Emerging Technologies

There are many emerging technologies that will have a significant impact on education. One of these emerging technologies that I discovered that will impact education is the typical iPod. I know teachers usually confiscate iPods rather than encourage students to use them in the classroom. In a school in Iowa, students with special needs are encouraged to use iPods in the classroom. An example of this was one student who usually needed a paraprofessional to read the test questions to her can now take the test by herself with the use of an iPod. The student simply scrolls through the menu to find the test, and then the student can listen to the test questions as she sees them on the iPod screen and on her paper.

This technology will help me as a teacher because I will have fewer students leaving the room to receive resource help. This will also help me have a more inclusive classroom. Even though programming the iPod will take some time prior to the lesson or test, it will make such a difference when it comes time to teach the lesson or have students take the test. This technology will benefit my future students because it allows students with special needs to work more independently and it helps increase their self-esteem.

Another emerging technology I found that will have a significant impact on education is podcasting. Another school that is located in Maine has embraced podcasting as a norm in their classroom. In this classroom, the teacher allows the students to select the topic for the podcast. By doing this, the teacher ensures that the students will be interested in their topic and therefore be more motivated. The students then do the research about the topic to include in their script. Then the students write the script for their podcast. And finally the students record and produce their podcast, making it accessible to the world.

This technology is a fun and exciting way students can take charge of their education. I think podcasting will help me as a teacher because it is a great way for me to help my future students develop their language and writing skills. Podcasting can also benefit my future students because students will be given the opportunity, through podcasting, to teach each other such skills as research, writing, and making presentations. Often times, students learn best when they are learning from their peers and podcasting is a great way for them to experience this. The students will demonstrate what they learned in their podcasts, which will make it easy to see how well the students are learning through the use of podcasts in the classroom.

A third emerging technology that will have an impact on education is the iBook Notebook. A middle school in Michigan decided to overhaul its technology department and provide notebooks for every teacher and one notebook for every three students. This was to promote a 1 to 1 learning program for teachers and students. Peter Ways, head of Technology Bond Initiative, Ann Arbor Public Schools brought up a very good point when he said that text books, pencils, and paper have become outdated for the students who are children of the digital age. Their school district wanted to use methods of teaching that were more compelling, appropriate, and accessible for their students.

The iBook Notebooks seemed to fit the student's modern-day world and accomplished all of this. Through the use of the iBooks in the school, the students are showing significant gains in reading and writing literacy. The iBooks benefit the ESL students who are now being given the opportunity and access to revise their work before they submit it, which is helping students score higher on assignments. This technology will help me as a teacher because I will know my students will have access to a computer in the classroom, when often times many students do not have access to computers at home. This will help when I am deciding what lessons to plan because I know the whole class will have equal opportunity when it comes to having computer access. This technology will also benefit my students in the same way by providing them with computer access in the classroom. Also through the use of some of the software applications that came with the iBook Notebooks, my future students will be given the opportunity to improve their reading and writing literacy.

Even though in this discussion I talked about apple products, really any similar technology would do the same job just as well. Using the apple products just gave a more detailed example of how these products are being put to good use in schools to benefit student's education. You can find more information about iPods, podcasting, and iBook Notebooks as emerging technologies being used in schools at http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/.

Distance Education

Distance Education: Washington Virtual School http://www.go2ischool.net
Five Pros-
1. The ability to join between 9th-12th grade and to choose a specific track you want to follow. You can declare your track when you first enter, or you can change it later once you know exactly what you want.
2. The program is flexible, has a variety of content, and a professor that will work with them to build their personal strengths.
3. The website offers all types of tracks, including AP, Honors, College Prep, Career Prep, Foundation, and ESL.
4. They provide you with a school-issued laptop that comes with help in all the technological areas. The website gives you insight tech. approaches, requirements, support, and security.
5. Since it is online, the student is able to "absorb" more of the information given because it is "controlled by the student."

Five Cons-
It was hard to find cons for virtual schools but I found a couple.
1. There are a lot of requirements that need to be fulfilled in order to graduate.
2. There will not be any type of student-teacher interaction that some kids require.
3. There is not a chance to have students interact socially with their peers.
4. Virtual schooling does not benefit all learning styles.
5. Some students may not feel motivated to finish their school work on time.

I would determine the readiness of my students to participate in distance delivery if they are able to work at their own pace independently, and if they do not need group work or teacher interaction. They will need to be motivated to do their work on time and to follow each guideline to complete their course work to graduate.

In order to teach in a virtual school, I would have to be certified in Washington, have at least 15 years of experience in the classroom, and need to have office hours that allow the students and parents to come in and talk to me.

Teacher Web!

Mr. Divelbiss's Teacher Web:

Mike did a great job on his teacherweb and to be honest, I wanted to spend a long time looking at all his great pictures and links. One of my favorites was his Supply List saying the students had to have "365 Days of Smiles." His links to his flash cards and test worked well. i absolutely love music and his teacherweb made me enjoy music even more. His FAQ was a great page to look at as well. I love his humor and happiness that shows through his pages. The final thing I enjoyed was his Monette page because it showed me ever picture about the trumpet and what his consisted of. It was great and I actually clicked on every single link. Mike did a great job on his teacherweb!!!

Ms. Woolman's Teacher Web:

From the beginning, Carly's teacherweb was colorful and appealing. Her page was neat and informative and when I clicked on her calendar, I saw a plethora of dates that she took the time to schedule. This showed great commitment and dedication. The page I enjoyed reading was the "Neat Stuff Unrelated to English (maybe)" because it was just some fun links to cool places that would be fun for students. Her pictures were really cute and had a lot of information about them. I think Carly did an excellent job on her teacherweb and have no doubt that she will be an amazing teacher!

Engaging Students with Concept Mapping Activities

Tabitha Rudegeair

October 09, 2007

Concept Map 2

Engaging Students with Concept Mapping Activities

The first summary had examples of skills that I thought would improve my students’ writing through concept maps. I now realize, however, I was supposed to give examples of creative ways that I could use concept mapping in my classroom. Therefore, I will give those examples now. I would use concept mapping to start off a creative writing piece, introduce a new book, after researching a topic, or after reading a novel. These four examples would benefit by using concept mapping because it will help my students ‘visualize’ their notes, research, thoughts, etc. into something that will outline their ideas to get them organized.

The use of concept mapping activities engage my students in their learning by being able to visualize their information, brainstorm great ideas for a new book to promote interest, and give an easier, more organized outline for their paper. There are different types of learners and concept mapping can actually reach visual and hands-on learners. Concept mapping is obviously most helpful for visual learners because they can see all of the information and group them where they need to be. As for the hands-on learners, they are drawing out their own concept map that they can design any way they like and that is helpful for them.

If I want to introduce a new book, I can have the students read the back of the book or choose a passage and write a concept map on what they think the book will entail. This means they can start out with what they know about the story and then move on into imagining what the ending will be like or what other interesting issues will come up. This is a great way to promote interest for my students. Making a concept map will also help the students critically think and make up hypothesis about the ending of the story. Concept mapping will also be great for organizing their paper and making an outline to start writing their essay.

Concept mapping changes the way my students can demonstrate that they understand a concept or topic I will be teaching by explaining what they could comprehend through visuals. If I read aloud, they could make a concept map of the characters, main ideas, the climax, etc. and this will show me if they were listening to the story or not. Concept mapping will always be helpful in the classroom for anything we choose to do; however, it is not necessary for all papers or activities.

Education Project

The largest similarity I found through Google, Yahoo, and MSN was educational.blogs.com. I also found a website for kathyschrock.net/edtechblogs.html. I think these results came up because both websites were great resources for examples on "Educational Blogs" and could be helpful for anyone who wants to start a blog.

The things I discovered through my search for RSS readers and for aggregators was blogspace.com/rss/reader. This was the main website that I looked at because number one, it said it was free and number two, it had the definition at the very top. I have learned that an "RSS reader" is a great tool that provides all the news updates but in a form for your computer. I actually talked to one of the practicum teachers about this tool and she said it even comes with an icon at the bottom of the screen that pops up with current events.

Through the blogs in the education project, I discovered how blogs are being used in -12 settings. From what I saw when I explored some of the educational blogs, many teachers and schools are taking advantage of blogging to keep the students and parents informed about what is going on in school. One blog posted school news that informed students and parents about upcoming events at school. Another blog posted information about fundraisers and also asked for requests for the fundraisers. Also some of these educational blogs posted the school news letter on their blog site, which is a great way to keep parents and students informed and also save on time and postage instead of sending out a school newsletter in the mail.

I also learned how blogs are impacting K-12 classrooms. Some teachers are making blog posts of classroom notes. These notes are to inform parents about what their children will be learning in upcoming lessons. Also some teachers are using their blog posts to request needed classroom supplies, and other favors from parents. Some teachers even produce a classroom newsletter on their blog site which is yet another way to make sure parents and students are staying informed.

RSS readers/aggregators would be really helpful as I stated above because of the great use it gives for teachers. There are so many websites you could go to for downloading a RSS reader and it would be a very helpful tool for current event lessons. I would probably use it in my classroom if I had to teach English with current events. I could easily download one of the free RSS readers and have current events at the click of a button.

From this assignment I've come to realize that blogs can be useful in a classroom setting. Three ways that I would use blogs in my future classroom are to post a classroom newsletter to keep parents and students informed about what we're doing in the classroom, post classroom news about upcoming events for the students and parents, and to post weekly assignments so parents can stay informed about what homework assignments their children have. All of these are ways in which I think blogs can benefit my future students and their parents because blogging is a great way for us to stay in communication with each other concerning their student's education.

Two pros that I have already talked about were to keep in contact with parents and allowing parents to see what is going on in their children's lives at school. The second pro is the fact that teachers could put up news, upcoming events, etc. and that will also help for teachers with bad memory (like me) remember when we assign something. As for the cons, some students might not have access to computers or internet to check the blogs. The second con , especially for high school students, is probably the fact that we can't sensor what students write. Since there is public access to blogging and RSS readers, there really isn't a way to sensor anything written or read from the internet.

My Multiple Intelligence Test

Multiple Intelligence Tests

The activity given to me was to go on the Enhancing Learning website, however, during class we were able to go to a different website and do an activity, so I decided to write my paper on that activity. I took the Multiple Intelligence test from the Ablongman.com website and found some interesting results. I thought that it would be interesting to take a MI test so I could see if I was in the correct major and was studying what I should be studying. The results showed me that I was in the wrong major and it actually made me somewhat sad.

The reasoning behind a Multiple Intelligence Test is to try and find which learning style best fits for each individual. It was started by Howard Gardner and is mostly helpful for students with learning disabilities and students with Attention Deficit Disorder. Knowing your learning style will help you cope with your weak areas and learn how to go around them as well as learning to build you stronger styles. There are seven different learning styles which include: linguistics, logical-mathematics, visual-spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.

On the website, it gives a brief paragraph for each learning style that tells you the description of that particular learning style and what areas you are strong in. For example, if you are an interpersonal person the description would be like this, “The ability to work effectively with others, to relate to other people, and display empathy and understanding, to notice their motivations and goals. This is a vital human intelligence displayed by good teachers, facilitators, therapists, politicians, religious leaders and sales people” (Gardner). This is actually one of the learning styles I scored 100 on and was very pleased with this score because I do see myself as a person who can “work effectively with others” and so on.

The MI test was found by going to the www.ablongman.com/lever-duffy3e and then you click on Chapter 1: Theoretical Foundations. After you get to that page you go to the left side and click on “On the Web! Activities” and click on “On the Web! 1.7 Howard Gardner”. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and click on the second to last website under Multiple Intelligence Tests: http://www.nedprod.com/Niall_stuff/intelligence_test.html. After clicking on this website I took the test for my MI.

My test scores basically told me that I was more into logical-mathematics than I was in linguistics. This was rather disturbing since my major is in linguistics. I started to doubt myself because that means something might be wrong with me. The test showed me that we can be strong in some areas and weaker in the styles we thought fit us best. I know that just because this test told me I was not as strong in the linguistics learning style, it doesn’t mean I am not good in that area. It simply means I have other strong styles that I may not be aware of.

It did tell me like I stated above, that I scored a 100 in interpersonal and that is still better than scoring a 77 in logical-mathematics. My top three styles that I scored 100 in were musical, bodily-kinesthetic, and interpersonal. Therefore, I could be a music teacher or even a P.E. teacher. I do know I want to be a dance/cheer coach so that helps me feel a little better. This test helped me narrow down my strengths and weaknesses and I am glad I was able to find my strong learning styles.

my first post

more will be added to this later.