My Aha's

Over the past several weeks, my idea of educational technology has been transformed into something meaningful and relevant to my life. The journey started with writing my philosophy on educational technology. While writing it several weeks ago, I was sure of my views about education and the impact technology has on it. But in retrospect, I really didn’t have an idea of how powerful educational technology truly is. Through the different activities and journal articles, I started to see how my professor facilitated a learning environment that really allowed me to reevaluate my ideas on education and best instructional practices.  Learners today are powerful because they have so many tools at their disposal. Blogs, Wikis, and Web 2.0 applications provide unlimited possibilities for student learning. As an educator AND today’s learner, I see the value and importance in something like an ePortfolio that allows you to facilitate your own learning while connecting with world around you. My new outlook has fueled my desire to learn more about educational technology and remain current with the trends and innovations shaping the field.

I plan to continue using my blog that I created in this class. I think I want to take it in a different direction though. I want to spark more conversations from other educators on the benefit of educational technology. I also want to dialog with people about what we can do to make changes with teachers who are resistant. 

Week 7 - iGoogle - do you?

This week, you were asked to create or redesign a lesson/training plan that incorporated technology into the mix. What did you decided to do? What tools did you incorporate from the elearning tools wiki and/or from Google?

I decided to create a lesson for a 5^th grade science class using Google earth to explore the Grand Canyon and have student create video brochure of places to visit in the grand canyon using JING. Student will also use a class blog to share what they have learned, interact with classmates, and respond to question provided by the teacher.

As you watch the videos below, please share your thoughts as to how we can improve student learning. 

We can improve student learning by helping our teachers become more literate about educational technology and its benefits to student learning. Two excuses always surface when I meet teachers who are not blending technology and best instructional practices for students in their class. The first excuse, “I have not been “properly trained” on how to use wikis, blogs, and podcast in my room.” The second excuse, “there isn’t enough time to utilize technology because we have so much other stuff to do.” Neither of those reasons are sufficient and it really boils down to being afraid of what you don’t know. We have to do a better job of training our teachers and helping those who are reluctant to change find something better suited for them. Most districts offer some type of professional development to teachers (usually optional) that demonstrates how to use different technologies in the classroom. In order to get more teachers to utilize technology and engage our students in task that are meaningful and relevant we must redesign our curriculum so that web 2.0 technologies are blended in with the instruction. Then, the accountability for teachers increases. More teachers will then take it upon themselves to attend professional development training on different technologies and start requesting that there district or school offer more to support them. Right now a lot of what teachers use in the classroom as far as web 2.0 technologies is optional. But I don’t think it should be.

Blog Reflection #6 - Can you hear me now?

Many times online learning takes away the personalization for people; however, when they hear someone's voice, they feel more connected. And when they are talked through an event, hearing is better than reading. What was the purpose of your podcast? Do you see the ways it can enhance learning - either in the classroom or in life? What technologies did you use to create your podcast? How simple or difficult was it for you and will you use podcasts in the future? 

The purpose of my podcast was a how to video for PREZI. I wanted to show my classmates how to use the wonderful web 2.0 technology that I use often. I used JING to create my video because it is very user friendly. You can save your images and video directly into screencast and share them with people or you can save them on your computer for future use. I am so addicted to using JING, I don’t think I can function without it. I also like having the “sun” available to me at any time to capture video or pictures.  I know that podcast enhance learning because it made a huge difference in my work, school, and personal life. At work I use JING to create videos for my teachers so that confusion about exactly what they should do or what I want is eliminated. In my classes, I have used JING for numerous projects even when it’s not required. The best way to utilize JING or other podcast is to make little videos for your husband on exactly how to accomplish something. Well, at least I think it is best used for that.

Blog Reflection #5 - Week 5

After completing the MAPping information activity, what are your reactions to your findings? What will you do differently while searching on the Internet for information now? How confident are you with the information you've used in the past (as part of your college career and/or in your profession)?

After completing the activity, I was a little taken aback by the lack of information I knew concerning websites and there authenticity. What concerned me most was that I didn’t know I was ignorant to the many aspects of a websites. The quiz initially concerned me because I felt like I should have scored better. I didn’t even know what Boolean search terms were. I always thought that .org sites where more reliable than .com sites but I was wrong. They can both be equally unsafe. What else I found interesting is that my school district uses the extension .net and it made me wonder how other people view us based on those three little letters. Every aspect of this exercise was extremely important to me but I found the easywhois.com to be most impressive. I felt like I was looking at the birth certificate, social security card, and I.D. of the website. I am just amazed that I didn’t know you could find out so much about a website. I will be more selective when I am searching the web from now on. When conducting research. I now have the capabilities of finding creditable sites that I might be able to use. This makes me extremely happy because I never really wanted to rely on random information I found on the web.  In the past I just used websites to elaborate on what I found in books, journals, or articles. Now, I can confidently utilize other web resources. The tools I learned in this activity will help me tremendously in deciphering from the good, the bad, and the ugly of websites. I felt like a private investigator for the web throughout this activity and it makes me feel empowered and knowledgeable about searching the web.  

What are some implications for the future of our students if we fail to teach them these skills in school? After all, the schools may block access to sites, but students still have access at home.

            If we fail to teach our student these skills in searching and utilizing websites, than we will have a lot of misinformed people in the world. Also, our students will start to distrust everything they read on the internet which will diminish the information that is beneficial and correct out there. Research will become more invalid and student work will suffer for it. Not having this knowledge open the door for a lot of more people to become information illiterate than literate.

  

Do you see any advantages for organizing your information via Delicious and/or Google Reader? What are some ways you think you could use these tools in the future?

One advantage of organizing your information is that you can categorize your information and have easy access to it when you need it. Before, I would scroll down a long list of sites and that would frustrate me because it took so long to find what I needed. Now, I can click on the category and eliminate other sites I am not interested in. Also, the share feature is absolutely wonderful because I work for 16 elementary schools and it is a lot easier to share the information I have via Delicious than going to every teacher. In the future, I would like to set up an account for my daughter or students that have sites I have approved for them to go to. This would make it easier for her or them to just go directly to the site from delicious than me walking around trying to find it in favorites or creating a short cut to it on the desktop.

Blinklist - A free tool that provides annotation, metagging, and topic or name searches.

·         Blinklist is very user friendly and fast. It took know time setting up an account. I am having trouble getting the icon on my tool bar. Overall, I would recommend it to others to use. I liked that you could import from Delicious as well. Most of bookmark had their pictures as well.

Diigo - Research and collaborative research tool on the one hand, and a knowledge-sharing community and social content site on the other

·         What I like about this site is that, not only does it tag web pages for you, but it allows you to highlight any part of a webpage and attach sticky notes to specific highlights or to a whole page. You can leave little messages for yourself and others you share with.

Del.icio.us - A free tool that provides annotation, metagging, and topic or name searches.

·         Delicious was a little frustrating at first because it would not let me log in. It is also very user friendly like Blinklist but I look the home page a little more. Delicious imported my bookmarks very fast which was great. Also, most of my bookmarks have pictures as well.

·         My Delicious Account: http://delicious.com/abailey1908

Stumble Upon - Finds websites based on interest

·         I like that it recommends web content to its users. It also allow users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos that are personalized to their tastes and interests. I really like this feature because when you share with some else than can know how you thoughts. 

Toobla - A visual boorkmarking service that captures screenshots of the linked page.

·         Toobla has been working on their site so I didn’t have much of an opportunity to really look at it. I like the way they take screenshots of your book marks. That makes it really easy to find what site you are looking for.

Week 4- ePortfolios and Assessments

 In reflecting over the article, I mostly related to the principle “Learners should receive constructive guidance about how to improve.” In my opinion, providing guidance is a very important part of the learning process because it promotes intrinsic motivation for you own learning process. So many times students receive a grade for completing an assessment but that grade means absolutely nothing to them in reference to what they need to improve upon. Because they are not receiving guidance to improve their learning, students are not connected or invested in their own learning. This is a vicious little cycle that really destroys the joy of taking control of your own learning and growth.

Portfolio assessment can be a powerful tool that increases student motivation, promotes responsibility for your own leaning, and provides evidence of student growth. If I were still in the classroom, I would definitely make creating an e portfolio apart of my students learning goals. Portfolios have so much potential for the learner. By having the responsibility to take your portfolio in a direction that mirrors your learning is very powerful. It allow for creativity and self- direction while allowing educators to provide guidance and mentoring to increase your learning.

The development of my portfolio will have a lot meaning for me. I believe it will allow me to reach new heights in discovering how powerful education truly is. It will give life to the numerous artifacts I have created over this long learning journey. What makes me really excited about the starting an ePortfolio is seeing my evolution from a beginning doctoral student to a graduate and all the things I accomplished and learned. 

Wiki

My Wiki!

With my family embarking on a new adventure in the Austin area, I thought creating a wiki that allowed people to share what knowledge they have on Austin would be very beneficial. This could potentially be a very powerful wiki because it will help my family adjust to the new environment. Because I am not familiar with the area, any insight I gain from the wiki will hopefully help me make good decision regarding finding a home, locating a daycare for my daughter, finding entertainment ideas for my family, and meeting new people. I started my wiki by posing a question. Hopefully that will spark conversation from followers and people will really share their opinions.

An advantage of using a wiki is the easy access and editing abilities for individuals. I found it super easy to create my wiki and I think other people will have no problem adding information. I also like the fact that anyone with a computer can add comments or ideas. A disadvantage is that because so many people access your wiki, you have potential to receive negative information. You really have to filter some of the things people add. Also, people are giving you their opinion most of the time and you have to make sure you are not taking that as fact.

Wikis are very engaging because you have not limit to how creative you can be when you create one. There are endless possibilities with the direction you can take your wiki. I think student will find it engaging because people from all different places can provide insight to your wiki. You can connect to so many people, not just the students in your class.

One web 2.O tool that I am interested in learning a little more about is ePortfolio. I know that you can use wiki to create them but I would like to find other programs that support them. I don’t have a lot of information on their functionality and how in depth they can be. 

Educational/Instructional Technology Organizations

EDUCAUSE and OTEC

EDUCAUSE® is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. EDUCAUSE helps those who lead, manage, and use information resources to shape strategic decisions at every level. A comprehensive range of resources and activities is available to all interested employees at EDUCAUSE member organizations, with special opportunities open to designated member representatives.
EDUCAUSE programs include professional development activities, applied research, strategic policy advocacy, teaching and learning initiatives, online information services, print and electronic publications, special interest collaborative communities, and awards for leadership and innovation.

http://www.educause.edu/about


The Organization for Educational Technology & Curriculum (OETC) is an incorporated not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to maximizing the value of educational technology to its members by working with software and hardware vendors to procure the most effective and appropriate technological resources at the lowest possible price. Schools rely on us for quality assurance and low-cost certainty for technology purchasing. OETC membership is comprised of more than 800 educational institutions, school districts, colleges, and other non-profit educational organizations throughout the U.S.

http://www.oetc.org/


I chose both of these because they are nonprofit and they provide a lot of resources for educator interested in promoting and purchasing technology. EDUCAUSE has support for BLOGS and WIKI which is something we are focusing on in this class. OTEC provides low-cost purchasing programs, professional development, and influence dedicated to the integration of technology in education.

Educational Technology

My definition of educational technology: Educational technology is the study and analysis of learning and performance by designing, implementing, evaluating, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.


My definition connects with my educational philosophy because they both focus on student learning and performance. My philosophy focuses on knowledge and experiences and educational technology provides tools and resources to help us expand student learning outside the classroom as well as assist in decreasing challenges our students face.

Technology Project

Expectations for ETEC 524

My expectations for this class is learn more about education and technology and learn something new about myself. The educational technology philosophy has already started me off o the right foot.

Creating a Culture for Teaching and Learning

Number 3- We Need To Tell Our Stories. This area stood out to me the most because most us do not share the wonderful exciting things that are going on in our classroom. Part of my position at work is to help teachers who are ineffective in the classroom. Most of the teacher I work have bad habits they learned from other ineffective teachers. Sometimes they don't know what they are doing is wrong. If more good teacher, who are doing magnificent things in their classroom, would blog or publish articles about their success more teachers would have good examples to pull from. Reading stories about real teachers, from their perspective, teaching kids like yours, can spark change in classroom.  

Stephen Downes' Article

I enjoyed reading the Stephen Downes' article.His perspective on the power of blogging was right on target.  Blogging allows you share your point of view with individuals you might not come in contact with. It also allows you to gather different perspectives on ideas and connect with people from all different backgrounds. We have not met the potential of blogging because many people are not utilizing it. Blogging in our school district has really made a difference in writing for our students and even with the known benefits we still have teacher hesitant about blogging or just not doing it. I think some people are still afraid of technology and slow to embrace change.

Philosophy Down in Writing

When I was writing my philosophy I was really amazed at how much I had to say about education. At times I was battling with myself about what was my philosophy versus my opinion on education can be improved. I am glad I have it on paper know because I can review it and make changes as I grow.  This has been a powerful writing exercise because I had not reflected on my beliefs and values of education since I first started teaching.

Educational Technology Philosophy

Educational Technology Philosophy

Working in education is very challenging. Reflecting on why I believe education is important provides me with renewed energy and makes those challenges less daunting. Below, my educational philosophy combines my values and beliefs about learning and along with my personal perspectives on education.

I believe the purpose of education is to provide children with tools and experiences that increase their knowledge and help them become lifelong learners. An education is not limited to a set curriculum or subject. Education should be global, social and ongoing. The goal of education is to create productive members of society who dream, invent, philosophize, build, innovate, and imagine so that the world can continue flourish. Educational Technology enhances learning and knowledge through connecting minds all over the world, giving us access to infinite knowledge in a matter of seconds, and providing programs and hardware that make the impossible possible.

My belief is that the role of a learner is to embrace the world around them and open their mind to unlimited possibilities. The learner should not be limited in what they are taught. Learners allow their teachers to challenge them and provide them with situations that are outside of their comfort zone. As a learner, knowledge is valued. Learners also welcome teaching others and learning from their peers.

The teacher’s role in education is to be the facilitator of knowledge for the learners. I believe that teachers provide students with experiences that enhance their learning and help them make connections to the real world. Through investigations, project based learning, and integration of technology, teachers challenge their students to value knowledge and become lifelong learners. Teachers are responsible for providing the education that helps our students become productive members of society.

My passion for education drives my every day to provide my students with a great educational experience.  Because I value the entity of education, a thirst for knowledge, hard work, high expectations and determination, I make sure my students get the best of me every day. My goal is to positively impact the lives of my students in a way that helps them value education and the world around them. Through the integration of technology, research based best practices, and building relationships with my students, I hope to accomplish my goal. Also, continuing my own personal growth in education, through professional development and working towards my doctorate, I will stay abreast of the every changing scope of education and provide relevant knowledge to my students. I have high expectations for my student and I expect that with my guidance their education will be great.

Knowledge is the gateway to unlimited success in life. I truly believe that without knowledge and education your life will be spent in the dark. My educational philosophy renews my passion for learning and provides me with justification for putting my best foot forward in the classroom every day.