Intro to Tech

To quote a great movie: “I guess that’s what happens in the end, you start thinking about the beginning” (Mr. & Mrs. Smith). I find that to be true with every course I take. And not just because most professors ask for your thoughts on the course as a whole, but because it helps me reflect and discover any paradigm shifts that occurred in one single semester. Upon entering this class, I will admit, I thought I might be slightly bored. I know more than the average person about technology and I was hoping that “Intro to Technology” wasn’t another name for “Computers for Dummies.” Surprisingly, not only did I learn A LOT more than I thought I would, but even if I already knew how to use something, I was able to learn how to utilize that tool in a way that will benefit in a classroom. There were so many things that I will be able to take away from this course and actually use in real life. One thing that I have realized, oddly enough because I did my research paper on the topic, is that through this weekly blogging, my writing has gotten better. My grammer, punctuation, capitilization and short hand words have all improved. I can actually hit spell check before posting a blog without having it underline tons of stuff in red!!! Yay for me!! 

Podcasting

Podcasting was another one of those terms that I had yet to hear about before entering this class. I saw the word “Podcasts” in my ITunes, but I never knew what it meant, never cared to explore it. Then I realized the educational benefits to it. For example, when students write a research paper knowing that the only person who will read it is their teacher, they will not put as much effort into the paper as they would if they knew it would be broadcasted online. All people, children included, take pride in their work (or at least, they should). Knowing that something could be seen (or heard in this case) by millions of people, including family, friends, peers, other teachers, and complete strangers makes you want to work your hardest on whatever the task is. Another way that podcasting could be beneficial is that it could help cut down on plagerism. How likely is a student to buy a paper, copy/paste without citing, or steal someone else’s thoughts/words when they know that it will be podcasted? I have a feeling that knowing it will be podcasted online will make students think twice before cheating.

**Using Garage Band was probably the highlight of my week. Not having a Mac computer, I have never experienced Garage Band. I know that if I did have a Mac, I would probably have made my own mix tape using Garage Band by now though….

back in the day

Times were simpler in the days before technology expanded to the extent it is now: computers, cell phones, ipods, etc. Now, I didn’t say easier, or more fun (because that certainly isn’t true). But times were definitely simpler. Aspiring teachers took classes based upon the basic skills of teaching; behavior and strategy wise. Nowadays, it is a requirement for teachers to take some sort of technology class…and for good reason too. Since students’ lives are so technology based, we need to keep up in order not to lose them. Unfortunately, that means learning complicated computer based programs that our students could probably do in their sleep. The funny thing is, this will never change. Even the students in school now, that know so much about technology (and probably make fun of us teachers who seem so computer illiterate to them), will have to start at square one when they begin to learn “how to become teachers.” Technology is growing at such a rapid rate, that the programs they use now and the strategies that we spend so much time learning, will be out of use before you know it. As I was saying, times were definitely simpler. No learning about computers, wikis, blogs, podcasts, ipods, or smartboards. My only concern is that teaching will become less about learning and more about being able to use cool ‘technology toys.’ We need to make sure that we are still attracting the right group of people to teach our future children of America; those who love to teach not those who love to teach technology.

p.s. Although this blog may seem anti-technology at the moment, I am very much for the intergration of technology into our school system. It was just one of those pondering moments.

PowerPoint us in the right direction

As I have mentioned before, PowerPoint is one of my favorite programs on the computer. The reason for that is probably because I know its potential. I took a class on Microsoft PowerPoint as a sophmore in high school. Each week we created a PowerPoint presentation and then presented it every Friday on the various topics that were assigned to us. It was then that I learned how to: use animation, use little wording and not read off the slides, make slides visually appealing…basically all of the things that we discussed in class that teach you how to present a PowerPoint, not utilize PowerPoint for your teaching. It wasn’t until junior year of college that I learned there were other ways to use PowerPoint rather than just putting info on slides and standing up to discuss your findings/information. That is why, for the past 3 or 4 years, PowerPoint has been my favorite program, because I learned how to use it in a way that was helpful to teachers, not business-folk. It is a great way to show your students that PowerPoint is not just “presenting,” since that is the idea that most students have come to believe. I absolutely love using PowerPoint for Jeopardy, it is such a creative idea. Especially if you have the blank template, that makes things easier. I am excited to see what other fun and useful things I can do with PowerPoint in the years to come.

Bloggedy Blog BLog Blog

Upon entering this class, Blogging had no educational meaning to me.  The only type of blogging I knew about was Livejournal.  When I was in college, I had a personal blog, as did my friends, that kept me connected with people on a daily basis.  It was a great way to update friends that went to other colleges on my life at Geneseo.  Even after starting this blog for class, which was similar to the blog I used to have except talking about class instead of my life, I didn’t make the educational connection until now.  This week’s class and readings showed me just what I can do to utilize blogs in an educational setting.  I thought it was great how the students were able to use blogs to communicate with other schools.  In college, one of my classes became pen pals (e-mail pals?) with a 4th grade class in the same county, communicating through e-mail.  We wrote in a Word document, e-mailed it to their teacher, she gave it to the student, the student added to the word document, and the teacher e-mailed it back to us, and the cycle started over again.  That sounds complicated, huh?  Looking back, it would have been much much much easier if we had used a blog, and just added to the blog or commented on what our pen pal (blog-pal?) wrote.

Even putting the class website together as a blog is something I never would have thought of, but its definitely something that I will use.  Websites (unless there is a comment/contact section) never allow for discussion or comments.  To be able to post the students’ work and have people comment on it is phenomenal; such a self-esteem booster.  Teachers could even use the blog as a place for students to creatively write, no judgements, or corrections on spelling/grammer.  I’ve even noticed reading some classmates’ blogs that people get caught up in the typing when you really have something on your mind, usually causing multiple spelling/grammer errors.  Using a computer, spelling and grammer become pushed into the back of your mind as you let loose all of the thoughts that are being held hostage in your brain.  Since typing is much quicker than writing (well, for most of us), allowing students to type rather than write gives them an opportunity to let their mind run wild for a while, rather than consciously thinking about what word they are slowly writing next.  To me, this is a great way to get students to learn to love to write.

Who is teaching?

Something that was mentioned right at the end of class during our discussion of Web 2.0 really struck a chord with me.  Instead of the teacher standing in front of the classroom and lecturing, we are now presented with all of this new technology.  Is this really a good thing though?  If we don’t know what to do with it, it can be a very dangerous prospect i feel.

Though I rarely knew a student who actually read the ENTIRE textbook (even what wasn’t required), textbooks have an ending.  They have restrictions as to what you are learning.  For a child to be able to explore whatever most interests them about a topic is great.  Then again, it can be dangerous.  Say for example, in a high school or middle school class the students are told to research a particular person in history.  After writing a paper, the students will include their resources on where they retrieved this information.  The information that the child is learning could be completely false.  Unless the information they are writing is completely obvious (like the lice/holocaust situation) the teacher will most likely have no clue.  Her students could be walking away from class with a bunch of incorrect information.  Don’t get me wrong, I am all for integrating technology into the classroom.  But until we can figure out a safe way of controlling what our students are researching (possibly giving them certain sites that they are restricted to when doing research that we know contain true facts) then I think the Internet shouldn’t be used as a research tool.  If we continue to use the Internet as our only source of reading/researching, what will happen to the thousands of books in the library?  Why would we even need a library; why not just have a room filled with computers and call it the Research Lab…?  Books may be restricting, but is it better to be restricted to accurate information or given an unlimited source of questionable facts?

Technology at its finest

Today I experienced one of the Internet’s most annoying features.  You know, when you’re at an important part of your Internet search and all of a sudden that box pops up that says “Internet Explorer is shutting down – – ‘Send error report’ or ‘Don’t send error report.'”  I think that box is dreadful.  I was about 47 minutes through that one hour Will Richardson speech when that happened to me.  Of course it couldn’t happen 13 minutes later when I had finished watching the video.  Personally, I think that the video was very poorly made and I couldn’t hear/see what was going on very well.  So, afterwards I decided to read parts of Will’s blog, since I am more of a visual person than an audio person anyways.  When you click on ‘ed blogs,’ it’s amazing how much information is in there.  This can be so helpful to a teacher who is interested in learning more about how to use technology in the classroom but doesn’t know where/how to start.  I think that every school needs someone like Will to present to the school’s educators and give tutorials on technology in the classroom.  Our society is becoming more and more technology based…why not our classrooms as well?

Growing Up Online

To anyone who hasn’t watched the PBS special Growing Up Online yet, you definitely should, because I just finished watching it and it is so mind-boggling; in a good way.

I would like to point out that the video showed a teacher who commented on the fact that we need to “entertain” students.  This baffled me.  I understand incorporating technology into our teaching for the sake of benefiting our students’ learning, but we shouldn’t feel as though we need to use technology just to entertain our students.  Students are in school to learn, not to be entertained.  If we felt it necessary to “entertain” the students with our teaching, then we should be rapping/singing our lessons instead of lecturing.  We should be break-dancing while reading aloud.  Our first and foremost concern should be making sure the students are learning as much as they can.  Technology should be an added bonus that makes the teaching process and the learning experience easier on both teachers and students. 

And another thing:  While technology can help make the learning process easier, it should only make it easier for students to understand, not easier on them personally.  If that makes any sense.  We should view technology as another way to present the material, not necessarily as a shortcut to find the answers; which I’m afraid is how most students view it.  Looking up answers online, copying/pasting to write papers, and using Spark-notes instead of reading is not what students should be doing, although unfortunately its a known fact that they do.  To quote one of the students in the PBS video: “I can’t remember the last time I read a book.”  As a teacher, that comment is devastating to hear.  I was watching Rachael Ray this week and there was a segment on “Re-dos,” talking about what people would re-do in their life.  One of the assistants on the show confessed that in college he bought a paper online and submitted it as his own.  Some schools have programs to find out when things like this happen, but what about the schools that don’t?  Or what about when students outsmart these programs and can suddenly get away with getting an A on work that really isn’t their own…?