My Experience in Blogging

Throughout this semester, I have enjoyed blogging. I have liked writing my own blog and I have also liked having blog buddies. I think that it was beneficial to have 2 blog buddies because it gave me 2 specific people to collaborate with. I think the blog buddies was beneficial, rather than having to look at everyone in the class individual blog pages. I think the blog was helpful and it gave me a way to reflect and journal about the class. The blog was the main homework assignment that I enjoyed doing.

As a teacher I could see myself using a blog. Being a future Early Childhood/ Elementary Education teacher, I could see using a blog for the parents more so than the students. I would use it as a resource for the parents to stay up to date and see what we are doing in our class. A blog would be used similar to a newsletter. One benefit to a blog is that you can include pictures, videos, and songs where you cannot do that in a paper handout sent home. Also it would be a paperless form of communication and in the go green society this would be beneficial as well.

Blogging can be used in many different ways. For the parents or students depending on the age level or grade level. This would fit into the UDL approach because it would help teachers reach all their students and there learning needs. Teachers can use blogs in many different ways and it is a very valuable tool for a teacher.

digital stories

Digital stories are very useful in a classroom. They are a great tool to use to help your students learn different material. They would be very useful to incorporate many different learning styles into your teaching. just through one digital story you are incorporating musical, verbal, and visual learning styles. Then you can incorporate many other learning styles as well depending on the material. They are great when dealing with UDL becaue they provide so many oppurtunities to reach every learning style and to help each student learn. I have no expereince usign digital sotries in a classroom or seeing them used but i feel they could be a great tool. i hope to use them in my future classrooms. they are very useful and depending on the age group of the students they would be a great tool for students to make as projects and for assignments. I think students would really enjoy them and get really into it.

http://vocaroo.com/?media=v1p9MTnRWG9M9mbg2&recipient=adicke3@students.towson.edu

Chapters 5 and 6

Here is my vocarro on chapters 5 and 6







Ashley

NETS-S Standards

The standard that I think is most important is critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. While this standard is the most important, all of the standards are very important and should all be Incorporated into a classroom. I feel it is important for students to have critical thinking skills and continue to strengthen these skills. I want my students to be effective problem solvers, decision makers, and the ability to think critically. These are all very important. Students need to be able to investigate and ask questions effectively. it is important for the students to know different processes and be bale to determine the best way to solve a problem. These type of skills are used throughout a classroom environment all the time and they are used most in the subjects of science and math. I would have my students do math and science activities in order to strengthen and work on this standard. All the NETS-S Standards are important and should be integrated into a classroom setting or environment.

Technology

Technology has been a big part of my educational life. There were many classes when technology was used and it was very beneficial to me as a visual and audio learner. My high school had smart boards in every classroom, we had lots of computers in classrooms throughout the years. Overhead projectors were used when I was in elementary school and now we use Elmo's. PowerPoint I feel though has been the most used technology. Many classes my teachers and professors used PowerPoint's to guide their lectures and used PowerPoint's to get their ideas and points across to us. It helped me as a student, because I'm a visual learner so seeing the words and pictures as the teacher talked helped me retain the information.

I feel technology is a very important part of our lives and this is true in a classroom and school setting as well. Technology is very beneficial in so many ways. It is hard to use a lot of it in young elementary school grades, which is what i want to teach. But it is still possible. In the pre-k class I am interning in now we use the Promethean board, PowerPoint, star fall and microphones on a daily basis. technology is a large part of our everyday lives and this is true in a classroom as well.

Digital Native

A digital native is a person who has grown up and has been surrounded by technology. They are accustomed to it. While a digital immigrant would be someone who has not been surrounded by technology and had to become familiar with it as well as learn how to use it. a digital native is the kind of person who figures out new technology through trial and error and experimenting with it. A digital immigrant would be the kind of person who refers to an owners manual to use it. This is very funny to me. I have never used an owners manual before and that would never be the first thing on my mind to refer to. while my parents would open an owners manual to figure out how to work something. I would consider myself a digital native, i have always been around technology and it is second nature to me to use it. I am always using my blackberry and laptop. I can't imagine life without technology. I am a digital native. This is important to know when teaching because a teacher will have to differentiate their teaching for these different groups of students. A teacher needs to be aware that all the students come to the table with different experiences and knowledge and this is the same when it come to technology. a teacher needs to be aware of this and accepting to each group.

back channel

I class last week we used back channel to have a discussion about technology in the classroom as well as the concept of using back channel in class. It was a way for us to talk about our topic without taking time out of class to discuss it. We had a separate conversation through back channel, while the professor was teaching and discussing other topics. This was a distraction i felt to focus on both. I felt like I was sucked into the back channel dissuasion and didn't focus on what the professor was saying. I think the back channel was a good way to say the way you truly felt because you didn't have to verbally say what was on your mind. There was none of the pressure of sharing your opinions out loud to the whole class. I think this would be very effective for some individuals.
Back channel can be very useful, but at the same time it can be a distraction. I think that it would depend ion the students and the class as a whole. The teacher will have to decide if it will work effectively with the group of students. It might be that it wouldn't be effective during a teaching/lecturing moment, but rather it would be effective during an individual work time. This will be a judgement the teacher makes. It is good for the student that is shy or has anxiety when speaking out loud and sharing ideas. It can also be a large distraction and the sound of typing can be a distraction as well.
Back channel can be used in a variety of ways in a classroom. It can be used when the students are working independently and the students can help each other and ask questions without being a distraction to the class. It can be used to share ideas about something before learning the subject and the teach can use it to assess prior knowledge. Then once the students learn the concept the teacher can pull the conversation back out and they can reflect on what their original ideas were. This would also show the growth of the students. It can also be used how we used it in class to have a discussion but to not take the time out of class to have a verbal/ oral discussion. We were able to get more done and multitask using back channel.

Technology Birth till Today

Technology has not always been a part of my life. Its hard to remember days without computers, ipods and many forms of technology. When I was young I remember going to the computer lab in elementary school and the computers were large, very simplistic, and not very colorful like the current day computers. Then I have been lucky to have a computer in my house for as long as I can remember. My dad was very into computers and technology and worked for IBM, so we had a computer early on. There were the days of dial-up Internet connections and the days when the computer and the phone were on the same line. Dial-up connections took soo long. These were also the days of desktop large computers and floppy disks. I used floppy disks to save all my information. Now we use flash drives or cds. Now everyone in my family and house has their own laptop computer and we only have one desktop computer; which isn't used very often. My parents pay their bills and reconcile their check book through the computer and use quicken. Very rarely do we write checks by hand they are usually printed from the computer. The days of cords plugged in to the computers for the internet and printer are no longer in existence. The only cord plugged in is the power cord. Our printers are wireless as well as our internet. I have a large screen laptop as well as one of the mini netbooks as well. To sign into my laptop swipe my finger on the fingerprint sensor and it signs me in; rather than using a password.

Music has changed drastically too....Now I have thousands of songs on my ipod instead of having 100s of cds. When I was young cars had cassette or tape players in them and now they are nonexistent. Books were on tape and now you can get them electronically and read them on a kindle or the Internet. Tvs car color and now HD pictures. I can't imagine life without a tv. When I was young all my movies were VHS, now we have progressed to DVDs and Blueray DVDS.

Cell phones have really progressed in my lifetime. When I was young, my Mom had a car phone...it was screwed into the car and was large like a house phone with a cord and all. Then it was large cellphones that were big and bulky.

Many people rely on GPS' to get around and get directions. The days of maps and google maps are slowly drifting away.