Recorded Group Discussion... FAILURE

Today we experienced the computer Gods. It seemed like every technology task failed. We were supposed to get into groups and record a discussion between a teacher, parent, and principle. The teacher was trying to convince the PTA and school to invest i-touches so students could document the weather. My group was supposed to record this discussion on a camera. However, we were supposed to have the discussion via our virtual selves- avatars on science sim. No one in my group was able to access this. We tried for 30 minutes... but failed. The other half of the class recorded their actual faces... and it was a success.
After our attempts failed, the class worked on our inquiry lesson plans and websites. The class website was down, so it was hard to finish our tasks.
That is something I learned today... technology is not always reliable. Things happen that are out of our control. As a teacher, using technology can be risky. It's something that may not always work. It is important to have a back-up plan. It's also important to be understanding and flexible. Hopefully the course website is up soon! :)
Oh... and this is my last post because today is the last day of class!
Peace out INST 4010. It's been a great semester!

Website Evaluation/Edith Bowen

1. My favorite evaluation form was the MidLink Magazine Web Page Evaluation Form because it allowed the person judging to rate the different aspects, not just check yes or no. After rating each section, the total score explained if it was a valid site or not. The form I didn't really like was CyberGuide. I felt like this form had the least amount of information. I didn't like the set up. I felt the other forms gave more information of the site and let the evaluator explore the website more fully.
2. I didn't really find any hidden secrets. One thing that was hard for me to find was the date the websites had last been updated. I enjoyed reading the mission statements, sponsors, and seeing where the company was based. This is information that I usually don't pay attention to.
3. It is important to use website evaluations because not all websites are valid. Anyone can make any website, so it is important to make sure the website is accurate, current, and factual. It is important to teach this to students so they can use websites accurately for research projects.
4. I wouldn't use an evaluation form if I was shopping online, playing games, or any other leisure activity online. It isn't really relevant for non educational purposes.

Today was my favorite day in class. We went over to Edith Bowen and talked with one of the teachers there. He is great and incorporating technology in the classroom. He wrote a grant and got ipods for every student in his class. He has podcasts, videos, games, and audio books loaded on them. It is great for the students to use. He also showed us how he uses google docs and his class website. Everything is updated online and is e-mailed to the parents. He talked about using text messages to send the parents information. I think this is a great idea!
We got to work with the students one and one and they showed us their favorite aspects of technology. My student showed me the math link they use in class to time their math facts. He liked this the best. He also showed me spellingcity where the students do spelling activities and pre-tests online. He also showed me a typing game they play to increase their computer skills. He was really enthusiastic about it and he was great with using technology. I was impressed at how much he knew and what he could do on a mac computer.
It was really cool to see how a teacher uses technology in an elementary school classroom. He had great ideas. It was cool to see how much the students could handle.

Lesson Plans

Today was awesome! We learned a TON in class that I found to be very useful. We are creating lesson plans online for our students to learn and explore independently. We used the ia.usu.edu website, which I am a huge fan of. I am in my practicum right now in a 1st grade classroom. My teacher does a lot of group centers for math. One center is computers. I would love to have my students use my lesson plan for one of the computer centers. I learned how to search for lesson materials on the ia website. I could search for specific content for a specific grade. I found a lot of games to practice adding facts. I saved a lot of these games in my folder and I'm using them on my website. I also learned about teachingtube.com. This is a great tool. I found a few videos and pictures that I want to put on my website. I am so glad I found this resource.

I am still working on my lesson plan but I got a great start! I am pretty excited about this! :) I think the students would really like this.

Web Quest

Today we learned about Web Quest. To sum it up, Web Quest is a website that allows students to participate in projects online. All of the information is accessed online. Teachers can give the students a URL and then leave it up to them to explore and complete different tasks. It sounds like a cool idea right? Yeah, it's sweet. Teachers can search the website by subject and grade level. At first I was really excited. It's sounded like a great idea to let students learn, inquire, and to create their own learning.
One of the problems with this website, is a lot of the website it gives the students didn't work. I had A LOT of problems with this. Also, sometimes when I searched the URL, it couldn't find anything. It got pretty frustrating.
I explored lots of activities. Some were useful, but others seemed like busy work. If I was to use this as a teacher, I definitely would research it more and try all of the websites to make sure it worked.
I was thinking about my practicum this block. My teacher uses a lot of activities on the computer. She uses the computer for different rotations. I think this could be a great idea to use for rotations and small group work.
I think this website is a good idea, but it does have some flaws. It does give teachers good ideas. As a teacher, I would probably use the ideas, but not the exact format it has on webquest.

Avatar- Science Slim

Okay, so this is pretty sweet. Today in class, we logged onto Science Slim, a virtual environment. It was pretty crazy. I made an account and I made an "avatar" of myself. It kind of reminded me of the old computer game, The Sims. I could transport my Avatar to different locations and actually talk to other Avatars. It was pretty nuts.

I was thinking about this and I was trying to think of how I could incorporate this in my classroom. Obviously it is fun, but how could I make this educational?

Well I gave this a lot of thought, and honestly I'm still working on it. I did come up with a few ideas though. I was thinking that the older students (6th grade) could help design and make different locations in Science Slim. Not sure if this is even possible, but that would be cool.

For a little bit younger students... I was thinking that I could have the students have to ask different "Avatars" questions. They would have to find out certain information- kind of like a scavenger hunt. That would be kind of fun and it would be a great way to use technology to get to know the other students in the class.

I'm still learning about this, but I hope that over the next few weeks I'll learn more about Science Slim and how to incorporate it into my classroom!

My Survey

Good morning everyone! I hope you had a fabulous weekend. Today in my technology class I learned how to use a survey in docs.google. The more I learn about google docs, the more I love it! It really is the coolest tool. I already using google docs in my life. My friends and I are making a summer list that we can all add too. It is fabulous. I also plan on using this in my classroom. It would be really easy to have parents or students take a survey about my class. It would save on paper.. GO GREEN, and it would be convenient for parents. This would also help the students use technology. I also think it would be fun to teach older kids how to make a survey. I remember learning how to graph in the upper grades in Elementary school. This would be a fun way to use technology to help the students get information to graph. Great idea huh? I thought so. :) Well this is all for me. Have a great week. You won't hear from me for a while.. class is canceled for the next two weeks! Spring Break!!! Wahoo! :)

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dERuYkdvbFAxQ3V2T1VpcDNkS3FRMGc6MA

Here is a link to my awesome survey! It was a lot of fun. Check it out. Fill free to take it. It will only take a second!

Cell Phones for Learning?!?

Today we learned how to create a gradebook on an Excel sheet. We learned basic functions. I learned how to type in certain formulas to calculate the students grade. I'm sure this will save me hours so I can use my time watching 24, doing P90X, and chilling with my friends. Can you say awesome? Yup, I like it. I also learned how to convert documents from read-only to read and write. This is SO helpful. I wish I would have learned this earlier. This will be nice to use when my teachers post documents on blackboard and I can download them and change the file. Thanks technology.
We did the coolest thing in class today. We did a class poll online at polleverywhere.com. If any of you have used this website, you know how awesome it is. We did a poll on the weather and everyone in our class texted in our results. It was pretty awesome. Too bad my 1st graders probably won't have cell phones.. bummer. That would make a cool lesson. Hey who knows though. Maybe in 10 years they will all have cell phones. Never know. It was a cool experiment though. I wish my teachers would have used our cell phones for learning, than trying to patrol kids using them. Lets be honest, everyone uses them anyways. Instead of paying for i-clickers, professors should just use cell phones. Yeah, that would be pretty awesome.

Google Docs Rocks

Today has been a splendid day in Inst 4010. We learned all the ins and outs of google docs. I learned how to share, edit, and create documents. I also learned how to allow people to view my documents. I like this because it gives better control of who is accessing and using my documents. I think this will be very helpful as a teacher. The best part is that it's FREE. I am ALL about that. Not going to lie, it is pretty cool to edit a document back and forth. Google docs are super convenient and are just down right awesome. Thanks GOOGLE. You've done it again. :)

Today in class, we learned how to download videos from youtube and post them on blogs. This is helpful because many times youtube and other sources are blocked in the schools, but by downloading the videos, I can still use these resources in my classroom.

Here is a video about 21st century learners.

YETC

Today, our class went to the YETC lab in the Educational Building at Utah State. YETC is the resource center here. It has an open access computer lab, lesson plan materials, C.D. roms, DVDs, and other technology resources. teacherlink is also a great website for teachers to access.

I will graduate next spring and will hopefully get a job as a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade teacher. I was trying to think of how I could use technology for those age groups. There are a few websites that I think would really be helpful. First, there is a spellingcity.com This is a website that allows the students to type their spelling words. The words are spelled out for the students and they are given a sentence for each spelling word. They can take a spelling test online. This would free up time for me as a teacher and give the students an opportunity to work with technology. There was also a Math Factory Worksheet. Here, teachers can individualize worksheets for each students. It is very quick and simple. I thought this would be great for accommodating different math levels. I could make worksheets for each student based on what math facts they were struggling with. This would make it very easy to target struggling areas and could really strengthen the students math abilities. There was another website that I really found helpful- storyonline.net This is a website that has different actors and actresses read stories. It is a great way for the students to listen to different stories by people that they look up to. Many children don't like reading, but if they were to see that "famous" people enjoyed it, it may change their opinion about reading. I think all of these websites would be great for the younger grades. I'm excited to be able to use these resources in my classroom.

Inst 4010

At Utah State, I am taking an instructional technology course for my Education major. We were assigned to make a blog and post comments about the class. Here is a my first post :)