Part 1: What I have learned from ECMP 455:

Throughout the semester there have been many things I have learned from different programs. One thing that has been a good learning experience is the collaboration we do with each other whether it is on the Ning, discussion on the Elluminate sessions, or on each other’s blogs. I will talk about each program/tool I enjoyed and have liked throughout the semester.

Ning

The Ning has been a major part of the learning process this semester as it is where are all the forums of which discussions have been made on, where we were able to post topic discussions and get feedback, ask any questions we had, and keep everything organized! I think having a Ning for classroom use would be a good idea, because as a teacher you could post everything from assignments to reminders for the students. They can use it as a reminder for what they have to do, use it as a place to ask questions or leave comments.

Diigo

For my March Teach Us Lesson, I played around with Diigo, and then Deborah and I took and presented it together. It was a good experience, and I enjoyed learning about the tool. I think it is very handy program that allows you to save websites you enjoy or find useful. You can search for topics, have friends on Diigo and see what they are bookmarking as well. It allows you to keep organized and be able to go back and easily find your website you have bookmarked. I think this would be handy in a classroom for both teachers and students as they could use it to save websites that they find for school projects or things like that.

Skype

Before this class I had never heard about Skype before as bad as that sounds. I never really knew much about things like this. Once we started the class, I made an account and went browsing for people I knew. I found quite a few people who had Skype as well, and it was then that I started talking to these people that I had not talked to in quite some time. I started to enjoy myself. It is an awesome thing to have, and you can keep up to date with people through your computer have a conversation. Joni and I used this to start off our Collaborative Project so that the students were able to see what looked like and who was teaching them. I like Skype because of the options it has, if you don’t want to let someone see you, you are still able to have a voice conversation. I like this option a lot because of that!

 Blogging

Although I wasn’t super consistent in blogging, I do think blogging is a good idea, and I am going to try and keep up with it. I think it would be especially good to use in a classroom to get students to blog their thoughts and learning experiences. After following my teacher I did the interview with for the Interview with a Learner assignment, blogs can be used to post anything you want and are handy to others if you are browsing through them. Blogging is a great tool to share your ideas and thoughts and get feedback from others!

Collaborative Project

I learned a lot from my collaborative project. Joni and I paired up and created, and then taught a lesson to Jennifer Swanson’s grade 8 class at West De Pere MS in De Pere Wisconsin.  We created a lesson on Internet Safety-having a positive digital footprint. It was a good experience as we were able to create this project, skyped in with Jenn before presenting it to her class, and then were able teach it online using Elluminate. This was only the third time I have presented something online; as we only did two teach us sessions during class. I always  have been kind of nervous when it comes to presenting things to people; as I always think my voice sounds funny, but during this presentation I wasn’t as nervous as usual and I actually enjoyed myself. By doing this Collaborative Project I got experience in teaching a lesson online to students through Skype and Elluminate.

Interview with A learner

I did my Interview with a Learner project with Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano. I have been continuing to check her blog out, and have been reading many interesting things. I liked that we were able to do this assignment as we got some ideas and input from teachers around the world and their ideas of technology in the classroom!

Part 2: What I will take away from this course:

When this class is over I will take away a better sense of using technology in the classroom, a better idea on programs that are available out there to use in the classroom as a future teacher, and I feel as if from learning and getting advice from other teachers that I am not going to be as afraid to try new things, and implement technology into my classroom when I am done school. I plan to keep using Diigo and Skype, and continue looking at Silvia’s blog.  From taking this class, I know a lot more about the programs I have explored, and feel as if I am a little more up to date with technology today, for now anyways! J

Part 3: Things I could have done better/improved on:

I wasn’t always on the ball when it came to blogging. I would watch the recordings of the Elluminate sessions I missed and write about them in Word but then not post my writing to my blog. I would also read other blogs that my classmates had posted but not always comment on them. This was because others had already commented on them and said in their own words what I would have said and I didn’t see the need to repeat.

The other thing that I found was hard was to watch the Elluminate sessions that I had missed because I had other night classes. I found that the ones I was able to watch live were much more interesting and engaging as I could participate in the chat during the session. When I went to watch them at home the next day, I found them hard to watch as it was just the recording and I couldn’t comment and get into the discussion.

Overall I enjoyed this class and am walking away with new ideas and experience. I hope everyone has a great summer, and for those of you that are done school, I hope you have a great time teaching!

Here is what Jennifer had to say in the email:

Comments from the kids:

·        They gave a lot of information about tracks that can be left behind.  They explained every question that we had.  They commented on questions we asked in the box.  I liked the Skype thing.

·        I enjoyed using the chat room, I think that they presented good information.  I think that they could improve on their fluency.

·        They spoke very well.  They were educated and knew of what they were saying.  They were friendly to everyone.

·        They were prepared and knew what they were doing.  I think they need to talk more about stuff; they went fast.

·        Good job on the presentation with all the facts.  Maybe slow down a little bit, they talked too fast.

·        I thought they did good presenting but sometimes they just said, “um yah” and had a weird pause.  I really liked it; a little too fast.

·        I enjoyed the fact that they explained things well, but they didn’t over explain things.  They could improve on not talking off of the slides as much.

·        Organized; speak more clearly.

·        I enjoyed the YouTube videos.  My favorite was the did you know video. Elluminate was cool.  They could work on maybe explain some stuff in more detail like the stuff that is most important.  I also think we could have seen them on video the whole time instead of just listening to them.

·        I liked the videos and PowerPoint.

·        I liked how they answered our questions and kept it interesting.  They could have worked on talking a little better.  It was hard for me to understand them sometimes.

·        I liked all the videos and now know what a digital footprint is.  I would’ve liked more things to do.

·        They had lots of cool videos which I liked.  When they read the thing off the screen they should have not read it word for word and had pictures.

 Overall, they REALLY enjoyed the presentation.  I think our time crunch was tough…it would’ve been nice to go a little slower but there was nothing we could’ve done about that.  The talking comments made me giggle – although you don’t have much of an accent, I think it was just enough to throw them off a couple times. 

 I thought you both did an excellent job.  Thank you for compiling all of this information for my class.  I look forward to using parts of this during my other 8^th grade sections.  Have a great summer!  If you ever want any other technology opportunities through my class, let me know.  I would be glad to work with you again!

Jennifer Swanson

Now that I am done playing hockey for the year I really hope the weather starts to improve again and turns nice as I have to start getting my horses in shape for the upcoming racing season, as well as I would like to start working on my tan!:)  I hope everyone else has a great summer, or if anyone is being troopers and taking Spring/Summer classes that they go well for the person taking them!

I better get back to writing my last assingments so that I can start packing some things up today as well! Hope everyone has a last great few days of classes, and doing homework!

We presented our project yesterday (April 12^th). To start off with Joni and I had Dean set us up an Elluminate session as we thought that would be interesting to use, as Jennifer’s students had never used it before, as well as it is handy to go through a power point presentation. We had previously sent Jennifer the link to allow her students to join the Elluminate so that everything was set up and ready to go!

Once Jennifer and all the students present had made it on to the Elluminate Jenn Skyped in with Joni and I and we introduced ourselves to the class. Jennifer had wanted us to talk a little bit about ourselves and where we are from but to make sure we had enough time to present the project we had decided we might try and find a day later on to Skype in and talk to the class.

Then the presentation began! We began our power point presentation on Elluminate Joni and I were on the same computer so we took turns going through our presentation and stopping to watch the videos and answer/ask questions that the students had. They didn’t have mics so they couldn’t use the microphone to talk to us, but they used the comment box on the side which worked!

As I previously said we had sent Jennifer the links ahead of time, as we had talked to her and decided that she would play the three videos we had on the big screen in their computer lab, so that it was set up and ready to go. These are the videos we got he to play:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Here is our power point we made for the project, as well as the recording we did in Elluminate! Feel free to take a look!

As the students class period was almost over, Jennifer told Joni and I that she would get some feedback from the students and let us know what they thought! I am excited to see what they thought of our presentation!

After going through the presentation, she said she was very impressed, and couldn’t wait for us to give the presentation to her class that coming Monday (April 12^th).

I am excited that we were finally done the gathering up and setting up the presentation part and now had the weekend to relax until Monday where we are going to first Skype in with Jenn and her students so that they we can introduce ourselves and they can see who we are, and then move into Elluminate where we will give our power point presentation we have made!

I am excited to see how this will go, and am hoping both Jennifer and the grade eight class like it!

Here is the blog to have a peek at.

As I read the blog, it made me think as a future teacher. Would I myself punish a student for going on the internet and finding the right answer as I agree one hundred percent it is very easy now a days to go and find an answer simply by “googling” a question/topic. I think she makes a very good point when she asks whether or not teachers are going to spend the time going back and checking each and every assignment to make sure that they did not plagiarize or copy information off of the internet? Some teachers may do this, but it will take a lot of spare time of which could be spent doing something else. With technology today it is very easy to take and find information, so maybe now as future teachers we need to change the way we grade them and focus more on teaching the skills that are necessary in order for the students to take and use the information they are learning.

What are some ways we could use information/data and still get the students to ask questions? Teaching the information to the students is not the hard part, it gets to the tough part when we as future teachers need to find ways to get it through to the students and be able to get the students to put it all together and create ideas from what they are learning.

As a future teacher what are some ideas you have on this?

Silvia also posted on her twitter this question: What comes to mind when you hear the quote “It isn’t the answer anymore, it is the question”.

What do you think about this when you read it? What are your thoughts on the matter?

Deb and I took turns explaining and showing what Diigo has to offer as a social bookmarking tool, using screen share in elluminate.

We explained how you can choose to add the Diigo toolbar which some like and others don’t, or if you prefer you can use the Diigolette on any computer as you just have to drag it to the top. By using the Diigolette it disappears every time you exit Internet Explorer, and is easy to get. This would be handy when using a computer that is not yours as you don’t have to download anything.

I talked about how to bookmark, as well as the highlighting tool. Showing everyone who was there how to do these things, and what it looks like when saved into your Diigo Library. If you are ever wanting to search for something it is very simple to put your topic in the search bar, and look in the community library. I am sure you will find something to interest you!Overall I think the presentation went good, and I hope that anyone who did not know a whole lot about Diigo and what it has to offer now knows, from what we showed them!

Now that I have been exploring Diigo, and have a pretty good handle on how to use it, I will continue to use it to bookmark websites that I think will be helpful as a future teacher!

Silvia Tolisano was born in Germany, raised in Argentina and is now currently living in the United States. To date she holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish with a Minor in International Studies and a Masters in Education with an emphasis in Instructional Technology. Her areas of interest include technology in the classroom, digital storytelling, multicultural and global education. Silvia  is available for national and international conference presentations, consultations, and teacher training sessions. Where she is able to work with you and present in English, Spanish and German! As I was browsing through her blog I came across her Accomplishment page; where her Education and Teaching Certifications, Published Articles, and Recognitions are listed.

There are many things to explore and see on Silvia’s blog along with her philosophy, a page with a variety of posts from her professional blog as well as her resume.

Check it out!

Here is the interview:

1)   What are some of your favorite tools/programs that you have used in your classroom from the past/present with your students? Why are they your favorites?

 I expose my students to a wide variety of tools. I have used blogs, wikis, iMovie, garage band and Skype among others with my students. Currently I am very involved in experimenting with the use of Skype in the classroom. I am interested in finding out how Skype can be used to increase motivation and engagement for students and at the same time address 21st century skills (communicating, collaborating, connecting) as well as literacies (media, network, information, global). Take a look at this blog post to learn more about my observations of using Skype to transform teaching and learning.

2)   Have you ever experienced any challenges when implementing technology into your classroom?

Part of using technology is understanding that there will be a certain amount of frustration involved. That is just part of the deal With that being said, YES, the challenge is part of the fun.  They have ranged from computers not working properly, to the internet being down just when students are walking in, teachers being unwilling to incorporate “THE COMPUTER”, a web based tool suddenly being unavailable or taken down to time zone issues when connecting with other countries.

3)   Do you believe that this generation of “techno students” who are constantly working online, find it difficult to converse with others face to face, or interact with their peers? Why or why not?

I don’t think so. The online tools that we have available are giving everybody MORE opportunities to connect and communicate than before. My network of peers is literally from all over the world. Something that would have never been possible for me without these tools! My students are growing up knowing that their friends as well as subject area experts are NOT limited to their zip code.

4)   What do you think/feel is the greatest challenge facing students today?

So many challenges….Students (any learner for that matter) has to learn to stay focused while being able to multitask at the same time. There is also the challenge to know how to learn, unlearn and relearn at a faster and faster rate as tools and platforms are changing, evolving and being created. As information is growing at exponential rates all of us face the challenge to be able to filter through it.

5)   Do you have any tips or advice for future teachers that want to use technology in their classrooms?

Don’t be afraid to experiment with technology. We are all pioneers when it comes to using so many of these tools. Don’t be afraid to be a leader at your new school when it comes to technology. You might have to be the one to inspire and show (by example) “veteran teachers” new ways to engage, motivate and teach kids.

If you have any other comments/ advice about your blog or anything else that has to do with technology please feel free to tell me about it, as I am interested as well as my peers and classmates will be interested to read about it on my ecmp 455 blog!

I believe the most important thing to remember when using technology in the classroom is that it is NOT about the tools, but about the skills. Take a look at the following blog post and share with your classmates.

Silvia has created several posters for different tools with the skills that are addressed when using them, and you can find them on the above blog link. Take a look-they are quite neat!

___________________________________________________________________________________________

After doing this interview, and reading through the answers to my questions I am a little bit less frightened to become a teacher and have to implement technology into the classroom, knowing that everyone has something to offer to others when it comes to teaching, as there is such a wide range of knowledge in today’s world when it comes to technology! I have enjoyed this experience, and will continue to check back to Silvia’s blog! As I know I will read and learn many new things!

As I explored the website: Welcome to Primary Access I learned  that Primary Access is a suite of free online tools that allows students and teachers to use primary source documents to complete meaningful and compelling learning activities with digital movies, storyboards, rebus stories and other online tools.

As I explored the website a little further I found out there are a few different programs, they are:

Primary Access Moviemaker –>With the movie maker it allows you to take text, audio and images and put it all together to make personal narratives and digital stories.

Primary Access Storyboard –>With the Story Board it allows you to create comic strips/slideshows with images, thought bubbles, props and actors. You don’t have to install any software and the things you make are easy to publish and share them with others.

Primary Access Rebus –> With Rebus is when you can create a written story that uses pictures with text. It encourages students to explore primary sources and using them to create a story.

Primary Access Teacher Tools–>With the teacher tools it was designed to help in teaching content knowledge, critical thinking and learning storytelling skills. Teachers can set up and manage class activities using the teacher tools

I thought this was a neat tool, and would be interesting to put more thought and research into, looking at the programs and creating projects from the programs to see how handy and easy it would be for the students.