Technology in Education

This is the last reflective post for my assignment. Throughout this class I have learned much more about technology in education;creating a professional website, creating a digital story, social media, blogging, creating a web quest, and using various "cool tools" has grown my educational knowledge. I will continue to use alot of these tools now and in the future. I think that technology in education will continue to grow and my opinion about this topic was positive before I started this class and has not changed but has made me appreciate the ease and convinience of technology in every aspect. I learned about many resources and hope to use them whenever possible and in my future classroom. Children are involved everyday with technology and children as young as my son (who is two years old) are engaged with any sort of technological tool which is why I believe technology should be included in the school curriculum. My current work place is fully integrated with technolgy in every classroom and has every child 1:1 with technology. Before I started this class, I was pretty tech saavy but I think I know alot more about technology after taking this class;I know how to use technology tools in education and I know more about it overall. I believe I am prepared to teach 21st century learners after this class and hopefully learn more about technology trends and other information in the future. Prezi and Glogster were two of my favorite "cool tools" that I really liked and I think I will use these tools again in the future. Having had learned about all of these Web 2.0 "cool tools" in education and finding out of many resources has made me see how technology is used in every aspect.

Blabberize

The last web 2.0 tool I used was blabberize.com. This tool was also fun and I had fun creating my video. With this tool I was able to have someone else record their voice and "be" the person I choose. I would have my students work with this tool as it is a fun tool and yet can be educational. They would be able to download a picture of their famous person and say something about that person as I did with mine. You can choose a mouth and set it where the mouth should be and then record what you want to say. Overall, I would recommend all of these web tools.

QR Codes

The next web tool I decided to use was creating QR codes using the website www.qrstuff.com. This one was fun because I created my QR code first choosing the data type I wanted to use, which was a web link, then I added the content and finally I chose the output; whether I wanted to print, email, or download it. I had fun with this tool as I kept scanning each QR code with my phone and thought it was so cool to see it automatically took me to the link. With this tool I decided to create a QR code using a website for famous historic and current people that will describe that person. Student can see a biography and read more about that person. I would probably print the QR codes and put them around the room and have the students scan it and see who the person is. Another activity I would do with the QR codes, using the pictures they would scan the QR code and they would need to match the picture to the biography.

Wordle

Wordle

I actually had a little bit of a hard time trying to add Wordle to my website. I did not actually think wordle would be as difficult to work with as I thought. I created a wordle and did not realize right away that I would not find it so I had to create another one. Even though I had some trouble with this tool, I still think it is a fun web tool and will still use it. I created a wordle with famous current and historic figures names on it. This lesson would be a lesson for 5th grade students where they will be able to use wordle to review the names of famous historical and current figures. They will be able to create their own wordle and print it out to go along with their picture of their person they will be researching which will go on a poster board.

Personal Learning Network!

I had to create a twitter account and follow five educational leaders or sites as part of my assignment. One article, by bilingual readers, caught my attention because it talked about the benefits of having a bilingual education. I grew up in a bilingual household with two parents that only spoke spanish and I also received a bilingual education. I believe this has made me a valuable person, which is why I am also seeking my educational degree in bilingual education. While scimming through my twitter account, i came upon an interesting article about benefits of bilingual education. This article Bilingual Education was posted on a website called spanglish baby and the author, Roxana A. Soto, explains how her bilingual education benefited her. She shared some benefits of receiving a bilingual education and explains briefly how that also helped her in her professional career. One benefit is being biliterate which is reading and writing in two or more languages. I personally am biliterate and it is a great asset to have. Besides speaking two languages, knowing how to read and write in the second language will boost bigger and better opportunities. Another benefit she lists is having more choices for literature and other resources. Looking for information in a broader pool of resources gives that person more options for more information when researching and looking in the languages you know; the same thing with reading something in its original language and not getting "lost in translation." The third benefit is opportunities to study or work abroad. Students can find opportunities to study abroad if they are at ease with another language and this way they can expand the second language. If you can speak another language, that will also open more opportunities to work in another country. Another benefit is that a bilingual person can easily learn a third or fourth language; speaking another language makes it easier to learn an additional language. It becomes easier to learn a different language when you are already bilingual. Finally, obtaining more opportunities to work is another benefit. Roxana explains that her schooling in bilingual education has made her successful. It is the only reason she has been successful in her professional career as a journalist giving her the opportunity to be a journalist in both English and Spanish media as well as obtaining a higher salary. 

The author of this article spoke briefly of how she has benefited from bilingual education and wishes to give her two children the same opportunity she received. Just as Roxana, i also have benefited from a bilingual education and want to help my future students and parents who do not speak English. 

Another article posted on twitter by bilingual readers that also caught my eye was about myths of raising bilingual kids, which lists the stereotypes about bilingual students/children as being "slow learners." I have attached the link to the article for your happy reading.
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/multiamerican/2012/10/17/10552/book-excerpt-five-myths-about-raising-bilingual-ki/
More resources on twitter so follow me!

Digital Story & Digital Media

Below are some of my EDU technology assignments I have worked on.
Check out my short digital media presentation:

Digital Media on Prezi

Stages of Technology Integration

Reflective Post #3: Stages of Technology Integration
Which Stage Am I in?

Stage 1: Entry
Stage 2: Adoption
Stage 3: Adaptation
Stage 4: Appropriation
Stage 5: innovation

Looking at the stages of technology integration slides and having to choose a stage where I am at now, I would say I am in Stage 4: Appropriation, both professionally and personally. I use technology at work for mostly everything and when the internet or one of the technology tools is not working I can not do anything (so I might as well go home)! My current school district also has integrated technology in every classroom with smart boards, iPads, lap tops, and where every student will be using some type of technological tool in the classroom and at home. My confidence in Technology is high and I would definitely integrate it in my classroom whenever possible. I am not sure I would be willing to "borrow" a technology tool from someone without being able to keep it, and I do not think that would be a problem now since everyone has their own tools. Having every kind of technology tool available at work, I think that my co-workers will not have a problem with adapting to technology because they will have to anyway! I did not find any of the stages difficult and I think everyone will have to at least reach stage 3 and adapt to technology changes.

Research

What stood out for me in the research was how much students, and at such a young age, use technology! Working in an elementary school, I see many students as young as kindergardeners with cell phones. Having kids myself and having a seven year old daughter, I have not allowed her to have a cell phone yet but realize how much young students utilize technology. Another statistic that stood out for me was the research findings from the 2010 Project Tomorrow Speaks Up about how much young boys and girls update their social network site and most of them are not OLD ENOUGH to register on the sites.. I'm not really surprised at the statistics but I am aware how much young students use technology and how much we as educators can use it and integrate it in the classrooms to engage the students. I also took a look at Beloit's Mindset and thought that this is a great way to "further look" at students entering college and sort of have an idea of the things they may or may not know. I looked at a couple of the mindsets and I would fall in the 2002 category list...Some of the things on there where funny. I remember how cool it was having a walkman and I still have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool!

Welcome Message!

Hi,

Welcome to my very first blog for my EDU 560 class! I have two kids, a seven and two year old and I am pursuing my MAT degree. I feel that technology is a very important tool in today's world, and now more so in education. I personally love technology and am always using some part of it, wether it is my smartphone, computer, iPod, iPad or whatever. Students use technology almost all the time and technology in education should be utilized. I think that this class will be fun and interesting!