Digital Blog Post #I

Hello to Chapter 4 Everyone,

First off this chapter jumps into academic content (what to teach). Like the book says of course teachers have to follow state and national guidelines, but these guidelines do not give teachers lessons word for word. And no teacher should be able to teach word for word because not every student can learn the way that lesson is presented. Teachers should be able to take guidelines and make something that is individually equipped to teach their set of students. And this is where technology can come in at such a useful time. It is well known that teachers, of all people, do not have the most time on their hands. Technology gives teachers a gateway to lessons that have already been worked up and just need a personal touch. Of course new/original lessons must be made up occasionally by the individual teacher, but who says you can put your own spin to someone else's lesson. The World Wide Web is filled with sites for teachers to find and display lessons.

Second it jumps into teaching methods, goals, and procedures (how to teach). While a teachers answer the question "What to teach", the can find themselves finding out their "how to teach". For every teacher their goals should be why they are performing the lesson. Methods are the ways that teachers relay the lesson to the students. Procedures are done during the lesson by teachers scheduling and grouping students and their decision of how much time will be spent on a lesson. These all support lesson development which is supported by different types of technology such as:

• ·         Presentation software
• ·         Visual thinking software
• ·         Web-based diagram- and flowchart-making tools
• ·         Teacher- developed websites
• ·         Threaded discussions and email
• ·         Podcasts, blogs, and wikis
• ·         Interactive software
• ·         WebQuests
• ·         Intelligent tutoring systems



Creative Commons Licence Photo By: Terry Freedman

Two cool Tech Tools I saw were web resources and apps for lesson planning and teaching. Which hits back to what I was saying about teachers not having much time on their hands this opens up some much more approaches. Some teachers feel as if they have little time or experience for other approaches and these resources show teachers examples and gives them a feel for what they're going for. I made a diagram of these in Gliffy but you can only save it as a link if you do not pay for the subscription.

Resources:

Gonzalez, Ivana. (2016) Gliffy Diagram. '

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Blog Post #H

Just a brief update to where we are in this semester there is 9 days till Halloween, 32 days until Thanksgiving, 50 days till our final, 64 sleeps till Christmas, and 74 days until the New Year. And in case you were wondering I did not count these days from the top of my head I used the great device of TECHNOLOGY…

Okay so with the opener out of the way here is my feedback from this week's chapter.

For the most part any teacher can say that their students are diverse and learn in different ways. Technology is just as diverse and can teach in many different ways as well. And that is why Technology, Teaching, Students, and Learning go hand and hand so well! The technologies listed in the book are just a small part of what students can take advantage of:

• ·         Handcrafted videos
•       Video sharing and hosting websites
• ·         Webcasts
• ·         Digital storytelling and digital art making
• ·         Digital cameras
• ·         Digital video recorders
• ·         Digital video editing software
• ·         IPods
• ·         Podcasts and vodcasts

Multimedia is combining multiple media such as: text, data, voice, picture, and video- in a single application or technology. This allows teachers to take a lesson and distribute it into every type of learners way of learning whether they be visual, auditory, read-write, or kinesthetic. This to me is GOLD. And when I reference Gold I don’t mean that plain ole Gold. 

"Plain Ole Gold"
Creative Common Photo by: AJC1

I mean the beautiful Gold. Because when a teacher can teach one lesson that speaks to all of their students that is just beautiful to me.

"The Beautiful Gold"
Creative Commons Photo by: Moyann_Brenn

As said in the book there are Advantages and Disadvantages of PowerPoint and just like power point I think these points can apply to many other media presentations so I figured I would add to them.

Advantages:

• gives short key points 
• gives a visual for class presentations 
• easy and available to most computers
• many media points can be combined like pictures, text, charts, and graphs
• if allowed students can learn to present themselves
• students get to learn from other students

Disadvantages:

• points may not be useful when less in depth
• students may tune out during presentations by students or teachers
• teachers must spend time learning the material before presenting it
• Presentation may be so busy that students have a hard time understanding
• if students present themselves they may not grasp the whole concept that was meant to be learned
• students may come off hard to understand when presenting

All in all I believe that the Advantages of being able to use technology for teaching out ways the disadvantages because of technology being so versatile.

References: 

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Blog Post #G

Hello Everyone,

My last Post was almost a month ago and man do I miss y'all!!! Or at least blogging to anyone who is reading this… Hey Professor Coleman, thanks for being my number one fan!!!

So let's get started. To start off with such a powerful passage from the book I will say that Multicultural Education is something that I admire dearly in our country. We have come such a long way from our segregated ways and it’s a beautiful thing to witness. In my opinion, and I'm sure in others, with our multicultural education now we are able to produce the best of the best students all and all. Everyone has an equal chance at learning and succeeding. On top of educating by paper we are now able to extend our teaching by using technology. Students are able to comprehend diversity in the greatest of ways because technology allows them to get a better perspective.

My next point I want to hit is DI and UDI. These two ways of education in the book seem to be focusing on students with special education needs. But to me this is important through out every classroom. Every student has a certain way of learning and it is important for teachers to provide a curriculum that allows students to soak up as much information as they can. As said in the book creating unique learning experiences for individual students is not quick or easy to do during a fast moving and demanding school schedule. But If teachers set a aside time to implement at least one to two unique learning experiences they will in my opinion have more success within their students.

Putting my age out there… haha… In my early grade school days we were doing away with chalk boards and integrating whiteboards. Soon after this move someone came up with the smartest idea ever. Well at least to me it was at the time and still now. Interactive Whiteboards (Tech Tool 10.1) are very effective for students who respond well to visual, auditory, and hands-on learning activities. Being able to have worksheets, textbooks, and PowerPoints on a interactive white board gives students a more a hands on experience. This tool saves time for teachers when writing notes and also is very valuable to students who miss class and are able to download and print slides from the whiteboard. This bit of technology has been used since I was in first grade all the way up to my third year in college it is so versatile! Anyone can use it and learn....

Creative Commons License Photo By: Mrs ENill

Overall this chapter showed many ways that teachers are able to insert technology to help benefit the diverse society of education. My main goal as a teacher is to help each child the best that I can, and there is no doubt in my mind that today's technology will help me succeed that goal.

References:

Gonzalez, I. (2016, October 16). Ivana Gonzalez. Retrieved October 16, 2016, from https://worditout.com/word-cloud/1901672 

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.