Final Reflective Post

EME 2040 was a big learning experience. I initially thought that I would be learning about the white board and other educational applications use at school but what I learned was beyond that. I learned to think outside the box. Introduction to technology provided me with a look on how website tools have change the way education can be accomplished.  The Web-quest and the Teacher E-profolio were excellent tools that I enjoy using a lot and found that students would probably like. Learning to create these projects helped me to solve many problems and by figuring out how everything worked my learning was more constructive. I was able to see how important it is to evaluate sources whenever we use online tools and resources. Having a criteria also allow me to dig deeper into a website when using it as a source of information or to back up my research. The internet presents limitless opportunities to learn but it can also present some problems like bullying, information privacy and unappropriated content. All these are problems that as teachers we must be aware of and know how to handle them. Cyber-bullying is always present at our schools, it is our job to identify it and be able to take the right approach.

Lastly, the digital badges created throughout the semester taught me many valuable lessons. In order to create a badge it was necessary to read and understand the book content first. Then choosing a digital tool took time and exploring, it was an empiric approach to technology. I personally do not consider myself a technology expert and it takes me some time to figure out how things work and put them together. What astonished me more is that I am only 26 years old yet I am part of the old generation. My education was limited in technology and my classes were chalk and projectors now kids have access to many tools and technology resources.  It is important to keep up with technology and always seek to think outside the box by been aware of what is out there and how can we use it to make our classes more enjoyable and relevant to this digital era of students.


This is the future of education and as teachers we need to embrace it and be able to function in it.

Works Cited

Maloy, R., Edwards, S., Woolf, B., & Verock, R. (2011). Transforming Learnig with New Technologies. Upper Saddler River, NJ: Perason Education.

Image from flickr.

Digital Badge L

Digital Badge L

Digital Badge K: Chapter 6

Digital Badge K

Works Cited

(2002). Retrieved from Fawn Area Elementary School : http://www.sesdweb.net/Page/3327

Maloy, R., Edwards, S., Woolf, B., & Verock, R. (2011). Transforming Learnig with New Technologies. Upper Saddler River, NJ: Perason Education.

 

 

Digital Badge J

Bibliography

Duke University. (2014, September 14). Center for Instructional Technology. Retrieved from http://cit.duke.edu/get-ideas/teaching-strategies/flipping-the-classroom/

Maloy, R., Edwards, S., Woolf, B., & Verock, R. (2011). Transforming Learnig with New Technologies. Upper Saddler River, NJ: Perason Education.

 

Digital Badge I

Bibliography

Maloy, R., Edwards, S., Woolf, B., & Verock, R. (2011). Transforming Learnig with New Technologies. Upper Saddler River, NJ: Perason Education.

 

 

Digital Badge H: Chapter 9

Digital badge H on PhotoPeach

Digital Badge # G: Chapter 10

Multicultural education in the 21^st century- In today’s schools ethnicity, race, religion and many other factors challenge teachers to provide an equal learning environment for everyone. Also, kids with disabilities need to be provided with opportunities and practices that include them in the curriculum. To ensure that every child sees themselves reflected in today’s curriculum cultural differences should be respected, discrimination based on race, sex, religion or sexual orientation should not be tolerated and school material should be reflective of the schools population. Half of the students in school are white, 22% are Hispanic, 15% African American, 4% are Asian and 1% are native American this makes for today’s multicultural education.

Adaptations for classrooms learning with technology- adaptation accommodations can be classify in three; low-tech accommodations are made easily and don’t cost much. Low tech accommodations can be providing chairs that are adjustable, providing left handed scissors and materials that students can use in the classroom without technology use. Mid-tech accommodations are changes in the curriculum and organization of the classroom and they may include digital material. Some examples are the tracing letters for autistic kids or the texture boxes, audio recordings and magnification software to see well. High-tech accommodations use computers and specialized information technologies for the classrooms. Some examples are interactive read out-loud books, walkers for disable students; motorize wheelchairs for students that have muscle dystrophy and whiteboard with interactive lessons that allow for enlarging text.

 Writing transformations with technologies- for every class students have to write and when they graduate college requires even more writing. Students don’t enjoy writing at school due to many factors; pressure to spell and write right, lack of confidence in what they are writing, lack of enjoyment in writing, lack of patience (this I see myself reflected on) to concentrate in one task without getting distracted, all of these and many more are the reasons student fail at writing in schools. To bypass these setbacks teachers have develop a system that we use today and it is; we brainstorm, draft, revise and edit a document before we publish it. Technology in today’s world allows us to approach writing easier and more enjoyable. Writing tools help students throughout the writing process so they don’t disengage and loose interest half way down the road. Microsoft word check spells, blogs make it fun to publish, brainstorming is easy when guidelines are provided and many more sources that facilitate writing.

Resources:
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Digital Badge F

Created with Padlet

 

Resources:
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc. 

Digital Badge E: Chapter 7

For chapter 7 I decided to take a closer look at (1) how technology generates problem solving and inquiry learning, (2) the different types of software for problem solving learning and (3) some examples of learning games. Problem solving and inquiry learning takes situations that students might face in real life and engage them to participate actively in the solution process. George Polya is a Hungarian mathematician, who after going to school for law, biology and literate, found that problem solving is as easy as 3 steps. First you need to actually understand the problem and what it is asking you to do. To truly understand the problem you need to be able to comprehend all the words and be able to state the problem in your own words. Second you need to devise a plan it could be a guess, looking for a pattern or eliminating options, in this step is were problem solving is implemented. The final step is to carry out the plan and check your results.  The way technology enhances problem solving is by letting students figure everything out and not by giving them organize information that contains all the answers. This will teach the kids more since real life situations require a lot more then given, structure, organize information.

The book talks about 3 main software for problem solving and inquiry-learning

            Composing and calculating software- are tools that allow the kids to write and evaluate their writing. This is very important because the more practice students get at writing the better writers they will become. Some examples are Microsoft, excel and blogs.

            Building, inventing and creating software- are hands on material that allows you to explore and create with in the software. kid pix looks like a great software, I personally don’t have it but read the reviews and how it works on youtube and it looks like a lot of fun for young kids; you can paint, write and even learn your numbers. Google earth I like a lot, I can look at places that I want and have a street view. Students enjoy it and use it, it is helpful to find directions, visit historical places or just take a look at your neighborhood. With google earth you can also see the moon and stars.

            Visual thinking and concept-mapping software- these are outline software that allows students to organize the information they have. For this section I looked at InspireData and could only download the demo. At the beginning it was a little complex but as I learn a little more it got better. This tool seems great to present students with data and to have them organize their own data or collection of information if they are presented with some research project.

Learning games for me is a doubted subject and I say this because I honestly have a hard time judging whether or not a game presents engaging problem solving that pushes students to participate actively in the solution without giving them organize information. For the option that the book gives, stop disasters game I was unable to play I tried it several times and it said “forbidden you don’t have permission.” What I do agree is that games require a student to be persistent, flexible in his solutions and stay focus on the objective.

Bibliography

Inspiration Software Inc. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.inspiration.com/InspireData

Motter, A. (2012, June). Retrieved from Wichita State University Department of Mathematics and Statistics: http://www.math.wichita.edu/history/men/polya.html

Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Digital Badge # D: Chapter 5

Digital Badge D: Chapter 5

 

For chapter 5 I decided to do a flipquiz but I also would like to talk about cyberbullying. Bullies are kids that constantly need to measure their power over other to assure superiority. As recent movies have portrait cyberbullying is as bad or even more than physical bullying, this is due to the fact that the false allegations made online by a person will remain there for the world to see forever. Information uploaded online can be deleted on the surface level but everything that is uploaded on the web will always exist. Kids that are cyberbully not only deal with the issue at school but also at home; this can make them feel hopeless and powerless and it causes for a lot of absences and/or skipping class. Been able to provide a safe environment for student where they feel they won’t be harm or mistreated is a way of ensuring that students will attend school and be actively engage. Some of the many strategies involve been empathetic and comprehensive, also been able to provide support and guidance when students needed. Prevention is a way of ensure to the student and the parent that the problem won’t emerge so easily without been detected first hand. By allowing students to use technology regularly they are learning to be ethical, introducing web tools allows them to express their opinion and learn how to optimize their skills. Giving students the options to show what they learn through web tools is a way of educating digital citizens. Students can read, share their thoughts, learn to create material on the web and much more if teachers and schools allow their students to access online tools.

Resources:
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
 

Digital Badge # C: Chapter 3

Digital Badge # B: Chapter 2.

 

As I was reading chapter 2 there were several aspects that caught my attention. The first aspect is not so much about technology but rather teaching in general. Teaching is a career that affect not only the teacher and student but also school and society in general. Teaching is part of forming future generations, this is why it is so important to keep students engage specially after knowing that only 75% of freshman will actually graduate in four years. Students’ primary worries is that they want to be heard, they want to feel like they belong and are cared for. Adolescence is a time were each individual finds its identity, they learn who they are and what they want. As teachers it is so important to make each student’s learning as individualize and personal to them as we can and technology makes that gap smaller. It also allows us to connect with the digital generation. I have seen at my school that student are more engage in technology lessons because they are able to point to a video or make a comment about the lesson that relates to their everyday life and when students are engage they are more receptive to what they are learning.

Some of the barrier that I have found at my school for implementing technology are; the teacher is new to the system and has little experience, there are not enough computers for everyone and due to some students skills the teacher has to spend more time with those that don’t know how to do the activity while the other ones play on other websites. All this barriers can be fixed with simple solutions, some of them might take time but after been corrected achieving the goal is so much more rewarding. Some outside barrier include the lack of access and the digital divides and participation gaps. The first year that I had my son I completely disengaged from technology and I barely watched TV or used my phone, I felt overwhelmed and also wanted and had to dedicate all my time to my son, when I finally rejoined the technology era I felt so behind, I had a gap, there were many new applications, gadgets and ways of communicating that I didn’t know about. Technology is a matter of staying informed because it is constantly changing and evolving, kind of like humans are.

The last aspect that I believe to be very important is the teaching philosophies and as soon to be teachers I think is important that we integrate the two main philosophy the teacher-centered and the student-centered. As the school year goes on and lessons unfold we are able to see that some lessons are more constructive and students can actually put the puzzle together and they can create hypothesis to test and assert. On some other lessons that may be more complex students might need more guidance and demonstration before they can actually replicate the information acquired.

Thanks to the many tools available now we can provide lessons that are fun to the kids, were they feel like they are part of it rather then outsiders watching. Web 2.0 tools are fun to use and they can also measure how much of the lesson the student actually learned. The gaps that technology may have today can slowly be closed and as new generations join, schools will have more equipment and staff available to provide the best education, training and tools for them. 


Resources:
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc. 



 

 

By vsepulveda13 | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Digital Badge # A: Chapter 1.

Teaching in the new era

I am the daughter of first generation immigrants; as so, my family’s previous generation all grew up in Colombia. As I was reading transforming learning with new technologies I had the opportunity to talk to my grandma and she told me; back in her time the only technology they had was a radio and it only worked at night time, which was when they turned the town’s electricity on. My mother grew up with electricity, radio and line phones, she eventually learned to use computers as an adult and worked at the airport utilizing her computer skills. I grew up with the television and as a teenager used the computer to write papers for school; I barely used the internet. Now I used the internet on a daily basis, text all day and take online classes. All of this is a contrast to my son who thinks everything is touch screen and at a seconds reach, if he wants to watch a video or if he wants to play, he will get the tablet or phone and find what he wants on his own and he is only two years old. My son is part of the digital childhood, something that surprised me was that it was estimated that in 2015 there will be 10 billion 1.1 tech tools, more than the world population 7.5 billion (trasforming learning with new technologies,2013), and still there are kids in the world dying of hunger. I work at a high school and as I see every day, teenagers use their phone constantly while they are eating, while going from one class to another and even when they are in classroom doing their assignments. Technology is embedded in our brains and as a 2014 teacher I believe it would be easy for us to transition student into learning provided by technology tools. Students are experts with technology and if we can give them new concepts in a fun and interesting way they would surely be more receptive to all the new material.

As an online student I constantly browse the web for anything that I need to do and don’t know how to do it. 21^st century technology enables students to be more independent, since a classroom student only gets to ask a question every 10 hours, they can search anything that they had a hard time understanding in class on the web; it could be a smartphone, tablet or laptop. As future teachers we have many technology aids that allows us to be better educators, the knowledge in the subject along with our pedagogical studies will allow us to integrate technology and as a result students will be able to use their everyday abilities to learn many concepts that at times are really hard for students to digest.

For me technological teaching tools are an everyday concept, I work with special needs kids and the way they learn is mostly with technologies. I have seen the immense progress that some of this kids have and how they are able to solve problems like sorting, cause and effect events and basic math problems all with lessons that are engaging and set for each of their own developmental ages. After you model for them what needs to be done on the screen they are able to follow, expand and sometimes go beyond what was taught and all because technology allows them to be independent and be able to communicate with the teacher. As an ESE teacher I would see the constant need to develop new apps and lessons that allow the students to perform everyday activities more independently.

As I remember my k-12 education, I find mix feelings and insist that some old educational instruments are still relevant. I personally like the smell of books and enjoy reading a paper book rather than an e-book. The interaction that I got from my face time classes was very enjoyable and I am an interactive learner, I like to integrate a little of everything plus hearing other people’s point of view makes me more receptive to new concepts. As I find my digital identity and set my learning goals for students I think I will have fun using technology as a means of acquiring concepts.

 

Resources:
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.