Technology Class Wrap-up and ePortfolio

Completing my ePortfolio helped me realize how much I learned in my Technology class this semester. I came into the class with a strong technological background, and I left with an even stronger one. I picked up little tips for familar software as well as new skills for technology that I didn't even know existed! I am excited to become a teacher in this new era of technology as I learned how to create engaging and interactive lessons which should succeed at reaching the "video game" teens.

I also have to say that I really enjoyed my fellow classmates this semester. We were able to learn from each other, support each other (when technology failed us!), and laugh with each other. The close interpersonal relations that were formed were almost as important as the technology content!

I am very thankful that Albright has made technology education a mandatory class. I really feel that every new teacher - and many existing ones - can benefit from learning the skills I did this semester.

I will end my official technology course blog with a reminder to "keep practicing!" Technology can be easily forgotten, and we all have worked much too hard to lose what we have gained!

Link to my ePortfolio (http://jscipleportfolio.weebly.com)

Smartboard lesson planning

Smart boards are great for engaging students in a lesson. However, I found creating the Smart board lesson very frustrating - and I am a tech. person!

While I had no problem creating a really nice, informative, flowing Power Point lesson, I struggled with the Smart board software to create a similar lesson. Some of the things that should have been easy to implement simply weren't. In the end, I had a lesson that I was sort-of happy with... but definitely not crazy about.

My biggest struggle came from creating a slide that allowed the user to click on a balloon and find out if the answer was correct or not. I simply could not get that activity to work properly!! To compromise, I used "click on" circles to do a similar slide. HOWEVER, I again had a devil of a time getting the writing on the front of the circle to stay put and not overlap the writing hidden behind the circle. (The writing on the circle was white - which showed up against the blue circle, but disappeared once the circle went away and became a white screen. The hidden writing was black, but if the white writing overlapped it, parts of the black became spotted...) I also really wanted to change the color of the circles, but I couldn't get that to work. Cloning the circles didn't work well, either. I had to clone only the words, then re-order them, then put the "click on" circle over them manually, then check that it actually worked correctly... Really a pain in the neck when dealing with 5 circles!

While I did like the activities that I created for the students, I would have liked to incorporate regular Power Point slides into the Smart board presentation. It was definitely much harder to create nicely formatted informational Smart board slides than informational Power Point slides! I'm going to try to figure out how to do this, as the Smart board software creators had to be thinking along these lines... I just haven't had enough time to fully dig through all of the options!

As of this point, I like creating lessons in Power Point much better than in Smart board software. I hope to have more time in the future to find out all that Smart board has to offer... Although it will probably be a mute point as I will end up in a school with Promethean boards and completely different software!!!!!

This was not my favorite lesson so far......

You Tube Video Project

Making the public service announcement for YouTube was not only educational, but also a lot of fun! Crystal and I had a blast creating video tape that we could edit. We actually had too many scenes of us laughing, so it was good that we taped much, much more than we needed to.

The biggest frustration of the night was having to upload the video twice, due to my mistake of not saving to the proper place the first time around. However, once we got our video clips in the computer, it was fun to go through them and edit out the parts we needed. It was also really enjoyable to play around with the different transitions to see how the overall effect changed depending on how the video flowed.

We probably had the beat time when we were picking out sound effects and music. We definitely had a certain type of music in mind, and we were fortunate enough to find some that worked as we had hoped! The black screen / car crash effect turned out really awesome.

Although the entire project did take a considerable amount of time to complete, it was a great experience! I would definitely create more video for my class, as well as try to have my students also create video of their own. Video creation is a tool that is not only valuable in the educational setting, but also in the "real" world.

Link to video by clicking on Blog title.

Digital Video

Many great video clips / streaming video are available on the web these days. Lessons can become more engaging when students are shown relevant (and recent) videos. Over the summer, I took Secondary Methods I. I wish I could have used a video clip to show examples of thermodynamic reactions. In my unit plan, I had a link to the Hindenburg disaster on my bulletin board - a classic exothermic reaction caught on film! There were so many great (and short) videos of explosions (exothermic reactions) and cooling (endothermic) reactions, that I wish I would have thought to make a montage of the different clips and burn a CD. I think it really would have driven home the lesson as well as kept everyone's attention.

I really like the idea of students making their own videos. From creating their own "Bill Nye" clips to simple podcasts, video is a hands-on way for students to learn about a subject and retell it in their own words. This type of interactive learning usually has a much better retention than traditional learning and is a great supplement for any "lecture".

I don't think video creation or vidoe showing is appropriate every day in the classroom, but I do think that it is a very valuable way to engage students and make them more interested in the lesson that is being taught.

Success with the Net Generation

Technology is a powerful tool which can be used to enhance a student's education. I agree with the Educause Chapter 8 in that technology shouldn't replace "traditional" learning. I think that lectures, discussions, small group activities, and hands-on labs still have their benefits in our educational system. However, I really liked some of the ideas for incorporating technology.

Two weeks ago, I found a web site that produced animations of chemical reactions. One of the section in Chapter 8 discussed using animations to clarify a process. I can see where this would definitely help visual learners absorb information, and I plan on keeping the website bookmark that I found!

I also really liked the idea of using website tools to replace some of the homework that students are given. Sometimes simply changing the mode of delivery can help motivate kids to complete their assignments!

I liked this chapter as it gave many good uses for technology in the classroom, yet acknowledged some of the limitations for its use. I think that, as in everything in life, using the proper tools at the proper time can make the difference between a "good" experience and a "WOW" experience. I hope that the use of these tools will allow me, as a secondary teacher, to better reach my teenage students.

To be a successful teacher to the Net Generation, I will have to keep technology in mind when planning my lessons and activities. I will try to incorporate some of the ideas presented in this chapter, along with other ideas I'm picking up from our class discussions, to keep my students interested in learning "more." I don't think it will be the easiest thing, as I am going to have to balance all my different teaching methods and make sure they correspond to my curriculum. However, I am optimistic that the work involved will lead to many positive results!

Using Excel in the Classroom

Wow, Excel is so powerful, it's hard to know where to start! The obvious use for a spreadsheet would be to keep track of grades, test scores, and absences. However, Excel can be used for so much more!

When I took my Special Needs class over the summer, I kept thinking how great Excel would be to keep track of student behavioral incidents. As a teacher, I could record the student's name, time and date of occurance, and the behavior or infraction. When the time came to talk with the parents, I would be able to pull all of the information together quite easily!

As an extension, Excel could also be used to track the dates and times that parents were contacted. Details could include the student's name, time and date of contact, type of contact (email, phone call, letter, conference), notes about the contact (was is good or bad), and any follow-up plans.

One way that I already use Excel is to create mailing labels in Word. I currently use this function as a quick way to edit and print my Chirstmas card envelopes. This will become a handy feature in the classroom when student lists or labels need to be created quickly. Nametags for field trips could be printed in less than 5 minutes - with fun graphics included!

A list of classroom emails could also be kept on Excel, making it very easy to print out and share with anyone interested. The same use could apply to a list of books, magazine, blogs, or news sites which students might find interesting.

Excel could be used to keep track of classroom inventory (papers, tests, pencils, tape, etc.) as well as lab inventory (chemistry chemicals, balances, glassware, etc.). Alerts could be set up to have low inventory objects turn red, which would help me, as a teacher, quickly find things that need to be ordered.

Students in my classes could also benefit from Excel. It is a powerful data collection tool which becomes very useful when analyzing lab results. If students input all of their data into one Excel spreadsheet, the data can be sorted, graphed, and anaylzed quickly. Lab reports using statistics become much easier for students to complete!

Excel would also be an excellent way for students to keep track of simple formulas. After "designing" a formula for the dilution of acid or bases, students could easily plug in a dilution (Molarity) and final volume, and the formula could tell them how much of each chemical (and/or water) to add.

The possibilities are endless for this extremely useful program!

Social Bookmarking

After putting my Chemistry activity bookmarks on Del.i.cious last week, I noticed how many other people had tagged the same bookmarks. Further digging led me to some really interesting sites that I hadn't found on my own! I can really see how social bookmarking would be a huge help to both teachers and students, since one tagged bookmark can lead to so many more.

I choose to go with Del.i.cious since I found it easier to navigate than Diigo. I suppose I could have invested time to learn more about Diigo, but in the beginning, I wanted simple and easy!

I linked my Del.i.cious bookmarks to this blog as well as adding them as a gadget in Blogger. Linking is getting easier and easier each week!