My Journey with Technology Has Only Just Begun!

I have learned so much over the last five weeks of Literacy and Technology and I cannot believe it's over! As the course began I was very apprehensive. I was unsure of what to expect having never taken an online class before and I tried to prepare myself the best I could for what would lie ahead. I remember taking the technology survey at the beginning of the course, and although I was familiar with most of the basic programs and computer applications, the one term I was unaware of was "Web 2.0." It was only a matter of time until I became familiar with this term and much more that technology had to offer. Prior to Lit and Tech I had never worked with webquests, wikis, or blogs before. I had taken a tutorial on Smartboards and worked with them and other forms of technology during my undergraduate student teaching experience, however I was unaware of the impact that using technology (or not using it) could have on my students.

As I was asked to reflect on my personal website about my philosophy of education, I discovered how greatly my philosophy has changed since taking this course. I now find technology to be an integral part of today's education. My future students will be digital natives who relate to and learn from technology in a much different way than I did when I went to grade school. The possibilities that technology provides for educating students today are endless! I believe that it is my job as an educator to continue to become informed about technology that continues to be developed. Technology is constantly changing and my knowledge of these innovative inventions must continue far beyond this course.

I was given the opportunity to work with various programs throughout this course and I plan to use all of them in some way when I have my own classroom. Many of these tools will also be helpful to me throughout the remainder of my graduate education. I was very impressed with all the tools offered by Google and appreciated how easy they made collaborating in a group. After our group presentations, I was also introduced to Zoho and I plan on working more with this program to explore the many options it provides.All of these presentations provided me with useful tools that I will apply in my own classroom. The group work that I completed throughout this course was a new experience for me. It was the first time I had ever worked in a group without ever meeting with them face-to-face. I was amazed with how well six people were able to communicate with one another and work together by using the web. What was even more impressing was the possibility to gather nearly thirty people in a Webex conference in order to have a whole-class meeting. Because it is such a new program, Webex certainly offered some challenges to me. I had trouble using my microphone during two different classes which was especially frustrating when trying to present my final project. However, despite these glitches I still found it fascinating that our class was able to meet together, raise our hands digitally to ask questions, and communicate with one another in this manner. Now that this course has come to an end, my plan for the future is to continue using technology as much as a I can. I will suggest using programs such as Google Docs with my future group members, and I will integrate many of the programs that I learned about in Lit and Tech into my lesson plans. Technology will be an essential part of my future classroom and I will use it regularly with my students. I want to provide my students with all of the technological skills and knowledge that they will need in order to be successful in the future. I am happy to have learned as much as I did throughout this course and I cannot wait to apply all of my new skills!


*Blogging has been one of my favorite parts of this course. I have commented on many of my peer's blogs during the last five weeks. Here are links to each of them!

Tara's Blog
JKuri's Blog
Doug's Blog
Jessica F's Blog
Corey's Blog
Kelly's Blog
Pamela's Blog

Oh the Wonders of the Web!

Completing the WoW project taught me a lot about myself and how I will teach with technology. My topic was Digital Storytelling for Developing 21st Century Literacy Skills. My plan for this project was to create a visually appealing project that would clearly explain what digital storytelling is and how it can be used in the classroom. As with digital storytelling, I wanted to tell a story and I needed to keep in mind that my audience consisted of educators of various grade levels. I wanted my classmates to learn something that they would actually use as teachers. The process of developing my presentation, demonstrated how much I had learned in the last few weeks of Literacy and Technology. I was able to hyperlink text and add videos and images to my presentation more effectively than I had ever had before.

My peers responded very well to my presentations when it was presented during our Webex meeting. They had a great deal of positive feedback about the content of my project and stated that they felt it was interesting and thorough. I was also very pleased with my presentation. I felt that it did a great job of explaining what digital storytelling was and it gave all of the essential information that teacher's would need in order to use this program in their classroom. I thought it was important that I provided the audience with links to different programs that could be used in order to make a digistory and that I gave them various examples of topics that they could use when assigning digistories in the future. If I was assigned to present this topic again I would like to have examples of various types of digistories that I could link to the slides. Students would also find it helpful to see examples of the work they needed to complete prior to beginning their assignment.

Digital storytelling is an excellent tool that I will definitely use in my classroom. It allows students to be creative and remain actively involved in their learning process. I think that my students would enjoy have the freedom to share their ideas with their classmates and create stories that are unique to them. Publishing their stories online makes this activity relevanta nd encourages children to have fun while learning! I cannot wait until I am able to work with digital stories in my own class one day!

Working with Webs

Over the last few weeks, I have been working on my first personal website using a program called Webs. The program was very user-friendly and allowed me to easily personalize my website in order to help me display the work I have created throughout this semester in Literacy and Technology. The website serves as an e-portfolio of my work and helps the audience get to know me as an educator. This experience has helped me become more prepared to create my own teaching web page in the future. I cannot wait to have a website where I can post an assignment calender, upcoming announcements/events, tutorials/educational games, etc. for students and parents to interact with. I will definitely consider using Webs in the future in order to create a free teacher web page.

Communicating and Collabortating with Classroom 2.0

Our group assignment for week 4 was a Parent Newsletter explaining to parents the term "Classroom 2.0" and what it meant to teach and learn in the 21st century. Creating newsletters such as this are an excellent way to communicate with parents. Communication between teachers and students is important because it allows parents to understand the kinds of activities, grades, and behaviors that their child is participating in while at school. It helps parents have a clear understanding of what their child is expected to accomplish throughout the school year, and may give them an idea of some areas their child could use further help in at home. For teachers, this communication with parents is beneficial because it allows them to learn more about their students and who they are outside of the classroom. This will help them educate students more effectively.

I will communicate with my parents on a regular basis in many ways. First, I will have a website which will discuss upcoming events, due dates for assignments, and will include educational games and tutorials that will help students better understand lessons taught in class. I will also keep an online grade book such as Engrade that will allow parents to check their child's grades and attendance on a regular basis. Students will also be sent home with a Friday folder outlining weekly assignments and quizzes to notify parents of their child's progress. This will be helpful to those parents who have less access to the internet. Finally, I will be readily available by e-mail at all times.
My group, The Lit Tech Sextet, decided to use Glogster to create our newsletter. We had never used the program before, yet we had heard many great things about it and thought we would take on the challenge. We decided to share information for the newsletter via g-mail and then paste our work onto the newsletter together during our group meeting. The only downfall for using this program for a group project was that it did not allow us to collaborate on it all together as we did using Google Docs. Allowing this kind of collaboration would be an excellent addition to this program.

Next time I do a newsletter, I will personalize it for my own classroom. I may try other programs to see what works best for me in order to communicate information to parents and students. The overall goal with this project for me was to create a newsletter that would be parent-friendly and was easy enough for parents to understand who had little or no experience with technology. I think our group did a great job of accomplishing this goal!

Safe Uses of the Net

The issue of Internet safety is a serious one for students at every grade level. The article called the "3 I's of Internet Safety" explains that internet access is limited to students in school, however it is important that children become educated about safe and proper ways to use the internet at home. The 3 I's of internet safety include: Informed, In View, and Interested. Informed states that students should be made aware that the internet is anonymous and they never know who they are talking to , as well as informed about all of the risks of posting personal information online. In view means that a child's computer should always be placed in a parent's site where they can always monitor what their children are looking at. Interested means that parents should remain interested about what their children are viewing on the web . Teachers should teach internet safety to their students in order to help prevent tragic events from occurring. It is too often that we hear about young children being put in harm's way after giving out personal information to strangers on the internet and it is important that we do everything we can to stop this from happening.

The website on copyright and fair use discusses a topic that is relevant to many teachers. It explains that teachers are often unaware of the ways that they are allowed to use copyrighted material for their lessons. According to the fair use policies outlined on the site, teachers are allowed to copy material from newspapers, TV shows, and other media outlets and use it for educational materials. They are also allowed to create lessons that include these materials and later sell or distribute these materials as they see fit. Students are also allowed to use copyrighted material (i.e. Google Images) when developing new projects and then distribute this work. Teachers should be made aware of their right to use copyrighted material in their lessons so that they can create the most beneficial lessons for their students.

Many schools have an Acceptable Use Policy that serves as a contract for students to sign agreeing to the proper ways of using computers and internet in school. The policy explains the correct way to use copyrighted material for assignments without plagiarizing and encourages students to respect the work of others. It also explains that students should report to their teachers about any behavior they find on the internet that may be offensive or harmful. As far as I am aware, the schools that I have spent time in do not have an Acceptable Use Policy. However, I think that all schools should develop such a policy in order to help prevent plagiarism and make their students more aware of the correct ways to use the internet.

Rubistar to the Rescue

After taking Psychometrics during my undergraduate education at Mount Saint Mary College, I felt very prepared to create a number of assessment tools. One of the best assessment tools for teachers to use today is a rubric. Rubrics outline a clear list of expectations for students to follow while completing various assignments. They give an outline of what the project requires as well as a guideline for students to follow if they wish to receive full credit for an assignment. My experience in Psychometrics has taught me that the best rubrics are specific, free of biases, and easy to follow.

I have created rubrics for various lesson plans throughout my years in college. However, after familiarizing myself with some 21st century rubric generator sites, I was surprised to find how many rubrics there are for Web 2.0 projects. There are rubrics for podcasts, projects on Glogster, Wikis, and much more. To my surprise, there was even a rubric for using Twitter! Some of these rubrics are excellent tools for teachers to use, while others require some changes that would make them more effective. For example, some of the rubrics grade students on the attractiveness of their project or do not provide students with specific enough criteria. Such factors can sometimes make rubrics too subjective and therefore a less reliable source of assessment.

Rubistar is an excellent tool because it allows teachers to generate their own rubrics for any assignment! The site is free for teachers to use and provides the user with various templates that can be followed exactly or changed to meet the needs of the teacher. This feature is very helpful as it allows the user to make their rubric unique and suitable for their students! Gone are the days of spending hours creating an effective rubric! Having assessment tool generators such as Rubistar will surely be helpful to me throughout my teaching career!

Creating Maps in Your Mind

I decided to do a vocabulary web of math terms for Second Grade for my Mind Mapping project. I thought this would a useful tool for students who have a difficult time remembering terms that are often used in math word problems. Students would be expected to use the images included in the web to help them memorize the different math terms. This could be used as either a diagnostic assessment for students prior to being taught new terms or as a formative assessment for students to complete prior to a summative exam. This mind-map will help students memorize important terms that will help them successfully complete various word problems. It will also help clear up confusion between different terms (i.e. greater than and less than).

The most important lesson that I learned from this activity was how effective mind-mapping activities can be. There are many different ways to teach a curriculum, and mind-mapping is an excellent way to help students learn new material or review lessons they have already learned in a more visual way. I used Inspiration for this project because I had had great success with it in the past. The program is very simple to use and allows the user to learn by doing. The only thing I would change about this program would be to create a tool bar at the top of the work space that allows users to more easily change the font style, size, color, etc. more easily.

When I use this program with my students, I will make sure that they have a clear rubric that explains how many terms they must include as well as some other guidelines for completion. I would give my students a tutorial of the program and point out all of its special features. For group assignments, I would encourage my students to use Webspiration as it allows users to collaborate with group members more easily than Inspiration allows.

A+ for Engrade

During this week of Literacy and Technology, I was introduced to a free grading software program called Engrade. Engrade is a new software program that allows teachers to place their class rosters online and then digitally record their students' grades and attendance. The program requires teachers to assign their students with a numeric code which allows parents and students to access students' grades, class calendar, attendance records, and comments about their performance online. Teachers are given several options on how they would like their grades recorded. For example, they may choose between recording grades as percentages or letters. Afterward, teachers may place their assignments into categories and decide how they would like weigh each category. Grade are calculated either manually or automatically with this software.

This program is very useful to teachers because it is easy to use and allows teachers to record their grades in no time at all. It is a user-friendly tool that will help teachers keep organized; and it will be especially helpful when transferring grades to report cards at the end of each marking period. This program is also beneficial to teachers because it allows them to keep in constant contact with parents and students. As long as parents have access to the internet, this program would allow them to see their child's grades on a daily basis. Students and parents can also access their teacher's page to check the due dates for projects, homework assignments, or upcoming tests. However, if they do not have internet access, they would not be able to benefit from the program in these ways. Students may be more motivated to apply themselves and keep up their grades if they know that their parents will see them on a regular basis.

With every new software program there is always room for some improvement. There are some features that could be added to the program that may make it even more user-friendly for teachers, parents, and students. It would be helpful for the program to allow teachers to more easily place a percentage range for each grade rather than only A, B,C,D, and F. It might also be nice for teachers to have the option to categorize assignments by subject so that parents and students can have an easier time distinguishing between assignments. Finally, adding an e-mail option for teachers to send their grade book to parents after updates are made would be an excellent feature for Engrade to include. Programs such as Engrade would be an excellent addition to any school district for recording grades in the 21st century!

A Taste of Web 2.0

I have only just begun learning about all of the tools that Web 2.0 has to offer. These tools promote collaboration, inquiry, connectivism, problem-solving, creativity, and much more! I had experience working with some of these tools prior to my Lit and Tech course such as Facebook and Photobucket. When I first began using Facebook, I did not understand what all the hype was about, however I quickly became hooked! I have friends and family in all different parts of the world, and Facebook enables me to stay connected with them and learn about new things that are happening in their life. I understand why so many students feel that their social-networking sites are an extension of who they are as individuals. I have used Photobucket and a program called Picnik in order to edit my photos and place them on to my social networking sites. Picnik is an awesome site that allows users to add texts to pictures and make them their own. One my favorite things to do is add lyrics to pictures that represent the image.

I have been introduced to several different Web 2.0 tools during Lit and Tech. One of my favorite tools is blogging. Blogging allows users to share their ideas in a creative way and stay connected with their peers. I could imagine that using blogs with students would give them a great sense of accomplishment because they are able to publish their work to the web. Some of my favorite 2.0 tools are those that allow users to collaborate. These include programs such as Google Docs, Webspiration, and Wikis. I have had an awesome experience with each of these programs throughout the semester. They have allowed me to collaborate evenly with my group members from group 5 in a much more user-friendly manner than I have experienced before. Recently, I created my first Podcast using podomatic. This was a very different experience for me and I found it a lot of fun. The world of web 2.0 has opened endless possibilities for teachers and their students. I look forward to working with more of them in the future!

Combining Teaching Models

Every teacher has their own unique teaching style. After having experience in the classroom, they begin to learn what works and what does not. They understand that some lessons are better taught using a direct approach, while others may be more successful when taught indirectly or cooperatively. The readings for week 3 described four different teaching models. These models are: Behavioral, Information-processing, Social-Interactive, and Personal. The goal of behavioral systems is to change the behavior of the student by teaching him/her new skills. Strategies used with behavioral models include direct instruction and mastery learning. Programs for this teaching model tend to be informative in nature and provide little or no opportunity for students to interact with the program. Information-processing models aim to create thoughtful students who think critically. Strategies for this model include inquiry model and problem solving. Many different programs have been created to expand upon a child's skills in inquiry. These programs often take the form of interactive learning games that allow students to be actively involved in their learning process. These tools are loved by students and are excellent additions to any classroom.

The Social-Interactive model revolves around developing a student's social and communication skills. Group work and cooperative learning are two of the prevalent strategies used with social-interactive models. Many programs promote social interaction and group work. Some such programs include: Google Docs, Webspiration , and Zoho. These are excellent programs that allow students to collaborate on assignments and teachers to determine who did what during a project. Finally, personal models are used to help students see things in a different way. Strategies used for this are mind-mapping and nondirective teaching. Some of the programs that promote personal models are Inspiration and mindjet. These mind mapping programs are a great way for students to see things visually rather than in a traditional, written format.

It is important for teachers to use a combination of all four teaching models throughout their instruction. Effective teachers take their students into account along with the content that they are teaching and determine the appropriate model that they should use for each of their lessons. Students do not all learn in the same way, and therefore lessons should be taught in order to benefit multiple intelligences.

Developing Your Own Learning Environment

Stephen Downes' video, "Personal Learning Environments" introduced me to a new term in the field of education. In many ways, a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) for students reminded me of some of the different functions made available by programs such as Google Reader. A PLE consists of a combination of various tools that the user might place in their 2.0 toolkit. For example a user's PLE might include: personal documents, websites that the user frequents, or feeds and blogs that the user has subscribed to. The user will is able to use their PLE to network with a community of people and share their thoughts and ideas through e-mails and newsletters. Communicating and learning with others is the central idea behind the development of a PLE. In fact, using PLE's in this manner has helped Downes instruct an online class with over 2,200 students who all collaborated and learned from one another.

Developing a PLE will help students become actively involved in their learning process. The collection of various websites and resources will immerse students in learning so that they are not simply learning a set of facts, but are instead demonstrating a thorough understanding of the material. Downes gave the example of a student performing acts as a geographer would rather than sharing facts about geography.

As educators, we must help our students develop a PLE of their own. We can do this first by continuously learning about different resources that are available. Afterward, we can share these resources with our students so that they can learn from them and use them to share their knowledge with their peers. Students should be encouraged to communicate, share ideas, and learn from one another. Once they have developed their PLE, they will continuously have access to sites of interest to them and be able to actively participate in a learning community.

Life's Big Questions

After reading Holly MacDonald's article "The Learning Professional’s toolkit – what’s essential?" I felt all the more confident that I am learning a great deal of important information in Literacy and Technology that will benefit me for years to come. MacDonald provides her reader with an outline of resources which she believes are essential for the average person in the 21st century to become familiar with and understand. She states it is important that everyone know how to blog, Screencast (Jing), use a search engine (Google), use a web browser, use a video camera (Web Cam or Flip), collaborate through the web (Google Docs), and join an online community (WDYWYD). I agree with MacDonald that all of these resources are important and find it interesting that each of them have been key components of what I have learned so far in Lit and Tech.

I understood how to use some of these resources prior to taking this course (i.e. how to use web browsers, video cameras, a search engine). However, I was unfamiliar with some of these resources until the class began. I know understand how to blog (See! :)), Screencast, and collaborate with groups through the web. In fact, after learning about some of these tools, I sometimes wonder how I have gotten through so many college courses without them. Understanding how to use these resources has opened so many possibilities for the work I do in my future grad classes and teaching career! I think it is important that I help my students become familiar with all of these tools, as they will be expected to use them long before their graduate school years!

The Battle Between Good vs. Bad Technology

Stephen Downes makes some excellent points in his article entitled, "Nine Rules for Good Technology." He mentioned that effective classroom technology must be simple to use. A teacher's job is in fact to teach, and therefore they should not be required to have a computer engineering degree in order to use technology in their classrooms. He points out that our goal as educators is to guide our students to use technology independently and therefore we must have "good technology" available in our classrooms at all times. Downes states that in order for technology to be "good" it must meet the following 9 criteria: Technology must be:

1) Always Available- Always in the classroom and not shared between several different classrooms and teachers.

2) Always on- On at all times or able to be turned on by the simple push of a button (i.e. Smartboards)

3) Always Connected-Does not require many people to help connect and set it up

4) Standardized- Works with any computer, web browser, or internet provider

5) Simple- One learns how to use it by doing rather than reading the manual

6) Doesn't Require Parts- Start up is simple and does not require other parts in order to work effectively

7) Personalized-Allows the user to make it their own and use it for their own purpose

8) Modular- Made up of parts that work together effectively

9) Does What You Want it to Do- Works appropriately and does not to do whatever it wants.

Downes makes some excellent points with these nine criteria. His article and what he refers to as "Stupid Technology" reminds me of many classrooms that I have been in in the past. Technology is often too difficult for teachers and students to use. I remember several occasions when my grade school teachers would call in assistance because the computers, projectors, and other technology were not cooperating with him/her. I agree that good technology must be simple if it is to gain a widespread appeal. Having computers, Smartboards, etc. on and connected at all times is an excellent way to avoid the distractions that can come from technology that is not working. However, even the best technology may not work at all times; there will always be the chance of something unforeseeable occurring while using different technology in the classroom. This is why the best teachers always think on their feet and have a backup plan for those times technology decides to misbehave.

Making a Slide Show is as Easy as 1-2-3

I just finished my slide show presentation of all my first digital prints using Picasion. I was surprised to find how easy this program was to use. After learning how to take screenshots with the help of my peers through the Teacher's Lounge, I was able to create JPEG files from the images and then attach these files into the Picasion website. Afterward, I simply pressed "Create Animation" and my slide show appeared on my screen in seconds! This is definitely a program I will use in the future to make slide shows with my pictures!


I am really proud of each of the different wep pages that are incorporated into my Picasion slide show. I just became a new member to Twitter and I am slowly learning about all of the educational benefits that it has. My individual and group wikis are still a work in progress. Wikis are new to me this semester and I am still trying to work out the kinks with using them. I look forward to seeing what my wikis will look like by the end of the semester! I decided to add my Facebook page to the slide show as well, because it is an example of yet another social networking site that is popular with students today. My favorite digital image, however is of my blog. I have truly enjoyed my first blogging experience with Literacy and Technology, and I look forward to more blogging in the future!

All Aboard Classroom 2.0: Making Great Strides for Education!

For most of my years in grade school, I can remember growing up in a classroom that was primarily 1.0. My closest encounters with technology were my teacher's presentations from the overhead projector or my monthly visits to the computer lab where I was able to play Heritage Trail. I remember receiving worksheet after worksheet from my teachers and learning my lessons in much the same, teacher-centered way throughout the years. The lessons I was most excited about were those that were fun and interactive, however they happened a lot less frequently than I would have liked. As new technology continues to be invented throughout the years, schools have increasingly begun to shift from 1.0 to 2.0 classrooms. My seven year brother will third grade student at Otisville Elementary School next fall. His school is fortunate enough to have a Smartboard in every classroom! He often uses the Smartboard to play educational games and become actively involved in his lessons. Many of his teachers have had web pages which share the weekly homework assignments, upcoming events, and even a copy of the text books for each subject. Teachers today have begun to make a shift in their phase of technology from phase one where they use their technology solely for presentations to phase three where both their students and themselves are actively engaged with technology. Sadly, some teachers remain Digital Immigrants. There are still those teachers who place book shelves in front of their Smartboards and leave them unused. However, teachers today are making great strides to transform their classrooms and teaching styles. What lies ahead is a very exciting journey with technology for students and teachers alike!

Generation Net: It's Time to Make a Change!

The Net generation readings and video clips for Week 2 have been by far my favorite! Students who are growing up in the 21st century are much different from students in previous generations because they are the first generation to grow up in a society that is completely surrounded by technology. These students were born into a world of computers, video games, Ipods, cell phones, and much more. Children of today are digital learners. Much of their research is done using the web, and rather than reading books in a traditional manner, they listen to books on their Ipods or read them using devices such as the Kindle.

As illustrated in A Vision of K-12 Students Today, students spend countless hours playing games, using the internet, texting, instant messaging, and watching television; and although it is not true in all cases, many of these programs can be educational for students. Students feel connected to technology and often feel that their Ipods, cell phones, and social networking sites are an extension of who they are as individuals.
Today's students learn in a completely different way than their teachers learned. In fact, the video also explained that an alarming 76% of today's teachers have never even used blogs, wikis, or other such programs! So how do we as teachers make a change and successfully educate our students of today when we ourselves were taught so differently? Marc Prensky offers many solutions to this very problem in his article, "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants." He believes that we need to teach children how to think on their own and use the web. If children feel so greatly connected to technology, then what better way to teach them than by using technology in our classrooms? Prensky states, "My own preference for teaching Digital Natives is to invent computer games to do the job, even for the most serious content. After all, it's an idiom with which most of them are totally familiar (4)." It is important to steer away from being what Prensky refers to as a Digital Immigrant. Instead, we must keep an open mind and enable our students to learn in a variety of ways with various technologies. Students learn differently, and educations statistics in the United States show that the old way of teaching is not working! It is time to make a change! Teachers must encourage the use of technology in their classrooms and introduce their students to as much of it as possible. Using different technologies and allowing our students to interact with technology on a regular basis, will create successful, live-long learners who actually enjoy the learning process!

NETS: NEWS to Me!

The National Educational Standards for Students,(NETS-S) provide an outline of six objectives that students must be able to perform effectively while interacting with technology in the classroom. Prior to Lit and Tech, I was familiar with other New York State and National Standards, however I was unaware that standards for technology even existed. Standard one is Creativity and Innovation. This states that students should be able to design creative projects using technology in order to express themselves. I believe that this standard is often times well implemented. Students in the 21st century are more familiar with technology than ever before. Giving them the opportunity to use computers and different technology for assignments encourages students to be creative and develop projects that represent who they are as individuals. The second standard is Communication and Collaboration. This standard says that children are expected to be able to use digital media to communicate and collaborate with others in order to expand their learning and the learning of their group members. Because of their familiarity with social networking sites, texting, and chat, many students would have a very good chance of successfully fulfilling the expectations of this standard. However, there is not always enough opportunities for students to work outside of the classroom using technology in order to collaborate with their peers. Some teachers (Digital Immigrants) remain wary of allowing their students to collaborate via the web or choose not to do so because some of their students continue to not have access to a computer or the internet in this tough economic time. I remember many fifth grade teachers during my student teaching experience stating that they would love to assign such projects, but they could not because some of their students' parents had decided to discontinue their internet in order to save money. Standard three is called Research and Information Fluency. With this standard, children are expected to be able to use digital tools in order to complete research assignments and find information. Students are given the chance to work with computers (either within their classrooms or the computer lab) in order to complete research. More and more teachers are also requiring their students to locate various facts on the web and incorporate them into research papers or projects. Standard four: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making, asks students to use technology in order to solve problems and make decisions . Although students may be able to locate information on the web, many continue to struggle with identifying problems or making decisions without the aid of their teacher. This is similar to distinguishing between main ideas and supporting details which many students (depending on their grade) have trouble with.

Standard Five is called Digital Citizenship. This standard states that students should be able to understand technological problems that other cultures and societies may have while using positive, ethical behavior while using technology. Many students have a very positive attitude about technology. They react well with assignments which require them to use computers and other digital outlets. Many news stories give proof that students are not always aware of safe and appropriate practices while using the web. I have also encountered problems in my own student teaching experience with fifth grade students creating Facebook pages targeted towards making fun of students in their class. Schools should provide their students with more information about appropriate and safe practices on the internet; students must be aware that what they post online can cause harm to themselves or others. Finally, the sixth standard is Technology Operations and Concepts. This standard states that students should have a strong understanding of technology and its functions. This standard is especially well implemented by many students in the 21st century. Their interactions both home and at school have provided them with a solid foundation and understanding of several different types of technology.

I believe that the classes I take in my graduate school career are helping me gain the knowledge that will help me to be able to successfully implement these standards in my classroom. As I learn new information every day, I feel increasingly more prepared to provide my students with the skills and knowledge they need in regards to technology. However, I am concerned with the high expectations that are set by these standards and I hope that I am able to fulfill them as successfully as many teachers do today. As Warlick states, "For the first time in history, our job as educators is to prepare our students for a future that we cannot clearly describe." This can seem a difficult feat for many who are learning to become educators in the 21st century. However, the best way to implement these standards is for teachers to constantly become educated about new technology and never believe that they can teach their lessons the same way year after year. Teachers can talk to their peers and search the web for new ideas and information. Doing this will only benefit their students!

An Exciting New Line of Literacy

Upon my decision to become a Literacy major in graduate school, I thought of the term "literacy" in a very traditional sense. My definition of literacy was: having the ability to read and write language both verbal and written. However, I never thought of literacy in the digital sense that taking Literacy and Technology has enabled me to. The readings for Week 2 have introduced me to a variety of different kinds of literacy including: Computer Literacy, Information Literacy, and Integration Literacy.

From my understanding, someone who is computer literate is able to use computers and different kinds of technology effectively. They have a basic understanding of how a computer functions, and they are able to use various programs such as, Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Outlook. Information Literacy refers to the ability to locate, evaluate, and use different information from a variety of sources, and later organize and present the information in a manner that will be useful for the user. A person who is information literate will use a variety of search engines rather than traditional sources, and be able to differentiate between information that is biased or unbiased, truthful or untruthful. Finally, integration literacy is having the ability to use different computers and technologies alongside various teaching and learning standards in order to create a learning atmosphere that is beneficial for students.

As teachers, it is important to encompass all three of these types of literacy. However, the most important type of literacy for teachers is integration literacy. It is important for teachers to be computer literate and have a strong knowledge of how computers and their various programs work. Effective teachers should also know how to locate important information using the web so that they can use this information in their lessons. However, integration literacy is most important for teachers because it allows teachers to pass on the information to their students in order to help them be able to one day teach themselves. This was an important concept that was describes in Warlick's presentation and is in many ways what we are learning to do as students in Literacy and Technolgy.

Literacy of the 21st century and the future is and will be immensely different than traditional literacy. As Warlick explains, much of our technology is so easily accessible that we carry it around with us at all times (via Blackberry, Iphone, etc.) Students in many schools do most of their work through the computer, and in some cases, use virtually no paper at all to complete their assignments. If it were not for the economy, I trust that many more schools would already be following this trend.

Literacy in the 21st century and beyond will most definitely include teaching students to read, write, and solve arithmetic problems, however the manner in which these lessons are taught will continuously change. Many classrooms will begin to resemble that of the 7th grade teachers from the video clip entitled, "The Voice of a Digital Native." Classrooms will become paperless in order to help better the environment, and because paper will no longer be a necessity. Classes will take place (as they already have begun to do) virtually, and those classes that do take place in more of a traditional setting will begin assigning more and more projects or activities that must be completed using computers and different technology. Students will continue to learn and interact with Smartboard technologies and educational games rather than completing worksheets at their desks. Learning will become more student-centered as students become actively involved and engaged in their learning process. Literacy in the 21st century and the future sound very exciting to me! It is vastly different from the classroom experience I had in my grade school years and I look forward to being a part of this new line of literacy!

OMG: Oh My Google!

I have always considered myself an avid fan of Google. Since as far back as I can remember, I have had Google Search as my homepage and I have relied heavily on its search tools for research projects and finding images. I found Google Search to be the most effective search engine out there. Upon entering Literacy and Technology, I was introduced to the effectiveness of Gmail. Its user-friendly nature and all of the tools that it had to offer made me wonder why I had not signed up for a Gmail account sooner. However, after doing more research into the tools that Google has to offer, I was amazed by the endless possibilities that they provide! What may be most amazing about these tools is that they are absolutely free for users to try! After learning more about them from the tools provided by Dr. Smirnova, I decided to try some of them myself.

I immediately downloaded Google Chrome and the Google Side Wiki. Google Chrome has proven to be as user-friendly as Mozilla Firefox (if not more so) and I have truly enjoyed testing out the Side wiki. Google Side Wiki is an awesome tool that allows users to comment on various web pages and share information about the page's content. I enjoyed visiting my favorite websites and seeing the opinions that different users had about each one. Afterward, I tried Google Reader. This tool allows the user to subscribe to their favorite web pages (like following a blog) and receive updates and notifications when changes are made to the sites! I have found this to be a great time saver as I simply have to check my Google Reader rather than go to each site.

Google Picasa is an awesome tool to use for images and photo albums. I wish I had known about this sooner! It allows the user print and edit pictures, make slide shows, and create unique photo collages. The program is very simple to use and requires very little instruction. I was surprised to hear about Google Earth. Like many of the tools, I had never heard of Google Earth prior to Lit and Tech. This is one tool that I cannot wait to use in my classroom one day! It allows students to find actual measurements of different locations, virtually visit places around the world, and even search for a specific location that they read about in a book! Google Earth also has many great ideas for educators that I am eager to use in my future lessons!

The Google tool that I found most fascinating is Google Docs. Throughout my college career (both undergrad and graduate) I have been known to e-mail assignments back and forth between home and school. With Google Docs, I will no longer have to go through this practice! I will be able to save my documents online and work on them from any computer. This will be a great tool for my students to use when working on group projects. It will allow them to equally work on an assignment and allows the teacher to know who did what on an assignment. Most importantly, it allows the students to publish their work. Talk about learning for a purpose! I am so excited about all of the Google tools that I have been introduced to and I cannot wait to use them in my future graduate classes and with my students in the future!

Here's To One Day Having a Level 6 Classroom of My Very Own!

The video known as, "The Voice of a Digital Native" is narrated by a seventh grade science student who Marc Prensky would refer to as a Digital Native; or a student who has grown up with a strong understanding of 21st century technology. The "Network Learning" that she describes makes it evident that she is learning in a LoTi Level 6 (Refinement) classroom. The research that the girl shares about the Leopard Gecko and other animals demonstrates that there is certainly a great deal of higher-level thinking taking place by each of the students. Allowing her to research information and take notes through the web gives her learning experience some real-world application. The girl's teacher is also allowing her to communicate with experts outside of the classroom. She refers to contacting a scientist in Australia and somewhere in the United States to have her research peer reviewed! This activity provides incredible educational benefits and a great sense of purpose for the student. Because the class is entirely computer-centered, the student most definitely has unlimited access to technology throughout the school day.

This video clip inspires me to develop a classroom that incorporates a high level of technology. I found it incredible that a seventh grade student was so completely knowledgeable of different computer programs and software. I loved the idea of being able to copy notes straight from websites and save them. This is an excellent way to help students learn to cite their work and gain an appreciation for the work of other published authors. Using Skype to talk to other professionals in the field of education would be a great addition to any lesson in my classroom! It may even be a great way for my students to communicate with other children around the globe.

Many people ( "Digital Immigrants") may be apprehensive about using such technology in their classrooms. They might feel that allowing their students to use the internet so heavily for their assignments, will enable them to spend too much time on unrelated sites such as Facebook or Twitter. However, the student in the video makes an excellent point when she states that the freedom and choice that comes from Network Learning also instills a great deal of responsibility. In fact, in many cases (such as the student choosing to do further research on jelly fish in the video) students might even choose to do more research or more work than they are asked to do. Encouraging students to use the kinds of technology in school that they are surrounded by outside of school, will motivate them to want to learn. It may even help them to find learning fun! Watching this video has opened my eyes even more to the endless possibilities that come from teaching with technology. I want to have a level 6 classroom and become more of a Digital Native; and I am prepared to putting all my efforts into doing just that!


**A funny comic that illustrates the difference between a Digital Native and a Digital Immigrant.

Pioneering the World of WebEx

Last night was my first online meeting for Literacy and Technology using WebEx. After being introduced to the program at our face-to-face meeting at MSMC, I was amazed to see the vast amount of capabilities that the program had. However, I could not truly appreciate WebEx until I was given the opportunity to work with it with Dr. Smirnova and my classmates. I was surprised by the quality of audio and video that we were able to use in such a large group. Web-cams have truly advanced since I last used one, and I enjoyed being able to use mine for the first time since purchasing a new computer. Despite some technical problems with the audio, I was still amazed at how well we were able to communicate with one another and learn from Dr. Smirnova throughout her presentation!

Meeting through WebEx definitely helped ease some of my nerves that I originally had about the class. Dr. Smirnova took the time to clearly review some of the course requirements and the class Moodle page. I understand a great deal more about the course readings and discussion forum. I have been having a great time adding to my blog as Dr. Smirnova suggested.

Sharing our group projects was one of the highlights of the meeting for me. I loved that we had the opportunity to virtually "raise our hands" and share our ideas with our classmates. I thought that all of the groups did an excellent job with their digital introduction cards. Each of the cards were unique in their own way and nicely represented the different group members. After a last minute group change, I was relieved to see how well my group pulled together and collaborated with this assignment. I look forward to working with all of my group members in the upcoming weeks!

Overall, the WebEx meeting was very interesting and informative. Dr. Smirnova introduced me to some terms and ideas that I was either unfamiliar with or had not thought of much before our meeting. For example, she mentioned the term "Netiquette" to the class. Although, I was aware that it is important to respect other web users while communicating with them, I never knew that someone had taken the time to create different guidelines that should be followed while on the web. After taking a closer look at these guidelines, I realize how necessary they truly are. What is written can never be taken back and it is important for internet users to remain aware of what they are saying and how it may come across to others. Learning this will help me to become even more aware of my actions in the future.

I look forward to meeting on WebEx again and seeing what else our course has in store for us. As Pioneers of this program, I would say that our first meeting was a great success!

Why I Do What I Do

I had a great time with the WDYDWYD project. I was able to work with a program called shape collage at www.shapecollage.com. It enabled me to easily upload pictures that I found relevant to teaching and then automatically formatted the pictures into the shape of a heart. Some of the pictures were of my younger brothers Matthew (7) and David (5). This made the project all the more special to me. I later added text to my creation with my explanation of why I do what I do. Making a difference in the life of a child is truly the most fulfilling part of our job as teachers. It is important to me that I can have a positive impact on the lives of my students, younger brothers, and future children. Young people are truly our future and they will learn and grow within our ever-changing society. As our world continues to change, the impact of a teacher will always be of great importance. I look forward to having my own class and being able to make the kind of difference in my students' lives that so many teachers made on mine.

Higher Standards for High Stakes Tests

The debate between high stakes (Standardized tests) and teacher-made tests has become a considerably important topic in the field of education. Standardized tests have been increasingly discussed since the passing of No Child Left Behind. Teachers, parents, and children alike agree that Standardized tests are often too challenging and cause a great deal of anxiety in students (especially in the lower elementary). This conflicts with Arne Duncan's belief that "Current standardized assessment formats do a poor job of challenging students." Others argue that there is not enough emphasis placed on the significance of teacher-made assessments.

Despite the argument about standardized testing, many would agree that they play a pivotal role in assessing our students. They are one method of ensuring that students are learning the skills and information that is necessary in order for them to become successful members of our society. Therefore, I agree that standardized tests should challenge student to think critically and reach their full potential. This can be done in a variety of ways. One way is to ask questions that are formatted as scenarios. Students could be asked to place themselves in the shoes of others in order to affirm a strong understanding of the material. It would also be beneficial for students to be asked questions using a variety of different formats. Students perform differently when answering various types of questions. For instance, some students may dread fill-in-the-blank or forced response questions, but flourish when completing essay questions.

It may also be especially beneficial for administrators and government officials to focus more evenly on the results of various teacher-made assessments when evaluating students. Teachers are able to assess their students' critical-thinking skills through both hands-on activities and paper-pencil exams. Doing this would also provide a better idea of what our students are truly capable of.