Eleventh Post

Excel has always been a very complicated software and I never really liked it. It does however comes in handy when you need to average out grades and other stuff. I guess if I keep practicing it'll get better for me maybe. It really takes time to get the hang of it. It just amazes me how till this day this is my least favorite Microsoft software and I took computer classes in both high school and at TCC. It's also nice to know that I'm not the only person who thinks it can be quite annoying.

One of the topics that just caught my eye was the different uses of technology in a classroom settings. This helped me visualize how my future classroom will be set up. I really liked the idea of how technology plays a role in classrooms mainly because majority of students are exposed to technology outside of school so therefore they can keep up with technology use in school. It's an even better idea because for the kids who aren't exposed to a lot of technology outside of school they can still keep up because they have it available at school.

As a future educator I think that I will always include technology tools such as wikis, blogs, digital content and visualization tools to keep my students engaged and individualized. I also make sure that I connect my students online learning communities that will help them become effective. I want to make my students good digital citizens and how to transfer knowledge of technology from known skills to unknown skills. 

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Tenth Post

As instructional designers we are constantly being bombarded with new technologies and new trends. It's difficult to distinguish which are fads, and which are worthy of our time and resources.There also seems to be be the perception that you can teach any content using any technology which is hardly the case. A blended instructional delivery method that I might use when teaching is flipping the classroom. Flipping the classroom is where the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. Short video lectures are viewed by students at home before the class session while in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects,, or discussions. The pros of a flipped classroom is that students have more control over their own learning, it promotes student-centered learning and collaboration, lessons are content and more accessible, easier for parents to see what's going on and it can be more efficient. The disadvantages is that it can create a digital divide, there is significant work on the front end, not really a test-prep form of learning and time in front screens instead of people and places is increased.

Microsoft Excel offers a lot of benefits with its functions, formulas, graphs or charts and tables. Teachers can extract several benefits from Excel worksheets in the classroom. Since I want to be a Reading or Language Arts teacher for middle school students, I can make use of the worksheet columns. The spreadsheets can be used for creating sample sentences and linking with other sheets pertaining to the lesson plans.

I didn't really learn that much from the PowerPoint assignments because PowerPoint has been a very big part of my technology life. However, I was very fascinated with adding buttons and linking them all to the slides was the only thing I learned which was really cool because I always wondered how did my teachers from middle school and high school used to do that when we played Jeopardy in class.

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Ninth Post

When we think about bringing the 4 C's into our classroom we don't need to "add" a thing. The best way to help students master these skills is to change how we teach and learn in our classrooms. It is the process of learning not the content of learning. Technology is a perfect vehicle for facilitating this. We can help students build creativity and critical thinking by the types of questions we ask them to respond to. Students should be building communication skills that reflect the media rich world they are surrounded by. Rather than writing an essay or a report about a subject they are learning, ask students to help solve a problem and let them share their solutions using formats like digital stories, eBooks, virtual museums etc. We often think about collaboration in terms of connecting with experts or emailing experts, technology tools like GoogleDocs are allowing for collaboration on documents. Truly collaborative project work enhances student learning and help students achieve the large scale goals.

Digital Divide is a term that refers to the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communication technology and those that don't or have restricted access. These technologies can include the telephone, television, personal computers and the internet. I'm definitely on the side where technology is used so much because I pretty much grew up around it. I honestly don't think that the digital divide will have a huge affect on my future classroom because I feel like by then majority of my students will have some type of exposure to technology.

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Eighth Post

Universal Design for Learning use a variety of teaching methods to remove any barriers to learning and give all students equal opportunities to succeed. I learned that this design doesn't specifically target kids with learning and attention issues but focus more on building flexibility for every student's strengths and needs. In my classroom to support the three guidelines representation, actions and expression, and engagement I would use PowerPoint with added audio to slides as well as videos to show the kids our focus in the class. To put things into a more interaction state, I will assess the students with quizzes, test and even oral presentations to show what they had learned. To fulfill the engagement guideline, I would play group games with the kids to help with skill-building and to motivate them.

Adaptive technology is any object or system that is specifically designed for the purpose of increasing or maintaining the capabilities of people with disabilities seldom be used by non-disabled people. in everyday use, adaptive technology often refers to electronic and IT-related systems- like systems that help blind or deaf individuals use a computer. examples of adaptive technology are screen magnifiers, adapted keyboards, telephone typewriters, handheld amplifiers, screen reader software, digital talking book players and closed captioning programming. I don't know anyone who has used those type of technologies. I really don't think that there is a lot of challenge to using adaptive technologies.

From last week's assignment I learned the many complications of creating your own website. It wasn't an easy task but it was a very interesting assignment!

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Seventh Post

An interesting software tool that I might use for teacher tasks is a time management tool. These tools are basically a calendar software. They can be used to schedule your appointments or you may want to take advantage of more complex features. Some tools can be viewed online making it an easier access for students. I can make a note of due dates for assignments so all my students can see. Most of these tools allow the option to put some information in private mode and in public mode so as the administrator I can choose which calendars can be seen by everyone. Most of these also include a feature allowing teachers to arrange meetings and groups. an example of a time manager software is Time Management-Mind Tools. I would also use a software grade book which will provide valuable statistical information regarding grades, tests and performance. When I was in high school we used this grade book called Engrade which made it easier for us as students to know what we needed to improve in, if we were missing any assignments and our parents were also able to check on our progress.

From our last assignment I learned the importance of evaluating websites before I use them. I really enjoyed creating my own evaluation form because it gave me practice on understanding how useful and important it is to teach students how worthwhile it is to know how good of a website really is. I wish I would have focused more on the currency section just so students can know how current their resources are.

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Website URL:                                                                                    

Name:

Currency: How current is the information? Write an “X” in the appropriate box.	Yes	No
Is the copyright date within the last 3 years?
Was it updated within the last year?
Accuracy: Does the information seem true? Write an “X” in the appropriate box.	Yes	No
Are there any other relatable websites?
Does the website site their facts?
Is the information free of bias?
Position: Where was the information founded? Write an X in the appropriate box.	Yes	No
Are sources for text and/or graphics cited or credited?
Are some of the sites links "dead" or inactive?
Who: Are you able to identify the author? Write an X in the appropriate box.	Yes	No
Is the author or publisher name provided?
Is the author or publisher background provided?
Is there a way to contact the author or publisher?
Is this a personal page hosted on a larger site?

Sixth Post

I envision myself to use Twitter in my future teacher career as a way to be a part of teacher circles and to follow education sites. Being a part of teacher circles on Twitter will be a way to help me be exposed to the many ways that teachers run their classrooms differently. Following education sites will keep me in the loop of the do's and don'ts of such things like classroom management or improving my students skills where they need improvement in. As far as a blog, I feel like this is a good way for teachers to share something new that they are trying in their classrooms for example new skill that the students are learning or even activities that are being used for students to attain the new skill. Blogs are another way for teachers to express themselves and connect with other teachers considering that they all have one thing in common and that's being an educator. Technology not only help us educate our students in the best way possible. It helps us connect with other teachers where we can learn from each other and pretty much keep improving the education system.

I'm always searching up things school work related on Google. As far as evaluating Internet-based resources I often check to see who or what created the resource and why it was created in the first place. I also often check for citations and what author(s) put their input into the resource that I'm using or just reading on. Teachers and parents can help children identify good resources from the Internet by teaching them how to look at how related is the resource to what they were searching for. I think that it's also important for students to learn how to know who was behind the resources that they were using or in simplest terms who wrote the resource(s) that is being used by then.

I really didn't acquire any new skills from the last assignment considering that searching on the Internet is pretty much something I do everyday. I really like how simple and short the Web Hunt assignment was there wasn't anything to not like about it because we were just required to search up answers which is like I said earlier something that I pretty much do everyday.

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Fifth Post

Textbooks will always be a great source of information and activities but the content could make the students not as engaged compared to using web resources. I will use web based resources to increase my students engagement, expose them to more authentic content and activities that encourage collaborative work and trigger their critical thinking skills as well as their creativity. Some fantastic sources of information that I found were PBS Teachers, U.S. Department of Education and National Geographic. Of course there are plenty iif more wonderful websites to visit that can be used as resources in your classroom.

My views about using the Internet to support student research as well as my own is that it helps us to stya connected to the current curriculum that we are focused on. The Internet helps introduce or review content directly related to the learning objectives of the topic we're focused on, My only issue with Internet use is that the students can sometimes get distracted with online games or other things that's not related to the topic of discussion.

The Inspiration assignment was pretty interesting. It was actually quite fun learning how to create my own concept map. I never used that website let alone head about it so I learned a lot of new things like how to connect the bubbles together or how to transfer the document into a word document. I just always knew how useful concept maps were when I was in elementary school for brainstorming ideas for a specific topic especially when we were writing. Definitely something I will use in my future class because it helps students find their creative side!

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Fourth Post

Using the DID model, I came across a lesson plan that revolves around the popular novel "Because of Winn-Dixie". This lesson plan is appropriate for grades 3rd-5th. The creator of this lesson plan was really focused on the important factors of children being able to analyze a book, especially a book with chapters. The students are to of course read the book itself. During this process the students develop an understanding of plot, character(s), setting and theme as well as going through the writing process. The objectives in this lesson plan are for students to create a scrapbook and play a reading comprehension maze game based from the plot and theme of the story. They are to listen and read along with a slideshow of drafts narrated by the author, communicate with the author through a moderated chat as well as learn about the author and her writing process. This may seem like a lot but when you think about it it's all very beneficial especially if we want to expand our young readers and writers minds. I really like the scrapbook idea because the students are able to allow their creativity to just flow out freely and this is always something that we want our students to do. This lesson plan is very effective!

Here's the link to the lesson plan: Because of Winn-Dixie Teaching Guide: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/because-winn-dixie-teaching-guide

Open content and open source are very important and play a vital role in the educational field. Introducing students to such things like the different formats of tests, quizzes or even PowerPoint presentations is really good for students to have access to. I would definitely use open content and open source because it benefits students and other teachers a lot. You can't go wrong with using open content and open source because the main focus is our students learning environment and their futures.

The latest Word and Graphic assignment really taught me a lot. The fact that it was my first time actually creating a newsletter on Word made me realize how so much more Word is beneficial especially to teachers. Like I have learned that it is more than a software that us college students and future educators use to type up that 1000 word essay the night before it's due. I really enjoyed this assignment it was so much fun being able to put an informational letter together for parents and students to read for their knowledge.

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Third Post

As a student, I'm always using Microsoft Word to type papers for my classes. It's just the perfect software to use for papers especially in college considering that everything in college are done by computer. My teachers use Microsoft Word for class syllabus. They use them to create test, quizzes, study guides and anything else in that nature.

My experience with copyright is that whenever I use something from an author or book or anything I make sure to not forget to mention or show who wrote or created something that I used. My experience with fair use is maybe when I say something from an author in a discussion or reword what an author says. The CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act) monitor student use of the Internet and to implement technology protection measures, mandates the development of an Internet safety plan that addresses the unauthorized disclosure. Another one is The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act which was passed because of complaints from children having to give out too much information to websites. As a teacher I will always make sure that they're not posting anything that they will regret later in the future online from school computers. As a teacher I will make sure my students are online safe. Come up with a plan, set rules to try to make being online go smooth.

I really didn't gain any new experience from last week assignment because I'm familiar with Microsoft Words. I don't like the fact that I forgot to put a page break in the assignment. I can improve it by making sure to use appropriate page breaks and maybe using questions with graphics instead of matching questions to make the test look more interesting instead of bland.

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Second Post

In today's world, computers are so essential in so many ways. Computers are becoming a bigger part of our lives than we think and I honestly think that it's important to have them in classrooms so students can learn how to use them. Having computers in classrooms help students be able to complete awesome projects using software like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, etc. The use of the Internet comes in handy in classrooms because a student may have a question that their teacher can't quite answer to the best of their understanding. Because the internet is useful for things in that nature the student could find multiple answers and put bits and bits together to get a better understanding of their burning question or thought. I think I will use computers for lectures for the class. I will also let my students use them for websites that help improve them with reading as well as other skills like using context clues, finding the main idea, etc. We will also use computers for projects where the students can learn how to create presentations that looks nice and creative. The ITSE Standards reflect changes in the way students learn in general. ITSE standards impacts teachers by providing webinars and online courses with information on best practices for meeting and using technology standards. One program I find interesting is "Flip Your Classroom" where students listen to lectures at home and work on traditional homework in the classroom. Teachers are required to model certain behavior. Therefore with educators being the first exposure to digital technology to most students show how the ITSE standards impact teachers.

I agree with the term digital native simply because I was brought up during the age of digital technology and therefore I'm very familiar with the use of computers and the Internet from an early age. I really don't see a big difference between the way my teachers and I use technology. We both use technology for education purposes. For instance, our teachers upload lecture slides and us students download them on our computers for viewing purposes. I don't think there will be differences between my future students and I in terms of technology because at the end of the day within our classroom environment we will all be using them for the same purpose which is to learn.

From my understanding of personal learning networks (PLN) it's basically an informal learning network that consists of the people that the learner interacts with and derives knowledge from.It's all about making connections and building personal relationships within people in the educational field. Great educators never stop learning. To professionally present yourself online you must focus on collaboration. Reach beyond your school or district. Always use separate personal and professional profiles. Don't post anything that you wouldn't say in class or at a professional event. Never forget the "professional" part of your PLN. Always remember the purpose that your PLN is serving.

Hey class,

My twitter username is @ka15g_alexander.

First Post

Technology has been playing a big role in my life since elementary even though technology wasn't as big of a thing or even more complex as it is today. Every class that I have taken has a either has a smart board or smart projector in order for us as students to look at the presentations during lectures or even in class assignments. Today, the more popular way of turning in an assignment is through computer you rarely see students well college students at least turn in paper work unless it is an exam. You're also able to work on group projects over computer by being connected to each other and working on the project online or through a word document over the course of time. My iPhone is definitely a prior experience use with technology considering that I use it all day everyday for pretty much everything.

In EME 2040, I hope to learn more in depth about the use of technology from a teachers perspective. I also want to learn the types and uses of different media. I just want to gain experience in the use of educational technology for planning and delivering instruction.

I have learned about my learning style that I am fairly well balanced with active and reflective learning. I am also well balanced with sensitive and intuitive learning which I find kind of shocking because I really thought I would have scored higher in the intuitive style considering that I love learning new concepts but I am so against with memorization which I know is a big part in college but just something i always had a problem with. I have a moderately preference with visual than verbal learning. I tend to remember more when I see something instead of someone just saying it to me. I have a moderately preference with sequential than global learners. I learn more and will get a better grade when I do things in steps instead of just plunging into something.