Blog Post #7

            PowerPoint has been a huge part of learning ever since I have been in school. I will most definitely use this in my class work because it is an efficient and fun way to get information and notes to your students. Let’s say I am teaching a sociology class. According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, I need to create the PowerPoint originally and in a way my students will be interested in. I each slide I need to evaluate the stances on the theories proposed on the particular unit I am teaching. Next, we analyze the theory. Say we are talking about the bystander effect. This would be the time that we would look over test results and question why this happens in emergency situations. After that, I would have a slide that would apply it real life and have to students openly discuss how they would handle a situation if they saw someone was in trouble. Would they keep walking or stop and help? Then Bloom says we are to understand the concept so I would use PowerPoint to add examples and then see of the students can point out which example demonstrates the bystander effect and which don’t. Lastly, Bloom says to remember. I would end the slide show with a recap of what we did and the definition of bystander effect to remind the students before they move on to their next class.

            According to the podcast Adaptive Technologies, adaptive technologies are implemented into schools for those who have learning disabilities. They help them to become accustomed to technology quicker. For example, if the student has difficulty reading, they may use voice recognition instead of typing or, if they have motor disabilities, a joystick instead of a mouse. I personally have never seen anyone use, nor have I used adaptive technology in class. Overall, I think adaptive technology is important for students with disabilities because it gives them the chance to continue learning at the same pace as other students. The challenges that I see are that schools may not be able to afford added adaptive technology making it unlikely for students with disabilities to use them and for the students to feel set apart from their peers and knowing that they are different; this is more of a concern in the younger years.

            Overall I really enjoyed working on the webpage. My group was great and we had a lot of fun coming up with a topic for it. I am a very organized person and I like order, so a website was perfect because everything has its own place. One thing I did not like so much, was figuring out how to change the header. Every time we tried to make the header match the page it would change all of the headers to that name. It was kind of frustrating, so that is definitely something I can work on for next time. I learned that it is important to have an easy access page for parents to get to so they know what is going on in your class. You don’t always know if the students are relaying the information to them or not. I will most likely use a web page when I become a teacher for that reason. It’s a great to keep up an open conversation with the parents.

Blog Post #6

            For this blog post, I went back to my high school’s, H.B. Plant High School, website to see if they had changed anything since I was there.  I couldn’t find any links to specific classes, other than the Plant High Chorus website. On the first Home page there was a slide show of upcoming events such as pep rallies and Homecoming. Beside that they had a lie feed of everything being posted on twitter that are coming from Plant High School accounts. Below that is the school calendar with a link to the extend school calendar. Other pages include, faculty and staff, programs, athletics, performing arts, resources, and community. I looked under faculty and staff to see if there were any links to teachers’ personal pages, but it only gave me their contact information. I remember when I left Plant they started utilizing a website for teachers to post on. It was a lot like BlackBoard but it was called Edsby. At the top of each page there is a drop down menu that says, “student links” and that is where you can access Edsby, but of course a login is required. Under performing arts there is a choir choice and that takes you directly to the plantsings.org website. This is where the director posts all of his upcoming events, photos, and forms. Grades are not posted here, but almost all other information about his class is.

           

            When I become a teacher, I will most likely use teacher planning tools, Microsoft applications, and Evernote. Teacher planning tools, as the podcast said, will be really prevalent especially in the first year. I want something that will help keep those documented for the future and be easy to update when the requirements and curriculum change. Microsoft applications will make making tests, power points and spreadsheets a lot easier. I have grown up using Microsoft so I feel like that will be a go-to software for me to use. Next, I will use Evernote to make notes on websites before I use them. That way if I see something I don’t really like for class I will make a note and it will be there on the first page; I will not have to search everywhere in case I forgot.

            After our last assignment I learned a lot about how to accurately and effectively evaluate a website before letting my class use it. I liked composing my own evaluation form and utilizing it on a website because it made me realize that some things are more important than others depending on what class you are teaching and how old the students are. The thing I did not particularly like about the assignment was that we had to write a paper with two other people. It was challenging because everyone had varying ideas splitting up the load is difficult because you’re not sure how well their section is going to be done. I think for next time, it should be an individual assignment and maybe instead of a full-page explanation, only half a page. I will definitely use this when I am a teacher, especially since I am planning on teaching younger students. I want to makes sure that the websites I will be using are secure and appropriate for young children.

             

Blog Post #5

The Web 2.0 technology that I think is the most useful would have to be class blogs. No matter what the class, with maybe the exception of math, students and teachers can share their ideas with one another. I think this is also a great way to check if students are doing the readings assigned in class based on what they put in their blog posts. You can tell by how much detail, or lack of, is put into the post. This could also be used as a way of awarding extra credit to the student or students who how exemplary work. As for Web 2.0 that I don’t find useful, YouTube is one of them. Nowadays you don’t fully know what is accurate and what isn’t. I think it is better to find credible videos elsewhere. To use these tools, classrooms and the students’ homes need a PC or laptop. Even a handheld device, such as an iPhone or tablet would work because there is a keyboard. The only potential problem would be that a student wouldn’t be able to afford the technology required to post a blog post or watch a video on YouTube.

            I’m planning on teaching early childhood so I don’t know how much technology would be used in the classroom, but if I were teaching middle school or high school I would use Weebly to get the blog post ball rolling. When I was in middle and high school we never used blogs as a way of communication; it wasn’t until I got to college that it became apart of my everyday class expectations. I think that it is important for students to learn how to put their thoughts on a forum for other people to read because they will have to do it eventually.

            I chose Weebly because it is an easy way to get started on blog posts. When you set of your account, it walks you through how to post anything you want and how to separate them into pages. I think this is a great way to get my students’ toes wet with blogs and discussions outside of class. I will also have them comment on their peers’ posts so that they can learn to keep a thought going. This will also help them learn how to critique one another and better their own writing. http://www.weebly.com/?c=mkt_w_nwk:GoogleSearch_cat:Website_type:Branded_camp:G-S-Website-Branded-AlphaHT-US_ag:Weebly_adid:ad008_lpid:000_FunnelTest:none&viq=CAK:257473334|15054213254|weebly_adid:70819320014&gclid=CJ6JycTQvcgCFdgNgQodu_MDvA

  Because of the concept mapping assignment, I learned how to organize a bunch of information so that it is accessible and easy to learn. I actually had a hard time with this assignment, to be completely honest. I wasn’t sure how to connect everything and not make it look chaotic. This assignment definitely posed as more of a challenge for me, so I know there are a lot of areas where I could improve.  I’m not exactly sure where I would use this in the classroom since I want to teach such a young age, but I know I could use this in the rest of my classes and if I decide to go to grad school, I could use it there too.