Week 9

     This week in class we learned a lot. We started off by learning about cheating in the classroom. We watched a video about different ways that students now a days are cheating ie-pop bottles, text messaging etc. It was very interesting to watch this video and watch the reactions of the people in the class. Most people in the class were very surprised by the ways and tactics that these kids had come up with which is a good sign. It's a good sign because that shows that most of them didn't cheat in these ways and that's always a good thing. We also learned about a virtual classroom on adobe. I thought that was really cool because you could have a white board and have the students write on that as well as have them raise their hands. I thought that was pretty neat. I had never even heard about anything like that. This all related to the first presentation about where technology is going to go in the following years. It's really crazy to think about that right now we have the technology to have class online through a computer who knows whats going to happen in the next couple years. Who knows maybe all classrooms will be taught online through a computer and you won't even have to be in an actual classroom setting. After that we learned how to make a concept map. I think that these are really awesome and i'm really glad we learned about them. I remember making them a lot when I was in elementary and middle school. We had to do ours by hand not on the computer. I think that doing them on a computer will make things a lot faster for kids now days. It is definitely a good resource and a good tool for studying.  We the finished with learning how to make a newsletter for our future classrooms.

     I think that I will actually be able to use some of these programs in my classroom. I would really like to be able to use the concept maps for sure. I think that it would really help the kids in understanding concepts. By laying them out in a map form and by ideas that will really help them. I would also like to be able to use the newsletter in my classroom. I would like to be able to send out those types of letters quarterly. I would not like to incorporate cheating in my classroom and if I catch cheating in my classroom it will be an automatic F for the semester.

     Some ISTE standards that we used today as students were:

• Creativity and Innovation: We started to create our own original works of the newsletters and also when we did the class activity of creating the concept map. We incorporated new existing ideas and concepts to make new ones. 
• Communication and Collaboration: We worked with the people in our groups to create concept maps.
• Technology Operations and Concepts: We had to understand how to use a computer. 

     

     Some ISTE standards that we used today as teachers were:

• Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity: We learned new ways in technology to help our students be more creative. We learned about concepts maps and how the students can be more creative by doing them online instead of just pencil and paper.
• Model Digital Age Work and Learning: We learned how to create newsletters to send to our parents and students in a better way to communicate with them.

Week 8

     This week in class we learned about wikis.  I think this presentation would have been better if we would have had it like the second or first week of class. The group could have done a tutorial on how to use wiki and navigate around the website. It would have been very helpful but instead it it was this week. I thought it was a good presentation though. I liked the video we watched that compared blogs and wikis with the two presidents. That was really funny and interesting. We also learned about self-directed learning which I also found very interesting. Then we used an awesome website to make rubrics which will be very helpful in the classroom and we also learned how to make podcasts.

     Every week it gets harder and harder for me to answer the question "will you use it in your classroom" because these are all really great tools that we are learning about to use in our classroom but it's just really hard to incorporate them into a math class. There are some things that I would like to use such as blackboard and stuff but things like podcasts and wikis would be very hard to use in a math class. But I do see how other subjects would be able to use these great tools that we are learning about!

     Some of the ISTE standards that we used today as teachers are:

• Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments: We learned a new technology (podcats) and how to incorporate them into our classrooms. 
• Model Digital-Age Work and Learning: We demonstrated fluency in technology in being able to create a rubric and work with audacity.

     Some of the ISTE standards that we used today as students are:

• Creativity and Innovation: We applied our existing knowledge of technology and computers to learn something new.
• Research and Information Fluency: We used a really cool website to make rubrics.
• Communication and Collaboration: We use our wikis daily. 

Week 7

Today in class my group gave a presentation on online learning communities. I think that these online learning communities are a great idea! I think that they really do improve a students learning and understanding of the material. I also think that all students who have the opportunity in college to be in a learning community should seize the opportunity. It is a great way for students to meet other students who are in the same major as them and just help them makes friends their first semester in college. I know that I am still friends with most of the people that were in my learning community. A learning community is a little different than an online learning community though. Basically the only difference is that is just online. We also learned how to make a voice thread. It was a very cool technique to use and I really enjoyed using it. It was a little confusing at first but once you got the hang of it it really wasn't all that bad. 


I do not think that I can actually use it in my classroom because that defeats the purpose of it being an online learning community but I could use it outside of the classroom in a sense that the students use it to interact with each other. One example of a online learning tool is Facebook the students could use Facebook to interact with each other about homework or whatever they may need help with. I'm also not sure how I could voicethread if my classroom either but I can totally see how other teachers could use them especially English teachers. 

Some of the ISTE standards we used as teachers today are:  

•  Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments: We learned a new way to incorporate technology to enhance the students learning and understanding.
• Model Digital-Age Work and Learning: We learned how to use technology in a new way.

Some of the ISTE standards we used as students today are:

• Creativity and Innovation: We applied our existing knowledge of technology to learn something new.
• Communication and Collaboration: We had to work with our group in order to create a voicethread. 

Week 6

This week we had a pretty simple class and very easy. First we learned about Distance Learning which was very interesting. I have personally been a part of a DL program. I took classes over the summer through Ohio University but I wasn't in Ohio. I took my classes online while I spent my summer in Alaska. It's so convenient. Professors use blackboard to keep you update and post homework assignments etc. It was a really awesome experience and it was a easy way for me to get credits, still have a summer and not have to stay in Ohio. I plan on most likely doing it again this summer assuming all things work out well scheduling wise. We also created our own movie and turned it in before we left class. We had to create a movie using twelve pictures and our topic had to be either the Core Values of the College of Education or relating to our subject area. We had to use transition effects, music and text. I never knew how to make a movie before so this was a very good technique to learn how to use.

I don't think that this is something that I would be using in my classroom because they are all used for out the classroom things. I would use things like blackboard to help my students that may not be able to attend school regularly because of family issues or personal issues. I think that blackboard is a great invention and I really love using it. I love being able to see my grades, have teachers post articles and information pertaining to the class etc.  I'm not sure if I will use movie making in the classroom because I am going to be a math teacher but I can definitely see how teachers in other subjects would use movie maker and the other tools we learned about today.

Some ISTE standards that we used today as teachers are:

• Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. We learned how to promote student learning and creativity in a new way. We learned how to use videos and how to be able to still be in a class even if can not actually attend school.
• Model Digital-Age Work and Learning. We learned a new use for technology (video) and how to incorporate it into our classroom on a daily basis. 

Some ISTE standards that we used as students today are:

• Creativity and Innovation. Today we applied our existing knowledge of technology to form a new idea in technology. We learned how to create videos and use them in our classrooms.
• Technology Operations and Concepts. We understand technology.