Visualizing with Technology

Between discoveryeducation.com and safarimontage.com I prefer discovery. It may be because the information appeared readily available and I didn't want to spend too much time digging for information on the websites. It is very tempting to skim pages when reading online. The chapter nine about Visualizing with Technologies was mostly about how to use technology to help students visualize mathematics. This would be very helpful when trying to teach such abstract topics. Some examples were about biology and using technology to show how cells or chemicals interact. Using technology to demonstrate something like osmosis or cell division would be very helpful because it would save so much time for the teacher. Instead of having to sketch out a doodle about what happens within cells (or atoms or whatever else) the teacher can pull up a video or digital illustration of the process.

As a growing English teacher, I was looking for examples of how technology could be used in my future classroom, and I found no examples in chapter nine. I must be creative in my teaching and integrating technology into lessons. I do feel that Visualizing with Technology has great potential and can be a great tool, especially for illustrating mathematical and scientific ideas. I am not so confident in the use of technology for illustrating English and other similar topics.

Visualizing with technology can have a positive impact on the learning process. As one of those students who needs a visual image to learn better, I really would love to be able to use technology in this way. The trouble is finding a way to incorporate visuals with my subject of interest. 

Thomas Suarez is one of those rare prodigy children. Seeing kids like him who have already accomplished so much makes me wonder what sort of parents he has. Do they encourage his learning and using technolgy? And he's already such a good public speaker!  He must attend a very great school that can provide for and nourish hungry young minds such as his. His story gives me hope that maybe I can impact students who will make such great leaps as he has. 

Podcast

Podcasting is not a weird word meant for iTunes alone. Rather, it is a radio broadcast of sorts that can be downloaded for listeners to enjoy whenever they desire. There are many different ways to use podcasts. Some of my favorite suggestions were to record lessons or lectures as podcasts so that students can download them later to study. However, I fear that this system may easily be taken advantage of by lazy students who discover they don't have to go to class or pay attention because they can just download the information later. The second idea I liked for use of podcasts in the classroom is to make them available especially for visually impaired students. My mother works with visually impaired children and I suggested this to her almost as soon as I'd read about the idea. I imagine that teachers could read their worksheets, stories, or lessons aloud for the students who need to hear them rather than see them. However, braille transcribers make a living out of brailling worksheets for students, so I'm not sure how this could be used. Mother is the necessity of invention, however, and when the need arises I'm sure a podcast could be one option. Finally, I envision using podcasts to reach the parents of students, especially during the beginning of school. Teachers can introduce themselves, give some background, and explain very generally what the goals are for his/her classroom.

Podcasting is different from some of the other forms we have discussed because it is an audio file. Not only that, but it can be downloaded and listened to as if it were a music track. The other forms can be downloaded, but they can't be played so easily, as if they were a song. Podcasting is similar to voicethreads, but I believe that voicethreads require images. I'm not sure if podcasts have to have video. Regardless, all the forms we have discussed so far share information and can be used in a classroom setting (if the teacher is creative). Thankfully podcasting is a free "program" which makes it convenient for classroom or personal use.

I do own an iPod touch, but I don’t think I would use it in the classroom. I think about how it would appear to the principal or any other superior who walked in while I was staring at it and searching for tracks. If I did use the iPod in class, I suppose I could hook it up to some small speakers and play podcasts from NPR or another educational sort of resource. It could be a great way to engage students and get them thinking about a topic. For some students who retain information better when it is presented in an audio format this would be a very valuable resource. Online communication tools generally are very helpful, but they can also be distracting. There really is nothing like face-to-face conversation between students or students and teachers. I think it is a very valuable skill to be able to approach people and talk to them without embarrassment or shyness, and technology is making it more difficult to be physically social. There are great advantages, however, we need to keep in mind that human interaction is the most important form of communication.

References

Grenier, Brian. "Podcasting." Classroomtech /. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

Web 2.0: Voicethreads, Wikis, Social Bookmarks

Apparently Web 2.0 is a parallel universe that exists within this one and of which I have very little knowledge.  I had no idea that voicethreads even existed.  They sure are helpful in the classroom though! Let me explain some more. First there are wikis. I’ve heard about Wikipedia.com, but apparently a wiki can be used in just about any setting where collaboration and communication are key.  They are primarily for sharing information and almost anyone can edit the information and contribute to the ongoing conversation.  The difference between a wiki and a blog is that more than one person can edit a wiki. Blogs are usually contained to one contributor and there is not really a conversation going on between the viewers and the writers.  Next is something called social bookmarking.  Rather than just bookmarking the webpage on one computer, social bookmarks can be saved on the internet.  This way it’s easier to find the bookmarks that have been made and other people online can see what you’ve bookmarked and utilize those sources.  I didn’t think this would be practical until it was mentioned that a teacher could more easily bookmark the useful educational websites they find in this way.  Finally the last thing I learned about in this unit are voicethreads.  Apparently a voicethread is a website where an image or media is uploaded and a voice recording is attached to the image.  It’s like a presentation where the speaker has already done their part so they don’t have to be present.

It’s pretty easy to see how all of these things can be used in a classroom setting. Some of my classes are currently using wiki (although I am not sure how to operate it. Maybe now I will try again.) as a medium to discuss topics and share information. Social bookmarking is a brilliant idea! I feel like I’ve been living in the stone age because I didn’t know that it existed until today. It’s so practical and I feel like I have been missing out. Voicethreads are awesome, too. I went to a small school so we didn’t use websites a lot or the internet.  I don’t know how practical it would be for a class to put together one of these voicethreads, but they are a great way to put on a presentation and share information.

Copyright, Nettiquette, Fair Use, and Cyber-bullying

Copyright laws have many loopholes.  I was vaguely aware of this fact throughout high school and my first two years of college.  After reading up on information over various copyright acts some of my questions have been cleared up.  However, it is clear that the situation is entirely subjective when it comes to a lawsuit.  Sometimes one side has the advantage without doubt, and other times the verdict is convoluted with particulars. An occasional reminder that manners are just as important on the internet as they are in person will do a lot of good for both teachers and students.  We need to be careful what we share with others or what we say, and think about how it affects those around us.  Cyber bullying is a cruel technique that intends to inflict harm on another person through a medium like the internet.  One element of cyber bullying I learned today is known as “happy slapping.” Apparently this is when kids assault unsuspecting people in public while recording the incident as evidence of their crime.  Then they share the video or photos with friends as if it’s entertainment.

  I am glad that we went over this information this week.  If my teachers in high school had elaborated and shared more information on what copyright laws were, I would feel better about the many papers I’ve since written.  I want to make the Fair Use Policy clear to my students.  My goal is to teach them life skills that will really help them in the “real world.” If all I do is teach them grammar or what limericks are then they won’t care about my class.  I want students to have marketable skills and realize how important literacy is.  Part of that goal involves teaching them how to share information legally and differentiating between what behaviors are appropriate and which are inappropriate. I felt such a gap between high school and college, and I don’t want that to happen to future generations.  There should be more of a cushion to support them during such a challenging time in their lives.  I still have some reading to do on the subject of copyrights, and the laws will keep changing. It’s up to each individual to decipher what behaviors are proper and prevent cyber bullying.

References

http://www.bullying.co.uk/cyberbullying/what-to-do-if-you-ve-been-happy-slapped/

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=happy+slapping

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/

  

Information Literacy and MAPping

Opening my browser window I click in the search box in the top right hand corner. I type my search information, and then I scroll through the links that appear after a few seconds.  This is how I usually perform an internet search.  Though it’s easier to just use the AVG search engine provided by my antivirus protection, I also prefer to use Bing.com to search topics.  Usually my searches are for trivial things like “Does Jack Black wear glasses?” I searched for this information earlier today through Safari on my iPhone.  I merely typed “Jack Black” and then went through images of the actor.  (No, the only picture I saw of him wearing glasses was where he wore sunshades.) I can find this sort of information rapidly, and I haven’t had much need for an in-depth internet search until school started up a few weeks ago.  I was not aware before I took the tech-savvy quiz of how much I didn’t know.  I knew that I was not a computer whiz, but I know enough to survive the day-to-day problems.  Some things that I discovered just today was that “.com” does not stand for “computer” as I always assumed: it stands for "company".  Neither does “.net” stand for “internet” but rather it stands for “networks.”  There were also many other endings to pages that I didn’t even know existed or never paid attention to before.  I took note of them and I plan to make use of this information in the future. 

My habits of internet searching will take a while to change.  I have done searches many times before, several times a day.  Unless I need to specifically find information from educational sites outside the U.S., I will have to search for the notes I took and use the proper “host:ac.za” or whatever other specific search requirements.   This knowledge will affect my teaching because when I do utilize the country codes (such as .za) I will be able to find specific information so much easier.  Finding sources for papers I want the students to write and finding information for my own needs will be much faster.  Why didn’t I learn about this in high school when I was forced to take a keyboarding class and a BCIS course? I still don’t know what BCIS stands for! I certainly hope that future students will be affected in a positive way by my knowledge of how to conduct a proper internet search.  It will help them when I am well prepared to teach.

Although there’s nothing wrong with the way that I usually search for information on the internet, it is very time consuming and sometimes counterproductive.  I chose to perform the assigned activities with the “Victorian Robots” link.  Yes, I partly chose it because my name was in the link. Anyway, I found out that there are many search engines I didn’t know about! Not only that, but once I used those engines I discovered that one of the links from http://bigredhair.com/robots/index.html led to another link that took me right back to the homepage.  Did the author of the robots page cite a link that just led back to itself? Or was it intended to promote the webpage? This information, along with some other information I found when I searched for “Victorian robots” led me to distrust the webpage.  Did those robots ever exist or are they urban legends? I was already skeptical in the first place and when I used the information from this class I discovered that I need to read more carefully into the websites I come across.  If most people were more “information literate” and had the ability to read critically, we may all be better off.

References

Guinan, P. (2001). Mechanical Marvels of the Nineteenth Century. [Web. 2011]. Retrieved from http://www.bigredhair.com/robots/index.html

USA TODAY (2008) Web Guide;  Robots in the Victorian Era. [Web post]. Retrieved September 18, 2013, from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/hotsites/2003/2003-11-10-hotsites.htm

Greetings to all who find this! My name is Victoria Watts and I am a student/aspiring English teacher.  I have always enjoyed writing, though most of my work never leaves my journals or One Note computer program. Unfortunately that's a great way to ensure my work never receives constructive criticism or that my talent develops further. I live in a small town in Texas where the pine trees grow like a plague. It is unsettling to think that when most people think of Texas they envision the dusty old west with tumbleweeds and cowboys.  Part of my mission in life is to prove them wrong. Besides classes and working, I spend my time trying to ride the unicycle I received for Christmas a few years ago. Uni-cycling is a challenging sport that requires more of its rider once one task has finally been achieved.
I can see technology integrated in the classroom through several different avenues.  If computers are accessible to the class the students could keep their own blogs. I would take this opportunity because I feel that self-expression and emotion are key elements in creative writing.  I want students to feel like they have an outlet that only they share with me.  They can discuss story ideas, assignments, and reach out to me through this context.  The internet could be used in class to show videos or clips from movies that are based on books.  Videos could help students visualize the scenes in a text. When a student can see the setting for a scene in a book it can explain the actions of the characters.
My goals for this ETEC course involve learning marketable skills that can be used in the future when I am a teacher with a real classroom.  I want to be able to focus on the lessons and take as much away from them as I can.  Now that I have come this far in my education my classes are much more important.  Instead of taking the core curriculum I am taking specialized courses designed for my specific major. The information provided in these classes is what I will take with me to work as a teacher. It is up to me alone to remember what I am taught and apply it in practice later. Hopefully I will learn the tried-and-true, newest, and most effective techniques for teaching in this ETEC class. I want to learn how to be a great teacher, one who my students can depend on, trust, and most importantly I want to be a teacher from whom my students can learn something of value. My goal is to provide them with information they will use after they graduate and good memories of their high school career. Hopefully this course can provide me with skills to reach my students in a new way that they will accept.
Thanks for reading! Until next time, this is Tori, signing off.