ITEC 7430 Thing 3

Blogging forces individuals to get involved. You (the reader) becomes and plays an active role int he involvement. The blogs were written on all different levels. There was almost no wrong or right way to do them from teachers to students. Everyone was allowed to express their thoughts freely and they became involved by agreeing/disagreeing and even creating stories like the one with the one about the missing duck. With all the blogs, reading and writing are required but the level and accuracy of that reading and writing may be different. While we want our students to write correctly; with the younger grade levels, blogging should not be about how they write but more so what they are writing about. Others being able to contribute with comments to the blogs creates interaction and involvement.

ITEC7445: Web 2.0 and Design

I know that technology plays a major role in today's society. As I looked the videos about the Web 2.0, I found it interesting that there was no one speaking but the video was designed in such a way to grasp my attention. I loved reading the interesting facts about how the use of technology has changed since it was just recently introduced to the world less than 20 years ago and over this time technological use in increase dramatically. Twenty years about people were nervous about using the internet but now people use technology twice as much as hardware such as books, encyclopedia, Cds, tape players, house phones, TV.. People do not mail letters any more. We downloads TV shows and listen to them on iPods, we email and text. The most interesting fact I saw was they by the time this generation turns 21, they will have sent roughly 250,000 text messages. The internet and other technology had changed the way people research, think and learn.

As teachers, we need to continue to engage ourselves in technology so that we can keep in touch with our students. I am very interested in learning about WebQuests, Blogs, and Wikis. I am interested in learning how to effectively incorporate them into my classroom. I am interested in learning about the process in creating designs that will be eye appealing and keep the interest of my users and viewers. I am looking forward learning what this semester has to offer.

Field Experience

Field experience for ITEC 7400 and ITEC 7410:

Include the following Standards. TF-I.B, TF-II, TF-II.D, TF-IIE, TF-3D, TF-VI, TF-VII

My Field Experience consists of a number of things from discussions with grade level and staff, professional development, projects worked on for the school and trainings.

1 hour- Copyright and Internet Presentation- discuss with media center clerk and showed my presentation and assisted in the copyright delivery

3 hours- Professional Development- On multiple days, training was given for Microsoft 10.0, training was given on Graph Club and some Activ Board training.

1.5 hours- Engaged Learning Project- participated in discussion with Third grade teachers in regards to my Engaged Learning Recycling Project. There will be further discussion on the project and starting a recycling program in the school

2 hours- IDMS (Instructional Data Management System- Received training and we are using this system which utilized instruction data such as lesson plans, Benchmark, and CRCT scores to manage students throughout their Public Education Pre-K-12^th grade. The system automatically groups stones according to their instruction needs and areas in which they struggle. I also had to redeliver to my grade level.

5 hours- CSIP- Work on sections of the School Improvement Plan to help develop and show ways they our school can improve education with a group staff members including technology. Discussions on starting a committee for the up coming years and creating a technology vision for our school as well as creating technology as its own subject in the new CSIP.

5 hours-SIOP- discussion and training took place on ideas for using manipulative and technology to help in increasing education and learning specifically for the ESOL children at our school.

10+ hours- Lesson Planning and grade level meetings- Discussed different things about what I have been learning in my class in regards to technology. When doing lesson plans, we had to find ways to implement different forms of technology into our lesson plans. We collaborate and use things such as the Activ Board to create scavenger hunts on things such as naming the states, CRCT practices and review, and research across the curriculum. Technology incorporation also includes but is not limited to: computers, TV. listening centers, Activ Boards, computers, and video.

4 hours- Math Mooooo-ment- two weeks ago, I was asked participate with some staff members in Math Mooooo-ment. Math Moooo-ment is a short cartoon based learning Math that is air on Jolly Elementary’s Morning Show. We create mathematical situations and problems based around math standards and what teachers a currently teaching using puppets and manipulative. The puppet show is recorded then aired on the morning showing weekly.

Final Blog

I made it through my first semester of Grad School. It has been a very crazy. I went from working one job- teaching to teaching, working a second job, starting Grad school and dealing with some personal issues all at once. . I was trying to be superwoman and it was NOT working. The number 1 thing I noticed is that requires a lot of time.. I have made some changes and quit my second job in efforts to create more time for me complete my work in an orderly and timely fashion so that I may succeed better in the upcoming semesters.

When I originally start Grad School, I thought that I had some awareness about technology but little did I know. Throughout this semester, I have learned many great and interesting things. Number 1 being that technology is not simply about computers. It is a world beyond and then some. I realized that I only knew a small portion but I am not completely illiterate. Lol.

Blogging for class has definitely been different and I never thought that blogging could be something that kids can do to help engage and educate them. I enjoyed looking at the videos about the Engaged Learning Projects as well as doing an engaged learning project. I found that I had a number of ideas and it was rather hard trying to narrow them down. Through reading and discussions, I have learned of a number of ways to incorporate technology into my classroom. To name a few: Word, PowerPoint, Internet, T.V, Video, Audio, Cameras, Graphs, Blogging and Wikis.

These classes have allowed me to gain a better understanding of my school and where it stands as far as technology is concerned. The School Improvement Project/ Tech Plan has allowed me to investigate, and discuss with individuals about my school. In talking some people, we have come to the conclusion that our school could benefit from having a technology team and that we could even benefit having technology as a separate entity in our CSIP. Forming a committee may even help my school to find a better vision as far as technology is concerned. I think that once I become more comfortable in what I am learning I could be a great asset to my school and assist in these new adventures. Thanks a lot Dr. Williamson and classmates.

Grant and Partnership

I was surprised as I read and looked up information in regards to grants and partnerships. There are so many companies, businesses, and families offer moneys to help fund education. There are grants for all subjects, all types of circumstances and all types of people. It just takes some time searching for grants in which you meet the requirements and planning to apply for them. I do not know of any grants in which my school has applied for however, I do know some individuals that have applied for grants and received them.

Partnerships are a great way to give advertising to companies and in return they assist the school. I thing found is interesting that some partnerships work with individual classrooms and did not know they do that. My school currently has a partnership with a Frazier Realty Company and DaVido's Pizza.

One of the things Frazier Realty Company does for our school is donates monies to supports our “Buck of the Day” Program which promotes school attendance. Each day a students is called to see if they are present and on time to school and if they are they receive a dollar and at the end of each month, 2 students are picked from each classroom who have had perfect attendance for the month. DaVido's Pizza offers pizza to the school at a discounted rate and it is served during PTA meetings and Conference Nights.

I was looking at some grants and inquiring to my principal about them and partnerships, she asked me if I was going to write one. I informed her that it could be something to consider however I know that grants have to be worded and written a certain way in order to have some success in getting them. We have an individual who serves as a liaison for promoting school and community togetherness and activities. But it would be interesting to see if some committee could be formed whose job is to find and select partnerships and grants which would be beneficial to our school. Maybe that is something I could look into then again....

NOVEMBER 4: Internet and Copyright

At my school, we just had professional development on copyright. In that course and search that I have done I learned some things about copyrights and copyright laws. I was aware that there were copyright laws. I knew that there are some exceptions to the law but I did not know to what extent. One thing I learned was that as a student, there is no time limit to using works but as a teacher, you only have two years to use copied work. Another interesting fact I learn was that teacher are suppose to put disposal dates on those works. I recalled something about how the internet has made it so easy to break copyright laws. I think that many teachers have probably broken copyright laws on a regular and did not even know it.

The Internet has bought many great things: emailing, chatting, downloading music and videos and paying bills online. Internet has bought about a new thing called cyberbullying. I have heard of cyberbullying but I did not realized that it was really such an issue. I found a number of sites against cyberbullying and found and heard stories about things people have said and done.

Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social sites are great way to interact with friends and family but if not careful with the information we put on it. It can be used against us. There a internet stalkers and people who prey on young children using facebook and the information they place on these social sites. SmartPhones and other phones with internet access has also allowed people to surf the net and all times. The newest thing I heard was something about how these SmartPhones now have a program that can calculate the make-up of your face and tag all pictures of you that are available on the internet. Anything I post on the internet and facebook, I do not mind people seeing however, I don't even think I like the fact that I can be tracked in any picture out there. (Can that be a violation of my privacy... or did I sign some type of wavier that I didn't realize I agreed to because I didn't read the fine print. LOL)

How many people do you know or think have does this??? Students especially? I know I have.

TECH PLANS

As a whole, the budget for technology is decreasing. In Georgia, the budget went from $20,179,473.00 in 2004 to $8,291,373.00 in just 3 years and nationally from $659,438,400.00 in 2004 to $262,890,721.00. Georgia’s old technology plan from 2002-2006 focused on being aligned with the QCC standards. The plan called for frequent use of technology which would be integrated into all grade levels and contents areas to support learning. The plan called for establishing technology to all students in the public school system. Georgia’s latest technology plans (2009-2010) calls for using technology both informational technology and instructional technology and media. The new plan hopes to achieve this by using the using the performance based standards, assessing and analyzing students data, creating and teaching 21st century environments and learners, differentiated instructional and using highly qualified teachers and leaders.
I was reading the post made by other individuals on the National Education Technology plan when I came across one comment that I found rather interesting. It stated:
“Anyone else find it ironic that a 100+ page paper on the use of technology in
education fails to post the paper in a reader friendly 1 page per slide pdf. Instead they have this left page right page set up so scrolling over/down is a major pain. Ahh government :P”
Submitted by Yaro on Sun, March 21, 2010 12:16 PM.
The funny thing is as I was reading the plan, I was thinking the same thing. The National plan was difficult to read. I found it hard trying scroll page to page and then I later noticed that I needed to scroll left and right.
I think that the plans are very similar in goals, however the national plans looks to achieve technology in the education but it also looks to incorporate it for the later uses of life. The plan makes it a point to educate teachers and students to be life-long learners through engagement.
When doing my tech plan, this information can serve as a resource in trying to make that I not only align my plan with the state by I can attempt to aligned it with the national.