Week 5 CEDO 515

This past week we looked at professional development, evaluating software, and keeping up to-to-date on technology trends. I really found the evaluating software piece to be helpful. My district does not use anything specific to evaluate software and has no procedure for ordering software. I am using my new found knowledge to help the IT staff implement some of this into our district. I evaluated some software that I would like to purchase for my 1-3rd graders for next year to enhance my curriculum. Hopefully, since I did it in such a professional manner (using the eval tool, formally requesting, etc.) it will be looked at and ordered.

I am always looking for professional development opportunities. Unfortunately, as the book said, it's hard to find good technology PD. I will continue to try to find ways to enhance my knowledge of technology and technology trends to help me continue to become an even better Technology Enrichment teacher.

In Time Video Reflection

The video I watched, Habitats, was a third grade lesson where students created slide shows about a specific habitat. I really like this lesson and I think it is something I can incorporate into my third grade curriculum. The students not only learn about the habitat, but also create a new animal or plant that could survive in that environment (synthesizing information). This project is great in that it moves from basic knowledge up through Bloom's to synthesis. I also like how this project requires group collaboration, which I think my students do not get enough of. This project also forces me to let go and let the students be creative and independent which is really important.

I have never seen this website and it is definitely something I will be able to use in my classroom.

Week 3

This week we are exploring spreadsheets, evaluation software, lesson plan websites, as well reading about supporting creativity and problem solving in our students through technology enhanced activities. I really like the NetTrekker website and will use this to find new lesson plans that I can tweak to fit my needs. I've already had fun looking at a few spreadsheet activities that I can use with my fourth and fifth graders. My district has no set way to buy software, so I am using the evaluation forms to help nudge them in the right direction. Hopefully the new IT Director will put in a specific procedure for purchasing software. This week was much less stressful for me because I am very familiar with spreadsheets and I always look around on the Web to find lesson plans. I love this website for lesson plans (it was also mentioned in our text).

Awesome Website to Share

Here's a website I wanted to share with everyone: http://www.wordle.net

It's really fun and I think you could incorporate this into any subject area.

515 Week 2

This week we are exploring online, free word processors. I use word processing every single day in my teaching. (at right is one of students word processing today, in fact) I never realized there were so many available. I took time to use the three we were linked to and liked using all of them. I can see this as a valuable classroom tool. I particularly like Zoho Writer.

Along with exploring other word processors, we got to use other search engines this week. My eyes are open! I always use Google and now know that I’ve been missing a portion of the Web! I think that knowing this will help me teach students how to search better and more efficiently.

This week made me think a lot about collaboration and having students work together. I would really like to build a new project for later this year that incorporations collaboration using an online word processing program. This would be a new and interesting experience for my fifth graders.

515 Week One Reflection

This week I learned about so many Web 2.0 tools that I never knew existed. I have always use the software that is available on the computers as school, regardless of platform. One of the biggest concerns our district has every year is the cost of software. Why are we even discussing this when there are so many free options available???! I am a technology teacher and other teachers are constantly asking me about technology. I plan to share a few of these sites with the teachers in my building so that they can use them in class. So much time is spent teaching the kids how to use the software we have, and a lot of the online tools are much simpler and streamlined. This would cut down on the time needed to teach the software and allow for more content learning.

I found it interesting, in the text, how it talks about learning with technology being more authentic and resembling how students learn outside of the classroom. This is so true. We don't sit our kids down at home and lecture to them about something they need to learn and then have them write about it. They learn from exploring and doing and technology aided learning resembles this much more than what I see in a "typical" classroom in my district that does not incorporate technology.

Blog #4

Before taking this course I never really thought about the inside parts of the computer or disaster recovery on a business level. I really enjoyed learning about the parts of the computer and have wanted to do so for years. My husband is an IT director for Herzing University, which deals mainly in computer fields, and he’s going to bring me home a computer that has been taken apart so I can put it back together again. This is the first step before he will allow me to build my own computer. I also never thought about how much really goes into disaster recovery for a large scale business like a school district. I have had data recovered at school, and trusted in the IT staffs ability to do this, without every questioning how they do it. I am really interested to know more about how they keep our data backed up and secure. I learned so much that I can use in the future. I feel confident in helping others pick virus protection software and explaining to them how to keep their data save and secure. I feel comfortable explaining how a computer works to others. I now have the foundation to build upon if I ever did move into more of an IT role at school rather than a teaching role.