Class in 5 years

I have no idea what my class will look like in 5 years. I'm sure the improvements on technology will be pretty major. Things will probably get cheaper, so maybe computers for the kids will be more affordable. I'm sure there will be some new software that is out for the classroom and more web 2.0 sites that I will be able to use. I'm sure that in 5 years the classroom will be an even more exciting place to be, however I'm also sure that it will keep getting harder and harder to keep the students attention.

Internet Safety Issues

Internet safety is improtant, especially for children. Some problems that are out there are innnapropriate adds and pop ups, kids being taken advantage of- either with money or by a predator, online bullying, also you need to make sure the students are using reliable internet sources. Some ways to protect your students would be:

use an online database to get articles
give them a list of restrictive sites to use
teach them not to give out personal information
use a filter- net trekker or web quest
work in pairs- accountablitly partners
let them know the teacher can see what they are doing online- use syncronize
teach them how to use the internet safely

Assignment 4 Technology Education

You can view my Lesson Plan in Google Docs.

The tools I would need to add technology are a projector, a computer, and the internet.

Technology could make this lesson plan more interesting by including video clips and allowing the students to do outside research on their own, allowing them to look up origami they would like to try by themselves.

Some challenges would be finding a video of origami making, if none could be found, the teacher could film a video herself.

The Nets for students this covers are: II.II, II.III, III.I, III.II, VI.I

Online Conference

I listened to the podcast by Sylvia Martinez. She lives in Los Angeles, CA and is president of Generation YES. Sylvia has designed educational games, curriculum, and online experiences for teachers and students. Sylvia speaks and writes on subjects such as the use of technology, simulations and games to enhance educational opportunities and enable youth voice.

The podcast talked about ways to use web 2.0 in the classroom, but it wasn't very informative. She was obviously talking to older adults who were not as familiar with technology. She said over and over again that you and your students are a team, and don't be afraid to get them involved in the planning or ask them questions, and not to be afraid if your technology assignment doesn't work.

I think the main thing I learned from this podcast was about G cast, which is a way to make podcasts from your phone. She brought this up as an alternative for teachers who don't know how to use other podcast equipment. I was a little let down. I was hoping to learn about web 2.0 sites that I had not heard of instead of hearing about scavenger hunts for old equipment that could still be useful.

Power Point

power point- use a picture or texture as the background, insert clip art or a drawing, organize slides, insert movie or song, use animation, make your own animation, slide transition effects, write with 3D text, use 3D shapes, time your presentation, insert a hyperlink

word-insert clip art/drawing, change color/font of text, insert a table, use columns, word count, insert symbol, insert page numbers, format the page, double space, change font color and size, use highlighter

excel- make a chart, money, percent

Class Reflection #6

Friday I had the opportunity to go to the library with my class and watch the librarian use the Smart Board. It was interesting to see how the students responded to it. It seemed like the students were more engaged because they wanted a turn to write the answer on the board. She also read the class a book using the camera projector. This was the first time I've been able to see how these things work in a classroom setting.

SMART board presentation

Here is the link to my SMART board presentation. The NETS in this activity are: II,IV,VI. For this presentation I prepared by walking through the project on my own, and testing out the links to make sure they worked. Turns out one of the links did not work so I changed it to one that does. I also wanted to make sure I knew where all the correct tools were to use my presentation.

As a class we will read the question at the top of each page, then I will ask for a volunteer to come up and choose the correct answer. This will involve drawing a shape around the correct answer, moving a check mark to the correct answer or writing the correct answer in. Learning will be assessed when we talk about which answer was correct and why. The only change I made to this project was the broken link. This will make it better for my students because they will now be able to see an actual picture rather than just read the broken link name.

It was good to be able to do my presentation in front of the class and see everyone else's presentations too. I was able to see things that worked well and that the class liked along with some potential snags. It seems a big problem that kept occurring was making sure the board was centered, also several people including myself had problems dragging things across the board. I guess it becomes more natural the more you do it with your class, but it just doesn't seem like the easiest thing to use. Also a lot of the time if you are using it, you are standing in front of it and have the projection on your face which is distracting. I think if I were to use it in my classroom I would always control it from the computer, but let the kids come up and touch it.