Course Reflection

What have you learned from this online class? When I first started this class I thought I knew all I needed to know about technology to be able to effectively teach. I didn’t understand why I had to take this class. Now that the semester is coming to a close I completely understand why we are required to take this class. I learned so much! Until this course I never even knew that so much technology existed to help not only teachers but the students as well. I discovered that there are websites to assist teachers in creating rubrics and tests. I learned that my computer had the technology to help students with physical disabilities. With all of the advances in technology and the Internet the possibilities are endless for both teachers and students.

What were your weak and strong points? Explain. A definite strong point for me was following directions and getting assignments turned in on time. The professor did an excellent job of providing step by step on how to complete each project. A weak point for me was the blog. I was forever forgetting to write my blog to go along with my projects I would turn it. It would be 2 or 3 weeks before I would realize that I needed to get caught up on my blog and comments. I would get caught up and then the cycle would begin again.

How did you like the interaction between you and your peers and your instructor? Explain in detail. I loved the interaction between me and my instructor and my peers. My instructor and TA were really good at answering any questions I had and were very understanding. Our first assignment was a group assignment. My group was made up of some girls who lived close to me so we were able to meet in person and form a relationship. That really helped. It’s hard forming good working relationships with classmates when you are taking all online classes and everyone lives much farther away than you. One particular person in our class I am in contact with all the time. We help each other when we do not understand something or if we maybe missed a meeting.

Reflect on the communication tools used in this class. From your experience explain the advantages and disadvantages of the communication tool you used most. In this course we communicated through blackboard email, blackboard IM, Google and our chat class. I probably communicated the most through email. I love email. It allows us to be able to quickly respond to a person or multiple people and send things without having to always pick up a phone. One drawback however is that things do not always send and go through. I emailed Bessie part of an assignment that I forgot when I submitted it through blackboard. I thought she received the email and I realized a week later that she did not receive the email or attachment. With any communication devices there are going to be advantages as well as disadvantages.

Discuss your experiences with the blogfolio. What aspects of the blogfolio do you like most or least? Explain in detail. Until this class I had never done a blog before. I love that you can post your thoughts as well as upload your assignments for others to see and it is all in one spot. All my classmates had to do was click on my links and presto the assignment would pop up. The aspect I liked least was commenting on every post for every group member. I do not mind commenting on others blog posts but maybe only just 2 people and not 4.

Assistive Technology

This assignment found us creating a powerpoint showcasing our computers universal access capabilities. We were given different student scenarios and with our computers had to modify a website to meet their needs. I changed the color contrast on my computer screen to allow a low vision student better visibility. I also magnified the website to allow the student better visibility as well. I learned that you can set sounds for certain keys to alert students when that key is pushed. We also had to use pictures, words and sound to create several slides. Our words had to start with the same letter. I chose boy, ball, bike and baby. These are all words that emphasize the letter b and the sound it makes. I recorded myself saying each word and embedding it into my powerpoint. This can be a great tool to help students with a vision disability. They might not always be able to hear the words but they can associate through sound. Providing pictures as well as the word works well with students who might struggle with hearing but not vision. Associating a word with a picture is a great way to help students learn words.

Until this assignment I had no idea that all this technology was available on my computer for universal access. I currently have a child in my class who has special needs. He can see and hear extremely well but he does struggle with reading. I think showing him words, pictures of those words and letting him hear how those words sound could greatly benefit his reading. In fact I think this could greatly benefit any struggling reader. I also have a child in my class who has extreme difficulty seeing the board. We are pretty sure she needs glasses. Using the zoom feature would be a great way to increase her visibility in seeing the smart board. These features provide some great assistive technology for those who need it. If you would like to see how these features can actually work click on the link below to view my powerpoint on assistive technology.

AssistiveTechLauraRoland

Turnitin Assignment

I had my first encounter with turnitin over six years ago when I was working on my first degree. I remember thinking how amazing it was that there was technology that could determine plagiarism and precisely how much was plagiarized. With this particular assignment we were asked to create several word documents and submit them to turnitin. The first word document was to be entirely copied and pasted from various websites. When I submitted the assignment 96 percent was considered plagiarized. The next part of the assignment was to summarize the information we had previously copied and pasted into our own words. Once that was complete I then submitted this document to turnitin. This time around I had less than 10 percent plagiarized. Less than 10 percent was acceptable when I submitted my assignment to turnitin. I saved the plagiarism report and submitted it to my professor. I remember a report I wrote several years ago. The professor asked that we put the name of the university on the front of our report. According to turnitin The University of Alabama was considered plagiarized and it was something I had to include it on the title page. As in my case, Some plagiarism with occur but the less you have the better.

My Turnitin Assignment

Week 11

Current Issues Affecting the Acquisition and Use of Technology in Special Education and Applications of Assistive, Instructional and Productivity Technologies Commonly Used by Students With Disabilities and Thier Teachers

Special education technology has been apart of our educational system for over a 100 years and while over the years many advancements have been made there are today many issues and problems that affect technology in special education. Teachers, administrators and special education technology specialists must be well versed in federal and state laws, policies and procedures. There are a lot of laws and policies regarding technology and special education and what they can and can not do. Another issue faced is the inclusion of special education students in a regular classroom. These students are still expected to learn the same material as everyone else but their access to the general education curriculum is limited. More assistive technology is needed to help inclusion students achieve success. In addition, many teachers are graduating college with little to no experience using technology. Teachers need to be using technology in ways that will enhance their own productivity, increase the effectiveness of instruction and the success of all students, and help them in acquiring and using assistive technology for students who need performance support.

Technology can be a wonderful support in the classroom especially for those with special education needs. One such technology that can be useful to a teacher as well as a student is assistive technology. The book defines assistive technolgy as, “any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability. Assistive technology seeks solutions  that are either no technology, low technology or high technology. An example of a no technology solution would be teaching a student to use his or her body in a different manner to minimize the impact of an impairment. These solutions are available in any environment at any given time. Low technology solutions are considered nonelectrical. An example of a low technology solution would be highlighting markers. They do not require the use of electricity and are inexpensive to acquire but can still greatly enhance a student’s learning. High technology solutions are complex electrical or hydraulic systems. An example is a powered wheel chair. These solutions are usually very costly and have the largest amount of restrictions. Another technology that can be of great assistance to a classroom is instructional technology. It can be extremely difficult for a special education student who is required to learn the curriculum but doesn’t have the right instructional technology to help him or her achieve success. Many students, because of disabilities struggle with with reading. To help the teachers in remediating these students there are software programs available. One great resource for these teachers and their students is interactive storybooks. There are also numerous apps that are great to assist struggling readers. It is important that teachers understand their students, their needs and the many resources that are available through technology to provided assistance. Through understanding teachers as well as students can be successful in the classroom.

Key Strategies for Integrating Technology into Music and Art Curricula

Whether we like it or not we live in an age where technology and computer use is prevalent. Many art teachers have not wanted to use computers or instructional technology in art programs. Over the years however technology has changed our definition art as well as music. The camera has allowed photographs to become visual art and adding electricity to a guitar changed what music once was.  It is not hard to integrate technology into music and the arts.

There are many strategies for incorporating technology into music education. The first would be to purchase an electronic keyboard. Another would be support for music composition and production. The three essential tools for music composition are sequencers, notation and vocal processing software. These tools can contribute substantially to teaching production and performance. Next support is music performance. There are programs available that allow music to be rearranged and simplified. Some programs also allow teachers to create theory lessons, quizzes and other handouts that combine notation with text and other graphics. Finally there is the support for teaching music history. With easy access to the internet and sites that provide background information on composers and musical periods teachers can give instruction on music history with great ease.

There also many technology resources that support a variety of classroom strategies for integrating technology into an arts program. Some strategies include assessing art examples for classroom use, using teaching examples and materials, producing and manipulating digitized images, supporting graphic design and 3-D modeling, and virtual field trips to art museums. We recently read the Magical Garden of Claude Monet. In the story the children were exposed to Monet’s garden. We then looked up pictures of his artwork many of which he painted of his wonderful garden. The use of technology allowed our students to see Monet’s actual artwork and how talented he was. the students then took his painting of the the japanese bridge and recreated it themselves. Even though technology is not considered “humanistic” by many art teachers it can still be a valuable asset to any art teacher’s classroom.

Web Based Curriculum

Chapter 8 found us looking at web based lessons, projects and how to create websites. With the internet and all of its advances educators can now go online and find many sources for web-based lessons and projects. The book gives some really great sources for web based learning. National Geographic Education has some great lesson plans, tools and activites for all grades, Teaching with Historic Places provides over 130 lesson plans covering historic places all across the United States and there are many more. In our classroom, we visited a site that allowed our students to take a virtual tour of Buckingham Palace. It was a place that we had researched for an informative writing piece and the kids were so fascinated they wanted to see it. Obviously England is a long, expensive way for a field trip. So the next best thing was a virtual field trip. It was just like we were there taking a tour of the rooms open to the public.

With all of the positives of web based learning there is also a drawback. It can be hard finding the right lesson for your class. As a teacher you don’t want to give your students a lesson that will not be beneficial for them. It can also be very time consuming searching for the right lesson. With so many resources like National Geographic creating online lessons for teachers to explore it is getting easier to weed out the junk and find an appropriate lesson for your class.

My Class Site

The latter half of chapter 8 focused on web sites, how to create them and the requirements and recommendations for developing a website. In developing a website you should limit the sharing of personal information. Most educational websites only include first names and email addresses. If you are an educator and are creating a website you really need to think about how much personal information you are willing to put on the website. Another recommendation the book gave was to limit large graphics and photos. This can really slow down loading time. If someone is trying to view a site or page they probably don’t want to spend a long time waiting for it to load. Easy navigation is also key. People should be able to find information on a website quickly and easily. It is not wise to spend time creating many pages in one site. Creating a website is really simple these days. Many website development companies have templates that make it easy to design a website. For my assignment this week I created a website using google sites. Google sites had many templates to choose from and provided an easy way for me to create a class site. My criteria was that I had a home page, biography/information, class information and additional resources. I gave some general information about me as well as provided an email and school phone number that I can be reached at. I gave the parents insight into what we will be studying as well as a list of class materials needed and home work due. I also posted some additional resources for parents and their children to use at home. Not every home has access to a computer and the internet but for those that do this is a quick and easy way to keep up with our second grade classroom.

Web Tools Assignment

We have been studying internet tools and resources that teachers can use to help them develop lessons, activities and lesson plans for the classroom. We were given three resources Rubistar, Easy Test Maker, and Trackstar and had to create a rubric, a quiz and bookmarks for a subject we teach. I help teach reading to my second grade class almost daily so I created my assignments based on my second grade readers.

Online Rubric

For this part of our assignment we were to create a rubric. Daily my students complete a thinking map based on what we are reading. They then take the information they gave me in their thinking maps and compose a paragraph. We call this their routine writing. At the end of the week all of their thinking maps and routine writings are submitted for a reading grade. We use a rubric when grading the maps and writing. Using a tool like Rubistar makes it so much easier to come up with your rubric. All you do is plug in some information and voila you have a rubric you can print off for grading your students work. Rubrics are also good when attempting to grade a presentation or when you are assessing a child’s understanding of a story when they are retelling events. To visit rubistar for your self copy and paste the URL: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

Online Quiz

The next part of our assignment was to create a quiz online that could be printed out and given to our students. Continuing with my subject I went to read works and found a second grade passage on Rosa Parks. (If any of you have not ever visited Readworks you most definitely should!) I then went to easy test maker and created a quiz based on the passage. It amazed me how quickly I was able to create a quiz. I typed in all the questions and the program did all the work for me. Easy test maker allows you to create multiple choice, matching, true/false and short answer questions. As a teacher I can definitely see this site saving valuable time. Check it out at http://www.easytestmaker.com/default.aspx

Online Bookmarks

The final part of our assignment was to create online bookmarks. As a teacher this could be useful in a lot of ways. My students have been working on informative writing pieces. They are divided into their reading groups and each reading group is given a different topic to research. Trackstar allowed me to book mark websites for each group to look at all in one place. The students don’t have to spend large amounts of time weeding through bad websites and information. The teacher has already provided information, now it’s up to the students to search through that information. My mom who is a teacher was so impressed. Even she had never seen trackstar before. To try it for yourself visit http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/index.jsp

My Trackstar

Concept Mapping

 You would have thought that this assignment would have been an easy one especially given the fact that we had a whole program Inspiration 9.0 devoted to making concept maps and outlines. I was certainly wrong. Even though it took me a little more time than I was planning I found this to be a great assignment. Before taking this class I never knew that so many programs were available to me to use in the classroom.

For this particular assignment we had to create a concept map in Inspiration 9.0. Our maps had to have a title, subtopics, sub subtopics, hyperlinks, text notes, linking words, and images or shapes. The topic I chose was island travel. I looked up some of the worlds most frequently visited islands and based my sub topics and sub subtopics on those places. Some of the most visited islands are the Hawaiian islands, the Florida Keys and the Caribbean. Each subtopic and sub subtopic had to have different colors connecting them.

A concept map is a great idea for both teachers and students alike. Recently I was asked to create a thematic unit. I chose the weather and began completing a concept map to show how my sub topics and sub subtopics related to the weather. It was a great way to outline what we will be studying in our weather unit. Students could also use this when they are planning a research paper. It would make outlining their paper as well as connecting their information easier. It also gives them a visual outline of their topic of study.

Integrating The Internet into the Curriculum

 The book says, “communication is freedom-freedom for people to reach information they need in order to acquire knowledge that can empower them.”(Roblyer, Doering, Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching p. 205) The internet has allowed people and especially teachers to quickly access information that will empower them. Just the other day I used an internet feature, Google’s search engine and came up with 21 resources for a thematic unit on the weather. When you think about it, that’s amazing. One person finding everything she needs to create an effective classroom unit all with a little typing and a few clicks of a mouse. 

With the internet and all of it’s advances there is so much you can do. Email has made communicating with others super fast and less time consuming than writing a note or a phone conversation. People can visit sites for information and save the ones they like by bookmarking them. I am currently writing this on my blog, another advancement that has allowed me to discuss and others to see and comment on those discussions. With technology so advanced and computers and internet so prevalent it is hard to imagine a time with out it all. The internet provides some amazing tools for teachers to use. They can create blogs for parents and other teachers to follow, bookmark interesting or important websites for future use, send a quick email to another teacher or teachers and utilize search engines in research topics or lessons for the classroom. The internet is readily available, so take advantage of it! Be careful though, it too has its fair share of problems. Students have all too easy access to the wrong information with just a click of a button. Monitor when they get on the computer and what they are getting on. Teach them how to be responsible users of the internet and it can be a great tool not on for you but your students as well.

picture: google images

Multimedia and Hypermedia Design, Development and Integration

Multimedia is multiple media. It is a combination of media that can include still graphics, photographs, sound, motion video, animation and text items combined together. It’s purpose is to communicate information in different ways. Hypermedia is linked media or also called interactive interactive media. Hypermedia systems take information stored in various media and connects them. In today’s age most multimedia products are also hypermedia systems.

Over the years the use, design and further developments to multimedia and hypermedia have increased. The ease of use has also increased over the years. Developments have made it easier for nontechnical teachers, students and people in general to navigate software with ease of use. Some of the various softwares are, interactive presentation hypermedia, audio/video production and editing systems, hypermedia production software and virtual environments.

So how can we integrate multimedia and hypermedia in a classroom environment? Presentation software is most often the hypermedia tool of choice for classroom integration and use. Some strategies for integrating presentation software are game based reviews, i.e. a Jeopardy game, full tutorials, audio and video aids for classroom discussions, visual literacy instruction and virtual field trips. 

My Experience of Creating a Multimedia Project

Upon completion of chapter 7 I was asked to design a multimedia project and thus a story was born in imovie about a trip I took New Orleans with my husband. I mapped out the day we spent in the Big Easy with pictures that I combined together with audio about my day spent there. I knew that I had imovie on my computer but I had never taken the time or had a reason to check it out. Creating my story was really easy once I figured out how the software worked. The hardest part was timing my audio with the pictures and even that wasn’t too bad with imovie. I learned how easy it was and how it could be a great tool for the classroom. Pictures of books could be taken and stories read to go along with the pictures. That is definitely something I would incorporate into the classroom. It would make the pictures easier for the students to see. It would also be a great way to give an informative presentation, whether its on the African Savannah or Pearl harbor. Students could also write a story, draw illustrations and combine the two with this software. I see many potential ways to integrate this skill into my classroom in the future.

My digital Story

Google Group Project

Our class was divided into groups and we had to work as a team to complete several projects. Our project had to be completed in google docs. I had previously used google docs for previous group project for another class. Even though I had used it before I was still amazed at all the things I didn’t know but learned.

Story

One part of this project was to create a story as a group. We titled it A Day in the LIfe of a Teacher Assistant. Each of us contributed one part of what a real day looks like for us in the classroom. All together it created a great, humerus and entertaining story. I love that you can open a document in google and invite people to edit. This allows for much quicker collaboration between people. You don’t have to email files to anyone. All I had to do was pull up google and there it was. To view A Day in the Life of a Teacher Assistant click on the story link.

Power Point Presentation

Next in our project was to create a powerpoint presentation. Laura Herring created the powerpoint and did a fantastic job. She created this powerpoint in google so just like google docs we could all go in and edit or offer comments. Tracey did some editing and myself and Latasha provided some feedback. She created the powerpoint on some user friendly websites that can help children learn. Bright colors and a format that was easy to read made this a great presentation for students to view. We live in a day and age where computers are everywhere and the internet is all over the world. Educational websites can be a fun and exciting way for students to learn. Click on power point presentation to Laura’s presentation on educational websites.

Spreadsheet

Latasha created our spreadsheet and did a great job. She included 5 students and several of their reading grades. A spreadsheet allows a teacher to easily keep track of students and their grades for assignments. It also allows for easy monitoring of a students progress. You can print it out and immediately have a hard copy of students grades. To view Latasha’s spreadsheet she created click on the spreadsheet subheading.

Survey

The last part of our group project was to create a survey. I created the survey on technology in the classroom. This was by far the best feature I have found in creating documents. A survey template pretty much does it all for you. All I had to do was type in the questions and how the responses were to be given. Once the survey was complete the program complied all the responses for you. This would be an excellent tool if you are needing to survey a large group of people or even a classroom of students. It makes making and completing surveys so much more efficient and less time consuming than ever before. Click on subheading survey to view the survey on technology in the classroom.

Sometimes it’s hard working in groups. Especially in this day and age when people are so busy and don’t often live close enough to meet in person. Google has allowed people to be able to work simultaneously together. They have also made technology and the things you can create with it so much easier.