Technology in Education; looking back and looking forward

https://www.wcsu.edu/technology/techrooms/images/ws219.jpg

Wow! What a great experience. Though the ten weeks journey through technoloy was not easy for me but I have no regret. This class has really equipped me with many great technological tools to make me a better teacher ready to inspire and effectively facilitate children’s learning. This class has shaped my thoughts about technology. I used to think that technology is not something that young children need. At first, I thought technology in the classroom would be difficult for young children to use. But, it is really interactive, fun and they seem to enjoy the use of it. Students seem to understand the material better through its use of visuals manipulations. It brings into the classroom new ways of thinking, which is definitely a higher way of thinking. I have also realized that technology in the classroom allows the teacher to be more of a facilitator rather than a lecturer. This allows the students to investigate material on their own. Technology allows students to be in control of their own learning from any place and any time. Unlike before it was only in the classroom that the students can find the learning material. Technology provides students the ability to get the information they need anytime from anywhere, without being in the physical classroom under the presence of the teacher. In addition, technology in the classroom provides students media for self-expression. Before, students’ works were only seen in notebooks. Students today have access to variety for tools such as PowerPoint and prezi presentations, blogging, and so on to display their work. Although, technology is a great thing to have in have in the classroom, it must be used in moderation and also in the right way. From this class, I have learned that technology in the classroom has many valuable tools and resources that will help both teachers and students to effectively teach, learn, and make learning interactive and fun. Some tools and resources that I found cool and will use in my classroom are; wordle, blabberize, QR codes, glogster, popplet and prezi.

StrangerMine

I found this digital investigation discussion a great learning experience. It has alerted me to be watchful of how I use today’s social networking Medias. Today’s use of social networking has paved ways for people to be digitally identified. In one of my technology class discussions, my mate and I were asked to do a stranger search. In this activity, what we did was use different sites to tap information on a person we did not know. Repeated this activity with me and to my surprise, all information about me popped out: from my family to job life. I never stopped asking myself questions like who put me here and when was it posted. It was shocking to know that everything about me is out there. Can I erase or remove this information? The answer is no. It is like my digital tattoo; it is highly visible and hard to remove.

http://wiki.ubc.ca/images/1/11/DigitalTatoo.jpg

It is true that social networking is a great way of leverage opportunities for social interaction and personal marketing. It seems fun and enjoying, sharing pictures and many more through social networking sites. However, I feel that caution must be taken as to what and how information is shared. Also, before posting anything on the internet, we should look at how that information could affect lives down the road: For example, posting kids pictures might be cute but would other people embrace them or how would the kids feel if their college mates see it? I feel that it is important that all students be educated about using social networking to create their digital tattoo. This will serve as a guide for posting things online. Students will be careful not to harm their reputation by what they post on the internet. They need to know that the digital tattoo, or image that they put out there, is how others will see them.

Tech Tac Toe tool 1 - QR Codes

What is QR Code?

QR Code simply stands for quick response. It is a scannable image in the form of barcode used to take informations. QR Codes can be read using smart phones and other devices that link directly to text, email, website, and more.

QR Code in the classroom:

 QR Codes are great ways to capture the attention of students and make teaching and learning more interactive and fun. The following are some QR Code generators that are simple to use:

http://www.qrcode-monkey.com/
http://www.qrstuff.com/
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
 

Sample QR Code lesson:

This is a QR Code lesson I created for my 2nd grader to practice her spelling words from school. In this lesson, I made QR Codes for the spelling words (start, spark, farm, park, art, dark, and part) and displayed them on a wall. My daughter was then presented with the sheet below and an iPad to scan the codes to find and write the spelling word the match each clue.
 1. To begin
 2. Where pigs and cows live
 3. Not bright
 4. Not whole
 5. A grassy area
 6. A painting
 7. A flash of light

 Experience: I found this tool cool and easy to use in the classroom once you become familiar with it. It was interesting how I used QR Codes to capture my eight years old daughter's attention and to get her to perform tasks and assignments from school.
Using QR codes is  fun and exciting way to help facilitate childrens' learning both at home and school. It can be used in many different ways and for different things to moltivate and encourage learning. I do recommend this tool for teachers of all grade to make learning and teaching easier, interactive, and fun. Tech Tac Toe tool 1 - QR Codes

Tech Tac Toe tool ( wordle)

 Wordle: 
Wordle is a tool for creating text clouds from any text you choose. It is fast, simple, and can be used for many different things in the classroom for students. Words that appear bigger represent the most occurring words in the text. Using wordle is a great way to teach children many things such as spelling words, story predictions, vocabulary, and many more. It is visual and also the colors make it attractive and inviting for students to engage.
To create, go to http://www.wordle.net/

Experience: Creating wordle was much easier than I thought. I just copied my text and pasted it into the website and used the randomize botton to select the style that I wanted. Eventhough, I experienced some difficulty placing it into my website and into this blog, I still had fun using it and my kids seemed to enjoy using it.

Sample lesson: 
Below is word cloud I used to introduce the book, "Presidents' Day" to my five year old son. I copied and pasted into wordle.net and then used layout, color and font bottons to designed it the way I like. In this activity, I asked my son to look at the wordle to predict what kind of book we were going to read. I asked, " what do you think these words talk about? He answered: I think it's about Presidents because I see a lot of presidents in it. " Can you form a sentence with any of the words you see on this chart?, I asked. "Yes, it's President Day today, " he responded.

Tech Tac Toe tool ( wordle) Tech Tac Toe tool ( wordle)

Tech Tac Toe tool (Blabber)

Blabberize

Blabberize is a tool that allows a person to speak through pictures. It is a cool tool for students to manipulate pictures to say anything they want to say. In the classroom, blabberize can be used to do different things such as to give book report, create biography, introduce themselves at the beginning of school, etc. Teachers can also use it give directions to tasks and assignments. To create blabber, you go to: http://blabberize.com/make   upload an image and follow the directions on the screen.


Sample lesson:
http://blabberize.com/view/id/1095536
The above website displays a blabber that I created to help my daughter participate in a natural conservation performance at her school. In this blabber, my daughter through singing demonstrated ways to conserve water, trees, air, and soil.
I found blabber an interesting tool get students, especially the shy ones to talk and participate in a group or to perform tasks of any kind. When my daughter was presented with the natural resource task, she told me, " Mommy I can't sing in front of everybody because I'm shy," and she decided not to present. However, with my introduction of blabber, she became excited to participate in the school's performance.


Experience:
Creating this blabber was difficult than my other tools. The most difficult part for me was placing the mouth to move the correct way. But after series of try it came up right.  Please enjoy the beautiful art of a 2nd grader.    Tech Tac Toe tool (Blabber)

PLN Assignment

Educational Resource
  In this resource, eduTopia reported on students feedbacks on the topic: Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement. According to this information, students were asked to explain they feel engaged in the classroom. Students reported that they feel more engaged when they have the opportunity to:

• interact with peers
• have variety of activities on a topic
• be respected and heard in terms of capabilities
• freedom to make decisions on assignments and other choices
• have visuals to aid their understanding
• work with technology
• connect the real world experiences to the work done in the classroom
• have open time for some fun things to do.

  I think this is a great and relevant topic for all educators in the journey of helping  students learn and to succeed in life. Educators should be able to listen to the needs of their students in order to  have open ways for collaborative efforts to make positive changes to their former ways of teaching and the whole classroom experience. Also, teachers are able to transform students learning by planning instructions based on feedbacks from students conversations. For example, two students can arrive at the same answer to a problem but with different strategies.

   Here is the link to the resource: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-engagement-stories-heather-wolpert-gawron?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=blog-kids-speak-out-question

PLN & EdChat
    I had a hard time finding a chat to participate in because my work schedule always coincides with the chat schedule. I also found it difficult chatting from the, "Twubs.com. I did not know where to type in my opinions to the discussions. However, it was a nice learning experience just reading other peoples responses to how different  art experiences can be used to inspire students learning in the classroom.

Here is a link to my twitter account: https://twitter.com/feliciacobbah


Screenshot of my Edchat

From the webinar presented by Susan Oxnevad on Wednesday January 22nd, 2014 about SAMR, I learned what SAMR is and how it is used as one of the tools to integrate technology into the classroom. According to Susan the SAMR is a model designed to help both teachers and students to integrate technology into the classroom to provide higher level of interactivity and stimulation. According to Susan SAMR involves four levels which offer different experience for students as they move up on the levels. The four levels are: Substitution: This is used to perform similar tasks as done by computers. For example, at this level students can print out worksheet. Augmentation: At this level, tasks such as spell checks, collage, quizzes, copying and other common task can be done using this level. It also provides instant feedback of students to check their understanding of a concept. Modification: At this level students are allowed to redesign tasks, use multimedia plays, and other collaborations to accomplish new goals. Redefinition: At the redefiniton level, students create new tasks such as collaborating with others to create one final product. It allows students to use other tools like wiki and other outside source information to complete tasks. Other cool tools that I found interesting using with the SAMR were Wikispaces, Thinglink, and Google Docs. I think this is a great model every educator needs to learn and used in order to make learning interactive and simulating. I really like how the SAMR model allows students and teachers to see their own progression in terms of learning and facilitation as they move along the various levels. I found the webinar a very cool technological experience. Entry into the classroom was easier than I thought and the presenter was also knowledgeable and clear about the materials. The information was also relevant to the course. I will love to participate in the next webinar session.