The Couros brothers are a family that is super passionate about technology in the classroom. Earlier in the term George talked to us about the strategies he is implementing in his school out west and more recently Alec gave us some insight on networking.
The message that Alec gave to us was how important it is to establish a network because of the amount of advantages it can have to you as a teacher. Getting online and putting yourself out there early on in your career creating a network for yourself opens you up to so many people and ideas that can help you along the way. There are so many ways that you can network with other people and other educators. Alec talked about the use of Twitter and Classroom 2.0, establishing a blog and creating an online presence.
Alec himself is evidence in how well networking can work. It was amazing to see the amount of people he has networked with and how much they are able to help each other. The fact that he was able to start a google doc and post it so people can see it was awesome because of the amount of feedback he was able to get. It was cool to see how so many people were viewing the document at once and how he was able to take feedback from some people he has never even met in person to create a better document.
He emphasized how helpful people can be online and the positive impact it has had on him. It is amazing how people will help people that they have never even met. I hope that in the future I am able to establish a network with people that will be able to share ideas with me so that we can help each other in our careers. Learning should not be sheltered sharing ideas is such a good way to not only learn yourself but pass on to your students. Becoming networked is going to be such an important part of education that it is important that we begin the process as soon as possible.
All of the group presentations during class time were excellent and provided us with some important information to take with us into our teaching careers. The internet good bad and ugly was a presentation that provided us with a little humor to go along with the information given to us. I enjoyed how the guys put it together and outlined the different points we need to be aware of on the internet. This presentation reinforced the points about what we need to be cautious about when using the internet when it comes to plagiarism, e-bullying, etc. It is good that we are aware of the cautions to go along with the good points so that we are able to help our students along the way.
The personal ICT devices presentation was a good lead in to our own presentation about cell phones. There was certain information about I pads, I pods and Smartphones that I was not aware of. I am glad the the guys outlined the differences between all of the persona devices so that we were able to see some of the benefits and downfalls of each. I liked how they rated each device on a scale so it was easy for us as the audience to compare the results.
Filtering and Blocking of websites is an issue that most of us are going to have to deal with in the near future. This is something that unfortunately most school divisions take very seriously and it is to bad because it does limit our options when using technology in the classroom. I liked how the girls outlined the blocking process and gave us some tips to find our way around some of the filters. These tips will be quite valuable when heading out to our placements I'm sure!
The social networking presentation was a pleasant surprise as I was introduced to a couple of websites I was not familiar with at all. I was impressed especially with the stumbleupon.com website. This was something that I heard of in the past but had not yet used. It looks like it is a good tool for sharing sites and finding information that could be valuable in the classroom. The best thing about most of these sites is that they are free which is a bonus.
I am glad we were able to take some time and break down some of the areas we have learned about and present the information to our classmates. It is information that I will take with me as I leave the faculty and move forward with my career. Thank you class!
After looking at the blog of Darren Kuropatwa and sifting through some of his presentations it is pretty easy to see the passion he has for ICT literacy and technology in the classroom. Going through some of the presentations on the blog was a good chance to get some ideas and valuable information about ICT in the classroom. The point that I noticed to be the most intriguing was having students create and publish.
When using technology in the classroom it is not good enough to just display images on a smartboard or show presentations from powerpoint to the students hoping to engage them in a lesson. In order for the students to become engaged in a lesson and reap the rewards from technology they need to actively use the tools provided to them. As a teacher when creating a lesson it is important to have the students involved in their learning. The only way that the children are going to learn how to use technology is to become hands on with it. Have students create presentations on powerpoint or make notes on Prezi to show the class. Give students options and let them create podcasts or post videos online. Having students create things online using all of the tools available engages them in not only the content they are learning but also the world of ICT.
Another point I took from the blog and presentations posted by Darren is making the point to publish children's work. It is not good enough to have a student go to all the work of creating something online and having no one see it except them and the teacher. Students will enjoy sharing their work for people to see so they can get feedback from people not only in their community but from all over the world. Let students publish projects and look at other projects from different parts of the world and compare what they have done.
Technology in education is only good if we use it. The only way for students to gain ICT literacy is if they actively participate online. The best way to do this and have it connect to curriculum content is to have them create. Making students active participants in the online world is a good way to engage them in lessons we just have to make sure that we are making them accountable for their digital footprint and helping them to become responsible digital citizens.
After watching the video presentation fron Dean Shareski I have gained some perspective on teaching and sharing. It is interesting to see how much eduaction has changed in certain areas. The speed at which technology has evolved in education is truly amazing and with the evolution of technology in education has came the evolution of sharing in education. Before teachers began incorporating internet tools in their classrooms information was not often shared in education. It was all to common that teachers hardly even knew what was going on in the classoom across the hall let alone in a classroom across the country or world. With the introduction of web devices such as Facebook, Twitter, social bookmarking sites, blogs or wikis educators can share all sorts of ideas and information to different teachers all around the world. I think this is such a helpful process and is such a benefit to teachers everywhere today. In order to become a good teacher and create a postitive classroom envrironment I think it is absolutely necessary to get ideas and suggestions from different people all around the education world, professional development is so important in education.
I understand that the availability to share is greater in some areas than others. Not all school divisions can afford to place the types of technology in their schools to allow sharing to occur. As we move forward in education I truly believe that most, if not all, school divisions will begin to rearrange their budgets so that more devices can be made available in schools. I know that it is easy for teachers to go on the computer and share different ideas from the classroom and grab ideas that they can pull into theirs but it can be hard for some classrooms that do not have computers for every student or screens in their classroom. Teachers have to sift through information carefully and take the ideas that will work best in their situation they have in the school.
My time being a student is almost over but that doesn't mean that I will stop learning. I will admit that moving forward out of the education program and into the school system where I will be in control of my own classroom is a little intimidating I'm sure every teacher is nervous entering their own classroom for the first time hoping everything goes smoothly. The chances of that happening are probably not great because as Im sure most of us have all seen so far in our placements is that things in the classroom are subject to change and do not always go as planned. It makes me feel better than I inderectly have the support of teachers from all over the world to help me through as I learn what works best in my classroom. I look forward to sharing ideas and gaining insight from other educators through sharing on the internet. I plan on using sharing websites to help in my classroom and make the learning experience for the students the best I can. I believe that sharing and teaching compliment eachother well and I am excited to be a part of it in the near future.
We are officially in the middle of the digital age and as we prepare to begin down the road of teaching this is an issue that we will have to deal with immediately. We have talked about different ways to use social media in the classroom and how the internet can benefit a teacher and the students. It is no secret that most kids today are savy when it comes to dealing with all the new technology as they play video games, listen to ipods, surf the internet, etc. but most of them are not taught digital ethics. It is important that the students learn to become good digital citizens know about intellctual property, privacy, and security issues.
Digital citizenship is something that I think is important in all schools. As we move forward in the digital age I think it is a good idea to teach students about the risks of technology as well as etiquette and what is considered right and wrong. If we just let students surf the web, without being told what is considered appropriate it is like handing a child keys to a car without ever teaching them road laws or how to drive. There are many instances in which a student may use technology inappropriately in school and there is a responsbility on educators to explain what is considered to be proper behaviour.
Some examples of being poor digital citizen include:
- e bullying
- copy and pasting info from the net
- friends exchanging passwords
- stealing tests from a teachers computer
- texting or talking on the phone in class
These are just a few of a long list of examples where students may cross some lines in the digital world. Digital citizenship is defined as appropriate responsble behaviour with regards to technology use. I truly believe that as the technological world continues to evolve along with the education system it will not be long before there are outcomes created based on being a good digital citizen because of the amount students will be using technology in the classroom. This is an issue that we should just be aware of as we enter the profession.
Well folks after reading the two articles presented to us on the Faculty Ning I can say that I do not feel any dumber or smarter for using the Internet but I can agree with points put forth in both articles. This is an interesting debate and I am sure that after questioning a few people about their thoughts on the issue the results would most likely be split.
On the dumber side of the argument I like how lots of the points in the argument are backed up with results from research. I can understand that with the use of the internet through computers, smartphones, ipods, etc. it does create a lot of distraction in our lives and I agree that with the amount of distraction people may tend to lose concentration in school. Today the world goes by so fast that people are constantly multi tasking as they go to work send emails, text their spouse, schedule appointments, jot down grocery lists, plan the weekend activities. It does not surprise me that because of all this multi tasking people have become less creative and inventive as they are just trying to get by. Although I can understand what the article is presenting that does not mean that I like it. I am not a huge fan of an article that basically tells me that I am becoming dumber along with the rest of society. Lets face it that is not something that people want to hear.
The internet can't be all bad though right? People are constantly making contributions to society through the internet such as Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The people who create these social media devices are brilliant minded. There are so many things on the internet that people use that can expose them to new information or facts. It is our responsiblity to take the time to concentrate on the information and connect it to prior knowledge so that it eventually has meaning and is stored in our long term memory. People tend to scan so many different sites and facts at once that it just goes in and out of our working memory. The internet most definitely has the ability to make use smarter we just have to use it correctly.
This is a debate that could go on forever as we are smack dab in the middle of the digital age and is something we will be a part of for likey the rest of our lives.
Thats all folks!
Oh ya.......green and yellow, congrats Pack!
Recently I was able to take a look around the web based courses on the Manitoba Education site and I was pleased with what I found. I took a look at the grade 11 history course and I thought that it was a much better resource than the actual curriculum.
First of all I really like how the course was laid out on the site. It was easy to navigate through all of the different topics in the course with the links on the side. I like this because I am able to jump around from topic to topic so easy which makes it much more efficient when looking up different areas within the course.
As for the content I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of information put forth on the course. It was nice to see some content about the subject and all of the outcomes listed clearly. In the online curriculum guide for the grade 11 history course there is only a few essential questions that should be covered within the course. On the web course it looks at different topics within the curriculum and outlines very clearly the expectations. In my last placement I actually taught a block of grade 11 history and I now wish that I had this resource available to me at the time. With the web course there are a number of topics for discussion and different assignment ideas to use in the class. When I taught the course I had to rely on all of my own research and planning where as this web course would have been so much more helpful to have at the time. I don't think that I would use this as an online course but I would definitely take content from the web course to use in my classroom.
After the presentation from John Finch about social media in the classroom my mind is now somewhat at ease about the use of this type of technology with my students. I have to admit that I am a bit skeptical about using social networking and other types of internet sites in the classroom because of privacy issues and the boundaries that can be crossed having students always looking at your profiles and such and Im sure I am not the only one who feels this way. I am glad though to see the different types of ideas put forth in class about ways to use social media effectively in the classroom.
Before the presentation I never thought that Twitter or Facebook could be a useful tool in the classroom. I know that we are in the digital age and times are changing which means social media in school is something that will become mainstream sooner rather than later. When I think techonology and interenet in the classroom I think of using blogs or wikis as a source of posting assignments and having students comment on different ideas presented in class. I also like the idea of using the social networks in the classroom as long as it is tasteful and appropriate. With Twitter teachers can post different questions and assignment details or have their students follow important figures in society like politicians and other social figures related to a social studies class. I also like the idea of using Facebook and having the students create a profile of an historic figure and edit all the details about their life.
I really enjoyed the group activity in which we all searched the Internet for different ways social media can be used in the classroom and I am happy that I now have so many ideas that I can incorporate into my lessons. I think that it is very important to try and incorporate the Internet into the classroom because of the way students interact these days. Adolescents are constantly on Facebook or Twitter or texting on their Blackberry or listening to music on their Ipods, if we can bring this stuff into a educational setting I think that students truly will enjoy it and will become more engaged in their learning. Learning should be more than dry boring textbooks and students will jump at the opportunity to use any type of technology without even realizing how much they are learning.
That's all for now.... and a shout out to a southwest Manitoba legend Ron Thompson, Easy does it!
So here I go with my first official blog. I'll have to admit right from the start that if I were not enrolled in this class there is a pretty good chance that I would have never had a first official blog. Being a big sports fan I frequently cruise the web searching out blogs that have opinions and rumours from the sporting world but never thought about creating my own mostly because I wasn't sure of what I would talk about. I am happy that I joined this class and now have the opportunity to join the blogging world sharing my thoughts with the my classmates and who ever else stumbles upon this site. After only a couple weeks of classes and two different presentations I believe that blogging could be an advantage in my career moving forward. I think it will be a good tool to use in my class to post a number of different things from class info to due dates and everything in between.
I look forward to the rest of the term in this class gaining tools and experience from different aspects of the internet. After only 3 classes I have taken in some good insights from both our presenters. Mr. Evans seemed like he was quite passionate about his work and was excited to present his thoughts about personal learning networks. I think that developing a personal learning network could have a lot of advantages for a teacher. I liked how joining very simple websites can open up so many opportunites to so many resources. When you join twitter and other social networking and bookmarking sites you can see so many different ideas and resources posted by other teachers. I am happy that I will be able to look to these sources as I enter the profession and get as much support as possible while gaining experience in the field.
Howard Griffith also did a good job of outlining the details of online learning. I was surprised to see the statistics that showed how a combination of web based course work and face to face time resulted in higher marks. I think that online learning can have its advantages for a number of different people who aren't able to attend classes or don't have the resources available at their school. The Internet has become such an important tool in our society and it is good that we are able to take advantage of it in education. I will admit that I do have concerns with some aspects of social networks that take away some of your privacy but overall I am in favor of Internet use in education.
Annnyways I am happy to get my blog off the ground and running and look forward to the rest of the term in Internet for Educators.
