Week 14- Using for Games for Teaching and Learning

This week I learned about how you can implement games and computer technology into the classroom so that students can learn their academic material through these games. I participated in a discussion forum where I talked about my early experiences with academic computer games when I was in second grade, and I was able to learn about and respond to my classmates' early experiences with computer games as well. I also learned this week about the virtual learning that happened through the computer game Second Life.

I can apply what I learned about educational computer gaming to my major, which is elementary education. I think that it would be very beneficial if I let my future students use computer games for part of their learning because it will keep them engaged in the activities, and they will be able to learn what they need to for the curriculum. I think that Second Life is a very interesting computer game, and I think that it would be very beneficial for students to use this game so that they can get a virtual first-hand experience of what they are learning in the classroom.



I found the above video on you tube. This video shows some different educational computer games that could be used in elementary school classrooms. These games could probably be used in a second or third grade classroom because the children are learning multiplication through the first game that is played. This video shows just how easy games can be integrated into the material that is taught to students in elementary classrooms. The students learn a lot and they enjoy playing the games.

Week 13- Distance Education and Virtual Schooling

This week I learned about distance education where children and adults are able to take classes online instead of having to go to school. I learned that virtual schooling can be a lot like real schooling and that it has many benefits. Virtual schooling is good for busy adults who have to travel for their work, but they are also pursuing a degree in college. Virtual schooling is also cheaper than taking real college courses at a university. Children and adults are also able to work on their assign ments at their own pace. The only downfall of distance education is that it does not benefit children socially because they do not actually have to interact with other classmates.

Distance education and virtual schooling do not really benefit the field that I am going into, which is elementary education, because I am going to be a teacher at a public elementary school. In my opinion, public schooling is more beneficial for elementary-age children because they learn how to interact with other classmates and work in groups, which prepares them for the workforce. I think that it is also good if the children can actual meet with the teacher in person and get help if they need it.




I found this video on you tube and it describes a virtual school the is called California Virtual Academy. It is a school that supplies a computer and all other materials to the students free of charge. The students work on their assignments at home, but they do get to go to a place to socialize with other children once a week.

Week 12- Open Source Software

This week I watched a video about open source software. The video informed me about the different types of open source software that is available for free online. I was also able to explore some of the open sources online, and I responded to a discussion forum. I was able to share my opinion on using open source software and cloud computing on the discussion forum.

I think that open source software and cloud computing is very useful and will be very be helpful for when I become a teacher. The best part about using these tools is that they are all free, and that is good because teachers do not earn a lot of money. Cloud computing is also a very efficient tool for people who need to communicate and give documents to each other, but they may not have enough time to meet with each other, like teachers.



I found the above video on you tube and it explains how cloud computing has become an important part of sharing assignments in this teacher's classroom. The teacher explains how each of her sixth grade students has a Google docs account and is able to turn in their assignments to the teacher through using Google docs. The students are able to see each other's work, give feedback and receive feedback on the assignments that they are doing in the class.

Week 11- Professional Web Presence

This week I learned how to make a professional web presence page online. I learned how to create the home page and then add new pages where I could incorporate personal information about myself and some of my resume information as well. I began working on my professional web presence this week as well. I also viewed a movie on you tube that talked about how to create a professional web presence to use for when you are trying to get a job.

Learning how to create a professional web presence website would be really beneficial for when I am done with college and trying to get a job as an elementary school teacher. The people who are looking to higher me could easily view the pages and see my credentials and my teaching experience so that they can decide whether or not they want to higher me. I will also be able to add information to my resume page while I am continuing to gain experience in the classroom throughout the ProTeach program.



I found the above video on youtube. This video explains how to create a resume online and the importance of keeping your resume online so that your prospective bosses could view the information. This video goes along with what I have learned this week about the professional web presence website and presenting your credentials and work experience online.

Week 10- Social Tools and Cloud Computing

This week I learned how to upload documents on Google docs so that I can share the documents that I make to other people using the web. I also responded to a discussion post on my opinion on whether or not social tools were beneficial to our society or not. This week I also began working on my social bookmarking project where I can share interesting websites that I find with other people.

Using Google docs would be very beneficial for when I am an elementary school teacher because I could save my lesson plans onto Google docs and then be able to share them with other teachers so that they could get ideas from them. I would also be able to look at other teachers' lesson plans and other documents as well and use them in my own class. Social bookmarking would also be an important tool to use when I become a teacher because I would be able to post websites that I use with my class for other teachers to see and use and vice versa.




This is a video that I found on you tube which is explains why Google docs is a good idea for when you want to share a document with other people, and when you want feedback on the document. The video also goes into the details of all that you can do when using Google docs, such as commenting on other people's documents and creating spreadsheets. The video has information supporting the use of Google docs for many different reasons as well.  

Week 9- Sound Podcasting

http://www.filefront.com/17449392/Heather's Podcast.m4a


This week I recorded one of my favorite songs on Garage Band. Then I learned how to save the podcast to iTunes and upload in onto filefront.com. The link to my podcast is above. Recording sounds would be very useful for when I am an elementary schools teacher because I could record myself teaching a lesson to my students and use it for when I may be absent from school for any reason. The substitute could play the podcast to my students so that that they would still be able to learn the lesson on the day it was supposed to be taught. I could also record other sounds and use them in my lessons so that the students who are auditory learners could benefit well from the material taught in the lesson.

Week 8- Digital Storytelling

This week I learned how to make a video on animoto.com. I was able to use my pictures from my Study Abroad trip in England this summer and put them in slides to music. I also learned about the history of audio formats dating back to the 1800s to the present. I also read an article about popular audio formats in technology today.

I can use what I learned this week about digital storytelling and making movies on the computer in my own classroom when I become a teacher. I could find some pictures that represent what the students may be studying and put them together with music to make a movie. Presenting the pictures digitally to music would probably engage the students more, and it would help them to pay attention to the lesson better.

Here is a link to the video that I made on animoto.com this week:
Study Abroad Trip to England



The video above I found on youtube and it is a very good example of digital storytelling. It retells the story of Animal Farm written by George Orwell. The story is told through text and pictures that represent what the text is saying. The story is also played to music which sort of sets the mood of the story. I could make a movie like this when I become a teacher, and retell other stories that the children may be reading in class so that they could better understand the stories. The digital storytelling would also act as a visual aide for the students who learn better visually.

Week 7- Visual Literacy

This week I learned how to use Photoshop. I did the photoshop tutorial project in class and learned how to customized backgrounds in pictures and also learned how to import my own pictures on Photoshop. I also learned about layering and found out that if you do not label your layers it makes it difficult to create your project. This week I also learned more about visual literacy and digital storytelling.

It is important that I learn how to use Photoshop as an elementary education major because I could use Photoshop in my future classroom in order to customize pictures for particular projects that we may be doing. Visual literacy and digital storytelling are also important because they can be used as alternative ways of teaching the children, instead of just standing in front of the class and lecturing all day. The visual literacy and the digital storytelling can help the children who are visual learners learn the same concepts in a more efficient way.



This video that I found on youtube presents a way that you can cut out the background of a picture and change it to a different background. The video tells the viewer how to do this through written directions on slides and by showing them how to do it. The video uses visual literacy to explain the directions of using Photoshop. This video relates to what I learned in class this week because it explains how to use a part of Photoshop and it uses visual literacy, which is also something that I have been learning about in class.

Week 6- Media and Information Literacy

This week I learned about reading through the use of media and images which is called visual literacy. I watched a few videos on youtube that explained why visual literacy was important and how it can be incorporated into the classroom. I was also able to view some examples of visual literacy through videos and images. I learned about how to use photoshop and how it can be used to alter images. I was also able to view examples of other visual literacy projects so that I could be thinking of some ideas of my own.

I can use visual literacy in my own classroom one day because I can create videos with images and text to teach the class some of the concepts that I want to teach them as an alternative of verbally teaching them. These videos can be used as visual aides for the students who learn better through seeing in stead of hearing. I could even incorporate audio into the videos so that it could be beneficial for the students who learn visually and/or through audio.



This video that I found on youtube uses visual literacy in it to teach the viewer about how a teacher can incorporate visual literacy in the subject area that he or she teaches. Images of historical events can be used in a history class to help the students better understand the event that they are studying. Graphs and charts such as the periodic table can be used in math and science classes so that the students can learn these subjects through using visual aides as well. This video goes along with what I learned this week of why visual literacy is important and how it is used in society today.

Week 5- Tech Tools for Critical Thinking

This week I learned how to use Webspiration and Inspiration. I watched a few short videos that showed how to make concept maps, and they also showed exampled of how they can be used in the classroom. I actually made a concept map that was on the social tools that can be used in education. Then I looked at a powerpoint presentation about different learning styles and theories. I took two quizzes that told me the best ways that I learn information. According to the quizzes I learn information best by using all three learning styles, kinesthetic, auditory and visual, all at once. I learn by sight, sound, and doing hands-on activities. I learn the best by doing hands-on activites though. I also learned how to use the online tool Wordle this week.

It was important that I learned how to use the Webspiration and Inspiration web tools this week. I could use these tools when I become a teacher. I could use Inspiration to make pre-writing concept maps with my class when I am teaching them how to brainstorm ideas for the stories that they write. It was also beneficial for me to learn about the different learning styles that there are so that I can make sure to incorporate activities that are geered toward each learning style when I have my own class. Children learn in many different ways, so it is important for the teacher to have a variety of teaching strategies to accomodate for each child.



This video from youtube describes the different learning styles: the kinesthetic learning style, the auditory learning style, and the visual learning style. It also informs you on how you can incorporate each learning style in your teaching so that every student is able to be engaged in what is being taught in the lesson. This video goes along with what I learned this week because it emphasizes the different learning styles that there are.

Week 2: Educational Technology

 During week 2 we reviewed how to log on to the course website, and we discussed our upcoming assignments posted in the syllabus. We also watched two videos discussing basic technology concepts. I created a gmail account which will be used later on in the course. The concept that I learned in this week was how to use a Mac OSX. I learned the differnces between a Mac and a PC, and I also learned how to use the different keys that a Mac has on its keyboard. We were required to set up the desktop of the Mac a certain way and take a snapshot of the desktop.

I think that it is very beneficial for me to learn how to use a Mac OSX for the education field because many of the teachers today are required to use Macintosh computers in their classrooms and hook them up to the smartboards. Much of learning in classrooms today, even elementary school classrooms, is technology based, and the teacher is required to know how to work each part of the high-tech equipment herself.



This video from youtube gives detailed information of how to use a Macintosh computer. It gives you step by step instructions of how to use the software and it descibes exactly what each icon does on the dock of a Mac. This video relates to what we learned this week about using the Mac OSX sofware.

Webspiration: Social Tools in Education

This is a link to my Webspiration concept map for Week 5.

http://www.mywebspiration.com/view/560733a35872

Week 4: Multimedia and Hypermedia

This week I looked at a powerpoint presentation concerning designing instructional media and I learned about the dos and don'ts of using powerpoint, and what you should use and what you should not use excessively. Then I looked at another powerpoint presentation on Multimedia and Hypermedia and was able to view two videos on youtube on these subjects. The videos were very graphic and they not only told you about what these terms meant, but they also showed you what they meant. I also learned about the different parts of the url of a website, and how you can figure out if a website is real or just created by someone unofficial.

  What I learned this week can be applied to my major because I can use what I learned about powerpoint and designing instruction media to make presentations to instruct my class one day. Also, I found it very important and interesting to learn about how you can find out the origin of a website and who created it. When I am a teacher and I ask the students to do a research paper, I want to make sure that they are using reliable sources in their papers.



This is a video that somewhat explains what multimedia is and it is a video that contains multimedia in it. The video does contain sound, animation, moving and still words and pictures so this video uses many types of media to convey its message to whomever is watching it. Through all of these types of media that are used that message can be more easily conveyed to the watcher because it allows the video to be more interesting and informative.

Embedding a video

Web Technology

This week I was able to look at Web 2.0 tools that can be used for communication, classroom tools, and for other usage. The tools that I looked at were Kidopo, Radiotime, and Learnboost. There were many different sites to use for fast communication amongst friends such as facebook, twitter, and myspace as well. Many of the tools and applications on this site could be used as short cuts and conveniences for different jobs. I also learned about copyrighting and what is protected in copyrighting and what is not by watching a power point presentation on it. I also learned about the No Child Left Behind Act, and just how important it is for teachers to know how to use technology and implement it into their classrooms.

Since my major is elementary education I would be able to use many of the tools that I looked at on Web 2.0. There was a way that you could work on your grade books online, and their were many fun and educational games and activities on Kidopo that I could use in my classroom as well. Learning about the No Child Left Behind Act could also help me through my career in education as well.

Here is a link to a speech that Barack Obama has made concerning the No Child Left Behind Act. In this video he explains what he is going to do in schools to make sure that there is sufficient funding for schools so that all children will hopefully be able to perform on grade level or close to grade level. I picked this video because it was on one of the topics that we were learning about this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsVimwm6xQ4