or assignment... it is most likely because it is. 
Ways to fight it off might be to do portions of the assignments in class and trying incorporate tasks into the papers or projects that could not be accomplished unless there is an understanding from the student. 

Overall this subject is such a taboo in my opinion because everyone knows it happens but no body wants to admit that it does. And even worse, no one wants to accuse a student only to find out they were wrong about it.

I think what a teacher needs to do is just be aware of how easy it might be to fool them and to always be on guard.  

Teen access and Parental involvement

I read an article that studied how much teens really use technology these days, and although the figures were not surprising, I was still a bit annoyed with what I read.  I understand that technology is everywhere and use of the internet and using cell phones are very important in our society, I feel like parents are using that as an excuse to not do their job.
If you are a parent, it is your job to be the gate keeper for your children.  If you buy your teen a cell phone, you need to take the time to be aware of the calls being made, and the text messages being sent and received.  I don't care how responsible you think your 13 -17 year old is, if they are given complete freedom in communicating with people, they are not going to be communicating in a way that you would probably approve of.  Again... I am talking about 'the rule' and not 'the exception'.  I am sure there might be a teen here and there who might have the ability to police what he/she says and is completely respectful in all communications... but I have yet to meet that teen.  
According to my article, 59% of teens between  13-15 have their own cell phone, and 74% between 16-17 have them. I didn’t get my first cell phone until I was 20 years old.  I am only 26. I know that things change very quickly but I feel like it is important that the people using the technology are responsible enough to use it, and I don’t think that is the case.  Growing up, I did not have a cell phone, there was a land line and my parents answered the phone.  They were the gate keepers to who my sister and I had contact with.  They knew who we were talking with and where we were going, for the most part.  When we were out with friends and we wanted to go someplace else, we had to go home and ask our parents if it was okay, now a child can call from their cell phone and the parent really has no idea where their kid might actually be calling from.
I understand that giving a child a cell phone or their own lap top might be more convenient for a parent but its allowing for much too much freedom at too young of an age.  And as we see from all the bullying that is happening via text and via the internet... its true.  Children cannot handle that much freedom.  They need to be taught how to control themselves and how to interact in situations.  My article talked mostly about teenagers, but I want to make the point that kids as young as 6 and 7 have their own cell phones… and that’s not event hat uncommon.  My nephew just got his first cell phone when he turned 8.  I was astonished and still can’t wrap my head around why a 3^rd grade child would possibly need their own cell phone. 
In regards to internet use, I can honestly say that it is amazing to see that a 7 year old can have a better understanding of how to use a mobile device or computer than I do, and I also thing that it is wonderful that they can command such an understanding, I just hope that parents don’t mistake their understanding on how to use a program for maturity and social understanding. 
Recently I was on Facebook and browsing the pictures of a current Pop singer, and I was STUNNED when I began reading some of the comments that were made about pictures of some of her young fans.  There were amazingly cruel words written about two young girls… by other young girls.  Making fun of everything from their hair, weight, teeth to clothes.  I know that girls are mean, but that doesn’t give anyone the right to say such mean things about people.  The girls making comments probably have never met the girls in the pictures which made it feel safe to them to say what they probably thought was funny, because to them, the people in the picture aren’t real, they are just people in a picture.  But putting myself in the place of the girls in the picture, I can’t imagine how hurt I would have been.  I can only imagine that they were incredibly excited to have been posted up on their singing idols page, only to be verbally beaten down by a faceless entourage of comments.  Policing our children is SO important.  And not only policing our own children but being aware of what others are doing around us.  

This article was punblished for the National Crime Prevention Council and put together by Harris Interactive.  Released February 28, 2007 By the National Crime Prevention Council.  The link to the article I used is:

http://www.ncpc.org/resources/files/pdf/bullying/Teens%20and%20Cyberbullying%20Research%20Study.pdf

How can you provide equal access to the digital world to all learners?

I think that answering the quesiton of how to provide 'equal' access to a student is difficult.  As a teacher it is impossible to know everything about what every child in your classroom has access to.  It is more important in my opinion to give each student appropriate access.  There is only so much a teacher can do, and in that a teacher can only manage what kinds of access each student has while they are in the classtoom. 

I know growing up we had a classroom calender that had each student on it with rotating days, and when it was your turn you were able to go on the computer during a certain portion of the day and play things like number munchers or oregon trail.  I thought that that worked really well when I was in school and think that the structure of having different turns for computer or technology usage would work well in most classroom settings.  I do also believe though that since comptuer technology and internet usage is going to be so much more prevelant in our classrooms that it would be silly not to use computers and internet in many different way in lessons.

There is a way to provide acess to students while not just giving them turns on the computer.  I think that showing them how to use the internet in ways that can help learning is a great way to help kids understand that computers are for more than just social media. 

I also think that it would be helpful, especially for older classrooms, for teachers to occasionally stay after school and allow for students to use computers to do word processing or research for school projects of just to help them use the computers and different technologies for homework.  I think that a teacher will have to gauge each class differently and because of that I dont think that there is a way to ensure equal access, but I definitely think that it is up to the teacher to be able to include technology into lessons and in doing so creating opportunities for students to be strong digital learners.

Web Conference

I have found the Web Conference site to be super interesting.  It is really cool to me seeing how other teachers integrate technology into their classrooms.  For this assignment I watched a conference hat showed how two teachers that met through social media worked together to combine their two clasrooms over the internet.  They worked together and had lesson plans that they had their students work on together.  I hadn't even thought about using Skype in the classroom in that manner!   The two teachers also talked about how they had learned so much while trying to introduce these types of media to their students and how every time they have a new class things change so much.  I think that it is so fun and interesting because when I was in school we had a class from the other side of the country that we were Pen-Pals with.  This is the new generations version of pen pals, and its even better because the communication is in real time.  I think that finding new and exciting ways to teach kids how to use these media devices responsibly is such a great idea and after watching that conference I have been pretty excited to sit back down to watch another one to see what other cool ideas have been put into use recently!

Immigration or integration

So I have been trying to figure out if being a Digital Immigrant means that I need to integrate more technology into my ideas of teaching, or if it means that I need to just overhaul my previous ideas of education.  I think that my generation is in a very unique position in that I can see both side of the fence. By no means would I consider myself a Digital Native because I still remember life without a computer.  When we got out first computer I was about 13 and it came in 4 or 4 boxes, all with cow spots on them... it was so freaking cool to see.  I also remember listening to the radio and watching TV commercials and slowly seeing website URLs become more and more prevalent.  One day I even said to me dad that I thought that 'this Internet thing could be really popular'... then getting AOL... I kind of miss the dial tone of connecting to AOL... but not really.  Now I just purchased a computer a couple months ago that I can connect to the internet while I eat lunch in the parking lot, I also have an iPod, an Android phone, and spend 9 hours a day in front of my computer at work on a number of different software programs and internet based networks.  I have a great deal of experience with technology and am capable of learning things quickly, but still continue to romanticize the idea of teaching without the current forms of digital media.  At times I even catch myself day dreaming about when I didn't have a cell phone... but at the same time... I could not function very well without being able to e-mail, text or facebook from my phone.

So what do I do now?  Bring internet and computer based programs into the classroom?  Or do I find ways to make games from basic materials that dont involve a power word or a battery? I know that many would say, "What about a mix of both?" and as much as I feel like that sounds good, I don't know how well I would be able to accomplish that in the classroom.  Is integrating technology into the classroom walking a fine line between electronics and power free? Or should it be more of a full immersion type of move?

And so it begins

Blogging is something that is super new to me.  I am taking this class to learn about new ways to teach in the digital age and also to have a better understanding of the tools that are currently out there for students to use.  Blogs are one of the things that I knew existed but have never found a use for.  I guess this will be a really interesting class for me if it starts off like this. 
I am currently working towards my M. Ed and hopefully soon will be working in a classroom where I don't make a fool of myself trying to figure out how to use all these new internet gadgets. 

Heres to hoping. 

Class time

This is my wonderful first blog.