Final Reflection

This class has been my favorite class all semester. We used a lot of cool technology and how to use it in ways I never thought of.
The research paper forced me to learn about current technology in the classroom, and has retaught me how to find credible sources.

I think my favorite part of the class was our final presentations. Seeing how everyone progressed and learned to use powerpoint in an extremely effective manner was really cool.

I think that even though many of us were already proficient in most technology, we all learned how to use each item in a different manner and to create new ways to teach and to learn.

This class has been great and I'll miss it next semester!

Excel

Excel and I used to be really close friends. I used it for grades and a considerable amount of my math- but I haven't used it in a long time. In fact, I haven't used it since I got into construction. Making this crossword reminded me how useful it can be. I'm sure I will use it throughout my teaching career for many things. I will have to re-learn the different equations to make it effective but I'm sure that will come with time.

yay for excel!

Webquest

Making a webquest was a whole new experience for me. In doing so I have learned much better avenues to create nonlinear power point presentations. I had never really thought of using a powerpoint as an activity rather than for a presentation. Learning to use powerpoint in this way will really make teaching easier, especially when we're doing long lessons that need a lot of instruction. This could make it interactive and fun.

Making a website

I have made websites before, mostly for school, but it has been a long time. The technology that makes HTML editing extraordinarily easy. Putting pictures and colors in with absolutely no code is really easy. I will definitely use my websites more often and create one for every class I teach. It will make relaying information so much easier.

Awesome technology for Tutoring

So it hadn't really occurred to me to write a blog post about my job until just now. I work as an online Tutor for Schooltutoring.com, I have students that pay for a certain number of sessions and I work with them throughout- usually at least 8 weeks, up to three sessions a week. The sessions are an hour long and I get paid a flat rate.

What is so cool about the technology behind this, is the fact that there is seamless video integration. I can see them, they can see me and we have an interactive whiteboard that allows the student to see what I am doing realtime. This technology isn't new by any means- but it is an awesome use of connecting students with tutors across the country. For example, one of the students I am working with now is a second grader from Missouri. We meet three times a week. Another student, is a college student in Texas whose English isn't spectacular and needs help on papers occasionally. The seamless integration between time zones really allows people's schedules to interact in the best possible way.  I will be quite interested to see how video and realtime interactions will push education further and allow more people to interact.

Reflection of Nonlinear Powerpoint

My powerpoint presentation on "how beer saved the world" was fun to create. Not only is it a topic that I am interested in, but I think it will hold my classmates attention as well.  Creating the powerpoint taught me some new features about powerpoint that I didn't realize existed.
I used to have to create a separate slide show and link them all together to create the kinds of buttons and actions that I have in this one- but this version of PP allows me to do it quite simply. Now I can go way beyond a basic table of contents and create a whole slideshow, even circular if I wanted.
I am really impressed with how easy Microsoft has made it to do big things with powerpoint with absolutely now knowledge of HTML.
I'm excited to see more technology incorporating SMART into PowerPoint and seeing these two powerful technologies intermingle.

iPad apps

I use apps every day, many of them are useful; and others are a complete waste of time. I am going to review two very useful apps today.

iTunes U is probably the most underutilized resource that apple offers. First of all, it has thousands upon thousands of free college classes that you can watch, read, or listen too. They have every subject and every topic for FREE. It gets 5's all the way across the board.

The second app I want to review is Evernote. This app is also way underutilized. It is great in the education world and in the work world. It allows the user to take notes including audio files, pictures, dates, and text all in notes that are sharable across virtually every platform. This is great for students who need to record classes, and take notes along the way, it also is really helpful to be able to take pictures and record notes with them.

These are two of the underutilized apps, but there are hundreds more out there. Technology progresses every day allowing us to communicate, take notes, and play more productively and more efficiently.

Story Time

Thirty-five juniors and seniors in a tiny chemistry classroom, and not one of us wanted to be there. We were sent into this class because of a change in curriculum and we all needed another science. Needless to say we were not exactly thrilled to have a brand new teacher whom to us seemed like a mid life crisis career change. 

This man was exactly what you do not want your students to see: extremely nervous to speak to any of us directly, nervous about being in front of the classroom, and an obvious lack of control. I feel bad for him now. I don’t know whether it was the fact that he was so nervous he couldn’t keep his head straight, or he really didn’t know the material he was supposed to be teaching, but to us it seemed like he had no idea what he was doing as a teacher or a chemist.

We had absolutely no respect for the man. As an entire class we talked over him, evaded his discipline, and took full advantage of a period to goof off. I mean all thirty five of us. Looking back, the teacher (lets call him Mr. Doe), should have asked the other faculty for help- he lost control of that class on day one and never regained it. The dean coming in and sitting through a class or two could possibly have straightened it all out, but that didn’t happen. It got worse and worse.

Also, bear in mind that I did participate in goofing off, but I did care about my grades. I learned the material and did all the homework for everything we covered. I knew what I was doing when test day came.

Test day did not go well. Mr. Doe passed out a five page, one hundred and fifty question midterm covering the first half of the book- where we should have been if the class was orderly and all the material had been covered. In horror the realization swept over me that we had only covered half of the material, and I was only prepared for what we covered. I’m not sure if he created the test out of malice, or if he just took a test from the Internet and gave it to us- but it was impossible based on what we had covered. 

Being one of the ones that was well prepared for a midterm, I got a D-,  one of seven passing grades.

This was not a good experience; it ended with the teacher leaving on medical leave after the first quarter (I’m sure it had to be stress related). I don’t believe he ever taught again.  For better or worse there were no real repercussions for the students in the class.   The root of this whole problem was communication. The teacher did not teach us, or did we learn from him because there was a communication barrier that he couldn’t break through. It wouldn’t have taken much- a cool activity or help from another faculty member would have done wonders.  This test we took did not test us on why, how, or involve us as students. It was a horrible situation for both teachers and students, and is a great example of what not to do when it comes to teaching or testing. Do not ever test out of malice, and for the love of god, ask for help. When a classroom is as out of control as this one, something needs to happen. Ask the dean, ask the principle, ask everyone for help. If no one will help you,  find a new school.

Maybe it’s from this experience, or maybe it’s true for all students- but the worst thing a teacher can do, is betray their students trust by testing them on things that have not been covered. It goes deeper than the five domains- it digs down into where the students keep their respect; students’ respect is what keeps us in front of the classroom, and what keeps our sanity in-tact. Hold onto it, cherish it, and nurture it and then apply it for greater learning. 

Reflection of research paper

In writing this research paper I have learned a considerable amount about the evolution of technology in classrooms, but I think I really learned more about doing good research- which is really important for educators to understand and be able to teach to their students.  Finding Peer Reviewed sources is easy once the procedure is understood and the resources are there. This paper was a little longer than I think it should have been, and very time consuming but overall a good assignment for us to complete. Understanding how to use technology to get good information is vital to our success.

I know this is a short blog post- but my topic didn't involve much opinion, nor is the assignment anything I haven't done before.

still mad at the little punk.

Lets start with a story for this weeks post:

My grandparents basement is one of those old basements that feels so cozy and comfortable that you almost can't leave before eating milk and cookies. The light psudo-shag carpet, the old broken in couches (in which have hosted more grandchildren naps per square foot than any bed, in any house), and the old wood-paneled walls that seem to be held together by the old family photos from all twenty-one of my mother's cousins.
Here I sit, on the three-cushioned couch against the wall adjacent to the TV with my nine year old little cousin getting my tail kicked in some new Xbox360 game that he brought over. As my frustration grows because I am literally getting murdered over and over by a nine year old, I begin trying to formulate a plan to put the little cocky pretween in his place.
Finally it hits me. My old fat, original PlayStation 2 is in the closet from when I was his age. I hoped it still worked as I challenged him to a match in TimeSplitters. A game I was master of years before. To my enjoyment I proceed to win the first round. Just as I started to get excited my screen turns red. The little punk got me. Then he got me again. and again.
I'm not going to continue with the details of my embarrassment of getting beating at my own game not only once- but ten times in a row. When I was nine, it took me hours of frustration to achieve what he did in minutes. 

 I'm getting frustrated talking about it, so here my friends, is where the story ends and the point begins.

Times are a-changin. Children are so insanely intuitive to technology that it is almost becoming instinct on how to work them. How to manipulate machines to work exactly the way they want them too, and problem solve faster than we ever thought possible. In fact, many children have cell phones ten years before any of us did. Not only cell phones- but iPhones and Galaxies, and devices that are inconceivably more powerful computers than my family desktop when I was that age.
Harnessing this technology is essential to teaching children. As educators we need to understand this technology and make ourselves keep up on what is going on in their world. If we don't we will be deemed obsolete by our students. Because it will be instinctive to them, we must force ourselves to learn as fast as they do and become so familiar with the technology that we can show them a thing or two without them laughing and dancing circles around us. We are facing a challenge that has been faced by educators since technology itself was born, but never has the gap between teachers and students grown at such an alarming rate, and unfortunately for us- if we don't close that gap- we will be obsolete.

Technology is power.

Powerpoint in the classroom

Powerpoint - the most overused and overrated piece of technology in our classroom.

There are plenty of good and correct uses to Powerpoint in the classroom, but unfortunately there are more bad examples than good. Powerpoint users have a tendency to use PP as a presentation crutch, they create the powerpoint and read directly off of it during their presentation, barely noticing that the audience is even present. In doing so, they alienate the listener and forget to include them in the discussion.
Powerpoint needs to be an addition to a presentation- not the entire thing. Each slide needs to be straight to the point using a small amount of information, mainly topics pictures and examples. The presenter needs to present the topics in their entirety, engaging the audience and showing them that they are important.
Another major misuse of powerpoint is using the animations, colors, and features to distract the audience from the fact that the presenter doesn't know enough about their own topic. Cluttering PP with colors and animations can confuse and actually make the information LESS presentable.
Presentations should be easy on the eyes and the use of animations limited to emphasizing important details.

These tips are important not only to students presenting in the classroom- but to teachers as well. Don't distract your students with the presentation- include them, talk with them, and present in an effective manner.

9/10/13 Word

When I was a sophomore in HS a really beautiful senior asked me if I would help with the school newspaper. My answer was obvious.

This began a journey through Microsoft Word that I will never forget. Since my high school refused to buy us a program for our school newspaper, I began to work with word. Dividing columns and pictures, creating and destroying, editing and scrubbing. I worked every lunch period and every study hall whenever we had enough articles to put a paper out (I went to a very small high school, if everyone didn't write, we didn't have a paper). I got so proficient in that version of Word that I was teaching my teachers how to make the documents that exceeded the limits they has assumed upon Word.

This teaches us a few things.

1) Almost any basic document can be created in any of the Microsoft programs- but picking the right one is crucial for efficiency.
2) All of these programs are about sheer experience. There are lots of tricks and shortcuts and the way to learn them is to run into the situation where you need to be able to create a document with speed (ie: to get to lunch)
and of course
3) A beautiful senior can get a sophomore to do damn near anything. 

9/9/13 Social media

Social media has had a huge impact on my generation. It began for me with AIM in middle school. It allowed me to connect with all of my classmates and family on a whole new level, being a very social person- I connected to this immediately. I began to develop a network of people that I could contact at nearly a moments notice for all sorts of purposes.  
The next phase was Myspace. This changed the way I looked at the internet. Not only was it a place to communicate, it became a place to show people what happened in my life and to express my teenage emotions. This was good and bad for my generation. It was like the internet 2.0 for social media. Suddenly it wasn't just communication anymore, everything was two way and public. Good in the fact that we could now connect to peers on a whole new level. Bad for our futures.
Facebook came next and is still the current winner in my book. I connect to old friends, chat, and procrastinate with this tool.  I have had entire classes held using almost only Facebook. It is a big part of my life and will continue to be.

But what I really want to talk about is the implications of these tools. Myspace in particular. My generation was told as youngsters "be careful what you put on the internet". This didn't even begin to describe the gravity of the situation. For me- it meant "be careful your parents might catch you cursing or holding a beer can."  NOT "Be careful because anything you post on the internet could follow you forever and possibly ruin many choices and possibilities later in life." Not that I necessarily would have cared at the ripe age of 13- because god knows I was invincible.
Sure there are some embarrassing posts in my past- probably nothing anyone would ever truly care about. But my point is anonymity is dead and the internet is forever. No matter how hard I try to delete this blog post- someone somewhere has the time and resources to recover it. Especially the monster companies like Myspace and Facebook- they store EVERYTHING. Even Siri on my phone stores everything I ask her. Internet searches aren't even anonymous.
I think politics will take the blunt of this. Anyone from the Myspace generation will suddenly have old posts, pictures, and comments popping up all over- possibly ruining their credibility.


Like I said. Remember, and grind it deep into your children's minds-  Anonymity is dead, and the internet is forever.