Blog #8

I believe gamification is a great technology advancement in education because it really does help the students remember the material they just learned. Teachers can project the game on the smart board and make it an entire class participation effort or separate the students in groups to play the game amongst themselves. The important thing about using gamification in the classroom is that the students must already be familiar with the material. Games are a form of practice and review, not a form of learning new information so they do not replace the job of the teacher.

 On the scale of the digital divide, I am on the side of people who do have access to these hardware, software, and internet devices. I went to private school for high school and all of the students were provided with the same iPad that we got to keep until graduation, which then you either give back to the school or pay to keep it. I think it was a great idea for all the students to be given the same device controlled under the same administrator because it made sure that we all had access to this technology and we all fell under the same side of the digital divide. I hope that when I become a teacher that the school will provide the students with the same technology so they each have an equal chance of gaining this access. It will also make my job easier because I know the kind of internet, software, and hardware access each of my kids have and I can create lesson plans a lot easier. If the school I work for is a BYOD system, I will just have to become familiar with my students and the side of the digital divide they fall under. I will try to provide alternatives and come up with back up plans for the students who have less access to these technologies. 

This assignment showed me how time consuming making a presentation can be. It did take me quite a while to put the presentation together because I tried to think of the best possible way to organize the information so my students would be able to understand and follow along easier. Doing this assignment helped me practice my skills with organizing information and providing a simple PowerPoint that is not loaded with too much information. I tried to keep it simple because I will be teaching this presentation to younger students. I liked the creative freedom of this project, but at the same time it did take me some time to think about what I wanted to teach. Now that I’ve finished it, I am pretty satisfied with how it came out. In the future I will most likely include more information to this lesson, but for now I think this is a pretty good start! 

Blog #7

Starting with the “remember” level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, I would use repetitive slides and graphics on PowerPoint to help students remember the material. I can help them “understand” the material by making a different slide for each concept and within those slides go into detail and elaborate on each point or term. Doing this will help them get a better understanding of the material, apart from simply remembering. I would insert links to videos on the slides that serve as examples of the material, so students can “apply” the material to real life examples or situations. I would also insert graphs and charts on the slides, so the students can “analyze” the information by comparing/contrasting it to other pieces of information. Students can “evaluate” the material by openly discussing the material presented in the PowerPoint. Because of the PowerPoint and the discussion it led to, students can then “create” their own original work or idea related to the material. 

Adaptive technologies are used by students with physical or learning disabilities. These technologies help all students receive the equal education they deserve through assistive educational tools. Recorded books are an example of this type of tool because it allows students who are blind or students who have trouble reading follow along with the book. Other examples of adaptive technology include word-predication software, scan/read systems, alternative keyboards, etc. There are some challenges that come with using this assistive technology. One challenge is that it requires more time and training for teachers. Another challenge is integrating this technology into the lesson for these students who need the extra help. The teacher needs to think more creatively when it comes to using this technology in the classroom. 

This Web Page Design assignment helped me practice my creative skills with displaying information in a way that is easy to follow and understand. I really liked the creative freedom we had on this assignment because it allowed me to design the page however I liked and about whatever subject and grade level I wanted to focus on. I can improve the website by making it more aesthetically pleasing and adding more information that could benefit the parents and students who will be using my site. This assignment can help me for my future career because I can use it as a real website for my future class. It was surprisingly easy to navigate and I think it can be very useful for me, my students, and their parents in the future. Here are screenshots of my website, which you can find at melaniegonza.weebly.com :

Blog #6

I visited my old elementary/middle school website and was happy to see that they have updated it since I've been there. The class pages, however, are not that exciting. They are pretty boring and there is a lot of blank space, but I guess it works in this case because parents are not really looking for "pretty," they are looking for specific information and important dates. I clicked on a few class pages and noticed that most of them contain the teacher's picture, contact information, and announcements like upcoming tests dates and homework assignments. Some teachers even included a gallery of pictures of their kids doing in class projects and school activities. The school is St. Agatha Catholic School in Miami, Florida and I went through all the grades including the special education classes. I noticed that the class pages for special education were more updated and contained more information than the regular grade class pages. This is probably because the parents of students in special ed will be more reliant on these sites. Here is a screen shot of one of the special education class pages:

I envision myself using technology creatively to fit the different learners of my classroom. Since teachers do not often get to choose the software they use in class, I am going to have to be creative with what I am given and make the best out of it for my students. I can use technology like electronic spreadsheets to make charts. formulas, and "what if" analysis--which will help a lot with importing grades. I can also make presentations using PowerPoint and display it on the smart board. Database management can help me with writing forms, reports, and emails to parents and/or administration. There are endless amounts of technological resources that I should familiarize myself with because they will make my job a lot easier!

The Web Evaluation assignment helped with finding reliable websites that are also really useful for teachers and students. The website I evaluated is called EdHelper.com and it has worksheets and activities for all grade levels and multiple subjects. I know a few of my elementary and middle school teachers used this website because I was given worksheets with that same logo on the paper. The sheets provided on this website are great practice and are beneficial for teachers who don't have time to make their own. This assignment led me to this website which I'm grateful for because I see myself using it in the future. This assignment also helped guide me through the process of what to look for in a website when I become a teacher, like currency, accuracy, authority, etc. The wiki page was a little difficult to navigate at first but after we got the hang of it, it was not too bad. In the future this evaluation process will help me pick out reliable and credible websites and use them as a tool in educating.

Blog #5

A 2.0 technology I find useful in the classroom is Twitter. I think the use of social media in the classroom can be difficult for the teacher to manage, especially if she is dealing with younger students. I think for social media technologies to work in the classroom, the students must be at an appropriate age— I would recommend high school level and above. Twitter is a great source for current events and trending news. Twitter is also a good tool to communicate ideas and information in a more compressed and quick way. Students would need a computer or a mobile device with internet connection to participate in this type of assignment. For younger students, such as elementary and middle school levels, I would recommend the use of blogs. The 2.0 technology of blogs can be extremely useful because it allows students much creative freedom, while still practicing writing and communication skills. There are classroom friendly blogs that teachers can easily access, and I believe this will be a great tool to use in the classroom and will also motivate students to write. Students would need a computer or tablet to participate in this type of assignment. I also think video projects are fun for the students, especially when the teacher projects the video for the rest of the classmates to enjoy. I think middle school and up can participate in this type of activity, depending on how easy the video editing technology can be. Making the videos will help the students remember the content through experience. An iPad can be used to make the videos and edit them on the iMovie app. A smart board and projector would be needed for this in order to share the videos with the class. 

I think I may use Quizlet when teaching. It is a website that allows you to make flashcards and study guides when studying, and is especially useful for vocabulary and concept terms. What I like about Quizlet is that once you type up all the terms and definitions, you have a few options to review the content. You can review the terms by playing a game called gravity in which the definition is falling and you have to type the term to win. There is also a feature called scatter in which the words and definitions are scattered around the page and you have to match the term with the right definition, or vice versa. There is a speller feature that through audio reads the word out-loud and you have to type it accurately to test spelling of the terms. There is also a test option that provides a mock test consisting of fill-in-the-blank, matching, and multiple choice. 

Quizlet is great because it allows students many different ways to review and study the vocabulary terms. It can useful for many different types of learners and aid you in the specific part that you need help in, whether it be spelling or memorizing definitions. As a teacher, I can project Quizlet on the board and the class can play the game or review the concepts together. I can even use this time to split the class into groups and make a competition out of it as a way to motivate the students to participate. There are many beneficial tools in Quizlet; what helps me a lot when I am studying is that Quizlet tells can tell me which terms I have been struggling with in the games and practices. Through this feature it is easier to recognize what you need more help and review on. Here is the link to this 2.0 tool: https://quizlet.com 

I tried my best to bring out my creative side with this project. I wanted to make the concept map aesthetically pleasing so it would not be as boring for the students to study it. This assignment did take some time to make and organize. It made me realize how much time teachers spend on making study guides, which is only one document out of the many more teachers have to work on. Being a teacher is time consuming, and this goes to show that the work does not end when class does. Teachers have homework too and it’s not quick and easy. Here is my concept map: 

Blog #4

I chose the Math standard, MAFS.3.G.1.1. This standard states, “Understand that shapes in different categories (e.g., rhombuses, rectangles, and others) may share attributes (e.g., having four sides), and that the shared attributes can define a larger category (e.g., quadrilaterals). Recognize rhombuses, rectangles, and squares as examples of quadrilaterals, and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories” (cpalms.org).  A web-based resource my students can use is a website called Geoboard (Link here: http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/web-apps/geoboard/). Geoboard is an online gaming tool that students can use to make shapes and manipulate them in a way to identify and compare each one. I would use this by projecting the website on the smart board and having students take turns to come up to the smart board and create the shape I advise them to make. This will make the class interactive and also entertaining while still managing to teach the students this standard.  

I have had to search for internet-based resources countless times, especially in high school. Since we predominately used iPads in my high school classrooms, many of the assignments had to do with using the internet and integrating it into the lesson. If I needed to find a current event article for my social studies class, I looked under the “News” category of Google. If I needed an academic source, like JSTOR, for a research paper I would use the “Scholar” search engine of Google or I would type “:.edu” after my search phrase. I have also used internet games and softwares to help me memorize material, from state capitals to vocabulary words. This is similar to when the podcasts speaks about an “open source” which is a software that is freely available for anyone to use. 

The Web Hunt assignment had a few surprisingly difficult challenges to solve. I struggled mainly with the science lesson plan challenge. This assignment showed me how important it is to keep track of how I find specific websites, because at times I forgot to write down the steps before I closed the tab and it was difficult for me to find the website again. This assignment also reminded me of the many different ways Google offers you to search for something, such as using Scholar, News, Images, Videos, etc. Here are a couple challenges for my classmates: 

1. Find an academic article about the themes in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein. (Hint: Google Scholar) 
2. Find a current event about technology being used in the classroom (Hint: Google News)

Blog #3

I feel most prepared to teach reading, writing, and vocabulary technology standards because I think the softwares I need to use for those lessons will be easier for me to understand. They require digital text, audio, and videos which I am very familiar with since I use those multimedias on a daily basis. I am comfortable with adding graphics, figures, and illustrations to a document or presentation, so I think I am prepared to teach those skills. I am most worried about the charts and diagrams that will be needed to illustrate informational text. I think I definitely need to practice those skills myself before I can teach it to a class. 

I would like to use weblogs with my students because I think that would be a very fun way for them to practice their writing skills. I probably would not be very strict with the content of their writing so they could have as much creative freedom as possible. I will be teaching elementary students so I would use blogs as an online portfolio and submission for their journal entries or creative writing activities. This way, the students can read through their classmates’ writing for inspiration and also show off their own writing to their peers and even parents when they get home. Because the kids will be very young, I will need to create ground rules for using weblogs. There are some digital citizenship concepts I will need to address. The major concept is protecting personal identity. Since weblogs are public and online, I must go over online safety and the dangers of revealing too much personal information. If I have them write a personal essay about themselves, I will need to teach them what is “too personal.” The other concept I will go over is being respectful to other the bloggers. Cyber bullying is a major issue in our tech-advanced society, and because of this I will have to go over the proper way to respond to peers online. Once I can get through all the safety rules, I think blogging will be very useful in my elementary classroom.

I really enjoyed the Newsletter Design assignment. I really liked the creative freedom we had for this assignment because I was able to design it the way I wanted. I won’t lie and say that I am completely satisfied with my newsletter. It does not look very official to me, which is why I’m not 100 percent satisfied but it showed me that I do need to work on a few Word skills. This assignment made me realize how much I do not know about Word, because I’m learning something new after each assignment. I had trouble with using columns because I was not sure how to break the column where I wanted, rather than letter Word break it for me evenly in the middle. I am not sure if this is possible, but if it is, I definitely want to learn that for next time. I will definitely need to know how to do this type of assignment in the future because when I become a teacher I will most likely need to send monthly, or even weekly, newsletters to the parents of my students. I hope by the end of this semester I will be prepared for that.

Blog #2

Microsoft Word is the software I have used the most as a student. For every essay, research paper, outline, poem, science fair project, current event summary, history skit, resume, study guide, etc. I have had to use Microsoft Word. As a student, there are benefits of using Microsoft Word over paper and pen. The most important benefit, for me at least, is the ability to save my work on a computer. I lose papers left and right, but by typing up my work, I don't have to worry about losing a paper because I can easily open the saved document on my computer and print it again. Another important factor for me is the neatness of a document typed on Word. It is easier for me to study notes that I have typed up, because it is more neat and I can also arrange the format to my personal benefit. There are endless benefits to using Microsoft Word as a student, and even teachers profit from it too. I’ve seen my teachers use Microsoft Word while making study guides, tests, quizzes, lesson plans, letters to parents/students/faculty, etc. The great benefit for teachers is that they can save these documents onto their computers and then, for the next school year, they can simply revise a few things, instead of typing it all up again. 

I have had teachers who were more strict than others, and vice versa, when it came to copyright and fair use of materials. I have experienced some teachers who make their students give credit to every image we used in a powerpoint presentation, by making us cite not only where we found our information but also where we found our images. I have had teachers who did not really care about citing our sources, which made it easier to plagiarize. As a student, I’ve mostly had to create MLA style citations and works cited pages to give credit to the intellectual property of another writer, artist, etc. I know some of my teachers purchased softwares through the school in order to legally use the program in the classroom, which is what I would most likely try to do when I become a teacher. However, I understand that it might not be easy convincing an administration to pay for the software I’d like to use in the classroom. I would have to use the softwares and programs that the school already has in place. When it comes to the material I will be teaching, I will commonly refer to the textbook so I would need to give credit to that source. I will teach my students about plagiarism and how to avoid it by correctly citing their work.

I always used Twitter as a way to connect with friends and celebrities. Now that I’ve learned of the other uses for Twitter, like keeping up with current events and getting easy access to trending issues, I now get more use of this app. By following Education and Education Technology related profiles on Twitter, I now receive many updates on my newsfeed of education related issues and articles, some keeping me updated and others that provide advice for teachers. I can use this in my future career to be aware of what’s occurring in schools near me and also to keep me updated on new ways to teach and organize a classroom. It’s always important to know what’s trending, and Twitter gives us just that!