Week One

I am not currently an educator, so my responses are purely hypothetical, but all of them have been given great thought and I know that having considered our lessons and the questions that come along with them will provide me great insight when I do venture into the classroom.

Weekly Questions 

- What did you learn this week that you will use immediately in your classroom? 

The thing that has stuck with me the most from this week's studies is this YouTube video: A Vision of Today's Students - I can empathize with the statements featured in the video and the video put a focus on, at least for me, one of the main problems with technology. Although technology can be a valuable source in the quest for education, it has also created a great divide among educators and students and, in a lot of cases, provides more distraction than assistance. Also, the staggering amount of technology accessed compared to the dismal number of books read actually disheartens me and brings me to the lesson I want to take from it, and into the classroom:

The old ways are still important and valid. There may come a time when technology fails us and those people who remember and appreciate the old ways will be the saviors. While I will definitely use technology to enrich and inform my classroom, I plan to hold fast to the classroom experience, where I am the purveyor of knowledge and a real-life, walking, talking human being who will force her students to come out from behind their phones and computers and have valuable and eye-opening real-life experiences and social interactions.   
 
- What steps will you take to implement this in your classroom?

I plan to give all of my students a paper journal at the beginning of our class time together and will give them time to write in it every day. Those journals will be turned into me for a grade, with students being able to somehow indicate sections that they don't want read (as long as it isn't the entire journal of course!), so that I will know that my students spend at least some time communicating in a way that has nothing to do with technology past the invention of the pen!
 
- What challenge(s) will you face when using this in your classroom? 

Students these days are so enamored of their technological devices that enforcing time spent completely devoid of technology will probably prove a challenge. Also, students will probably struggle for topics about which to write and will probably not enjoy the task, at least at first.
 
- What will you do to overcome the challenge(s)? 

I hope to inspire in my students the knowledge that, there is much beauty to be found in the tactical experience of writing, that our computers and phones will never know the exact and unique pressure that we apply to paper with our pens, will never show wear in years to come, allowing us to experience the passage of time. As far as students struggling for topics, I will give prompts to those who need one and will encourage the absolutely free expression of ideas.

Tech Explorations 

Tech Exploration 1 - PB Works

1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.

In exploring the PBworks resource, I was pleased to discover that the company offers portals for multiple industries and at multiple levels within those industries. Diversification will most likely have provided PBworks with insight into how to improve all of their products – I currently work in the corporate environment and it has been surprising to me how much good corporate/professional skills overlap with the skills we are trying to develop as educators. The schools who provide case studies for the site all seem to find the programs easy to use and useful in their particular situations. It was interesting to be provided with a link to The International Academy’s PBworks hub and to see the layout, which does look very much, as far as site navigation is concerned, like a social networking site, which most students and teachers are already familiar with using.

2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.

This resource appears as though it would be exceptional at providing an open forum for classroom, or even school, wide collaboration and communication. The International Academy started using it for a single project, but it snowballed into a school-wide phenomenon for them; thus, it appears that PBworks could be useful in almost any incidence in which collaboration among a group of any size is needed.

3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?

I would recommend this resource to other educators. It has the appearance of being quite user-friendly and, I believe that a collaborative, encouraging environment with open communication is the most nurturing school environment possible – this site and others like it provide an avenue for that to be provided. I do wonder if there are controls in place that monitor content, so that students cannot publish vulgar or otherwise inappropriate content. Also, the fees charged for editions beyond the free basic edition, seem to be reasonable, especially given the apparent benefits of utilizing a resource such as this one.

Tech Exploration 2 - Tumblebooks

1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.


This resource appears to be a fun, colorful, and interactive program that encourages children to read. Having games that go along with the books is a wonderful idea as it integrates and correlates reading with the development of valuable memory and comprehension skills – I played one of the memory games and even found myself a bit challenged when it came to completing the puzzle. As literacy is my biggest concern as, not only a future educator, but as a member of society, the fact that there are resources that encourage reading by making it entertaining and fun so that we can get children reading WELL at a young age is fantastic. The read-along category is well-animated and visual so as to provide cues to younger students who are not yet reading as well as older children who may be having a little trouble.

2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.

I can see this resource being especially useful in a computer lab environment, where students read and explore at their own pace. I come from an area where classrooms do not have ample computers for all students in the room, so using the program as a class would not be a viable option except in situations where a computer lab or library lab have been reserved. I also think that this would be a good tool to establish a rewards system.

3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?


I would recommend this resource to other educators, obviously only those who are working with younger students and students with disabilities and learning issues who are not performing at current grade level and need special accommodations to promote their achieving grade level status. The site is just so VIVID and interactive that younger students would have a great time with it. I do think that giving specific homework type assignments that involve accessing the site is problematic and should be avoided, at least in my area, where many children do not have personal computers in their own homes.

Tech Exploration 3 - Mr. Langhorst's Classroom Website

1. Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.


This resource features a link to Mr. Langhorst’s blog, which discusses his experiences as an educator. His blog paints him as an enthusiastic and engaging educator and, although the posts are relatively infrequent, they are informative and very interesting. The podcasts to which he links on his blog page focus on historical information – in this age of technology, podcasts are just another way of getting the information to the students; thus, as far as accessibility goes, podcasts seem like a useful tool. The classroom website itself, though, is very dated with the dates on the front page being in 2007.  

2. How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.


Podcasts are an interesting way of bringing the world into the classroom. While students may become bored if all of their lessons come directly from their teacher, bringing someone else into the class may be useful, even if it is only digitally. I can see this resource being very useful in the event that a class is being taught by a substitute. In my school experiences, days where classes were overseen by a substitute ended up being “free” days where we were told to read from our textbooks or some such, but where most students ended up talking and goofing off. Telling one’s substitute to play a podcast and then assign the students the task of composing a written response due when their regular teacher returns, seems like a good way of making sure that some instruction is accomplished during the absence.  


3. Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?


Mr. Langhorst’s Classroom Website – I would recommend the blog and the podcasts to which it provides links, but I would not recommend the classroom website itself, even though the teacher resource page does provide some links to applications and resources. Most of the programs on the resource page are dated and the recommended links could probably be located with just a small bit of research on the part of the teacher. The blog, though, with its fun and informative bent, and the podcasts, each focusing on a different facet of history, both seem very useful.