Teachers can communicate and collaborate with social media to reach students like never before. There is so many great tools that can be used to engage students that students are already using. Technology can be a great way to interest students in their homework and in class. Three concepts that I found interesting in this chapter was text speak or digitalk, educational networking, and publishing student work.
Digitalk or text speak is abbreviated collection of letters, symbols, and numbers. This was interesting to me because I didn't know that this way of talking had a name. I never thought that was text speak or digitalk. I always thought texting was just texting and there was nothing more to it. Well, I was wrong according to this chapter there is educational research being done. In England they found that use of textism was a positive thing. I’m like most adults who think digitalk leads to bad writing skills and communication. I hear a lot of teens always using lol or JK as words. The other day at work a customer around 17 years old was looking for a certain item he said can you help me and before I could get to him he then spotted the item he was looking for, he said JK I found it. He used the abbreviated word. I think writing things incorrectly or abbreviated you get into a habit of doing it all the time. I also believe if you can’t spell a word correctly and you abbreviate it all the time you never really learn that correct spelling.
Educational Networking I thought was a great tool for teachers. Educators use the social networking technology to aid them in educational and professional development. This tool allows teachers to have discussions with other teachers about instruction, curriculum, group editing on projects and writing. Educational networking can also allow teachers to connect with students outside of the classroom by sharing information with student families, electronic communications so students can reach teachers with questions. I liked the educational networking because I've noticed a lot of schools I observed in the teachers all helped each other and spoke with each other about certain students in their class that need more help. They did have some type of system that they could easily email and see what classes each student haves.
Another great concept that ties in with educational networking was publishing student work. I think publishing students work can be exciting and rewarding for many students that try hard to succeed. I also believe that having an assignment that will be published makes students try harder. I think teacher’s electronic communication systems are great ways to display work. Even the old fashion way of hanging things on the wall makes students proud and happy to see their work on the wall. I think publishing student work is a great way to show them you appreciate them trying hard on an assignment.
Text speak, educational networking, and publishing student work are interesting concepts that I found in chapter eight. Technology is such a great tool to have in the classroom and with children growing up with technology we will see more students Digi talking. Educational networks are great tools to keep teachers in the loop on educational matters or even having help from other teachers on curriculum or a student’s development. Publishing students work is also a great tool with educational networks giving students anticipation and excitement to know their work will be published.
Wordle
Resources:
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.
Wordle created by Ella Kies
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Blog Post # F Chapter 10
Chapter ten was a very informative and important chapter. I think all teachers will have diverse learners. Some might need assistive technology to assist them with connecting with the student and others will need technology to help keep students engaged. Technology doesn't have to be the main focal point of a classroom but it can help to break up textbook time. Three main concepts that I liked in this chapter was Text Reading software, accommodations and electronic spellers and dictionaries.
Text reading software or text to speech software is such a great tool to have in a classroom.
Especially when English is a second language to some students. A software like this could really be beneficial. I remember when I was younger they actually had an early morning class that started at like 6:30am for students that wanted to learn English and they had a version of this software. It would show the image of a duck. It would pronounce the word duck a few times and ask that you pronounced it out loud as well. I remember kids actually following along and learning English this way. They had different test at the end to see how much you learned and different levels. You weren't giving a grade for this work it was really just a resource for students that really wanted to learn English.
Electronic spellers and dictionaries is another fun tool for students. Growing up I loved the dictionary. I would read a few pages of the dictionary just to expand my vocabulary. If I didn't know a word I would write it down and look it up in the dictionary. I think tools like this are great for active reading. If a student doesn't know a word in the book they could look it up and have the definition and the way to pronounce it and continue on with reading their book. Electronic spellers are also helpful for students that find spelling to be hard. I know my sister always gets letters backwards so a tool like this could be really helpful for her. There are so many of these devices now a days and they range in price, but can be really resourceful for students of all ages.
Accommodations I thought was a really important concept in chapter 10. Accommodations to learning shouldn't be modifications for a less substantial educational experience. We should make accommodations for students struggling in certain subject areas. Some accommodations that will keep students still doing the same amount of work as other students might be individual tutoring, educational apps and self-paced exams or even extra time on exams. Another key point of accommodations is the technology we use. Technology offers two key routes in the classroom for diverse learners to easily access key ideas and concepts. First supporting changes in the classroom environment and secondly the delivery of the material in the classroom. Low tech accommodations are inexpensive and are easier to make. Mid- tech involves some digital materials to deliver curriculum, and high tech accommodations introduces changes with bringing in computers and other technologies into the classroom.
I think these three concepts are wonderful tools to bring into the classroom. Text reading software can benefit English as a second language students, or even young kids just learning how to read and write. Electronic spellers and dictionaries is another tool that is very helpful for children of all ages. I think being a teacher you learn to make some accommodations for students that are struggling. I think as a teacher you have to be flexible and see what works and what doesn't work.
Resources:
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.
ToonDoo created by Ella Kies
8512377.pngwww.toondoo.com/public/e/k/i/ekies/toons/cool-cartoon-8512377.png
Text reading software or text to speech software is such a great tool to have in a classroom.
Especially when English is a second language to some students. A software like this could really be beneficial. I remember when I was younger they actually had an early morning class that started at like 6:30am for students that wanted to learn English and they had a version of this software. It would show the image of a duck. It would pronounce the word duck a few times and ask that you pronounced it out loud as well. I remember kids actually following along and learning English this way. They had different test at the end to see how much you learned and different levels. You weren't giving a grade for this work it was really just a resource for students that really wanted to learn English.
Electronic spellers and dictionaries is another fun tool for students. Growing up I loved the dictionary. I would read a few pages of the dictionary just to expand my vocabulary. If I didn't know a word I would write it down and look it up in the dictionary. I think tools like this are great for active reading. If a student doesn't know a word in the book they could look it up and have the definition and the way to pronounce it and continue on with reading their book. Electronic spellers are also helpful for students that find spelling to be hard. I know my sister always gets letters backwards so a tool like this could be really helpful for her. There are so many of these devices now a days and they range in price, but can be really resourceful for students of all ages.
Accommodations I thought was a really important concept in chapter 10. Accommodations to learning shouldn't be modifications for a less substantial educational experience. We should make accommodations for students struggling in certain subject areas. Some accommodations that will keep students still doing the same amount of work as other students might be individual tutoring, educational apps and self-paced exams or even extra time on exams. Another key point of accommodations is the technology we use. Technology offers two key routes in the classroom for diverse learners to easily access key ideas and concepts. First supporting changes in the classroom environment and secondly the delivery of the material in the classroom. Low tech accommodations are inexpensive and are easier to make. Mid- tech involves some digital materials to deliver curriculum, and high tech accommodations introduces changes with bringing in computers and other technologies into the classroom.
I think these three concepts are wonderful tools to bring into the classroom. Text reading software can benefit English as a second language students, or even young kids just learning how to read and write. Electronic spellers and dictionaries is another tool that is very helpful for children of all ages. I think being a teacher you learn to make some accommodations for students that are struggling. I think as a teacher you have to be flexible and see what works and what doesn't work.
Resources:
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.
ToonDoo created by Ella Kies
8512377.pngwww.toondoo.com/public/e/k/i/ekies/toons/cool-cartoon-8512377.png
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Blog Post # E Chapter 7
Software is the brain of the computer, it’s made up of a million different codes that tell the computer hardware how to function properly. In the book it discusses a few different type: system, application, standard, and open- source software. I looked more into software to see if new computers come with software and a lot of them have a startup system installed but they no longer provide a hard copy (discs, c.d) of that start up systems. The system software is responsible for the overall functioning and control of the computer. System software includes operating system, network operating system, database managers and TP monitor. Those systems all communicate with each other to get the computer working properly.
Application software provides a variety of services, many that digital natives grew up with. Some popular application software that many people will recognize is Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat, Norton Antivirus and the list goes on and on. Application software is a set of one or more programs designed to carry out operations for a specific application. There are so many software programs that you can choose from photography, music, if you want to learn Spanish, there are application software for that too. Application software is great but it cannot run itself. It’s dependent on system software to execute.
A really neat application software is Google earth. Google earth is really neat to bring into the class room because there is really no right or wrong answer for students. It’s really an exploration type of software. Google earth was first released in 2005 as a free web tool. It is made up of photos taken by satellites and aircraft of virtually every location in the world. It’s updated by Google and sometimes you can even see the Google earth car rolling around in the neighborhood. Which I have seen on a few occasions myself.
System software, application software and Google earth are three important types of software. Without system software any other software would not be able to function. System software is like the foundation of software it haves to be there to make a computer function properly. Application software is all the fun and interesting things we can do on a computer a lot of application software is used in school. Growing up PowerPoint was one of the main application software we used in school. Google earth is a neat type of software that teachers can use in the classroom for many different subjects. Whether it’s for science to explore space, or geography to learn different states or countries. Its great to incorporate software in school giving students great tools to play with.
https://magic.piktochart.com/editor/piktochart/4504298#
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.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/T/TP_monitor.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_software
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Blog Post # D chapter 5
Three concepts that I picked to blog about this week from chapter 5 is search engines, electronic note-taking, and free text search. These three concepts are things that I use on a daily or weekly basis or plan to use in the future. I think there all great ideas that have impacted many people lives. Changing the way we receive information. Technology is a great tool to have when searching for information.
We all use search engines to get information from the internet. I know I use google all the time. Just last week I seen a guy that reminded me of an actor in a movie I seen a long time ago. I couldn’t remember the actor name or any of the movies he had a role in. I asked my mom and sister by describing him and saying he was a 1980 actor, they couldn’t help me and really had no information for me based on what I told them. So I just googled it. I put 1980 actors in the search box and sure enough he popped up, Steve Guttenberg. I really didn’t need to know that information but the technology allows me to get answers to silly questions like that. I really didn’t look into the real technology behind search engines until I read chapter five. A Search engine is a software program that uses networks of computers to access information from its databases. Its fast and it gives you a ton of sites with information related to whatever you typed in the search box. It’s one of the most popular activities on the internet. I personally use google all the time and I’m pretty good at finding the information I’m searching for.
Now depending on what you’re looking for you have a few ways to search. A lot of search engines offer three ways to search information on the internet. I personally like free text search also called full text search. But that’s only if I’m looking for random information. Like on celebrities or anything that I’m just browsing for myself. Basically you type something in the search box and it looks for sites that have those words in the title, keyword, and description fields. Then you quickly get thousands of sites with the information you wanted. The only problem with this kind of search is its time consuming. If you have deadlines you would want to do a keyword/exact match search which retrieves only resources that contain that exact word or phrase you put in the search box. I usually do a free text search I personally find my information faster that way. The last way is Boolean search you use the terms AND, OR, and NOT to create more complex queries. I’ve never used this way of searching and actually never heard of it till this chapter.
My last concept is electronic note taking, at first I thought it was those like receipt scanners that file all documents and stuff, but I was wrong. But I picked this because I thought it was very interesting because you use technology to organize and speed up note taking. Electronic note-taking transfer the work of writing, filing, and organizing to your computer allowing you to just take notes without thinking about anything else. It allows you access to your notes from any electronic device. This type of system is great for teachers who move from different classrooms. I thought it was interesting because a lot of times note taking makes your hand hurts. So I thought it was a neat idea for students who have classes with a lot of note taking. But it’s also great for teachers. There are more and more programs coming out for electronic note taking. I’ve personally never used any I have like a note pad feature on my phone but that is not the same as the electronic note taking that is being discussed in the chapter. I ‘am interested of actually working in one of these programs.
These three technology terms are a familiarity with the majority of the U.S population. I know that I really enjoy using search engines and the different types of ways you can research information whether it’s for leisure time or because you have a report due. The electronic note taking I have never used but I ‘am intrigued by the system and having your notes and stuff there and available to you whenever you need them. I think these are great things to have as a student or a teacher.
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| photo credit to: FindYourSearch on Flickr |
Resources:
Maloy, R., O’Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
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