What I've Learned About Technology

I will have to say that I've gained some wonderful ideas and strategies during this class. Coming in, I felt fairly comfortable with technology but used it solely for personal uses such as cell phone, social networking sites, and cameras/video cameras. I knew and had used technologies in the classroom only as they were available and so my choices for technology in lesson planning were somewhat limited I have to admit.

This class however has really opened my eyes to the unlimited number of websites, programs, technologies, as well as their uses in the classroom. I really enjoyed how we were given opportunity in class to see and 'play' with the instruments and sites we learned about. Having assignments where we were required to use them was also a good way to view a lesson from the students point of view and gauge what would work, or possibly wouldn't work, with the younger students of which I will be teaching. I was able to learn and use new technology while constantly modifying what we did in class and planning future activities for my classroom in my head. 

I think the biggest thing I learned throughout this class was the importance of feeling comfortable with technology as a teacher and being brave enough to stress to other teachers, and possibly administrators, the positive impact it has within the classroom and the meaningful learning that it creates. With this class coming to an end, I feel like I now have a box of 'technological tools' that I can carry with me as a beginning teacher and as the time goes by, I will be able to continue to add new things I learn. 

Ipod Use with Students

One of the articles I read and posted described the increased usage of iPods in education. Looking at the responses posted, they've really made me think about the ways we can continue with this at the lower educational level, elementary school. It seems that as new ideas and technologies come about, they always begin at the college level since this is where much of the research is happening. As history has shown, it takes YEARS before it eventually trickles down to high school, then middle school, then elementary. It is my wish, and I've taken it as my responsibility as a recently graduated teacher, to hurry up this process and allow technology to be integrated into classrooms as soon as possible.

Going back to iPod use, it is exciting to hear that people are already beginning to use them with their tutees. Not having owned one, I enjoyed the time in class we had to simply play with it and see all the features it held. It's amazing how much such a small thing can do. I would like a little more time with it and plan on checking one out to see its features and find one that I can use with my tutoring sessions. Hopefully with this experience under my belt, I will feel more comfortable with it and will feel confident in using them in classrooms in the future.

Watching the Digital Stories

Watching the digital stories today was fantastic. I was amazed at the creativity and level of uniqueness of each of the videos. It's neat to see how giving a project with an open-ended expectation allows for so much differentiation within the finished project. I really liked how each of the videos held information and personality about the person who made it which made it 'come alive'. As I watched them today, I thought of new ways I could use them in addition to the ones I added in my lesson plan. There are so many directions you can go with it that I'd hate make it too limited, although I know that with a project like this, students will need plenty of scaffolding in order to be successful with it.

The iPod Revolution: Coming to a Classroom Near You

I recently read the article, The iPod Revolution: Coming to a Classroom Near You by Robert Brookshire. After our class today, I thought it would be interesting to find out exactly how iPods are being used with education right now. I have never seen or heard the usage of iPods in classrooms in any of the classrooms I've been in. In the article, Brookshire discusses how iPods have moved from recreational use for listening to music to being included in education; specifically higher education.

In the fall of 2004, the iPod made its first big splash as a learning tool in higher education (Brookshire, 2007). He explains that during that year, Duke University distributed 1,600 iPods to their incoming freshman class. They were the first school to use iPods as learning tools; distributing course content, recording device, study support tools, and file storage. The students were required to use them during class time as well as in field research. The ease and success of this endeavor was soon noticed by other schools and other universities began providing similar means of support to their own students.

Apple, the maker of Ipods and Itunes, soon noticed the 'revolution' taking place and created a program specifically for students, called iTunes U. THis program allowed students to work with and transfer data more easily. The schools that jump on board with this all take their own path in using iPods to fit their own specific needs. The University of South Caroline, for example, use iPods to teach voice and diction in their theatre classes. They integrate video usage into their courses so that students see proper modeling. The ability to combine video and audio in the newest iPods has increased this usage in the classroom as well as how easy it is for teachers/faculty and students to use them. Brookshire's main point was that the use of iPods in education has already been very successful and will continue to be as long as educators give them a chance.

I thought this article was very interesting and I was surprised at the level of use iPods has already had within the educational realm. I am looking forward to teaching students quite a bit younger than the college level. Having said this, I am still just a little skeptical at the level of integration iPods can really have in the classroom. I think it is a great idea though and really want to find ways to make them work. Some ideas we discussed in class today was using them as a reading center where students can read/record/listen to themselves. I thought another idea would be using them as a way to share reader's theatre presentations with other classes. Oftentimes these are shown just within one class. How neat would it be if a class could share their presentations with older/younger grades? In conclusion, although iPod use with the elementary level might be a little more difficult than in higher education, there are still plenty of ways to integrate them in a meaninful way while making lessons fun, interactive, and friendly to students. I can't wait to see how the 'revolution' will continue to change education!


Brookshire, Robert G. (2007).The iPod Revolution: Coming to a Classroom Near You. University of South Carolina. Retrieved June 22, 2009 at http://www.osra.org/2007/papers/brookshire.pdf

Blogging in the Classroom

Not quite sure what age level I will be teaching, I tried to think of a grade where blogging would be the most beneficial. The younger kiddos don't quite have the experience with computers or have developed the writing ability to get the most out of blogging. I decided to focus on grades 2 and 3. At this level, they are gaining the ability to organize their thoughts while writing. By third grade they are also a little more comfortable with computers (depending on the amount of opportunity they have had).

With 3rd graders, I did a month long unit on Space. In the beginning of the unit, we did research and I gave them computer lab time to take notes on the big concepts we would be learning about during the month. They really loved this and enjoyed sharing cool things they learned, so I usually allowed a few minutes at the beginning of Science time for students to share anything interesting they learned about space. They loved this sharing time and did research on their own at home just for a few seconds to share with their classmates.

Learning about and practicing blogging in this class, I thought that this technological addition would be a great way to extend this sharing of ideas. Many times I had to 'cut' students short in sharing since we had limited time during the day for Science. Having the students blog about this would allow them to continue sharing, but within the realm of a cyber room. I would have to provide plenty of modeling and discuss the rules of an online community as we've discussed in class. I think with the appropriate scaffolding, this activity would allow for increased sharing and learning, while allowing more time during the class period for planned activities. This activity would allow them to also practice keyboarding and computer skills in a way that isn't intimidating. They could share as they wanted but would be requried to have at least one comment/response a week. By having a lab time at least 1 or 2 times a week, this would be very easy to get completed. This is one idea how I could incorporate blogging in the classroom and I'm excited to keep brainstorming and find other ways!

Writing Prompts

Dr. Schmidt showed us an example of a wordless book today and some activities that she's done with it. I found this to be an awesome idea! Wordless books usually tend to have really good illustrations and I've wanted to find a way to incorporate them into a lesson. Using them as a writing prompt was a great way to get students writing a story in a quick and dirty way. Using a prompt like this minimized the brainstorming portion as well as the illustrating which are two steps in writing stories that take students a long time. This really allows you to have them focus on their writing and make it as good as they can, as well as being creative and hopefully different from other student's stories. I thought this could also be taught with learning about perspectives. Each time someone reads a story, they bring their background knowledge into it and can get a completely different meaning from the same story.

I also really like the art she used as writing prompts. I am somewhat familiar with the artist she showed since my mom really liked him. The pictures he does are very interesting and have peculiar things going on in them, such as the "THING" under the rug. Students like when something is a little wacky and out of the ordinary so I'm sure they would love to create a story based off of one of his pictures. I look forward to doing this someday!

Digital Book Talks

This assignment brought back fond memories for me of my favorite childhood T.V. program in school, Reading Rainbow. I was a book worm in school and loved to hear about the new books they introduced at the end. I was glad to see the examples today in class since it was a good reminder of exactly how book talks should be given. Today our group had The Great Kapok Tree. We immediately knew where to go for our background since we needed the jungle atmosphere, and headed to the horticulture building. We finished fairly early and couldn't wait to bring 'life' to our book talk using cool effects in IMovie, voice overs, and music.

As we imported our video into the IMovie program, I thought about the ways I could use this activity in the classroom. I realized the amount of modeling and support I would have to provide the students but knew that it would be worth it. The more practice students would have with this, the more comfortable they would become with it. I thought it could work similar to something I saw during one of my practicums. The teacher had assigned each day of the week to a group of students. These students each had to do a book talk on a book they had picked out the previous week and had read/prepared for that day. They could then give the book they read to another student showing interest, and this continued throughout the year.

I thought this was an excellent way to create a reading community within the classroom. What we did today would be a modification integrating technology. As a teacher I would need to definitely provide additional scaffolding but with the appropriate support, I believe this can be modified to meet elementary students' needs.