Personal Technology Reflection

As the first part of my journey comes to an end in CEP 810 I have exceed my own abitlities, met my goals and learned a great deal of very useful inforamtion.  This course has opened my eyes to the vast ammount of resources that are available for educators in technology.  I had no idea how much there actually was out there. The activities that we completed have given me a good base to hopefully use them in the near  future to make teaching my students the best it can be.
To be an effective teacher when integrating technology is it important to look at all of your learners.  There are visual , kinethetic, and auditory learners  No matter what grade or age that you are teaching.  You need to know how your students learn best and provide those avenues for them.  Using technology makes that task easier.  For example, it you teach a lesson using a SMART Board, you can reach all learners if you create the right type of lessons.  What I have found in my experience as an educator is that a large majority of kids are visual learner so using the SMART Board is perfect for that!
The assignment that was most useful for me was the SIG plan.  I was able to take something that I was interested in and could use in my classroom and grow it.  I was able to push myself outside of my comfort zone and build my confidence as an educator in technology.  By exploring the SMART Board I have opened a whole new door for learning in my classroom.  Not only are the kids excited because I am reaching them in a different way but I am excited. That shines through and is the best motivating factor of all.
The one new goal that I have is to share the new information about technology that I have learned with my peers and co-workers.  I know that I didn't know about a lot about the resource that are out there for teacher to take advantag of and I want make sure that others are aware of some of the awesome technology resources that there are.  I plan to share some of the technologies that I found most useful with my peers and co-workers.  Since this class has given me more confidence I know that after the courses are complete I will be much more able to keep up with the ever changing technologies.  I was scared. I don't feel scared any more.  Maybe a little apprehensive, but I now know what I am now capable of.  There are always tutorials that can help with any road block you may come to! 

RSS Reader

Checking my RRS feed was one assignment that I struggled with.  I basically only did it because I had to.  I found it very hard to navigate.  I just couldn't get into it.  The whole idea seems awesome, having all that information in once place sounds like a great idea and I'm sure that the more I use it the easier and more useful I will find it.
What I found from checking the posting from day to day was that on some days there was good information and on others there really wasn't anything I was interested in.  On one of the feeds that I was following they talked about effective classroom rewards, which I was very interested  in.  I always like to read or hear about what other teacher are doing in their classrooms.  It gives me ideas that I can use in my own room.  It is like having a light bulb go off in your head and you tell yourself, "Why didn't I think of that!"  Collaboration with other educator it a crucial part in being a truly effective teacher.  Especially at the elementary level where teacher are responsible for all curricular areas.  Its hard to be an expert at everything.  Another feed that I was following shared ideas about writing.  Using environmental print in writing notebooks.  I always have kids that tell me they don't know what to write about and I think that using print that they know is a great way  to spark ideas.
As I have worked through this assignment I can see how it would be a valuable tool for me as an educator.  I would like to try and continue to follow my feeds and get use to looking for information in this way.  As with anything new, it takes time to adjust.  I am adjusting and will continue to do so.

Social Networking

There are so many social networking sites available, it is overwhelming to me to try and keep track of them all.  I can see the advantages of using the sites but it is hard to adjust my life around all of this online networking.  What was most interesting to me was the fact that people are posting interesting, useful ideas and tool on these social networking sites.   It has been very interesting to see what other people have to say on the different sites, such as Twitter and MACUL.  I didn’t realize that social networking could contain valuable information.  Whenever I use to think of Twitter it always would lead me to believe that some famous person was posting useless information about what they are doing,shows how much I knew.  I never thought I would be a part of it.  I can see the value in social networking but I think that it is something that I will have to get use to.

In using it in the classroom I can also see how it can be a valuable tool.  For the students to be able to  basically have an on-line conversations  about the topics they are studying about it awesome.  It can really enhance their learning when it is used correctly.  I can also see how blogging would help the more shy students, maybe they don’t like to talk in front of people, but feel comfortable typing.  They now have a voice!  I still have a long way to go with social networking, but I am working on it!

Creative Commons

http://bit.ly/hfo5IX

The link posted above will take you to a picture that I uploaded to Picasa and includes the Creative Commons license.

Original Image:500 × 359 - Star fish on the Suratkal beach 5 ...flickr.com

By: Abhinaba Busa

I am always looking for images to use in the materials that I create.  Whether it be for a worksheet that I am creating or a PowerPoint presentation to use for teaching.  The kids also use images for projects that they are doing.  I chose this image because my students are currently working on a project about animal adaptations.  One group I focusing on regeneration and this photo is something that they could use.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/e44m214o922/

The link posted above will take you to a picture that I uploaded to Flickr and includes the Creative Commons license.

Tutorials

The first tutorial that I chose to watch was the Introduction.  I chose the introduction because I am not very computer literate and it had a focus on malware.  Since I didn’t know what malware was I thought that it would be a good place to start.  Simply put, malware is software meant to break your computer. Yikes!!! I definitely want to learn more about that.  I thought that it was interesting to learn the different ways that your computer will react when it isn’t kept safe!  I always thought I just didn’t know how to use my computer correctly, but I guess that kind of is true!

The second tutorial that I chose to watch was Clean Up & Speed Up your PC.  Since I now know why my computer is running so slow I thought that I should know learn how to clean it up.  I was very surprised to see all of the free ways that you can clean up your own computer and it seems pretty easy!  

The third tutorial that I chose was Using Firewalls.  There are so many ways that you need and should protect your computer.  All of the terms are very confusing to me.  I thought that it was interesting that there were 2 types of firewalls, hardware and software.  At least I am a little clearer on how I need to protect my computer and what all of this terminology means.

GTD

I am definitely the person that organizes things with pencil and paper, but as I started through this process I thought about what some of my other options could be.   A computer and cell phone first came to my mind but I soon realized that neither would work for me for various reasons. I like to make lists of things that I need and want to get done but I need to change how that would look because it doesn’t work very well.

I really like the idea of prioritizing what has to get done that way I don’t feel like my list never gets done.  In changing the way I made my lists I got the tasks done that were most important for now and it gave me a sense of accomplishment and pride.  I really got something done!!  As I was getting things done I almost felt, invigorated, because there was a method to the madness, and I was actually going to get something done and be able to see it.  I also implemented an inbox for all notes, money, ect. that the students turn in everyday.  I have been going through that inbox daily, after attendance and making a decision, in less than 2 minutes.  Giving myself a time limit to decide what, if anything, I am going to do with the task has really helped me to do things that normally I would have put off. 

I think that this process will help me over time to be better organized and get thing done in a more timely fashion.  But with anything new it takes time to get adjusted and feel comfortable with something I am always open to trying new things and implementing them when they are useful.  I would like to try and use this system in hopes that I can perfect it for me!

blog vs. website

In my opinion there seems to be a few major differences between a blog and a website.  First of all, a blog seems like an ever changing place were anyone (that you allow) can add their opinion.  Now on a website, it seems more permanent, meaning people that are viewing the site cannot change it.  Secondly, as far as I know, the blog was set up at no cost to me.  I don't think that setting up a website is free.  Lastly, setting up the blog was relatively easy.  From what I have heard setting up a website isn't so simple.  That is what I think the difference is between a blog and a website.