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.