The first week of EDOL 533 was packed full of new information for me. To be honest, at this point I am feeling a little bit overwhelmed at the sheer volume of material that it looks like I am going to be expected to absorb and comprehend in just a few weeks time. What I have learned foremost is how much there is that I don't know. I am not in school district that has the most up to date technology and I am surprised at all the new things that are being used in the classroom these days that I have just not been exposed to. I guess I feel a little bit disappointed in myself to realize that I haven't taken the initiative and tried to find out some of this information on my own. Hopefully, after taking this course, I will gain some confidence in my abilities to seek out and learn about newer technological resources that can be used in teaching these days.
The steps that I want to take now is to be a leader in terms of bringing new technology into our school district. I would like to be a resource for teachers who are looking for new and innovative ways to engage their students in technology based learning. The challenges that I have in this area are not really knowing where to begin and how to get plugged into the right system that will keep me in the know. I will immediately begin to come up with ways to overcome these challenges by talking to administration and other teachers to see if there are any trainings I could attend or newsletters I could subscribe to that will update me on a regular basis.
I enjoyed learning about each of the technology explorations titles. My favorite was learning about wikis. I believe that it is a great way for not only teachers, but students as well, to collaborate, learn and grow together. I can envision using this extensively in my classroom one day. I love the idea of teachers sharing information in order to figure out what works and doesn't work with students. I also love the thought of the students working together as a team and developing a project, helping each other and offering feedback. I believe that's how everyone learns best. The E-books are great and that is something that I would like to see more of in my school. It really provides a way of keeping students engaged in a story and meets them where they are in terms of being connected to technology. I like the idea of podcasts for more advanced students or college students, but do not see that the students I work with would benefit too much from that concept.
All in all, it was a great first week of class. Like I said, it's a little intimidating for someone like me, who isn't exactly the most technologically literate person, but I feel like I'm going to learn quite a bit in the next coming weeks.
EDOL 533
Technology Exploration Assignment Form
Student Name: Nancy Lucas Date: 01/17/15
Technology Exploration Resource
Explored: 1. WIKI
1.
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
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I literally had no idea what a
“wiki” was, other than being familiar with Wikipedia, of course. The link to the pbworks websites only
confused me, so I had to just go to google and do a search for on the term
wiki. After finding some websites that
explained the fundamentals of the concept, I learned what they are, which is
a way for groups to collaborate on a project.
Wiki is like Wikipedia in that any of the users can log on and edit
the content. I really didn’t know that
this type of resource was out there so I believe I learned about a very
valuable tool that can be used in the classroom.
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2.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
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The first thing that comes to
mind when I think about using this in a classroom setting, it being able to
stay connected with your students about projects and assignments. It could be used to share presentations
with them, a way to post assignments and offer them a method to participate
in some peer review or editing of their classmates work. It also seems like it would be a great way
to get the students to work together on a project. Another way I would use
this a teacher would be to collaborate with other educators and get ideas and
share ideas for lesson plans.
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3.
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike;
Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.
Why or Why not?
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From what I was able to glean
from the information I read, most wiki sites are free and very easy to
use. I would recommend this resource
to a teacher because I believe it would be very user-friendly for both the teacher
and the students. Also, most students
these days are more likely to stay active and engaged in the lesson if it
involves them actively using technology.
I like the idea of the students being able to collaborate on something
and offer each other peer reviews. I
think that students will produce better results if they feel that they are a
part of something as opposed to just sitting there, listening to lectures and
trying to stay awake.
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EDOL 533
Technology Exploration Assignment Form
Student Name: Nancy Lucas Date: 01/17/15
Technology Exploration Resource
Explored: 2. E-books
1.
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
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I really liked the tumblebooks
website and I was able to access some of their materials on the Gwinnett
Public Library website. At our school, we have specific computer programs that
read animated stories to our slower readers, but I had not seen anything like
the tumblebooks website. I learned
from this that there is more out there that I need to be seeking out. I’m not sure if our school would pay for
the fee to access it, but I believe their prices were very reasonable,
considering that there was no limit to how many computers could access it.
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2.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
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This resource could be used
very effectively in the classroom for beginning or younger readers, or even
for older readers who have difficulty with reading. This technology meets the students where they
are these days, connected. It’s hard
to get students, especially those with a reading disability, to sit down with
a book and actually read. They get
discouraged and distracted easily.
This would be a great way for them to learn while they are having fun.
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3.
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike;
Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.
Why or Why not?
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Yes, I would recommend this to
students and I plan on asking our school if we could pay the subscription fee
and allow our special education students to use this website. I really like it and feel it is very easy
to use. I think the students will
enjoy it as well. Besides books, there were many games and other activities
for them.
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EDOL 533
Technology Exploration Assignment Form
Student Name: Nancy Lucas Date: 01/17/15
Technology Exploration Resource
Explored: 3. Podcasts
1.
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
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I learned that podcasts is a
way to distribute audio or video via the internet and that it can be used in
the classroom as a way of giving information, presenting ideas and to stimulate
discussion and learning. I knew this
technology was out there but I did not that it was being used in such a
sophisticated manner or how prevalent it was.
Our school is not the most up to date when it comes to technology and
it really surprises me how much is out there that we could be doing if we had
more resources and information. I wasn’t able to access the first website,
but did some looking around on my own for more information about how podcasts
could be used in the classroom. I found that it is being more widely used
that I would have thought and that it can engage and challenge students to be
more creative.
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2.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
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I believe if I were using this
resource, I would primarily use it with our IEP students to give them the
opportunity to watch/listen to a lesson multiple times. If they had trouble keeping up with the
lesson in class or got distracted, they could go back to it later and watch
it on their personal device, going over the information as many times as they
needed to. It would also be a great
way of helping them review for tests.
Another great use of this technology would be for the students who are
homebound. For others, it would be a
way for them to access information anywhere/anytime and to look back through
archive lessons if they needed clarification on a certain subject.
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3.
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike;
Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.
Why or Why not?
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I think I would recommend it
teachers that had the time and resources to be able to do this, but I’m not
sure many of the teachers that I would with would be able to use this
technology. There is such a shortage
of time for them now as every year, the paperwork needed for IEP students
grows. Many have to spend long hours
into the evening filling out papers, planning for meetings, updating their
progress monitoring, etc. I just
don’t see that they would find this particular technology practical. We are in a rural, poorer county and
several students do not have the technology at home to even take advantage of
this. If I were to recommend this to a
teacher, it would probably be someone who is teaching a technology class or
someone teaching at the college level.
I believe it would be most useful to more advanced students.
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