Digital Badge #C

While reading chapters five and seven in Transforming Learning with New Technologies, I decided I liked some of the concepts in chapter seven best. To begin with, my favorite concept in this chapter is the section on page 164, Problem-Solving and Inquiry-Learning software. This section includes information on Composing and Calculating Software, Building, Inventing, and Creating Software, and Visual-Thinking and Concept-Mapping Software. I love the idea of the children being able to use different technologies to create things, organize their ideas online, and being able to use digital writing. The book discusses how children can use the computer to create things they want to build or invent digitally. I remember being in middle school and my teacher introduced me to Adobe and the multitude of programs that they make. I fell in love with PhotoShop and DreamWeaver. High school helped me become even more advanced in these programs. I have received all my Adobe Certifications, and still use the programs to this day to create different things. I used to love being able to work in these programs because it lets you slip away into your own world, and you can create anything and everything you can imagine. I think kids using these in the classroom can help them express themselves, and reach out to other students. I created a Tackk to help portray my thinking on this topic, and include some references that teachers could use in their classrooms., I also included a video on how to teach kids programming.

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Another concept I enjoyed in this chapter, is the idea of using games in the classroom. There are so many sites that include educational games to help students learn and understand things better. I think games are a great idea in the classroom, and can provide a very great outlet for learning. I recently came across a website called Brainpop.com, and was I amazed! This site is an educational site that includes pages for each topic, the topics include Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts and Music, Health, and Engineering & Tech. When the topic is chosen, you can then choose a subtopic that are related to the original topics. They are like their own individual lessons that include a movie, quiz, Make-A-Map, FYI, and activities. There is also an option for teachers to teach this topic, and it provides lesson ideas and to create a quiz. I think sites like this one, are great ideas in the classroom, because it can help the teacher plan out activities to keep the children engaged in their learning.

Lastly, I liked how the book gave readers a section on Online Software Selection Resources for Teachers. Not everybody knows what site to use, and how to use it, or what site is appropriate for students. The book includes information on Edudemic Directory, Entertainment Software RatingBoard, EvaluTech, and StopBadware.org. I like that the book included this information because it helps teachers distinguish between good and bad sites to use in their classroom. The section I liked most, is the Entertainment Software Rating Board, because this is an evaluation group that analyzes new software every year and determines the age group it is appropriate for and it rates the sites for the teachers. I think that this is a great resource for teachers, because although the site may seem good for the grade you teach, it may be too advanced or below level for your students. This can help us educators know what is appropriate for our students.

References:


Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Matte, C. (2016, January 22). Make Your Own Video Games and Software. Retrieved from aboutparenting: http://familyinternet.about.com/od/resources/tp/programmingforkids.htm

Thomas, C. (2016, February 21). Problem-Solving and . Retrieved from Tackk: https://tackk.com/ene6zb

Briccetti, D. (2009, July 13). Teaching Programming to Kids Overview. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swh9VI8LlCQ 

Digital Badge #B

Chapter 2 offered many new concepts that all contribute a ton of information about understanding educational technology, and the issues that are brought up when using technology in the classroom.
A concept in this chapter that I enjoyed researching, was the idea of conducting surveys and having high school students fill them out. This gives us the opportunity to know how the student feels and their prospective on things in the classroom. Project Tomorrow conducted a survey among many participants, and they were questioning how many teachers are using technology to do their lesson plans and use this to engage the students. The survey results concluded that "technology is a powerful way to motivate and engage students" (Maloy, 2013). The surveys that are being conducted are trying to determine the level of boredom these kids are reaching, they are determining that classes with just paper, pencil, and reading from a book detaches them from school and they are disengaged. Another survey by Indiana University is actually an ongoing survey of High School Student Engagement, and their results are showing a consistent pattern of students losing interest in school. I used Piktochart to convey the results of their survey.




Technology can be used to enhance teaching in many ways, Chapter 2 gives us many examples as to how we can use this to help our students. Two biggest points are Instructional practices and Administrative activities. Instructional activities specifically are when the teacher is working with students directly, and helping them hands on. Some ways the book encourages teachers to do this includes using the web for class discussions, using presentations and simulations, and having students use handheld devices. I agree with all of these methods, I believe with the right restrictions on something's we can keep control of what they're doing on the devices, and it can promote their learning. I wonder how other teachers feel about this, I believe it could make one feel uncomfortable if we aren't able to control what the students are doing with the devices. I do think it is possible to have them use these devices in a productive way, the children want freedom in their learning and I think its best for them to find themselves while recognizing what type of learning is best for them. I also agree strongly with the Administrative practices, the book describes these as the "behind the scenes tasks". This is extremely important in my eyes, because I think its just as important for the teachers to be practicing technology with their grading, attendance, and lesson planning. This helps keep the teachers up to date with the tech world.

I found this video about teachers using LearnersCloud to help teach in their classes, I found this very interesting because I have never heard of the site before. After doing some research on it and the site seems like it would be very beneficial to teachers and their lesson plans.

There are many barriers brought up in this chapter that could hinder the use of technology but one really stuck out to me, and that was Digital Disconnect. Digital Disconnect if basically the way students see themselves compared to the way they see teachers. Students see themselves as tech-savvy, up to date, tech users while they see the teachers as disconnected, and know very little about technology. The book gives some ideas about how to break this disconnection, and my favorite is the idea of using the internet as a virtual textbook and a study group. I love the idea of using an online library, there is so much information available to you in one place rather than checking out a ton of books to study. Study groups are also an awesome idea that I have actually never thought about before, but now that I am thinking, they could be super helpful. Students that are having trouble at home with something going on in the class can go online and ask the class a question and the teacher could even join in and help as well. This represents and promotes teamwork and ways to work together to come up with a solution.



Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

http://piktochart.com/resources/tutorials-create-piktochart-infographic/

LearnersCloud (2013, April 30). Teacher Case Study: Using Video Tutorials in Class. Retrieved February 6, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVg4fTLX42k