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.

Keyboarding vs. Handwriting

Today in class we had a very interesting discussion on the importance of keyboarding in the classroom. After discussing several pros and cons with keyboarding, the discussion seemed to develop into a debate of whether or not handwriting was an important skill to be taught. I personally feel like there is a constant tug-of-war between these two. While student teaching, I noticed in one of my placements the amount of class time that was given for handwriting practice. It was about 20 minutes each day when the students were required to complete one or two pages in their handwriting packet. This packet was simply worksheets stapled together in a book allowing the students to practice both regular handwriting and cursive. This was done independently and the teacher never had them turn it in. Personally I thought this was a complete waste of time. The teacher didn't make the students accountable for their practice, and in turn the students didn't take this time seriously. They were often off task or completing other work.

For me I thought that this time could have better been used with more meaningful activities such as including keyboarding time like we discussed today. However, I do see the significance in making sure our students are taught to write well so it's back to the big question; What is more important Keyboarding or Handwriting? Thinking about this, I realized that everything we plan and teach within the classroom is done so with a specific purpose. Taking this into account, I don't think I agree with having exclusive time for keyboarding or handwriting. Both are skills that students will need for the rest of their lives in everything they do so in teaching I want to emphasize that. Integrating these skills in assignments will teach them that both are important. I like how someone suggested today having each a part of an assignment. If you're having them write a story; make them write the story out with good handwriting and then move on to typing it out for the editing process. I thought it was an excellent way to take away the debate and replace it with a collaborative learning process.

Reasons for Bringing Technology Into Schools

During our class so far, we have learned about many programs and activities to include in our classroom. Many of them require programs that cost money as well as access to computers. Not all schools have funding towards things like this so why is it important to make the inclusion of technology in the classroom a priority? The article I read, Reasons for Bringing Technology Into Schools (Dr. Singh, Dr. Means, 2008) described six reasons why technology is useful in education.
They first discuss how it supports the thinking process. Dr. Means and Singh did a case study with students and teachers and found that even before the inclusion of technology, teachers believed that technology would provide opportunities to acquire problem-solving skills. They found that while using technology, students must solve problems through programs specifically for that and in solving problems that naturally emerge through the their technology usage. It also allows students to acquire complex concepts as they must engage in higher order thinking while completing tasks with varied levels of teacher support and scaffolding.
They then talk about how technology serves as a motivator for students and allows them to develop self-esteem. The case study was done on students predominantly from low-income families. Means and Singh noticed the level of motivation and self-esteem rise tremendously during the study and connected it to the increase of technology use.
In this way, technology also serves as a tool to promote equity. Not all students have the access at home, particularly from low SES families and having the opportunity to use technology at school allows them to gain the skills and opportunities that their peers with technology have.

Means and Singh described how student usage with technology allows them to be better prepared for the future; " Respondents at a number of sites foresaw a future in which both higher education and the world of work would be infused with technology." With many jobs needing people to work that are technologically literate more each day, technology use in the classroom allows students who may not have the opportunity to gain this knowledge and get the appropriate practice to get a good job. The case study also revealed the possibility for school structure to be changed with increased use of technology. The article states, "A number of our sites reported consciously deciding to use technology in order to support changes in school structure. Several district administrators expected technology to free up teacher time by taking over or supporting administrative and routine teaching tasks." Technology allows lessons to turn from direct instruction to a more collaborative style of learning. Teachers serve as facilitators as students engage in a

Teachers serve as facilitators as students engage in activities that integrate a variety of subjects and skills. In this way, educators have realized that the typical structure in schools today may need to be modified for optimum use of technology. Finally, Singh and Means describe how as students use technology, their interest of technology grows. Students develop the desire to learn more about new technologies. In this way, the usage of technology within school today prepares students to be life-long technology users; a required skill in today's technology driven society.

Singh, Dr. R. and Means Dr. B. (2008). Reasons for Bringing Technology Into Schools. A Research Project Sponsored by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. Department of Education.

Literacy Circles on the Web

Talking about the literacy circles today really opened my eyes to the opportunities we have available while creating lessons. I thought the discussion today really followed the collaborative learning model as it was suggested that the 'higher' reading groups serve as peer mentors in helping other students get used to literacy circles. While student teaching, my CT had 5 reading groups in her 3rd grade room. The class for the most part were all either at or above where they were supposed to be. While I was teaching, my CT decided to take the top group who were gifted and talented, and did this exact activity with them. She introduced and got them started into doing the circles. By the end of two weeks they were very comfortable with it and couldn't wait to get started with the other students in the class.

Incorporating technology into the lesson would be another great way for students to get feedback and hear opinions/ideas from students in other classes and possibly other states and countries. Having this online also promotes their writing skills and would require them to organize their thoughts both orally (while speaking with others in the class face to face), and in writing as they write back and forth to the others in their online literacy group. I think that there are many benefits to having online lit circles but also don't want to lose that face to face interaction. Today it was suggested that there could be different 'centers' during the literacy group time. I thought this was an awesome idea since it would allow the students to engage in different ways of interacting about their book both within their own classroom and with others. Overall, this is definitely an idea I want to incorporate when I begin teaching!

Classroom Social Networking

For the first time that I can remember, I was taken outside of my comfort zone today with regards to technology. During our class today we had a virtual speaker, Denise, who is the creator of Reading Revolution. The things she discussed with us today were amazing. She is at the cutting edge of introducing technology into the classroom through the means of social networking and I am glad to be a new teacher in this day in age. Many of my own concerns with having a program like reading revolution in the classroom is mostly in creating differentiation to meet a variety of student needs and technological levels. I am Early Childhood and Special Ed. so throughout the presentation I was constantly trying to find methods to modify a site like this for younger students and students with a variety of needs. When I asked Denise a question parallel to this, she responded by saying that it is still very new and suggested with students very young, simply introduce the concept of social networking through a whole group lesson. This made more sense to me as I simply could not see myself letting a class of 2nd or even 3rd graders onto a site like Reading Revolution without a substantial amount of scaffolding and modeling.

The idea of having social networking in the classroom seems more to be an issue of working out the kinks to make it as successful as possible. Today we also discussed the program 'Second Life' and the avatars that are a part of Reading Revolution. I have had no previous experience of this program at all (today was my first day actually even knowing exactly what it was) and the things that were discussed was simply mind boggling to me. Since I was unfamiliar with the program, I found myself immediately regarding it as a negative thing and couldn't believe and understand how teachers and even professors were integrating this program into curriculum. As I was reflecting and noticing how much I was moved out of my comfort zone, I began to relate myself to the other hundreds of teachers who feel this way everyday with 'simple' technology such as the ELMO or Smart board. Many times they are not given any training before hand on the materials and they are just given to them one day to sort out. I can see how they would be a little turned off and/or resistant to change based on their own level of comfortability. Having felt like this today for a few minutes really opened my eyes to their feelings towards technology and has helped me to develop ways to be out of your comfort zone but still feel like everything is okay.

Using PBS in the Classroom

The speaker we had today from PBS was wonderful. She showed us many sites and areas of the PBS website that would be very beneficial within the classroom. At first the site seemed overwhelming to me since there is so much there. Even talking with one of my cooperating teachers, she expressed to me the lack of time she had to really spend on the computer finding cool sites as this. I thought by creating a list of cool websites that is well organized, I would be able to eliminate planning time and be able to go directly to a site and find what I needed. I really liked how the PBS site covered a wide variety of subjects as well as instructional methods. Just in my few minutes of browsing the site; I was able to download videos, create an account for my tutee (for 588) on the Island, and save cool certificates and worksheets to use later.

As an early childhood educator, I really liked how easy it is to navigate the site. Sometimes it's hard to include student usage of the Internet during a lesson since the students can be at such different levels of ability on the computer. This site is very user friendly though and I could easily see students being able to navigate it quite easily with minimal teacher assistance. I also liked the overall way that the site is attractive and interactive. Most of the activities would be fun for the students and I could see them wanting to go back onto it again and again.

During our class today, I was constantly brainstorming ways to include what we learned into the classroom. The activity I really would like to use in the future is the PBS Kids Island feature. It is so cool how the teacher can watch exactly what the students are doing on there; how many times they visit, what activities they do, how much they are progressing in a certain skill, etc. It makes the students more accountable while also allowing me as the teacher to see what they need more work on. I decided to try it out and like I've mentioned, I have already started an account for my tutee since I thought this would be a good way to give her a 'break' and learn at the same time. I would also like to get her feedback on it and see if it students her age in the future would enjoy it.

Interactive Lessons

Wow! What a fun class today. It's amazing how much technology can change a simple lesson. I really liked the activity with the 'Spilt Milk' book. I just recently read that book to a class of preschoolers and they loved it! We kept rechecking the book out of the library since the children wanted to read it just about every day. I liked bringing in the component of Kid's Pix since this would give students a fun way to incorporate their own creativity into a class book. While we did it I was thinking about those students who would enjoy the drawing portion but might struggle with the writing part. Having a program like Kid's Pix is awesome because you can provide as much or little scaffolding to meet the student's need by giving them a template to work on or just a blank page. It's great how technology allows differentiation within lessons to occur so easily!

I also really enjoyed the preposition activity where we got into groups and took pictures of ourselves and others doing those actions. Student teaching with 3rd graders, I sometimes struggled in thinking of new and exciting ways to teach grammar. Many times at the elementary level you have a certain amount of time to teach a subject. In my case it was 20 minutes and it was hard to think outside of the box with lessons since these tend to be more time consuming.

Thinking about this today however, I thought about all the different things you are actually teaching the students. With lessons such as this, it provides deeper thinking and allows more opportunity to combine learning about other subjects. Our activity today for example; Why does it have to only be a grammar lesson? It could also be a geography lesson as the students navigate their way around the school, or in our case the campus. A science lesson as they learn how to use the camera and computer and learn more about digital film and its uses. A social studies lesson as the students notice the relationships and actions of people around their school/community. The possibilities seem endless and opening our minds to technology will broaden the choices of activities we can include in our lessons! The more I learn about technology, the more I despise worksheets (even though I know they do have their place). As a teacher, I want my students to be excited and enthused for learning and I know that the inclusion of technology in the classroom will promote that.

Interest in Technology

Growing up we always had a computer in the house as well as game systems. Coming to ISU to study as an undergrad, I felt very comfortable using computers in general and was very excited to learn more programs and ways to use computers as a student. I took the Intro class of technology in the classroom my very first semester and that really opened my eyes to the things that were out there. At times I was frustrated since most of the programming we were using was on MACS and I hadn't really had any previous experience on a MAC.

Four years later, I am happy to say that I am comfortable with all kinds of computers and many technologies and programs. During my student teaching, I had the opportunity to teach in two districts on opposite sides of the technological spectrum. My first placement had a seemingly endless supply of resources in technology and I was able to teach with a projector/Elmo just about every day as well as flip cameras, video cameras, etc. My second placement was quite different. The only form of technology in the room was an older computer for the children to use. Every couple of weeks the teacher would put in a different program and that was it for technology.

Having seen both situations from a teaching perspective, it really sunk in to me the importance of technology within the classroom. At this point I feel comfortable enough to integrate technology throughout my lessons, but know that I definitely have room to learn. It seems like the more I learn, the more I see I need to learn, but I feel like I have a strong enough foundation in technology to continue building my knowledge of programs and strategies to enhance the use within my teaching. I look forward to this class and hope to continue building my comfort level and knowledge of technology while using it with students.