Being able to teach children is definitely one of the most rewarding experiences I have been involved in throughout my life. Growing up I was able to go to school and learn from some truly amazing teachers and my parents. They helped me to become who I am today by teaching me strong moral values and giving me the education I would need to succeed.
During my field experience I was again impressed with the new upcoming generation of students. These students were bright and very curious and not afraid to explore new ideas. I loved to see them think, form ideas, and also use their imagination to solve and answer the questions we gave them. They came up with some great answers, ones we hadn't thought of, but most importantly, they were not afraid to try, and possibly make a mistake.
I also loved seeing all of the new technology in the school. Our school was fairly new so it was wired with all the latest technology in the classroom. I thought it was interesting to see how they could quickly and efficiently give attendance, and order the class lunch selections, and get the daily announcements over the link to the office. There were some glitches in the process, but once these are worked out I thought this was a highly effective way to manage the school. I thought it would be very beneficial to train the teachers more in the technology so they would be able to use these tools to their full potential.
I also enjoyed seeing how the students loved to see the digital story. Our classroom had a very sterile environment. There wasn't art displayed on the walls, and there weren't any "frills". Our cooperative teacher was very focused on teaching, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, I did feel that our students would have benefited from having more experience with the arts, or at least bringing an aspect of art into the other lessons. By just including some music into our digital story, social studies took on a whole new idea, and they loved it.
Education is one of the most important and life altering experiences a person will go through during life. I look forward to finishing my degree in education and being able to help my students gain the knowledge they will need to make a difference in the world, and most importantly to prosper, be successful, and happy in life.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Lessons Learned
I thought all of these videos, and articles were very interesting, and helped me to see how complex technology is and how much it affects our lives.
As teachers I thought the power point about “tools of change” was really interesting. I can see how computers really are linked with our future literacy. There are so many exciting new tools for the classroom which will help our students be exposed to different methods, and also different ways for us to be able to assess their knowledge and create more interesting lessons. There were also many ways to help our classrooms run more efficiently shown in this power point. I loved the interactive “smart boards” and electronic hall passes and lunch selection tools. There were just so many great ideas; I would definitely use these tools if they were available in my future school. This type of technology helps save time and energy and is much more efficient.
I appreciated the video called “millennium generation”. This really helped me to see the deep thinking and great ideas our students will have. We need to be able to help our students cultivate these ideas into action. These are the ideas which will eventually become inventions and help to change the future of our country. Look at computers, their beginning was in a garage in California. We need to encourage our students to think outside the box. It’s their future and ours.
I also liked reading the article about “Why integrate technology into the curriculum?” It reinforced the ideas I already had about how important technology is in the classroom. By using technology we are able to reach students in many different ways. It allows us the opportunity to use different methods and means to teach. Every student learns differently, we need to vary our lessons and give variety so every student has the opportunity to succeed and reach their full potential.
As teachers I thought the power point about “tools of change” was really interesting. I can see how computers really are linked with our future literacy. There are so many exciting new tools for the classroom which will help our students be exposed to different methods, and also different ways for us to be able to assess their knowledge and create more interesting lessons. There were also many ways to help our classrooms run more efficiently shown in this power point. I loved the interactive “smart boards” and electronic hall passes and lunch selection tools. There were just so many great ideas; I would definitely use these tools if they were available in my future school. This type of technology helps save time and energy and is much more efficient.
I appreciated the video called “millennium generation”. This really helped me to see the deep thinking and great ideas our students will have. We need to be able to help our students cultivate these ideas into action. These are the ideas which will eventually become inventions and help to change the future of our country. Look at computers, their beginning was in a garage in California. We need to encourage our students to think outside the box. It’s their future and ours.
I also liked reading the article about “Why integrate technology into the curriculum?” It reinforced the ideas I already had about how important technology is in the classroom. By using technology we are able to reach students in many different ways. It allows us the opportunity to use different methods and means to teach. Every student learns differently, we need to vary our lessons and give variety so every student has the opportunity to succeed and reach their full potential.
Strengths and Weaknesses
I felt like I was able to go into my field experience with great appreciation and knowledge of technology used in the classroom. I thoroughly loved creating digital stories. I enjoyed collecting the information and pictures to create the projects. It was so exciting to see how the students related with the digital stories and how much more interested they were in the subject by simply implementing this type of technology into our lesson. Creating digital stories was definitely one of my strengths. I also feel that another strength I have gained from my technology courses is- “the spirit of discovery”. I am not afraid to try new things and explore uncharted territory. In looking at the UNI survey and the NET standards I felt that over all I would rate myself as an apprentice in most of the computer technology skills, and that I have a good base to know how to find answers and continue to learn and research the areas I need to improve.
As I worked at Willow Springs Elementary in the Canyons School District, I realized the need I will have to learn to work on a Mac computer system. In order to use the digital story we created on an IBM compatable computer we had to email the digital story link to our cooperative teacher’s email. This was efficient; however as a teacher I will want access to my projects and information directly, not having to go through additional links. As I looked in the UEN there were many courses offered. The first course I would take would be, “Making the Most of you Mac”. It is designed for new users and also offered through the UEN Professional Development Course Catalog.
Another area I will need to work on would be using technology resources to engage in ongoing professional development. Technology is constantly changing. I will need to continually stay educated and informed on technology advancements and development. In my future classroom it is important to me to be able to provide my students with the latest technological training and experiences. I feel that technology is so important and I want them all to have a good base to build from as they continue their schooling. UEN also offers courses covering these areas in their professional development courses, but I also found an interesting program offered through the University of Utah ETEP (Education Technology Endorsement Program). This program consists of 18 credit hours involving courses in software/hardware, and technology pedagogy. This is normally a 2 year program. I thought this sounded amazing. There are so many resources out there to stay current and informed as teachers.
By being able to identify our weaknesses we will be able to continually work and educate ourselves to help make our weaknesses eventually our strengths.
As I worked at Willow Springs Elementary in the Canyons School District, I realized the need I will have to learn to work on a Mac computer system. In order to use the digital story we created on an IBM compatable computer we had to email the digital story link to our cooperative teacher’s email. This was efficient; however as a teacher I will want access to my projects and information directly, not having to go through additional links. As I looked in the UEN there were many courses offered. The first course I would take would be, “Making the Most of you Mac”. It is designed for new users and also offered through the UEN Professional Development Course Catalog.
Another area I will need to work on would be using technology resources to engage in ongoing professional development. Technology is constantly changing. I will need to continually stay educated and informed on technology advancements and development. In my future classroom it is important to me to be able to provide my students with the latest technological training and experiences. I feel that technology is so important and I want them all to have a good base to build from as they continue their schooling. UEN also offers courses covering these areas in their professional development courses, but I also found an interesting program offered through the University of Utah ETEP (Education Technology Endorsement Program). This program consists of 18 credit hours involving courses in software/hardware, and technology pedagogy. This is normally a 2 year program. I thought this sounded amazing. There are so many resources out there to stay current and informed as teachers.
By being able to identify our weaknesses we will be able to continually work and educate ourselves to help make our weaknesses eventually our strengths.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
EDEL 3250 Field Experience Service Learning Project
EDEL 3250 Field Experience Service Learning Project
Heather Allan and Elisa Kelson
November 28, 2010
1) Our first meeting with our cooperating teacher was the first week of November.
2) After discussing the curriculum our class would be studying during our field experience we decided with our cooperative teacher to create a digital story about Utah’s geologic features.
3) We started our digital story in the computer lab at UVU and continued work with our story at home on our personal computers. By downloading the photo story directly to our computers we were able to create and edit our digital story at home, making it much more efficient than trying to find times to meet in the computer lab.
4) We showed our digital story during the last lesson we taught about Utah Geography. We used it to give the students another overview of all of Utah’s geographic features before they started creating their Utah geography salt dough maps. The students loved the digital story and thought it was great to hear our voices on the movie. They enjoyed watching the digital story and it kept their attention as well as refreshed their memories of the different areas and landforms. The coordinating teacher as well as our field supervisor who observed our lesson both commented on what a great movie we had created.
5) We talked with our coordinating teacher about technology in the classroom and talked to her about creating a link to her blog and website, as well as telling her about the photo story program we created our story with. Our coordinating teacher used a apple computer so she would have to create her digital story with a different program. She enjoyed our digital story and the other vidcasts we created to supplement our lessons, but she didn’t use technology in her classroom very much the only equipment she used was the over head projector.
6) A) By going into this classroom we were able to show the cooperative teacher current technology could help enrich her lessons and help provide her students with more learning experiences. We could help her by sharing the information we have on creating digital stories and vidcasts along with giving her assistance in setting up her classroom blog and it’s links in her Canyon’s School District site.
b) By working in this classroom and seeing the need we were able to address a need in our community and assist in providing additional help in this classroom.
c) In working in this classroom we became very aware of the need for additional help in this grade level, since most of the classes were set at 31 students.
7) We were assigned to work at the Willow Springs Elementary located in Draper, Utah in the Canyons School District. This was a new school built only four years ago in a new urban higher income area. Our assignment was to work with Miss Crista Holt in the 4th grade. Our class had 31 students, with 18 boys and 22 girls.
We enjoyed working with Miss Holt and felt that she appreciated our help in the classroom. We assisted her in various areas with; reading groups, spelling groups, and math groups. She was good to communicate with us and let us know what she needed and also very easy to work with and helpful. We treated Miss Holt with respect and professionally and she returned that same respect to us.
She liked our digital story we created but I don’t know if she will herself create something of that nature. She didn’t use very much technology in her classroom and was only interested in having us help her in creating a blog link from her Canyon’s School District site to her blogger account. She seemed always so busy she was unable to devote the time necessary to create and use this type of technology.
She said our lesson was well done, and gave us positive feedback on it. She was always very supportive of our lessons and good to give us helpful hints to improve. We provided many lessons during our field experience teaching more than 8 different lessons over the three week period.
The training session was alright, she only had about 5 minutes in the morning before the students arrived. She was constantly busy creating her team lesson plan for the day, they made their plans for teaching each morning and lunch hour. We were able to discuss technology and talk about how we created our digital story and how she could put links to vidcasts and podcasts on her professional site. She was interested in putting links into her Canyon’s Site which could link her students and parents to her blogger account. We helped give her ideas of how to accomplish this.
This was a good experience and gave us the opportunity to discuss the tools we have already learned in our computer technology course with another teacher. Our cooperative teacher had also attended UVU four years prior, but her computer course was very basic and she said she had learned very little. I feel very fortunate to have had to opportunity to learn so much about technology over the past two semesters. Technology is such a benefit if used correctly in the classroom. It opens windows and minds to new ideas and gives everyone the tools to success.
Together our cooperative teacher and we were able to have a positive experience working in a classroom collaborating information with each other. As student teachers we gained the experience and were able to observe Miss Holt’s teaching style, and Miss Holt was able to observe the use of technology new to her used in the classroom to enrich our lesson. I felt we both gained knowledge from each other. It was a great experience for everyone.
During our field experience we were able to observe many areas involved in teaching. We were able to create interesting lessons, digital stories, and also use our interpersonal skills to help guide our students and help them learn and understand.
This was a great experience and totally worth the time and effort. We learned so much and enjoyed the chance to experience teaching first hand. We had many learning opportunities and experiences which helped us better understand and will continue to help us grow and develop into highly qualified teachers.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fETsgsoInYphPRXYoLjRAEJ2j_vzcP55Xitqlh_fdYQ/edit?hl=en
Heather Allan and Elisa Kelson
November 28, 2010
1) Our first meeting with our cooperating teacher was the first week of November.
2) After discussing the curriculum our class would be studying during our field experience we decided with our cooperative teacher to create a digital story about Utah’s geologic features.
3) We started our digital story in the computer lab at UVU and continued work with our story at home on our personal computers. By downloading the photo story directly to our computers we were able to create and edit our digital story at home, making it much more efficient than trying to find times to meet in the computer lab.
4) We showed our digital story during the last lesson we taught about Utah Geography. We used it to give the students another overview of all of Utah’s geographic features before they started creating their Utah geography salt dough maps. The students loved the digital story and thought it was great to hear our voices on the movie. They enjoyed watching the digital story and it kept their attention as well as refreshed their memories of the different areas and landforms. The coordinating teacher as well as our field supervisor who observed our lesson both commented on what a great movie we had created.
5) We talked with our coordinating teacher about technology in the classroom and talked to her about creating a link to her blog and website, as well as telling her about the photo story program we created our story with. Our coordinating teacher used a apple computer so she would have to create her digital story with a different program. She enjoyed our digital story and the other vidcasts we created to supplement our lessons, but she didn’t use technology in her classroom very much the only equipment she used was the over head projector.
6) A) By going into this classroom we were able to show the cooperative teacher current technology could help enrich her lessons and help provide her students with more learning experiences. We could help her by sharing the information we have on creating digital stories and vidcasts along with giving her assistance in setting up her classroom blog and it’s links in her Canyon’s School District site.
b) By working in this classroom and seeing the need we were able to address a need in our community and assist in providing additional help in this classroom.
c) In working in this classroom we became very aware of the need for additional help in this grade level, since most of the classes were set at 31 students.
7) We were assigned to work at the Willow Springs Elementary located in Draper, Utah in the Canyons School District. This was a new school built only four years ago in a new urban higher income area. Our assignment was to work with Miss Crista Holt in the 4th grade. Our class had 31 students, with 18 boys and 22 girls.
We enjoyed working with Miss Holt and felt that she appreciated our help in the classroom. We assisted her in various areas with; reading groups, spelling groups, and math groups. She was good to communicate with us and let us know what she needed and also very easy to work with and helpful. We treated Miss Holt with respect and professionally and she returned that same respect to us.
She liked our digital story we created but I don’t know if she will herself create something of that nature. She didn’t use very much technology in her classroom and was only interested in having us help her in creating a blog link from her Canyon’s School District site to her blogger account. She seemed always so busy she was unable to devote the time necessary to create and use this type of technology.
She said our lesson was well done, and gave us positive feedback on it. She was always very supportive of our lessons and good to give us helpful hints to improve. We provided many lessons during our field experience teaching more than 8 different lessons over the three week period.
The training session was alright, she only had about 5 minutes in the morning before the students arrived. She was constantly busy creating her team lesson plan for the day, they made their plans for teaching each morning and lunch hour. We were able to discuss technology and talk about how we created our digital story and how she could put links to vidcasts and podcasts on her professional site. She was interested in putting links into her Canyon’s Site which could link her students and parents to her blogger account. We helped give her ideas of how to accomplish this.
This was a good experience and gave us the opportunity to discuss the tools we have already learned in our computer technology course with another teacher. Our cooperative teacher had also attended UVU four years prior, but her computer course was very basic and she said she had learned very little. I feel very fortunate to have had to opportunity to learn so much about technology over the past two semesters. Technology is such a benefit if used correctly in the classroom. It opens windows and minds to new ideas and gives everyone the tools to success.
Together our cooperative teacher and we were able to have a positive experience working in a classroom collaborating information with each other. As student teachers we gained the experience and were able to observe Miss Holt’s teaching style, and Miss Holt was able to observe the use of technology new to her used in the classroom to enrich our lesson. I felt we both gained knowledge from each other. It was a great experience for everyone.
During our field experience we were able to observe many areas involved in teaching. We were able to create interesting lessons, digital stories, and also use our interpersonal skills to help guide our students and help them learn and understand.
This was a great experience and totally worth the time and effort. We learned so much and enjoyed the chance to experience teaching first hand. We had many learning opportunities and experiences which helped us better understand and will continue to help us grow and develop into highly qualified teachers.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fETsgsoInYphPRXYoLjRAEJ2j_vzcP55Xitqlh_fdYQ/edit?hl=en
Friday, November 26, 2010
Final Field Experience Blog
What? The past three weeks I have had the most amazing time student teaching at Willow Springs Elementary in Draper, Utah. We were assigned to a fourth grade class with 30 students. It was a very exciting experience and I learned so much. We had a wonderful time teaching and being able to see our university lessons played out in classroom experiences. Great to see how the students responded to us and how we could create lessons which they could understand and enjoy. In looking back the most important areas that I noticed affecting our lessons were classroom management, lesson direction, expectation of students, and computer technology incorporated into our lessons. When I learn to master these areas I will know I am ready to go out into the world and teach. Our students loved the technology we used in the classroom, especially the YouTube digital stories we used to supplement our lessons. They thought it was great, and it held their attention so well. Also with the problem of teaching about geography without a map in the classroom (our class maps were broken during our visit), that was interesting. Thank goodness for technology, and being able to modify and think of other methods to teach. We were able to pull up examples of maps and different slides relating to our lesson so we were still able to teach the students about Utah Geography.
So What? Now we are starting to work on our Student Teacher Sample and the other various assignments relating to our teaching experience. This is a long process and it is such a blessing to be able to understand computer technology—so I am able to work more efficiently with my partner, and also I am able to create interesting projects with all of the tools I have learned from Doc Waters during the past two semesters. It’s a long process, but I’m not worried, I feel very confident in my knowledge of computer skills and I feel so lucky I was able to take this course. I loved my teaching experience and am so excited to start teaching and get out into the field and work. I have worked in many fields over the course of my life, and at 43 it is so nice to be back in school training to do something I love, and that will make the difference in the lives of children and in our community and world.
Then What? I am now thinking of all of the fun I am going to have this summer. I will be taking a million pictures and videos of every experience my family has in camping, traveling around the state—so I will be able to create some neat digital stories and virtual field trips for my future classes. In working with the students I can see how they enjoy seeing these digital stories and its fun to put in some of my own pictures and my own children so they can relate to the stories better. Plus we go to a lot of different interesting places I want my future students to see and experience. I am going to use my technology skills to start working on building an amazing site, which my future students and their parents will be able to easily use. As I worked in this class I could see all of the different areas which could have been improved by including more technology into the teaching and into the administration of the classroom. The possibilities are endless and I am so excited to jump in—Thanks Doc Waters for giving me the knowledge and the “spirit of discovery” to be able to learn and love computer technology in the classroom.
So What? Now we are starting to work on our Student Teacher Sample and the other various assignments relating to our teaching experience. This is a long process and it is such a blessing to be able to understand computer technology—so I am able to work more efficiently with my partner, and also I am able to create interesting projects with all of the tools I have learned from Doc Waters during the past two semesters. It’s a long process, but I’m not worried, I feel very confident in my knowledge of computer skills and I feel so lucky I was able to take this course. I loved my teaching experience and am so excited to start teaching and get out into the field and work. I have worked in many fields over the course of my life, and at 43 it is so nice to be back in school training to do something I love, and that will make the difference in the lives of children and in our community and world.
Then What? I am now thinking of all of the fun I am going to have this summer. I will be taking a million pictures and videos of every experience my family has in camping, traveling around the state—so I will be able to create some neat digital stories and virtual field trips for my future classes. In working with the students I can see how they enjoy seeing these digital stories and its fun to put in some of my own pictures and my own children so they can relate to the stories better. Plus we go to a lot of different interesting places I want my future students to see and experience. I am going to use my technology skills to start working on building an amazing site, which my future students and their parents will be able to easily use. As I worked in this class I could see all of the different areas which could have been improved by including more technology into the teaching and into the administration of the classroom. The possibilities are endless and I am so excited to jump in—Thanks Doc Waters for giving me the knowledge and the “spirit of discovery” to be able to learn and love computer technology in the classroom.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Field Experience Week 3
What? This was our last week in the classroom. We had a great experience and were able to use technology throughout our classroom time. We did continue to have technical issues with showing our information because of school Internet connections and so forth, but eventually we were able to have our final digital story work without a problem. The students enjoyed the digital story and thought it was cool to hear our voices recorded into our video- that was fun. They also enjoyed the pictures and picked up information from the narration. This helped them in being able to retain the information for the assessments and to be able to understand more of the different features. Over the week we created many different slide shows and information video clips for the students. This worked well and helped to enhance our lessons with large pictures the students could see well. Small printed pictures wouldn't have had the same impact. The students wouldn’t not have been able to see the pictures well and it wouldn’t have been as effective in teaching. Especially since our classroom maps weren’t working during our field experience. We talked with our cooperative teacher about technology and her main question was how to create a blog and link it to her Canyon's Site. We came in early and helped her look at options.
So What? As we looked at the blog she already had created and then saw her site, we realized it was probably most effective to put a text box into her Canyons School District Site with a link that would take her students and their parents directly into her blog. She doesn't use technology in the classroom but I think if she had more time to research and work with the different technology she would incorporate it into her lessons. I don't feel like any of her 4th grade team use technology and where she is new I assume she is just following their lead. I think they could really use a math resource site with games and additional information for the students and their parents about the math concepts they are studying, the students continue to struggle with the basic facts, addition, multiplication, subtraction, division--even though they are teaching them algebra. By giving the students a site where they could practice their basic skills maybe the students would be able to catch up and understand better.
Then What? I enjoyed my field experience and I also enjoyed being able to understand and be able to easily create digital stories to enhance my lessons. I feel that there are so many areas I will be able to incorporate technology into my classroom, the possibilities are endless. I plan to create sites to help with educating my students and games and links to help them practice and build their basic knowledge. I also love the idea of being able to communicate with my students and parents through a website, and I feel this gives them the opportunity to ask questions and understand the goals of my classroom. I also like the idea of giving my students the opportunity to learn technology themselves and help them understand these tools. By learning now they will be able to use these tools as they continue through school and it will help them work more effectively and also enhance their learning.
So What? As we looked at the blog she already had created and then saw her site, we realized it was probably most effective to put a text box into her Canyons School District Site with a link that would take her students and their parents directly into her blog. She doesn't use technology in the classroom but I think if she had more time to research and work with the different technology she would incorporate it into her lessons. I don't feel like any of her 4th grade team use technology and where she is new I assume she is just following their lead. I think they could really use a math resource site with games and additional information for the students and their parents about the math concepts they are studying, the students continue to struggle with the basic facts, addition, multiplication, subtraction, division--even though they are teaching them algebra. By giving the students a site where they could practice their basic skills maybe the students would be able to catch up and understand better.
Then What? I enjoyed my field experience and I also enjoyed being able to understand and be able to easily create digital stories to enhance my lessons. I feel that there are so many areas I will be able to incorporate technology into my classroom, the possibilities are endless. I plan to create sites to help with educating my students and games and links to help them practice and build their basic knowledge. I also love the idea of being able to communicate with my students and parents through a website, and I feel this gives them the opportunity to ask questions and understand the goals of my classroom. I also like the idea of giving my students the opportunity to learn technology themselves and help them understand these tools. By learning now they will be able to use these tools as they continue through school and it will help them work more effectively and also enhance their learning.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Week II Field Experiences
What? This week we started our actual teaching and were able to use technology with our lesson. We created a digital story about Lake Bonneville. Since our computers are not apples we weren’t able to directly play our video from our files, but we were able to upload our movie into YouTube and play it that way. This worked well and we were able to give the students an interesting look at the Prehistoric Lake Bonneville. The students enjoyed the visual effects and music with the movie and I think it really was the hook to get them interested in the subject and turn on their minds to learning.
So What? As we discovered our class needed some additional teaching on understanding maps, and their “global address” we were able to create additional digital movies which helped us explain and show through pictures where they are located in the universe. It was great to be able to create additional educational videos to match the new lesson we needed to create. I continue to enjoy the speed of working with movie maker—and I really like the special effects it offers. The kids love the special effects. We also were able to use the over head projector with our lesson; this helped us be able to show maps from their texts on the board, and other maps in books. I love the projector—it’s a great invention.
Then What? We talked with our coordinating teacher and we will be helping her set up a blog so she will be able to communicate better with her students and their parents. I think it is very exciting to be working in the field and seeing what a great benefit technology adds to our lessons and to teaching. I am so glad we have had the experience to learn all of these technology tools they are such a great skill to possess as a teacher. I will definitely be using more technology with my teaching this week, and I am not afraid to create other digital clips in a pinch. I love working in all of these different technology areas. The one thing I am looking at now would be purchasing an apple computer system. It’s been a great week.
So What? As we discovered our class needed some additional teaching on understanding maps, and their “global address” we were able to create additional digital movies which helped us explain and show through pictures where they are located in the universe. It was great to be able to create additional educational videos to match the new lesson we needed to create. I continue to enjoy the speed of working with movie maker—and I really like the special effects it offers. The kids love the special effects. We also were able to use the over head projector with our lesson; this helped us be able to show maps from their texts on the board, and other maps in books. I love the projector—it’s a great invention.
Then What? We talked with our coordinating teacher and we will be helping her set up a blog so she will be able to communicate better with her students and their parents. I think it is very exciting to be working in the field and seeing what a great benefit technology adds to our lessons and to teaching. I am so glad we have had the experience to learn all of these technology tools they are such a great skill to possess as a teacher. I will definitely be using more technology with my teaching this week, and I am not afraid to create other digital clips in a pinch. I love working in all of these different technology areas. The one thing I am looking at now would be purchasing an apple computer system. It’s been a great week.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Classroom Field Experience 11/5/10
What? This week we finished off our last two days of class preparing to go into the field and work in the classroom. We will be teaching five social studies lessons, and two arts lessons along with talking about technology with our cooperative teacher. It has been a good experience so far, and we have been able to observe for two days, then we will be presenting our lesson on Monday through Friday. Technology in the class has not been that impressive, even though this is a new facility. They are trying to do the announcements over a link, which our teacher hasn’t been able to coordinate the site or time— so our class hasn’t heard announcements all week and they haven’t participated as a class in the Pledge of Allegiance. This is when I would just do it the “old fashioned way” until they worked out the bugs. They do have an overhead projector with a reflective projector, that makes it easy to show your material to the students, I liked that. They didn’t however, have a microphone for the teacher—I felt like you couldn’t hear our teacher very well because she was soft spoken, I think it would be a huge benefit to the students in the back of the room to hear every word by amplifying her voice. The teacher has good control of the class though, and is doing a good job with her students—she just needs to incorporate some music and videos into the classroom, I think it would help enrich the students experience and help them enjoy class more.
So What? I plan to help encourage music and video’s by introducing them with our lesson on the geographic features of Utah. We had created a vidcast which we will use to help acquaint the students with Utah. Our video has interesting music and a variety of different pictures of Utah’s geographic features that will help the students see exactly what we are talking about. I would also like to bring some music into the classroom by giving them some transition music between subjects, and maybe even bring in some brain boosters to help the students get out their wiggles and then be prepared to start into the next lesson. We worked together as a class learning the new math methods on multiplication. I was glad I'd had Math 2010, because I didn't learn math like that when I was in school. I thought it would be very helpful for the students to have a link which their parents could watch on their home computers so they could understand the math problems they were working on. And also the link could have example problems and practice problems the students could work with and expand their knowledge at home.
Then What? I would put a link on my education site, so they could see what we did, and how to work through the problems. With the new math, I think it is important to empower our parents and students with the knowledge and tools to be able to understand and work together at home. By giving our students and their families example video's and practice problems we can help educate the parents to understand and be able to help their child. By working directly with their child parents can build their relationships with their children, and helping them complete their assignments and eventually succeed. If you are an “older” parent math is different than when we were in school, we just worked through problems using algorithms. Now the students are taught to understand bases, break out and many different methods which help the students form a deeper understanding. As a parent I would have had no idea what they were talking about, but by seeing a tutorial on these methods I could have learned along with my child, and we both could have gained this knowledge together. Great plan to encourage math to be “fun” if the students can work with parents, and also great for the parents to feel good about understanding and being involved in their child’s learning.
So What? I plan to help encourage music and video’s by introducing them with our lesson on the geographic features of Utah. We had created a vidcast which we will use to help acquaint the students with Utah. Our video has interesting music and a variety of different pictures of Utah’s geographic features that will help the students see exactly what we are talking about. I would also like to bring some music into the classroom by giving them some transition music between subjects, and maybe even bring in some brain boosters to help the students get out their wiggles and then be prepared to start into the next lesson. We worked together as a class learning the new math methods on multiplication. I was glad I'd had Math 2010, because I didn't learn math like that when I was in school. I thought it would be very helpful for the students to have a link which their parents could watch on their home computers so they could understand the math problems they were working on. And also the link could have example problems and practice problems the students could work with and expand their knowledge at home.
Then What? I would put a link on my education site, so they could see what we did, and how to work through the problems. With the new math, I think it is important to empower our parents and students with the knowledge and tools to be able to understand and work together at home. By giving our students and their families example video's and practice problems we can help educate the parents to understand and be able to help their child. By working directly with their child parents can build their relationships with their children, and helping them complete their assignments and eventually succeed. If you are an “older” parent math is different than when we were in school, we just worked through problems using algorithms. Now the students are taught to understand bases, break out and many different methods which help the students form a deeper understanding. As a parent I would have had no idea what they were talking about, but by seeing a tutorial on these methods I could have learned along with my child, and we both could have gained this knowledge together. Great plan to encourage math to be “fun” if the students can work with parents, and also great for the parents to feel good about understanding and being involved in their child’s learning.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Digital Story 3
What? This week we have continued work on our digital story. We continued to plan the outline and collected pictures and this week we collected pictures with the advanced search. This means we were able to upload images which were labeled for reuse. Not all of the pictures were still available from our first attempt at the digital story, but with time and searches we were able to find many good images to use. It was really fun to explore all of the different images and find the right one for each slide. There is such a variety it makes it fun to look, I enjoyed this part.
So What? I first made the digital story using the movie maker on my computer. It worked great and the pictures and sound were awesome. However, we ran into a problem when we discovered we needed to narrate our digital story also. We discovered it wasn’t easy to add narration to the movie maker. The movie maker gave you the option to have narration or music, but not together. So that wouldn’t work for our digital story. So from that point I started over using the photo story program. It was a good program which I’d used in creating my first vidcast. I did have some problems uploading to YouTube, but after several days of work I was able to correctly upload and publish to YouTube. It was a good experience and made me stressed for a few days, but I am able to understand the process now, and I really like the informational digital stories we have created.
Then What? I am very excited to use this information digital story during my field experience. Our supporting teacher gave us the assignment to teach the students about Utah Geography-so this movie will be perfect. I look forward to using this tool in my teaching. It gives us the ability to present information in an interesting, fun and informative way. I still believe a picture is worth a thousand words, and I feel that visually teaching our students is another way we can help our students build schema and understand the ideas we are presenting. I have loved working with photo story and movie maker and now I understand the pro’s and con’s of each different program. Movie maker has great images and music, and photo story is much easier to add narration and music to. I have enjoyed this learning experience—but it did add a few white hairs to my head trying to understand the uploading issues.
So What? I first made the digital story using the movie maker on my computer. It worked great and the pictures and sound were awesome. However, we ran into a problem when we discovered we needed to narrate our digital story also. We discovered it wasn’t easy to add narration to the movie maker. The movie maker gave you the option to have narration or music, but not together. So that wouldn’t work for our digital story. So from that point I started over using the photo story program. It was a good program which I’d used in creating my first vidcast. I did have some problems uploading to YouTube, but after several days of work I was able to correctly upload and publish to YouTube. It was a good experience and made me stressed for a few days, but I am able to understand the process now, and I really like the informational digital stories we have created.
Then What? I am very excited to use this information digital story during my field experience. Our supporting teacher gave us the assignment to teach the students about Utah Geography-so this movie will be perfect. I look forward to using this tool in my teaching. It gives us the ability to present information in an interesting, fun and informative way. I still believe a picture is worth a thousand words, and I feel that visually teaching our students is another way we can help our students build schema and understand the ideas we are presenting. I have loved working with photo story and movie maker and now I understand the pro’s and con’s of each different program. Movie maker has great images and music, and photo story is much easier to add narration and music to. I have enjoyed this learning experience—but it did add a few white hairs to my head trying to understand the uploading issues.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Digital Story 2 --Copyrights Laws in the US
What? This week we learned about creating digital stories and all that is involved in creating and using materials off the Internet, regarding copy rights. In class we were all assigned various sights and topics to research and type in to a community Google document. It was very difficult to work with 26 other people on this assignment. Wow, I learned the importance of logging in on FireFox instead of explorer. We all learned how to be able to look for materials and media that had rights to re-use. I was surprised to learn about all of the laws regarding these sights and music etc.
So What? As we know which sights have material which gives the right to re-use we are going to be able to create our digital story assignment for this week. We are creating a video about Utah’s geographical features so we will be able to use it during our field experience. I worked on the video earlier last week and used just any pictures off the Internet, not knowing about copy rights rules. Now that I know about advanced image search, I was able to start work on another video and use images and music that are registered for re-use. I am still trying to figure out the music to use, so I’ll keep working on that. I have enjoyed working on movie maker program, it’s easy to use and the end product looks good and professionally done.
Then What? Now that I am learning how to create digital stories I think it is a wonderful addition to any lesson. I get excited thinking of the neat video’s I will be able to create for my classes, which I can create specifically for a lesson, with everything I am covering and which I feel my students need to see. I think it would be so fun and interesting to go into this as a business. I think it would be really useful to have a sight with unlimited access to use these video clips for educators. I feel like it is such a great addition to any lesson, and if they were well done I feel there is definitely a need out there. I enjoy being able to use my creativity to create a movie that will interest my students and help them gain interest in a subject and also gain the knowledge to build upon. I love this type of media-and I know my students will benefit from its use in my classroom.
So What? As we know which sights have material which gives the right to re-use we are going to be able to create our digital story assignment for this week. We are creating a video about Utah’s geographical features so we will be able to use it during our field experience. I worked on the video earlier last week and used just any pictures off the Internet, not knowing about copy rights rules. Now that I know about advanced image search, I was able to start work on another video and use images and music that are registered for re-use. I am still trying to figure out the music to use, so I’ll keep working on that. I have enjoyed working on movie maker program, it’s easy to use and the end product looks good and professionally done.
Then What? Now that I am learning how to create digital stories I think it is a wonderful addition to any lesson. I get excited thinking of the neat video’s I will be able to create for my classes, which I can create specifically for a lesson, with everything I am covering and which I feel my students need to see. I think it would be so fun and interesting to go into this as a business. I think it would be really useful to have a sight with unlimited access to use these video clips for educators. I feel like it is such a great addition to any lesson, and if they were well done I feel there is definitely a need out there. I enjoy being able to use my creativity to create a movie that will interest my students and help them gain interest in a subject and also gain the knowledge to build upon. I love this type of media-and I know my students will benefit from its use in my classroom.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Digital Story Vidcast
Digital Story
What? This week we were assigned to work with our field experience partners in creating a vidcast. We saw various examples of vidcasts created. We talked about creating a vidcast that was interesting and would hold the attention of our viewers, and deliver the information we intend to deliver. We also talked about creating a script with drawings of the pictures we wanted, along with the narration or information we wanted to add and where it is placed in the vidcast. This was a basic idea of organizing but very important when creating vidcast. It helps the ideas flow and helps us put down the ideas behind our vidcasts, so we can know how we want our finished vidcast to look when we finish. Great class, I think this will be a very valuable tool in my future classroom. I personally like seeing vidcasts and clips about the subjects I am studying because I feel that it gives the student a better idea about the subject, than just lecturing, just like Doc Water’s said, “ A picture is worth a thousand words”. I agree.
So What? I have enjoyed working on this project. I came home and starting creating a vidcast on my computer’s “movie maker” program. It was awesome. I found pictures on google image and was able to download those and add music and descriptions. I thought it was so fun! I enjoyed the process and can see what a great tool this is for educators. I plan on spending my future summers creating interesting digital stories to supplement my lesson plans.
Then What? I love creating digital stories and vidcasts. I thought this was such a great and informative experience. I can see what a wonderful addition these can be to a lesson, and I know that my future students will be able to learn more by being able to learn with their eyes, ears and other senses. As we learned from the Holocaust movie, we don’t have to write a description to every slide, some slides have many stories just from the faces of the people in the slide. We can feel the emotions of the subjects in our slides, we can create experiences for our students without leaving our classroom. When we watched the Holocaust victims on the slides on Monday, it affected my thoughts, and I actually felt so sad for them, that it left an image in my mind and heart. These are sad to watch but I can see the impact they can have. I look forward to using these tools in the future and know I will be including vidcasts and movies to my future lessons.
What? This week we were assigned to work with our field experience partners in creating a vidcast. We saw various examples of vidcasts created. We talked about creating a vidcast that was interesting and would hold the attention of our viewers, and deliver the information we intend to deliver. We also talked about creating a script with drawings of the pictures we wanted, along with the narration or information we wanted to add and where it is placed in the vidcast. This was a basic idea of organizing but very important when creating vidcast. It helps the ideas flow and helps us put down the ideas behind our vidcasts, so we can know how we want our finished vidcast to look when we finish. Great class, I think this will be a very valuable tool in my future classroom. I personally like seeing vidcasts and clips about the subjects I am studying because I feel that it gives the student a better idea about the subject, than just lecturing, just like Doc Water’s said, “ A picture is worth a thousand words”. I agree.
So What? I have enjoyed working on this project. I came home and starting creating a vidcast on my computer’s “movie maker” program. It was awesome. I found pictures on google image and was able to download those and add music and descriptions. I thought it was so fun! I enjoyed the process and can see what a great tool this is for educators. I plan on spending my future summers creating interesting digital stories to supplement my lesson plans.
Then What? I love creating digital stories and vidcasts. I thought this was such a great and informative experience. I can see what a wonderful addition these can be to a lesson, and I know that my future students will be able to learn more by being able to learn with their eyes, ears and other senses. As we learned from the Holocaust movie, we don’t have to write a description to every slide, some slides have many stories just from the faces of the people in the slide. We can feel the emotions of the subjects in our slides, we can create experiences for our students without leaving our classroom. When we watched the Holocaust victims on the slides on Monday, it affected my thoughts, and I actually felt so sad for them, that it left an image in my mind and heart. These are sad to watch but I can see the impact they can have. I look forward to using these tools in the future and know I will be including vidcasts and movies to my future lessons.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Vidcast Reflection
Jamie Huston
In learning about producing a vidcast our team was able to look at the curriculum on our particular grade level and decide on a standard and objective lesson to base it from. At that point we went to google to collect various photographs and images to add to our presentation. Google docs was a wonderful resource for all of our pictures and we were very happy with the results of our searches. As we set our slideshow together on the photo story program we were able to put our images and slides together to create our end vidcast production.
We were also able to use the recording tools to add narration to our vidcast, this helped our vidcast by adding information and helped the slides take on more meaning for our students. Working with the photo story program was a great experience. It is a great tool and easy to use application. In creating our vidcast we were able to use the various photo story tools to enhance our production. These tools were the recording option, the photo crop and enhancement tools, and overall we felt that the photo story program was extremely easy to use and helped us create a very professional looking end product.2nd Grade - Content CoreStandard 3: Students will develop an understanding of their environment.
Objective 1: Investigate relationships between plants and animals and how living things change during their lives. We thought this would be a great lesson for second graders about a butterfly life cycle. The vidcast could be continued and compared to the life cycles of other insects or animals. We also talked about a continuation of this lesson into making your own back yard habitat for attracting butterflies.
This vidcast connects to the NETS Standards by helping support and model creative thinking. This vidcast will connect with students on multiple stages of learning. It would be used to promote the students creativity and it also personalizes learning activities using digital tools and resources. NETS that were modeled in this vidcast were 1 - a & d, 2 - a & c, 3 - a b & d, 4 - b & c, and 5 - c & d.
The INTASC Standards were used to enhance student learning by using age appropriate pedagogy and resources to help with the students learning. This vidcast reflects on a lesson about the life cycle of a butterfly. In the vidcast, professional demeanor was used as well as appropriate photographs. This type of vidcast would be great to reflect on things which have been or will be taught. Specifically, INTASC Standards 1 - E, 2 - B & F, 3 - D, and 5 - C & D were used.
Potential drawbacks for using this series in a future classroom may be the time involved in producing a project and having it include pertinent information. However, once the initial effort was made and the photo story was finished, there would be minimal adaptation for future uses. Limitations could also come from the lack of technology available in our classrooms.
We would like to use this vidcast and others to be created to teach the 2nd graders about different life cycles and also continuations of the changes that happen in an environment when life cycles are interrupted. By creating various vidcasts, we can address many different subjects and show how their life cycles are affected by the environment.
Heather Allan
October 5, 2010
Butterfly Life Cycle Vidcast
In learning about producing a vidcast our team was able to look at the curriculum on our particular grade level and decide on a standard and objective lesson to base it from. At that point we went to google to collect various photographs and images to add to our presentation. Google docs was a wonderful resource for all of our pictures and we were very happy with the results of our searches. As we set our slideshow together on the photo story program we were able to put our images and slides together to create our end vidcast production.
We were also able to use the recording tools to add narration to our vidcast, this helped our vidcast by adding information and helped the slides take on more meaning for our students. Working with the photo story program was a great experience. It is a great tool and easy to use application. In creating our vidcast we were able to use the various photo story tools to enhance our production. These tools were the recording option, the photo crop and enhancement tools, and overall we felt that the photo story program was extremely easy to use and helped us create a very professional looking end product.2nd Grade - Content CoreStandard 3: Students will develop an understanding of their environment.
Objective 1: Investigate relationships between plants and animals and how living things change during their lives. We thought this would be a great lesson for second graders about a butterfly life cycle. The vidcast could be continued and compared to the life cycles of other insects or animals. We also talked about a continuation of this lesson into making your own back yard habitat for attracting butterflies.
This vidcast connects to the NETS Standards by helping support and model creative thinking. This vidcast will connect with students on multiple stages of learning. It would be used to promote the students creativity and it also personalizes learning activities using digital tools and resources. NETS that were modeled in this vidcast were 1 - a & d, 2 - a & c, 3 - a b & d, 4 - b & c, and 5 - c & d.
The INTASC Standards were used to enhance student learning by using age appropriate pedagogy and resources to help with the students learning. This vidcast reflects on a lesson about the life cycle of a butterfly. In the vidcast, professional demeanor was used as well as appropriate photographs. This type of vidcast would be great to reflect on things which have been or will be taught. Specifically, INTASC Standards 1 - E, 2 - B & F, 3 - D, and 5 - C & D were used.
Potential drawbacks for using this series in a future classroom may be the time involved in producing a project and having it include pertinent information. However, once the initial effort was made and the photo story was finished, there would be minimal adaptation for future uses. Limitations could also come from the lack of technology available in our classrooms.
We would like to use this vidcast and others to be created to teach the 2nd graders about different life cycles and also continuations of the changes that happen in an environment when life cycles are interrupted. By creating various vidcasts, we can address many different subjects and show how their life cycles are affected by the environment.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Vidcasts
What? In class we learned about vidcasts and the various visual tools we can use to help our students stay informed in our future classrooms. I also learned that vidcasts were actually visual productions that our students will watch, instead just listen to as in the podcasts. We talked about four tools available for us to use to make these types of vidcasts. Flip video recorders, PPT (power point ), photo story, and jing.
So What? My group decided we liked working with the photo story tool best. It was very efficient and easy to use and great quality. Together we looked at UEN and decided upon a standard and objective for our 2nd grade lesson. We decided to work on the life cycle of a butterfly. With the photo story program we uploaded various pictures and information toward our subject and started our vidcast. We then planned on the way we would present and a script to use as we prepare our lesson. I enjoyed working with the photo story tool because it was free, which is great in itself, and it is also simple to understand and use.
Then What? I loved working with vidcasts and I think it is fun to create interesting and fun lessons for my future students. I continue to feel it is so important for my students to have many options in staying informed about class, projects, and also in subjects covered in class (in case they were absent or didn't understand the subject the first time it was presented). In college algebra classes, I loved the video recordings and CD's provided in addition to our texts, because I am a visual learner, and by seeing it once in person, then watching it again, and having the option to rewind and watch until I understood was such a great option. I feel that by giving our students these same options their chances of understanding and having success in learning will be increased by using vidcasts. I would like to have a google site created for my classroom which I can fill with all sorts of media to help my students. Vidcasts, podcasts, and related lessons and activities which enrich my daily lessons. As a parent I love knowing what is going on in my child's class, and I like the ability to go to my children's teachers website and have them explain assignments and give more instructions in case my child forgot, or I don't understand what I am suppose to help them with. Vidcasts are a great tool, I look forward to empowering my future students with this tool to help them achieve success.
So What? My group decided we liked working with the photo story tool best. It was very efficient and easy to use and great quality. Together we looked at UEN and decided upon a standard and objective for our 2nd grade lesson. We decided to work on the life cycle of a butterfly. With the photo story program we uploaded various pictures and information toward our subject and started our vidcast. We then planned on the way we would present and a script to use as we prepare our lesson. I enjoyed working with the photo story tool because it was free, which is great in itself, and it is also simple to understand and use.
Then What? I loved working with vidcasts and I think it is fun to create interesting and fun lessons for my future students. I continue to feel it is so important for my students to have many options in staying informed about class, projects, and also in subjects covered in class (in case they were absent or didn't understand the subject the first time it was presented). In college algebra classes, I loved the video recordings and CD's provided in addition to our texts, because I am a visual learner, and by seeing it once in person, then watching it again, and having the option to rewind and watch until I understood was such a great option. I feel that by giving our students these same options their chances of understanding and having success in learning will be increased by using vidcasts. I would like to have a google site created for my classroom which I can fill with all sorts of media to help my students. Vidcasts, podcasts, and related lessons and activities which enrich my daily lessons. As a parent I love knowing what is going on in my child's class, and I like the ability to go to my children's teachers website and have them explain assignments and give more instructions in case my child forgot, or I don't understand what I am suppose to help them with. Vidcasts are a great tool, I look forward to empowering my future students with this tool to help them achieve success.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Podcast
What? Today we discussed the various uses of podcasts in association with education. We realized what a great tool this will be in our classrooms to help inform our students and their families of activities and information about school events and announcements. We talked about using them with service announcements, emergency announcements and updates.
Then What? I feel this is also a valuable tool to help keep our students informed of what is going on. I also think this would be a good tool to advertise for school events and service opportunities. As a parent I would love this option to be able to know what announcements are coming up, and to be able to check my teachers google site to see if I missed anything in my children's backpacks. As a student, especially in the older grades I would definitely use it to study for tests. As an educator I can record the information I want the students to learn, then they will be able to listen to this information as they go through out their day--I think that it's very useful to give students different ways to understand our study--through visual in class, then reinforcing that learning with the verbal pod casts I could have available for their use. I just think this would be a great way to give my students options, and the choice to use pod-casts and direct verbal instruction if that is how they reinforce their learning. Options are so important, because we all have different ways of understanding and learning, pod-casts just give our students another avenue for obtaining success. It is great!
So What?By giving us the opportunity to make our own pod-casts we were able to record and download our individual pod-casts into our computer files, and then we were able to upload this podcast to our google sites. This was a fun activity that helped us know how we can use pod-casts in the classroom. We were able to understand the process this will help us as we become educators to be able to keep our classes communication open. I thought it was really neat to be able to record on a laptop and then transfer this into a podcast. I thought it would really be great to use this to study for the exams I am presently studying for, because by recording the information I can listen to it as I drive and as I commute to and from school. This is a very great tool which I will use.
Then What? I feel this is also a valuable tool to help keep our students informed of what is going on. I also think this would be a good tool to advertise for school events and service opportunities. As a parent I would love this option to be able to know what announcements are coming up, and to be able to check my teachers google site to see if I missed anything in my children's backpacks. As a student, especially in the older grades I would definitely use it to study for tests. As an educator I can record the information I want the students to learn, then they will be able to listen to this information as they go through out their day--I think that it's very useful to give students different ways to understand our study--through visual in class, then reinforcing that learning with the verbal pod casts I could have available for their use. I just think this would be a great way to give my students options, and the choice to use pod-casts and direct verbal instruction if that is how they reinforce their learning. Options are so important, because we all have different ways of understanding and learning, pod-casts just give our students another avenue for obtaining success. It is great!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Google 1 & Google 2
Google 1
What? This week we learned about digital story books, and used Google 1 to to create a document in google which allows students to collaborate on a project. The great idea behind using google document is at it allows a group of people the work on the same document, and edit and create it together, but at separate times and on different computers. I have used google documents already this semester and feel it is an invaluable resource for us as students and also as we become educators we will be able to work together more efficiently.
So What? Now that we have experience in working with google documents I feel it will really help us be able to work more efficiently on group projects. We were able to research items for our "digital story" topic, then place it in our google document so my fellow group members could see what I added and continue to add additional information. I find it very useful because I live up in Salt Lake and most of my group members live in Orem, therefore it is difficult to get together to work on school assignments in person.
Then What?Google Documents is an amazing tool that will help any student or educator who needs to work in groups or just to create their own documents. It gives you the opportunity to write, collaborate and save your document and information in a safe place. It is also free of charge to use so that is a great plus to using Google. Google is universal, a person can work with anyone around the world and have the common link to communicate and work together. By using google document we are able to efficiently work on projects and collaborate our ideas without wasting time and energy to meet together in person. Google helps connect people and information it's awesome!
Google 2
What? I had a great time setting up my google site. We learned how to edit and add various different pages to our site. It was a fairly simple application and we were able to create our sites without a problem. I enjoyed customizing it and creating a site that was mine. I also enjoyed looking up all of the information I put into my site. I found many interesting links, and sights which I plan to use in my other classes. This was a fun activity and I learned so much.
So What? As we worked on creating and adding information to our site, I thought google site gave many options and "accessories" that we could add to make our site more appealing and easy to use. I enjoyed learning how to add the different pages, and thought this will be such a benefit to have as an educator, and use in my classroom. I feel that communication is key to a successful classroom, and being able to communicate with my students and their parents, as well as will my fellow teachers will be such a benefit.
Then What?I think that Google site is such a great tool for educators--(and any other profession also). I allows you the tool to communicate and post important information to your class and others with whom you work. I think it is important for students to be able to see what is assigned, and when everything is due, and to give links to homework assignments. I feel it is important for students to be able to find information, and it cuts down on misunderstandings and helps everyone stay informed. If someone is sick, they are able to easily access the information of work assigned while they are out, and they can go to links that will help explain the lessons they miss. I feel this will help you, by helping your students not fall behind.I'm excited to use this in my classroom, and know it will help me work and teach more efficiently.
What? This week we learned about digital story books, and used Google 1 to to create a document in google which allows students to collaborate on a project. The great idea behind using google document is at it allows a group of people the work on the same document, and edit and create it together, but at separate times and on different computers. I have used google documents already this semester and feel it is an invaluable resource for us as students and also as we become educators we will be able to work together more efficiently.
So What? Now that we have experience in working with google documents I feel it will really help us be able to work more efficiently on group projects. We were able to research items for our "digital story" topic, then place it in our google document so my fellow group members could see what I added and continue to add additional information. I find it very useful because I live up in Salt Lake and most of my group members live in Orem, therefore it is difficult to get together to work on school assignments in person.
Then What?Google Documents is an amazing tool that will help any student or educator who needs to work in groups or just to create their own documents. It gives you the opportunity to write, collaborate and save your document and information in a safe place. It is also free of charge to use so that is a great plus to using Google. Google is universal, a person can work with anyone around the world and have the common link to communicate and work together. By using google document we are able to efficiently work on projects and collaborate our ideas without wasting time and energy to meet together in person. Google helps connect people and information it's awesome!
Google 2
What? I had a great time setting up my google site. We learned how to edit and add various different pages to our site. It was a fairly simple application and we were able to create our sites without a problem. I enjoyed customizing it and creating a site that was mine. I also enjoyed looking up all of the information I put into my site. I found many interesting links, and sights which I plan to use in my other classes. This was a fun activity and I learned so much.
So What? As we worked on creating and adding information to our site, I thought google site gave many options and "accessories" that we could add to make our site more appealing and easy to use. I enjoyed learning how to add the different pages, and thought this will be such a benefit to have as an educator, and use in my classroom. I feel that communication is key to a successful classroom, and being able to communicate with my students and their parents, as well as will my fellow teachers will be such a benefit.
Then What?I think that Google site is such a great tool for educators--(and any other profession also). I allows you the tool to communicate and post important information to your class and others with whom you work. I think it is important for students to be able to see what is assigned, and when everything is due, and to give links to homework assignments. I feel it is important for students to be able to find information, and it cuts down on misunderstandings and helps everyone stay informed. If someone is sick, they are able to easily access the information of work assigned while they are out, and they can go to links that will help explain the lessons they miss. I feel this will help you, by helping your students not fall behind.I'm excited to use this in my classroom, and know it will help me work and teach more efficiently.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Google 2
What? I had a great time setting up my google site. We learned how to edit and add various different pages to our site. It was a fairly simple application and we were able to create our sites without a problem. I enjoyed customizing it and creating a site that was mine. I also enjoyed looking up all of the information I put into my site. I found many interesting links, and sights which I plan to use in my other classes. This was a fun activity and I learned alot.
So What? As we worked on creating and adding information to our site, I thought google site gave many options and "accessories" that we could add to make our site more appealing and easy to use. I enjoyed learning how to add the different pages, and thought this will be such a benefit to have as an educator, and use in my classroom. I feel that communication is key to a successful classroom, and being able to communicate with my students and their parents, as well as will my fellow teachers will be such a benefit.
Then What?I think that Google site is such a great tool for educators--(and any other profession also). I allows you the tool to communicate and post important information to your class and others with whom you work. I think it is important for students to be able to see what is assigned, and when everything is due, and to give links to homework assignments. I feel it is important for students to be able to find information, and it cuts down on misunderstandings and helps everyone stay informed. If someone is sick, they are able to easily access the information of work assigned while they are out, and they can go to links that will help explain the lessons they miss. I feel this will help you, by helping your students not fall behind.
I'm excited to use this in my classroom, and know it will help me work and teach more efficiently.
So What? As we worked on creating and adding information to our site, I thought google site gave many options and "accessories" that we could add to make our site more appealing and easy to use. I enjoyed learning how to add the different pages, and thought this will be such a benefit to have as an educator, and use in my classroom. I feel that communication is key to a successful classroom, and being able to communicate with my students and their parents, as well as will my fellow teachers will be such a benefit.
Then What?I think that Google site is such a great tool for educators--(and any other profession also). I allows you the tool to communicate and post important information to your class and others with whom you work. I think it is important for students to be able to see what is assigned, and when everything is due, and to give links to homework assignments. I feel it is important for students to be able to find information, and it cuts down on misunderstandings and helps everyone stay informed. If someone is sick, they are able to easily access the information of work assigned while they are out, and they can go to links that will help explain the lessons they miss. I feel this will help you, by helping your students not fall behind.
I'm excited to use this in my classroom, and know it will help me work and teach more efficiently.
Google 1 /Digital Story
What? This week we learned about digital story books, and used Google 1 to to create a document in google which allows students to collaborate on a project. The great idea behind using google document is at it allows a group of people the work on the same document, and edit and create it together, but at separate times and on different computers. I have used google documents already this semester and feel it is an invaluable resource for us as students and also as we become educators we will be able to work together more efficiently.
So What? Now that we have experience in working with google documents I feel it will really help us be able to work more efficiently on group projects. We were able to research items for our "digital story" topic, then place it in our google document so my fellow group members could see what I added and continue to add additional information. I find it very useful because I live up in Salt Lake and most of my group members live in Orem, therefore it is difficult to get together to work on school assignments in person.
Then What?Google Documents is an amazing tool that will help any student or educator who needs to work in groups or just to create their own documents. It gives you the opportunity to write, collaborate and save your document and information in a safe place. It is also free of charge to use so that is a great plus to using Google. Google is universal, a person can work with anyone around the world and have the common link to communicate and work together. By using google document we are able to efficiently work on projects and collaborate our ideas without wasting time and energy to meet together in person. Google helps connect people and information it's awesome!
So What? Now that we have experience in working with google documents I feel it will really help us be able to work more efficiently on group projects. We were able to research items for our "digital story" topic, then place it in our google document so my fellow group members could see what I added and continue to add additional information. I find it very useful because I live up in Salt Lake and most of my group members live in Orem, therefore it is difficult to get together to work on school assignments in person.
Then What?Google Documents is an amazing tool that will help any student or educator who needs to work in groups or just to create their own documents. It gives you the opportunity to write, collaborate and save your document and information in a safe place. It is also free of charge to use so that is a great plus to using Google. Google is universal, a person can work with anyone around the world and have the common link to communicate and work together. By using google document we are able to efficiently work on projects and collaborate our ideas without wasting time and energy to meet together in person. Google helps connect people and information it's awesome!
Monday, August 30, 2010
My Educational Hero
What?
My educational hero would be my grandma. She started college when she was 50 years old. She spend most of her life raising her family, and caring for their needs but once they were grown she decided to go back to school and get her degree.
So What?
She started with just a few courses and then enjoyed them so much, she decided to continue and get her bachelors degree in psychology and social work. It wasn't easy, and she said she didn't always get A's, and it didn't come over night, it was a huge commitment, but she persevered and eventually received her degree from Brigham Young University.
Then What?
By Grandma getting her degree in social work and eventually being hired by LDS social services she was able to help people in need, and impact lives. She had an amazing work ethic and took her work very seriously. She was able to be instrumental in helping many people adopt children, and work through difficult times in their lives. She was a great example to me and to all of her posterity of how important education is, and that we all should do our best to learn and acquire knowledge in order to help ourselves and our communities. Education definitely impacts the society we live in, it is the basis of the democracy we enjoy.
My educational hero would be my grandma. She started college when she was 50 years old. She spend most of her life raising her family, and caring for their needs but once they were grown she decided to go back to school and get her degree.
So What?
She started with just a few courses and then enjoyed them so much, she decided to continue and get her bachelors degree in psychology and social work. It wasn't easy, and she said she didn't always get A's, and it didn't come over night, it was a huge commitment, but she persevered and eventually received her degree from Brigham Young University.
Then What?
By Grandma getting her degree in social work and eventually being hired by LDS social services she was able to help people in need, and impact lives. She had an amazing work ethic and took her work very seriously. She was able to be instrumental in helping many people adopt children, and work through difficult times in their lives. She was a great example to me and to all of her posterity of how important education is, and that we all should do our best to learn and acquire knowledge in order to help ourselves and our communities. Education definitely impacts the society we live in, it is the basis of the democracy we enjoy.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Tools of Choice
What?
Today we talked about our final assignment and we were given various options of final projects. We can do newsletters, fliers, or brochures. We talked about the various ways to publish our work in "publish" to a PDF file, so that we will be able to down load it onto our UEN website.
I have enjoyed learning about all the various tools available to me as a student and a future educator. This class was such a wonderful class for me to open my eye's and mind to what is out there and I have already enjoyed the benefits of knowing about these tools.
So What?
In working with the various programs and tools, I think that google is probably one of my favorites. It offers so much information that it is amazing for me to comprehend the amount. I also like the way google offers all of these tools free of charge. That is in it's self amazing, because nothing is "free" anymore. I have enjoyed also learning about collaborative projects while using google, and feel that is such a useful tool, when working as a group. I know I will be using this often as I enter the professional program this coming fall. I also enjoyed working with the Microsoft Publish program, and thought it was very helpful by providing various templates to use when setting up my projects, and giving me ideas. It was a bit tricky getting the finished projects downloaded to a PDF file, initially the acrobat converter on UEN, wouldn't work with a few of my projects, but then I was able to download on my computers program, then download to UEN. This worked like a charm.
I love being able to store all of my projects and information on my UEN file. I like knowing it is there and available when ever I need it, at home or at school. This is such a great idea, and wonderful way to store information which I can use in the future.
Then What?
I will definitely use these tools in my classroom, and I feel that I will be so much better prepared by knowing how to use all of these programs. These tools will help me create projects for my students, prepare my lessons, keep the parents of my students involved and aware of what is being done in the classroom. It will also allow me to be more organized and able to keep my lesson plans, projects, and schedules running smoothly. I am so glad I have had the experience to use these tools and create presentations, so when it comes time for me to use these in the classroom, I won't be afraid to use them, and to help my lessons and presentations be more interesting and meaningful.
Video
School House Rock "A noun is a person, place or thing"
I loved seeing this video again, it was awesome. It reminded me of Saturday morning cartoons, when I would regularly see it as a young child. This video is a classic because it was so catchy. As children we all grew up seeing it, and memorizing it, and singing it.
I can still sing along to the words. This was high tech in our year, and now some kids would probably consider it "boring" but for us this was awesome.
I think that it shows where we were at 30 years ago, and how life and learning has evolved since that time. School House Rock was a great example of how media can positivily effect students. I think music is a great tool to combine with information, inorder to make presentations for lessons. Also ryhming helps us all remember facts better, School House Rock used all of these ideas to make it a classic. I will show these clips in my classes, it's good for the students and I think it's still good to help students remember important facts.
Today we talked about our final assignment and we were given various options of final projects. We can do newsletters, fliers, or brochures. We talked about the various ways to publish our work in "publish" to a PDF file, so that we will be able to down load it onto our UEN website.
I have enjoyed learning about all the various tools available to me as a student and a future educator. This class was such a wonderful class for me to open my eye's and mind to what is out there and I have already enjoyed the benefits of knowing about these tools.
So What?
In working with the various programs and tools, I think that google is probably one of my favorites. It offers so much information that it is amazing for me to comprehend the amount. I also like the way google offers all of these tools free of charge. That is in it's self amazing, because nothing is "free" anymore. I have enjoyed also learning about collaborative projects while using google, and feel that is such a useful tool, when working as a group. I know I will be using this often as I enter the professional program this coming fall. I also enjoyed working with the Microsoft Publish program, and thought it was very helpful by providing various templates to use when setting up my projects, and giving me ideas. It was a bit tricky getting the finished projects downloaded to a PDF file, initially the acrobat converter on UEN, wouldn't work with a few of my projects, but then I was able to download on my computers program, then download to UEN. This worked like a charm.
I love being able to store all of my projects and information on my UEN file. I like knowing it is there and available when ever I need it, at home or at school. This is such a great idea, and wonderful way to store information which I can use in the future.
Then What?
I will definitely use these tools in my classroom, and I feel that I will be so much better prepared by knowing how to use all of these programs. These tools will help me create projects for my students, prepare my lessons, keep the parents of my students involved and aware of what is being done in the classroom. It will also allow me to be more organized and able to keep my lesson plans, projects, and schedules running smoothly. I am so glad I have had the experience to use these tools and create presentations, so when it comes time for me to use these in the classroom, I won't be afraid to use them, and to help my lessons and presentations be more interesting and meaningful.
Video
School House Rock "A noun is a person, place or thing"
I loved seeing this video again, it was awesome. It reminded me of Saturday morning cartoons, when I would regularly see it as a young child. This video is a classic because it was so catchy. As children we all grew up seeing it, and memorizing it, and singing it.
I can still sing along to the words. This was high tech in our year, and now some kids would probably consider it "boring" but for us this was awesome.
I think that it shows where we were at 30 years ago, and how life and learning has evolved since that time. School House Rock was a great example of how media can positivily effect students. I think music is a great tool to combine with information, inorder to make presentations for lessons. Also ryhming helps us all remember facts better, School House Rock used all of these ideas to make it a classic. I will show these clips in my classes, it's good for the students and I think it's still good to help students remember important facts.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Video's
What?
I loved seeing the interactive video's they were awesome. We talked about the various educational video sites that are popular. We talked about teacher tube in comparison to you tube and disscussed those differences. We learned that teacher tube has comercials unlike Youtube, but that teacher tube was a more reliable source and the links didn't change as often as the links on youtube. We visited the National Geographic sight to see the interactive or "simulation" of an underwater sea kelp forest, and saw the various underwater creatures and fish. It was really neat, and I could see how fun this would be for students. And what a great oportunity for students who haven't had the opportunity to see such a place to be able to have a "simulation" of the ocean, and be able to experience that. We also looked at the Weather Maker sight, and saw how it allowed students to adjust the tempurature and humitidy to make the weather change and experience seasons--very interesting.
So What?
I loved learning about these simulation internet sights. They were so neat--and I feel that they are such a great tool to allow students of everyback ground and income to be able to experience the ocean, or to fly down a canyon, or to fly an airplane. It gives the student knowledge and an experience which will allow the student to be able to form ideas and learn--things that would otherwise be impossible to imagine without seeing. I feel like these simulation activities are wonderful to help children think and helps promo creativity. By giving students these experiences they are able to grow and expand their knowledge of the world they live in. It opens up ideas and allows them to do anything. Again I believe that the more experiences and education we can give our students the better off they are and the more likely they are to suceed and be properous individuals.
Then What?
As an educator I will be very open to simulation video's and simulation activities. I feel like it will give my students many experiences to help increase their knowledge and learn. By using these types of interactive simulated video's and activities I can supplement my lessons and give my students more opportunities to learn the concept I am teaching. I thought it was also very useful to know how to use Zamzar in order to be able to permanently download information directly on to my UEN sight. Children with learning disabilities will be able to interact with these stimulative sights and possibly be able to understand and learn better by having the kinesthetic experience and following them at their own pace. From my experiences with my own children I know they love to work on the computer and interact in activities. I feel that this is a positive tool and I do feel it has place in the classroom and I feel that it definitely would be of benefit to my students-I will use it in my class.
Video Reflection
"Millennial Generation"
This video talked about how technology is changing and what students are imagining in the future. I enjoyed listening to these students views on what they see in the future, and what they expect from technology. They want media mobility--which means being able to take media: pictures, music, information, their computer anywhere they choose. To be able to have technology and their media at their fingertips where ever they need it. They also looked to the future and talked about technology which used gesture recognition and finger print identity--to help eliminate identity theft and gave technology security. They also talked about their parents and how sometimes older people aren't as technologically advanced because they are afraid of new things. I think it is important for us all to become a technologically advanced people , it will help the United States continue to prosper.
I loved seeing the interactive video's they were awesome. We talked about the various educational video sites that are popular. We talked about teacher tube in comparison to you tube and disscussed those differences. We learned that teacher tube has comercials unlike Youtube, but that teacher tube was a more reliable source and the links didn't change as often as the links on youtube. We visited the National Geographic sight to see the interactive or "simulation" of an underwater sea kelp forest, and saw the various underwater creatures and fish. It was really neat, and I could see how fun this would be for students. And what a great oportunity for students who haven't had the opportunity to see such a place to be able to have a "simulation" of the ocean, and be able to experience that. We also looked at the Weather Maker sight, and saw how it allowed students to adjust the tempurature and humitidy to make the weather change and experience seasons--very interesting.
So What?
I loved learning about these simulation internet sights. They were so neat--and I feel that they are such a great tool to allow students of everyback ground and income to be able to experience the ocean, or to fly down a canyon, or to fly an airplane. It gives the student knowledge and an experience which will allow the student to be able to form ideas and learn--things that would otherwise be impossible to imagine without seeing. I feel like these simulation activities are wonderful to help children think and helps promo creativity. By giving students these experiences they are able to grow and expand their knowledge of the world they live in. It opens up ideas and allows them to do anything. Again I believe that the more experiences and education we can give our students the better off they are and the more likely they are to suceed and be properous individuals.
Then What?
As an educator I will be very open to simulation video's and simulation activities. I feel like it will give my students many experiences to help increase their knowledge and learn. By using these types of interactive simulated video's and activities I can supplement my lessons and give my students more opportunities to learn the concept I am teaching. I thought it was also very useful to know how to use Zamzar in order to be able to permanently download information directly on to my UEN sight. Children with learning disabilities will be able to interact with these stimulative sights and possibly be able to understand and learn better by having the kinesthetic experience and following them at their own pace. From my experiences with my own children I know they love to work on the computer and interact in activities. I feel that this is a positive tool and I do feel it has place in the classroom and I feel that it definitely would be of benefit to my students-I will use it in my class.
Video Reflection
"Millennial Generation"
This video talked about how technology is changing and what students are imagining in the future. I enjoyed listening to these students views on what they see in the future, and what they expect from technology. They want media mobility--which means being able to take media: pictures, music, information, their computer anywhere they choose. To be able to have technology and their media at their fingertips where ever they need it. They also looked to the future and talked about technology which used gesture recognition and finger print identity--to help eliminate identity theft and gave technology security. They also talked about their parents and how sometimes older people aren't as technologically advanced because they are afraid of new things. I think it is important for us all to become a technologically advanced people , it will help the United States continue to prosper.
Podcasts and Vidcasts
What?
Today we learned about pod casts and vidcasts. It was interesting to realize how quickly technology changes and how ipods continue to upgrade and change. We also learned to shop around when purchasing these items, because there is an enormous difference in prices, and to shop wisely you really need to check several retail stores and sites on the Internet. I enjoyed talking about the various ways vidcasts and pod casts could be used in the classroom and in education. I believe they are amazing and are a great tool to help keep students informed and stay informed about the class when they are absent.
Then What?
I hope that I will be able to use the vidcasts to help in working with my students. I think it would be such a great experience for my students to be able to collaborate and make an educational video or podcast that can be used in our classroom. I feel that by being involved in making a project the students will feel good about their contribution and they will have ownership in the project. I also feel that by making pod casts for my absent students they will be able to understand difficult subjects without having to take class time to repeat --for students who missed the initial lesson. Post casts and vidcasts give more options to the educator on how they want to present information to their students. I enjoyed being able to work together to think of an educational vidcast. It was interesting and amazing to be able to make a film and submit it to YouTube. Very fun to see the end result and learn this technology--it will be very useful in my class.
Now What? As a teacher I will be actively working to engage my students and find out what they are interested in--and encourage them to explore the unknown. I feel that by allowing my students to create their own vidcasts/pod casts they will open a whole new world up. They can help in creating projects that will help enrich our lessons and help them learn in hands on experiences. I will definitely film some lessons so if students struggle or are gone, they will be able to watch the podcast or vidcast and hopefully be able to have another opportunity to understand and learn. I think it is such a great tool, I have actually used vidcasts on YouTube to learn algebra this semester in my college algebra course. It doesn't replace a great teacher who is engaged in teaching, but it does give you opportunities for additional learning time outside of the classroom. All in all I feel that any additional educational pod casts and vidcasts are a great option for students and teachers.
Video Reflection
"Why let kids blog?"
This was a good video to help you see all of the benefits of giving students the opportunity to blog in school. It highlighted the benefits of allowing students to blog, such as giving students ownership of their work, collaboration with other students and helping them learn to share ideas with other students. In addition to these points it also stated that when students are given the opportunity to blog they also are given the opportunity to expand their creativity, and be engaged in a project --which in turn helps them learn to work and reflect on what they are writing and have written, and have a more global way of thinking. As a future teacher I feel it is so important to give students every opportunity to try new technology and expand their knowledge and become efficient at it. By giving students these learning experiences we are helping them expand their learning and prepare for the future--in a digital world.
Today we learned about pod casts and vidcasts. It was interesting to realize how quickly technology changes and how ipods continue to upgrade and change. We also learned to shop around when purchasing these items, because there is an enormous difference in prices, and to shop wisely you really need to check several retail stores and sites on the Internet. I enjoyed talking about the various ways vidcasts and pod casts could be used in the classroom and in education. I believe they are amazing and are a great tool to help keep students informed and stay informed about the class when they are absent.
Then What?
I hope that I will be able to use the vidcasts to help in working with my students. I think it would be such a great experience for my students to be able to collaborate and make an educational video or podcast that can be used in our classroom. I feel that by being involved in making a project the students will feel good about their contribution and they will have ownership in the project. I also feel that by making pod casts for my absent students they will be able to understand difficult subjects without having to take class time to repeat --for students who missed the initial lesson. Post casts and vidcasts give more options to the educator on how they want to present information to their students. I enjoyed being able to work together to think of an educational vidcast. It was interesting and amazing to be able to make a film and submit it to YouTube. Very fun to see the end result and learn this technology--it will be very useful in my class.
Now What?
Video Reflection
"Why let kids blog?"
This was a good video to help you see all of the benefits of giving students the opportunity to blog in school. It highlighted the benefits of allowing students to blog, such as giving students ownership of their work, collaboration with other students and helping them learn to share ideas with other students. In addition to these points it also stated that when students are given the opportunity to blog they also are given the opportunity to expand their creativity, and be engaged in a project --which in turn helps them learn to work and reflect on what they are writing and have written, and have a more global way of thinking. As a future teacher I feel it is so important to give students every opportunity to try new technology and expand their knowledge and become efficient at it. By giving students these learning experiences we are helping them expand their learning and prepare for the future--in a digital world.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
PowerPoint is an Amazing Tool !!!!
What?
Today we talked about using PowerPoint and using it to create learning activities for our students. It was great. I loved working as a group, and enjoyed brainstorming together to think of a fun PowerPoint activity for our project. Together we researched different interesting ideas. Then we searched for pictures on google and created a collection of pictures. I enjoy using PowerPoint, it is so user friendly, I totally enjoying putting together this project and will definitely use this tool in my future classroom.
So What?
Now we will be creating the rest of our presentation. We haven't quite decided exactly the game or activity we want to incorporate into our PowerPoint, but we are thinking about a type of matching game, which will allow the students to be able to see the various choices and make the decisions to which country they are associated with. We are also helping create activities for Dr. Waters to possibly use in her book about PowerPoint. I have enjoyed working with all of these tools in creating this project. I used PowerPoint, Picasa and google documents to make this presentation. I was great to be able to know my way around and know what to do. One skill I had to learn was printing the screen and pasteing it into my google document. That was a bit tricky but after practicing a few times I knew just what to do. I am so glad I have been able to take this technology course, it has taught me amazing things, that I never thought I could accomplish.
Then What?
In using PowerPoint in my classroom I will be able to better engage my students with pictures and facts and sound. I can bring in pictures and information they feel is interesting and help them become more interested in our topics. I still believe the old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words". I feel that by using PowerPoint in our lessons we will be able to make our lessons more meaningful, enjoyable, and bottom line--help our students understand and learn what we are teaching. This tool helps us by giving us the opportunity to use our creativity to produce wonderful educational presentations. I like having the option of making up my own ideas and allowing me the freedom to choose information I feel will suit the students best. I like to be able to edit the information each year according to my students needs and add or eliminate material. Knowing how to use these tools gives me that option. I have loved learning to use all of these tools--They will benefit my students, and help me be a better educator.
Video Reflection
This video showed how much education can positively effect our students lives in and outside of the classroom. It helped us realize that what these students learn and the skills these students gain will be able to help change their futures. It will also give them the knowledge of what they are interested in and help them build the skills to be successful in those areas of interest. I feel it is very important to give children every opportunity to experience life, and to see what is out there for them. By giving them a wide variety of experiences it just helps them develop into a more complex and successful human being.
Today we talked about using PowerPoint and using it to create learning activities for our students. It was great. I loved working as a group, and enjoyed brainstorming together to think of a fun PowerPoint activity for our project. Together we researched different interesting ideas. Then we searched for pictures on google and created a collection of pictures. I enjoy using PowerPoint, it is so user friendly, I totally enjoying putting together this project and will definitely use this tool in my future classroom.
So What?
Now we will be creating the rest of our presentation. We haven't quite decided exactly the game or activity we want to incorporate into our PowerPoint, but we are thinking about a type of matching game, which will allow the students to be able to see the various choices and make the decisions to which country they are associated with. We are also helping create activities for Dr. Waters to possibly use in her book about PowerPoint. I have enjoyed working with all of these tools in creating this project. I used PowerPoint, Picasa and google documents to make this presentation. I was great to be able to know my way around and know what to do. One skill I had to learn was printing the screen and pasteing it into my google document. That was a bit tricky but after practicing a few times I knew just what to do. I am so glad I have been able to take this technology course, it has taught me amazing things, that I never thought I could accomplish.
Then What?
In using PowerPoint in my classroom I will be able to better engage my students with pictures and facts and sound. I can bring in pictures and information they feel is interesting and help them become more interested in our topics. I still believe the old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words". I feel that by using PowerPoint in our lessons we will be able to make our lessons more meaningful, enjoyable, and bottom line--help our students understand and learn what we are teaching. This tool helps us by giving us the opportunity to use our creativity to produce wonderful educational presentations. I like having the option of making up my own ideas and allowing me the freedom to choose information I feel will suit the students best. I like to be able to edit the information each year according to my students needs and add or eliminate material. Knowing how to use these tools gives me that option. I have loved learning to use all of these tools--They will benefit my students, and help me be a better educator.
Video Reflection
This video showed how much education can positively effect our students lives in and outside of the classroom. It helped us realize that what these students learn and the skills these students gain will be able to help change their futures. It will also give them the knowledge of what they are interested in and help them build the skills to be successful in those areas of interest. I feel it is very important to give children every opportunity to experience life, and to see what is out there for them. By giving them a wide variety of experiences it just helps them develop into a more complex and successful human being.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Picassa
What?
Today we talked about using Picasa on the desk top and off the Internet. Initially I couldn't down load pictures onto Picasa, because my computer wouldn't allow the download. But then I was able to download pictures I searched from google image, drag them to my desktop and then I was able to down load them that way. It is great that is is free and gives you all of the options to create and keep images and pictures so efficiently.
So What?
By learning to use Picasa I will be able to take this knowledge into the classroom, and be able to create interesting projects with my students. I will be able take pictures and store them in a safe protected program, that will allow me to use them whenever I choose. This will help me keep my costs down, and allow me to still be creative and have options.
Then What?
I know this will be a great asset for me to use in the future. I will definitely enjoy using it to create classroom collages, and also taking pictures to record progress by my students. I think it will be fun to allow my students the opportunity to create projects also, and have that experience. This seems like a wonderful tool to use in the classroom but also to use anytime.
Today we talked about using Picasa on the desk top and off the Internet. Initially I couldn't down load pictures onto Picasa, because my computer wouldn't allow the download. But then I was able to download pictures I searched from google image, drag them to my desktop and then I was able to down load them that way. It is great that is is free and gives you all of the options to create and keep images and pictures so efficiently.
So What?
By learning to use Picasa I will be able to take this knowledge into the classroom, and be able to create interesting projects with my students. I will be able take pictures and store them in a safe protected program, that will allow me to use them whenever I choose. This will help me keep my costs down, and allow me to still be creative and have options.
Then What?
I know this will be a great asset for me to use in the future. I will definitely enjoy using it to create classroom collages, and also taking pictures to record progress by my students. I think it will be fun to allow my students the opportunity to create projects also, and have that experience. This seems like a wonderful tool to use in the classroom but also to use anytime.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Kidspiration 3/8/10
We didn't have to reflect on this video, but I already watched it earlier and blogged on it--so I'm going to leave it here. It was a good thought provoking video.
Video Reflection
Video Reflection
I enjoyed seeing the old pictures and seeing where we came from. In watching this video it still reminded me that we became great during those pictures, even from such simple beginning--and I still have hope that we will continue to help lead the world in a positive direction.
This was a very informative video and helps us all realize that we aren't necessarily the "top dog" in the world anymore. With the recent economic downturn it is very evident we have some enormous problems to deal with and change--before we will be able to feel that we are a leading nation. I think this is sad, because I still believe in the American Spirit to explore and invent and aspire to higher ground. American invention has been behind most of the major industry and technology we enjoy today--this is where I believe we have the upper hand-we have to option to imagine and know if we work hard we can do great things. China on the other hand, does have an unlimited workforce, but they live suppressed in a country that still doesn't allow it's citizens true freedom to think something contrary to it's government's stand. China has all of the manpower for it's labor force but without the freedom and ability to think outside the box--I don't think they are any further ahead of the other countries.
I do feel however we need to ensure that our children are being taught the latest information and technology available. So we will be able to ensure our position as a world power, because with the education and the unlimited imagination and the freedom to explore--I feel our future can be limitless. Our children also need to know the importance of hard work, we have become a bit lazy-but with the economic problems facing us, we all have had to step up and work harder-- in order to survive. That's a good thing--it makes us appreciate what we have and it makes us stronger.
I do feel that we need to get our economy and government on track--there is much work to be done in fixing our present issues--but we live in a democracy so we are able to vote, to be involved, and be able to change--that's the beauty of the United States we have the freedom to change.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Digital Powerpoint Nutrition
Digital PowerPoint Nutrition Slide Presentation 03/02/2010
http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ddmvmspk_51ccbtxkhh
What?
Today we worked together as a team and created our digital camera /power point presentation. We decided to use nutrition as our presentation, because we found this under the 2nd grade curriculum guide on UEN. We took pictures last week, and brought them to class on an SD card, and also saved on our Gmail accounts. Dr. Water's was out, so we didn't learn about Picasa, but we worked with it while putting our presentation together.
So What?
After we imported all of the various photos we were able to make a plan toward what type of presentation we wanted to build. We decided on a topic then we added pictures and writing and color contrasts as well as information into the presentation. It went fairly well, the program kept freezing up while we were editing the photos and slides. That was frustrating, but eventually we were able to get it all imported and saved and it looked great!
Then What?
I enjoyed working with power point in combining pictures with my entire team. It was a good experience that will help me be able to make more efficient presentations to my class. I feel it is very important to be able to present information in a way that my students will be able to understand and learn what I am teaching. By learning how to create interesting, concise and effective power points for my class, I will be able to use the latest technology to teach, and give my students the opportunity to learn and understand better. I need to be aware of the benefits and work to make sure my presentations are informative, and can hold their attention, and contribute to my lesson. I think power point is a very useful presentation tool, and I will definitely use it in my classroom.
Video Reflection 3/2/2010
This video showed all of the things we should be aware of, while working with power point and putting together slide presentations. It was funny, but also had many good points to remember in order to help you create more effective presentations. It pointed out various problems some people have had when using power point and listening to power point presentations.
By watching this video I was able to see potential problems, and be able to watch for those, and try not to create them in my work. I thought it was interesting and true at how our power points can actually take away from our presentation if not created in a effective way. It high lighted problems like; putting too much information on the slides, making the slides too confusing with color, facts, and grids, and poor background color choices. It also warned against having too many prompts for the presenter--that was funny. It also encouraged you to be careful to just bullet the main key points, not every point you present. That way your audience will be able to focus on your main idea, and not be thinking of many different ideas and facts. Power point can be a powerful tool in teaching if used correctly.
http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ddmvmspk_51ccbtxkhh
What?
Today we worked together as a team and created our digital camera /power point presentation. We decided to use nutrition as our presentation, because we found this under the 2nd grade curriculum guide on UEN. We took pictures last week, and brought them to class on an SD card, and also saved on our Gmail accounts. Dr. Water's was out, so we didn't learn about Picasa, but we worked with it while putting our presentation together.
So What?
After we imported all of the various photos we were able to make a plan toward what type of presentation we wanted to build. We decided on a topic then we added pictures and writing and color contrasts as well as information into the presentation. It went fairly well, the program kept freezing up while we were editing the photos and slides. That was frustrating, but eventually we were able to get it all imported and saved and it looked great!
Then What?
I enjoyed working with power point in combining pictures with my entire team. It was a good experience that will help me be able to make more efficient presentations to my class. I feel it is very important to be able to present information in a way that my students will be able to understand and learn what I am teaching. By learning how to create interesting, concise and effective power points for my class, I will be able to use the latest technology to teach, and give my students the opportunity to learn and understand better. I need to be aware of the benefits and work to make sure my presentations are informative, and can hold their attention, and contribute to my lesson. I think power point is a very useful presentation tool, and I will definitely use it in my classroom.
Video Reflection 3/2/2010
This video showed all of the things we should be aware of, while working with power point and putting together slide presentations. It was funny, but also had many good points to remember in order to help you create more effective presentations. It pointed out various problems some people have had when using power point and listening to power point presentations.
By watching this video I was able to see potential problems, and be able to watch for those, and try not to create them in my work. I thought it was interesting and true at how our power points can actually take away from our presentation if not created in a effective way. It high lighted problems like; putting too much information on the slides, making the slides too confusing with color, facts, and grids, and poor background color choices. It also warned against having too many prompts for the presenter--that was funny. It also encouraged you to be careful to just bullet the main key points, not every point you present. That way your audience will be able to focus on your main idea, and not be thinking of many different ideas and facts. Power point can be a powerful tool in teaching if used correctly.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Mashup Reflection
What??
I thought this was an interesting video. I was amazed at how all of the various video clips fit together to form one original music clip. It showed talent by the collaborator, to even think to assemble such a collection. It was very creative- The music was fun, and it was great to see all of the different musicians and instruments combined--yet seperate. Cool idea.
So What??
How does this clip influence teaching? By learning to collect and collaborate information from all of the various media, as educators we will be able and enhance our lessons. I thought this video helped me to see another idea, and helped me be able to see the benefit of collecting previously designed and presented ideas, and be able to adjust them to use for my needs as an educator. This would indeed save time and energy on my part when preparing for my lessons. It reminds me of the saying, "Why re-invent the wheel?" We can pick and choose the information and media we require for a lesson, and then go in and find it, adapt it to what we need, and gain the positive benefits it offers without having to spend hours preparing it.
I feel this is an important element available to teachers and would definitely benefit my class.
I thought this was an interesting video. I was amazed at how all of the various video clips fit together to form one original music clip. It showed talent by the collaborator, to even think to assemble such a collection. It was very creative- The music was fun, and it was great to see all of the different musicians and instruments combined--yet seperate. Cool idea.
So What??
How does this clip influence teaching? By learning to collect and collaborate information from all of the various media, as educators we will be able and enhance our lessons. I thought this video helped me to see another idea, and helped me be able to see the benefit of collecting previously designed and presented ideas, and be able to adjust them to use for my needs as an educator. This would indeed save time and energy on my part when preparing for my lessons. It reminds me of the saying, "Why re-invent the wheel?" We can pick and choose the information and media we require for a lesson, and then go in and find it, adapt it to what we need, and gain the positive benefits it offers without having to spend hours preparing it.
Then What??
I would be able to use this idea in my classroom. By having my students work together on different projects, and learn to combine all of their ideas, media, and information into a group collection or "collage' ", they will be able to present a group project that still allows each individual the opportunity to shine separately.
I feel this is an important element available to teachers and would definitely benefit my class.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Internet Safety In the Classroom
Internet use in Education
What??
We live in a time of amazing technology. With the invention of the computer and the internet, we have vast amounts of information available right at our fingertips. In learning about the internet and the dangers it can pose to children, as educators we need to be aware of these dangers and help ensure that our students are educated and protected against any possible problems.
I feel that we definitely need to include the internet in education. The internet has opened up an enormous window of knowledge available to our students, ourselves, and our lessons. Obviously we need to teach our students how to use it correctly and safely. This will come through our education of the internet as educators, and how we are able to teach our students--so they will know how to use the internet to their advantage.
So What?
After going through this lesson I was impressed with all of the resources out there to help educate chidren, and also parents. Many times when children are caught in a difficult situation it's because they haven't had the benefit of a parent monitoring them. Parents need to be resposible when allowing their children to use the internet. Children need guidance, and education in order to work on the internet safely.
When evaluating web sites an educator should look at some of the following information inorder to chose sites which will best serve their class.
Internet Website Evaluation for Educators
1) Is the spelling and grammar correct within the web site and it's documents?
2) Does this site take a long time to load?
3) When was the document created?
4) Does the information seem biased in some way by the writer?
5) Does the information contradict information from another source?
6) Is the data current and up to date.
7) Does the domain on the web site include one of the following K12, edu, com, org, or gov. in it's url address?
8) Are the links clearly visible and annotated or explanartory?
There are also rules I plan to teach my students to ensure they have a good experience on the computer, and if they have a situation they can't handle that they will know to go to their parents, or me as their teacher. The following are some rules which I plan to include in their internet safety lesson.
Internet Rules for Children:
First, remember never to give out personal information such as your name, home address, school name, or telephone number in a chat room or on bulletin boards. Also, never send a picture of yourself to someone you chat with on the computer without your parent's permission.
Never write to someone who has made you feel uncomfortable or scared.
Do not meet someone or have them visit you without the permission of your parents.
Tell your parents right away if you read anything on the Internet that makes you feel uncomfortable.
Remember that people online may not be who they say they are. Someone who says that "she" is a "12-year-old girl" could really be an older man.
Then What?
The internet is an important tool for students and educators. By preparing our students through internet safety education we can help ensure they have the knowledge necessary to use the internet safely. This will help them be able to use the internet and benefit from the information resources there. By giving them opportunities to explore and have positive experiences with the internet they will build their knowledge of technology and also feel the "spirit of discovery" which will definitely help them succeed.
What??
We live in a time of amazing technology. With the invention of the computer and the internet, we have vast amounts of information available right at our fingertips. In learning about the internet and the dangers it can pose to children, as educators we need to be aware of these dangers and help ensure that our students are educated and protected against any possible problems.
I feel that we definitely need to include the internet in education. The internet has opened up an enormous window of knowledge available to our students, ourselves, and our lessons. Obviously we need to teach our students how to use it correctly and safely. This will come through our education of the internet as educators, and how we are able to teach our students--so they will know how to use the internet to their advantage.
So What?
After going through this lesson I was impressed with all of the resources out there to help educate chidren, and also parents. Many times when children are caught in a difficult situation it's because they haven't had the benefit of a parent monitoring them. Parents need to be resposible when allowing their children to use the internet. Children need guidance, and education in order to work on the internet safely.
When evaluating web sites an educator should look at some of the following information inorder to chose sites which will best serve their class.
Internet Website Evaluation for Educators
1) Is the spelling and grammar correct within the web site and it's documents?
2) Does this site take a long time to load?
3) When was the document created?
4) Does the information seem biased in some way by the writer?
5) Does the information contradict information from another source?
6) Is the data current and up to date.
7) Does the domain on the web site include one of the following K12, edu, com, org, or gov. in it's url address?
8) Are the links clearly visible and annotated or explanartory?
There are also rules I plan to teach my students to ensure they have a good experience on the computer, and if they have a situation they can't handle that they will know to go to their parents, or me as their teacher. The following are some rules which I plan to include in their internet safety lesson.
Internet Rules for Children:
First, remember never to give out personal information such as your name, home address, school name, or telephone number in a chat room or on bulletin boards. Also, never send a picture of yourself to someone you chat with on the computer without your parent's permission.
Never write to someone who has made you feel uncomfortable or scared.
Do not meet someone or have them visit you without the permission of your parents.
Tell your parents right away if you read anything on the Internet that makes you feel uncomfortable.
Remember that people online may not be who they say they are. Someone who says that "she" is a "12-year-old girl" could really be an older man.
Then What?
The internet is an important tool for students and educators. By preparing our students through internet safety education we can help ensure they have the knowledge necessary to use the internet safely. This will help them be able to use the internet and benefit from the information resources there. By giving them opportunities to explore and have positive experiences with the internet they will build their knowledge of technology and also feel the "spirit of discovery" which will definitely help them succeed.
Internet Safety /Video
This wasn't my favorite video so far in the course, however the information it contained was definitely very important for us to consider as we are going to be working directly with children and they will be working on the Internet.
I thought it was probably more interesting to children and teens, with the music and bright colors. I do think it would have been better if the information displayed about the various rules, slowed down a bit before the next question came up. It seemed to really run through the information and I wonder if the children would be able to catch it all and understand.
Older children would probably not have a problem, but for the K-6 I feel it displayed everything too quickly.
These were very important rules that every student working on the Internet should be taught before being allowed on the computer. There are so many threats out there waiting for any opportunity to take advantage of the innocent, lets work together to ensure it's not one of our children or students. Education is definitely the key.
I thought it was probably more interesting to children and teens, with the music and bright colors. I do think it would have been better if the information displayed about the various rules, slowed down a bit before the next question came up. It seemed to really run through the information and I wonder if the children would be able to catch it all and understand.
Older children would probably not have a problem, but for the K-6 I feel it displayed everything too quickly.
These were very important rules that every student working on the Internet should be taught before being allowed on the computer. There are so many threats out there waiting for any opportunity to take advantage of the innocent, lets work together to ensure it's not one of our children or students. Education is definitely the key.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Video Reflection/ Sir Ken Robinson
I thought this video was dead on. I agreed with Sir Ken Robinson that we have definitely lost our appreciation of creativity in education as well as in our society. I felt that Mr Robinson gave some real facts and ideas that really helped me think about his topic.
He talked about subjects that I will keep in mind as I start teaching and what I need to include in my classroom. As an educator I hope that I will encourage them to reach, and encourage them to try--and possibly fail--but to possibly learn and accomplish something amazing.
I do agree that we have been taught over our lives that mistakes are bad, and even as an adult -I hate to make mistakes and I'm always working to achieve perfection, and I am so excited when my children bring home a straight A report card--but am I helping them?
I remembered thinking my child was amazing when she brought her picture back from challenger preschool. It was exceptional, my child was an artist....then I noticed that every other child coming from that classroom had the same picture of the frog--they all looked alike--their teacher showed them how to make a frog--every stroke, every color--giving the children absolutely no opportunity to be original, or give their view of what a frog should look like. Yes, it was amazing, but it was just assembly line art, I have learned that I like the original frogs better--now that this child is in Middle School.
I really feel as a society and as teachers we need to focus on the whole student and on their human worth, and on their happiness, and encouraging them--in every subject they choose. This was a great video, it made me think, and it made me "rethink" some of my values and ideas--and it helped me to continue to form my opinion of what is truly important--it's the students and their future --not just making sure they know algebra and language arts-it's the whole package.
He talked about subjects that I will keep in mind as I start teaching and what I need to include in my classroom. As an educator I hope that I will encourage them to reach, and encourage them to try--and possibly fail--but to possibly learn and accomplish something amazing.
I do agree that we have been taught over our lives that mistakes are bad, and even as an adult -I hate to make mistakes and I'm always working to achieve perfection, and I am so excited when my children bring home a straight A report card--but am I helping them?
I remembered thinking my child was amazing when she brought her picture back from challenger preschool. It was exceptional, my child was an artist....then I noticed that every other child coming from that classroom had the same picture of the frog--they all looked alike--their teacher showed them how to make a frog--every stroke, every color--giving the children absolutely no opportunity to be original, or give their view of what a frog should look like. Yes, it was amazing, but it was just assembly line art, I have learned that I like the original frogs better--now that this child is in Middle School.
I really feel as a society and as teachers we need to focus on the whole student and on their human worth, and on their happiness, and encouraging them--in every subject they choose. This was a great video, it made me think, and it made me "rethink" some of my values and ideas--and it helped me to continue to form my opinion of what is truly important--it's the students and their future --not just making sure they know algebra and language arts-it's the whole package.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
What is UEN? Part 1
What?
What in the world is UEN? This may be a question most people outside education would ask themselves. This week I learned all about UEN (Utah Education Network) and all of the information available to educators. I was again amazed by the collection and volume of sites available for educators to enrich their lessons and help give students access to the latest and most up to date information and teaching methods. As I worked within the UEN website this week I have learned so much and also have realized major differences between UEN compared to that of Google.
So What?
I am excited to go into the field and use this tool to teach. I know it will benefit me now also, as I am going into the core education program this coming fall. UEN will give me access to all of the necessary areas I will be learning about and training in. By being able to gather information and materials before I start teaching I will be more prepared to be successful in teaching. Just in working on the scavenger hunt this week, I was amazed by all of the media and information available for use. I also learned about the quality of the information on the UEN. UEN sources are based on research, and rated on learning levels so a teacher is able to chose appropriate material for each lesson, and not have to worry if there is something inappropriate for her students. I ran into this problem while working on google--while looking up a clip art picture for a project, I ran into nude pictures, just looking for Valentines. I am so glad to learn about UEN and it's sources so I don't have to worry about my students being exposed to inappropriate material.
I liked the ability it gives teachers to stay current on core curriculum and lessons plans used within the district and all over the US and world. I think by seeing all of the options, I will be able to adapt my lesson to fit my students so they can understand. I like all of the information available--amazing. I also like all of the inter actives I can download for my students to use and help them internalize the lessons and concepts I am trying to teach.
I feel like the Pioneer Library also offers students the tools to succeed and be able to research and dig into their reports and subjects and learn everything possible about anything they want to learn about. It's options are limitless.
How will this help?
I am so happy to learn about UEN and be able to be use this site to benefit my students and also help me succeed as an educator. I will be able to connect with all areas of education in Utah, and find the basic curriculum as well as connect with other teachers and collect material for my classroom. By having the UVU students learn these computer skills and learn about UEN I feel that UVU is definitely preparing it's students to be great teachers. I also like the ability it gives teachers to stay in contact with their students and parents. This helps in keeping everyone informed on assignments, what is being taught in class, and what is needed. I also feel that the open collaboration of materials is so helpful to teachers, it's free-and with all of the cuts in education during our recession, we definitely need that. I feel that UEN is a wonderful tool for everyone, students as well as educators.
What in the world is UEN? This may be a question most people outside education would ask themselves. This week I learned all about UEN (Utah Education Network) and all of the information available to educators. I was again amazed by the collection and volume of sites available for educators to enrich their lessons and help give students access to the latest and most up to date information and teaching methods. As I worked within the UEN website this week I have learned so much and also have realized major differences between UEN compared to that of Google.
So What?
I am excited to go into the field and use this tool to teach. I know it will benefit me now also, as I am going into the core education program this coming fall. UEN will give me access to all of the necessary areas I will be learning about and training in. By being able to gather information and materials before I start teaching I will be more prepared to be successful in teaching. Just in working on the scavenger hunt this week, I was amazed by all of the media and information available for use. I also learned about the quality of the information on the UEN. UEN sources are based on research, and rated on learning levels so a teacher is able to chose appropriate material for each lesson, and not have to worry if there is something inappropriate for her students. I ran into this problem while working on google--while looking up a clip art picture for a project, I ran into nude pictures, just looking for Valentines. I am so glad to learn about UEN and it's sources so I don't have to worry about my students being exposed to inappropriate material.
I liked the ability it gives teachers to stay current on core curriculum and lessons plans used within the district and all over the US and world. I think by seeing all of the options, I will be able to adapt my lesson to fit my students so they can understand. I like all of the information available--amazing. I also like all of the inter actives I can download for my students to use and help them internalize the lessons and concepts I am trying to teach.
I feel like the Pioneer Library also offers students the tools to succeed and be able to research and dig into their reports and subjects and learn everything possible about anything they want to learn about. It's options are limitless.
How will this help?
I am so happy to learn about UEN and be able to be use this site to benefit my students and also help me succeed as an educator. I will be able to connect with all areas of education in Utah, and find the basic curriculum as well as connect with other teachers and collect material for my classroom. By having the UVU students learn these computer skills and learn about UEN I feel that UVU is definitely preparing it's students to be great teachers. I also like the ability it gives teachers to stay in contact with their students and parents. This helps in keeping everyone informed on assignments, what is being taught in class, and what is needed. I also feel that the open collaboration of materials is so helpful to teachers, it's free-and with all of the cuts in education during our recession, we definitely need that. I feel that UEN is a wonderful tool for everyone, students as well as educators.
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