Educational Technology Journey

Today I participanted in a BER workshop in 21st Century Strategies for Strengthening Your School Library Program. It was awesome! First of all Pam Berger was an excellent presenter. The material was extremely relevant to both my job as a school media specialist but also for my graduate educational technology program. She talked about incorporating Web 2.0 tools into our library programs. She stressed, at least 10 times, the importance of everyone going home to set up a blog tonight. It was so neat to know that I already have one and I decided the next thing to do was to add to it for my homework. Pam gave us so many ideas of how we could use web 2.0 tools to support the teaching-learning process. I have new web 2.0 tools to explore and many helpful websites to research. Now I am looking forward to finding the time to incorporate them into my warm-up projects and lessons.

Cognitivism Module

I am working on a project with my 1st grade to show them how to use the school’s OPAC (online catalog). As usual, I reflect on the lesson after presenting it each time to see how I can improve on it. In this case I noticed that I was losing their attention even though they were very interested in using the catalog. During a workshop that I attended today, the “21st Century Strategies for Strengthening Your School Library Program”, they taught about Inquiry/Technology/Teaching & Learning Strategies. I realized that I was assuming that they already had the phases of inquiry already in place and I went right into showing them the computer and how it works. I now realize that I have to draw upon their prior knowledge in order to peak their interest to focus on the task at hand. This will make it relevant for them and help them to better organize the new information they will find. I plan to start off asking what things they are interested in reading or learning about. We will come up with a list on the board before we go to the computers.

Some of the students have a hard time in kindergarten and first grade knowing what book to pick out. They need some help to find books that will relate to what they know. So after showing them how to search for the ideas that we came up with earlier we will take a look at our visual search software program. The pictures spark ideas to help kids find materials they would be interested in. They are led to picture choices that lead them to a narrower picture search and eventually to the book choices (also with pictures). I think the next project would be for the students in my classes to help me to organize the visual search topics in our OPAC. It is very basic right now and I believe the students will take pride in their work. I will plan to use a wiki for the children to write in their topics and then they could add book selections to each topic. Wow, I look forward to achieving this project.

Educational Technology Journey

Today I spent some more time searching Web 2.0 tools. This time I visited the “What Kids Can Do” site from our Calendar home page. I followed the “Youth meets Web 2.0” link to find a list of resources including a “Seven Things You Should Know About Series” by EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Each article in this series focuses on a single web tool and discusses briefly what it is, how it works, where it is going and why it matters to teaching and learning. I found it very helpful. They have various Web 2.0 tools listed. I learned about a few but the one that interests me most is the Mapping Mashups. It uses online mapping services to display customized, interactive markers that can be used in classrooms. I am hoping to learn enough about it to create a map for my Passport project where the students visit each of the different countries that we cover. It will clearly show the students spatial relationships between where we live and the countries we visit. Last year I just showed them some non-fiction books about the country and discussed some interesting facts but I think this will catch their attention even better.

Educational Technology Journey

My journey has been so much fun. I am learning new things but the best is that I have a new bond with two of my children. First there is my 20 year old college student who is majoring in computer science at Sacred Heart University. She has talked the computer language for two years but I am finally starting to understand her. She is excited for me and enjoys helping me with my projects. Then there is my 16 year old son. He usually speaks very little with me since I don't talk the Runescape language (internet game). However, he is taking computer classes in high school and they are learning all the Adobe CS3 Web standard programs also. Now when I show him my projects he looks on with interest. It is the only thing that can easily pull him from Runescape.

Workshops - Video Workshop: Documenting an Exhibition on Diversity in the Park - 10/20/07

This Exhibition was excellent. The art work was so inspiring. It was fun to capture all the artwork and reactions to it on video. We interviewed some people, young and old, and the feedback was all good. I am looking forward to seeing the final product when Allyson's class finishes putting it together. I will definitely be back every year to visit the new projects. Allyson Uttendorfer was so organized and thorough. It was a pleasure working with her, Bette Schneiderman and the members from the other teams.

Workshops - Excel Basics - 9/29/07

I enjoyed learning Excel more efficiently. Andrew Black was very good at presenting the materials. He gave us ideas at how we can use it to make our jobs easier. Now I need to find some time to play with it some more.

Workshops - Powerpoint 9/29/07 & 11/3/07

Powerpoint is one of the first technology tools I learned to use in educational presentations. I remember thinking how awesome it is. However, looking back now, I wished I had this workshop first. There are so many tools that I didn't use and my presentations were boring. I am looking forward to livening them up in the future. The games that I learned how to set up during the advanced session were great. I had seen a teacher during her internship use the Jeopardy game for a Math project observation and the students were captivated and the Professor observing her was impressed. I am looking forward to trying some projects that my Kindergarten and 1st grade students will enjoy.

Workshops - Fireworks - 9/27/07

This was my first workshop and I was a little lost because in addition to not knowing what Fireworks was I didn't even comprehend what it was used for. David and Christina were great though and walked me through it step by step. I think it would have been easier if I had the Web page workshops first. Now since I have a little more understanding about it's uses I am looking forward to the next Fireworks workshop where we will review what we did and learn how to alter images.

Flash Animation

I just came across this Flash Animation video. It's so cool. Check it out. http://alanbecker.deviantart.com/art/Animator-vs-Animation-34244097

Constructivist Module

I have enjoyed each of the ideas that my warm-up groups have come up with so far. Each of the projects uses technologies and is a good example of a constructivist learning environment. The first project, “Our Long Island”, used various technologies to connect our students to other learning communities as well as to the cultural and community resources on Long Island. The third project, “Global Awareness Global Partnerships”, also used various technologies to bring our students a project that is complex, realistic and relevant. It is near and dear to my heart since it deals with reading and sharing it with others.

Another project I have created uses a Webquest to learn about the digestive system. It uses the internet to both organize the project and connect the students to many of the resources they will need. Their project will take them on a journey to discover how their digestive system works. They will learn how to recognize and avoid common digestive system problems and diseases. This becomes realistic and relevant to each of them as they interview family members and friends who have some of the common problems with the digestive system. By inviting the family and friends to help they are distributing the learning among the community. This helps the student to develop a need for learning. The professional community is also asked to help the students by offering their expertise through e-mail communications.

The project is complex with multiple paths and multiple solutions. Each student in a group will take on a different role: a patient, general practitioner, specialist, or nutritionist. They will use pre-selected web site links to research their role’s involvement with the problem. Then together as a group they provide social negotiation by discussing their findings and preparing a PowerPoint presentation and a skit to perform for the class. In performing the skit they construct their knowledge. I believe this project encourages ownership in their learning.

At the conclusion of this project they should have a better understanding of the digestion system, be able to recognize some of the common problems/diseases associated with it, have learned how to prevent these problems through diet and/or exercise, and be able to appreciate what their body is constantly doing for them.

As I am learning new technologies I see new ways to make this project more interesting for the students. I think they are bored with PowerPoint presentations and I think they would love to use moviemaker or photo story to make their presentations. I think they could use a Blog to get some of their initial information from family and friends. They could also use that same Blog to involve others from within the school environment.

Educational Technology Journey

This year has been very interesting so far. I started my first class afraid of my new laptop with all the new software, and worried about getting it all loaded. Now I have learned Powerpoint (at a new level), Excel, and even Fireworks (this will take a little more work, lucky for me I am signed up for the next class also). Since our first nerve racking online class on Marratech, I have met with my warm-up group there twice and now I am excited about it's possibilities. That very same group introduced me to Google Documents so we could all work on our Powerpoint presentation together. All I could say is Wow!

At times I get overwhelmed with the amount of work, but then I get so excited when I begin to understand things and then learn how I can incorporate it into what I do.