I have learned several things in this class. I have learned that technology can be very useful in the classroom, especially with my students. I have learned that I can use photostories to create social stories for my students. I have also learned creative ways to use blogs and wikis to allow my students to practice certain skills. I have learned that there are a lot of reasons why teachers may not use technology in their classrooms, and that it does take some time and effort to use technology effectively within the classroom. I came to this class with a very realistic view of how things are in the world, but this class challenged us to not look at the way things are, but the way they should be. Teachers should try to go above and beyond for their students to make a difference in their lives. Everything is not cut and dry, and sometimes teachers need to get outside of their comfort zones to teach students effectively.

What I have learned

In this class, I have learned about numerous ways to use technology in order to make learning more fun and enagaging for students. Some of these ways include the use of wikis, photostories, podcasts, and Inspiration. I especially enjoyed learning about technology uses that allow for student teamwork and collaboration. I have also learned about the importance of using technology, not just for technology's sake, but to enhance and facilitate deeper learning. I enjoyed the class we had on project-based learning and the excitement and opportunities that it can provide for students. I have learned some new ways to incorporate technology that I had not thought of before. I also learned how to utilize new types of technology and applications that I had not been exposed to previous to this class. I plan to incorporate several things that we learned in this class into my future classroom cirriculum.

EDMD 7210

In this class I have learned a lot about different types of technologies that can be used in the classroom. I also feel like I gained more confidence in working with the technology that was newer for me. As a teacher, I see the benefit and importance of using technology in the classroom. I plan on using the things that I have learned in this class in my own classroom to help benefit my students. In this class I also gained a newer perspective on different types of technology and also more creative ways to use them in the classroom.

What I've learned this Semester

Throughout the semester I have learned not only how to use new tools of technology, but the positives and negatives of using technology in the classroom. The tool that I will take the most from is the photostory. I plan to use the photo story when I have my own classroom. Photostory allows you to select pictures of an event or person and put music in the background. This can be a very effective opening activity to a lesson that can introduce a new topic in an interesting way. The podcast is a very unique tool that can be used in the classroom. Most students have an IPod and posting study guide podcasts allows students to "study on the go." The articles we read every week for discussions gave me an insight on what research what saying about using technology in the classroom. We also read articles that gave me insight on ways to effectively incorporate technology in the classroom.

I have a learned a lot from this course. All the technologies that we learned, such as how to create a photostory, how to create a wiki and how to use twitter, were all new to me. I also learned why some teachers are reluctant to implement new technologies into their classrooms. The most important thing that I learned is that technology should be used as a tool to help supplement lesson plans and that teaching strategies can be adjusted to include technology. I think most of the technologies that we studied in class will benefit my future students.

Week 14 Reflection-Katie

The material presented in this class has been a mixture between review and new items. I think the most helpful skill I will take away from the class is how to operate programs such as audacity and photostory and how to use a wiki. It can be difficult to break down technology for young children sometimes but I think by becoming familiar with the programs I will be able to do so now for my class. Learning how to use a wiki will be helpful later on when creating a website for my classroom to share with coworkers or parents at home. Also knowing that websites like that are out there is a great search tool for new ideas for my own lessons. The most important thing I will take away is that technology is changing quickly and we need to keep up in order to better educate our students and prepare them for a technology rich future.

I feel like I have learned alot in this class--before I took this class, I only thought of technology as the Internet (google and email) and word-processing software. Now, I know that there is so much more out there that I can access and actually use. Technology has always been inimidating to me because I never really had to use it, but in this class, I have had the opportunity to actually try out using different programs and see that they aren't as complicated as I thought. In fact, some of the programs seem like they would be really interesting to students, as well as easy to use. Applications like PhotoStory and podcasts seem like they would be a great avenue for students to express their ideas, rather than having them submit a more traditional paper and pencil assignment. The most important thing I think that I have learned is how huge a resource the Internet really is... There is so much information out there, but I haven't ever sat down and thought about how I could use it to my advantage in the classroom. The APTPlus, for example--they have great information on so many topics that is waiting to be used.

What I have learned in this class?

From this class I have learned the importance of using technology and how to incorporate it into my classroom. I also have become aware of the hindrances that I will face while trying to complete this task. This class has provided me with the knowledge of many different forms of technology such as: photostory, wikis, blogs, podcast, etc. I am excited to take what I have learned and incorporate it into my classroom instruction one day!

What I have learned in this class!

I have learned many new technologies to use in my classroom. I have never used photo story or a wiki before and I think both will be very helpful in my classroom. I have also learned more about certain technologies. I have used blogs and discussion boards before as well as windows movie maker and audacity, but I learned new ways to use this technology and gear it toward my classroom such as review for tests or discussions with other classrooms. I feel this class has taught me a great deal about how the internet works and ways to create websites I never knew before. The class has also given me a different perspective on spreading technology to other schools and around the world. This class has been very practical for me in learning new skills, but I also feel that the class has given me greater confidence in using technology in the classroom. I look forward to implementing the different things I have learned in my class.

Reflection

The most valuable knowledge I have gleaned from this course has been the practical skills and knowledge associated with applications such as Audacity and Photostory, both of which I have already implemented in my classroom to expand on existing technologies. While I enjoyed the class discussions and debates over technology use, I believe that there is no longer a question of "Should we use technology?" The debate should be over appropriate uses and specific program strengths. Training in 21st century technologies and Web 2.0 applications is as essential to student success in modern era as skills in math and writing. Thus, I believe it was the practical, hands on knowledge gained in programs that were immediately useful that I would consider the greatest assets to my education.

What I have learned

The most significant knowledge that I am taking away from this class is how to implement technology into my lessons in small, interesting ways without overwhelming myself. As many of our assigned readings pointed out, many teachers who struggle with the notion of using technology in their lessons have preconceived notions that technology isn't worthwhile or that it takes too much time.

In this class, I have found that technology can be simple and efficient, too. For example, I really enjoyed learning more about how to use Photo Story for educational purposes. I went to a workshop on this topic last year, but we just uploaded personal photos and added captions. I didn't see all of the educational possibilities until this class. Also, I enjoyed the brief introductions to new technology resources that Dr. Hur presented at the beginning of each class. Teaching us how to access our favorite sources, like subscribing to podcasts or bookmarking our favorite news sites, was beneficial on an educational level as well as a personal level. I liked the use of videos and online articles as class starters. I believe that by using technology to appeal to students' interests and by offering it in simple, digestable chunks that I can encourage them to find how it suits their needs and wants. This method also keeps me stress-free in that I am engaging my students in something useful that is also easy to create and present.

What I've Learned This Semester

While the theoretical discussions about how and why we should use technology in our classrooms have been informative and enlightening, I think what I'll honestly take away from this class is my newfound ability to work with programs to create useful classroom tools. Now, I can create a photostory or a podcast to display new information rather than drone on in endless lecture mode (and I'm a prodigious lecturer, so that's saying something).

Since technology is so much a part of the world that surrounds us, we have to make sure we, as teachers, are using technology to enhance and enrich the lives and learning of our students. If we remain stubborn Luddites, we miss out on reaching some of our students, possibly dooming them to be forever left behind the rest of the digital world. We have to use technology, and we have to teach them how to use it, too.

What I have learned in this class

In this class I have learned how to incorporate different types of technology into my classroom. I have learned how to use different types of technology such as: photostory, wikis, blogs, podcast, and windows movie maker. I know when I use these things in my lesson it will enhance my student's learning. We live in a society where almost every aspect of our lives is engulfed in some type of technology. I want to prepare my students for the world we live in and for them to be able to be productive citizens. As an elementary school teacher I know I set the foundation for learning in my students and I want them to carry on with them a love for learning and that includes the use of technology. I think this class has been beneficial in teaching me how to better teach my students about technology. I think my favorite part of this class was learning how to use photostory. I think that elementary school students are very visual and this is a great opportunity for them to learn and create something visual. I have learned that even though at times we may be intimidated by technology that we should never back down from being life-long learners. We need to push ourselves to participate in on-going professional development to keep ourselves current and up-to-date on the latest and greatest technologies.

What I have learned...

It has been kind of neat to hear ideas that others have in regards to using technology in their content areas. I have learned some new things (such as photostories and how to create podcasts); however, I have struggled with how to effectively use these technologies in my class. To me, most of the things we discussed are not necessarily appropriate for my students. If I were to teach in a different, more inclusive setting with students who are functioning at higher levels, I could see more of these technologies being useful. I really like the idea of using podcasts as a way to pre-teach or introduce content as well as for a brief review. I think photostories are a great way for a student to complete a presentation, especially for students who may have anxiety speaking in front of classes. I would have liked to learn more about assistive technology, but I know that is not something that applies to the wide range of disciplines in the course.

I have definitely learned about new technologies that I never really had a good understanding about what they were before. I always knew that I could incorporate different technologies into my classroom, but this class has given me new ideas about how to implement them in a better, more educational way.

What Mark Hosemann has learned in this class

I have learned that technology has applications beyond the traditional aspects of Microsoft Word & PowerPoint. For students that have multiple ways of learning, such as audio, visual, and tactile, there are many different ways of presenting the information in order to reach a larger percentage of the student body. This will help us achieve the requirements placed on us by No Child Left Behind. I also learned that maybe we as older teachers who have been "seasoned" by the system are initially resistant to the changes needed to address future styles and methods of learning. I hope that in the future, I will be able to be more open to changes in the ideas of what makes a school viable for the education of the student of tomorrow. I liked the new software to which I was exposed and plan to start incorporating them into my existing lesson plans as well as those I make in the future. In all, I think I learned best that with technology in the classroom there is always a way to "think outside the box".

Week 13 Discussion

Compare the two articles. If America’s schools really are becoming obsolete in conjunction with the future of the country (Revolutionary Wealth article), how do the students’ visions of technology (Visions Article) in schools compare to the need of a changing school system? Is incorporating technology into this classroom the only way to use technology in schools?

Do you think the boredom of students in the school systems today is relevant to the fact that schools are becoming obsolete?

Week 10 Discussion

In the Article “Assistive Technology: What Every School Leader Should Know”, Dyal, Carpenter, & Wright talk of the importance of choosing the right Assistive Technology for the student. Can you come up with ideas of using the technologies and programs we have discussed in class as a form of Assistive Technology to meet the needs of various types of disabilities with regard to each of your areas of interests?

On page 107 of the article by Hasselbring and Glaser, the authors talk about how predictive text software enables students with disabilities that have writing difficulties to “better compete academically in regular classroom settings.” Do you feel this is true or does the student take the easier route by letting the software choose the words for him/her? The motive behind my question is aimed at the concept like whether or not spell check hurts or helps our students. Students become reliant on the software and as a result don’t know how to spell without the technology. If after using the technology to learn how to express their ideas, will the student be able to repeat the understanding, without the technology?

Week 8 Disussion

Copyright for Schools
Why do you think that fair use is the most misundertood aspect of copyright law for schools? Are teachers not educated about the rules or do you think that teachers know the rules, but feel that because the source is used for educational purposes that they can break the rule?

Electronic Bullying
What can we as teachers do to help cut down on electronic bullying in school?

The article mentions on p. S29 that they believe that "suspected instances of electronic bullying should be investigated immediately". How closely, though, should schools monitor how their students use technology? Where does student privacy intersect with protecting students from bullying?

The World is Flat
Page 521 quotes Brian Williams as saying, "The danger just might be that we miss the next great book or the next great idea, or that we failt o meet the next great challenge....because we are too busy celebrating ourselves". Do you think this quote is especially true of our generation?

Week 7 -Further Discussion

A few more questions for this week, I'm afraid.

On pages 26 and 27, Ertmer tells us that low-level technology usage in classrooms is usually teacher-centric, while higher-level usage is more student-centered. Ertmer floats the hypothesis that low-level usage eventually leads to high-level usage and that teachers will learn to use the technology bettering “five or six years,” but then says that particular hypothesis lacks backing from “empirical research.” Does low-level usage lead to higher-level usage, or is there some “x” factor we’re just not seeing?

In the “Implications for Research” section on pages 35 and 36, Ertmer gives a laundry list of questions that could lead to further studies, but I was struck by the only question on page 35: “How and when are teachers’ pedagogical beliefs formed?” Consider this question and think about your own beliefs, specifically with regards to technology.

Week 7 Discussion

On page 31, in the last paragraph, Ertmer mentions that "some beliefs about the nature of teaching are formed over many years of experiences as a student and are resistant to change because they have been supported by strong authority and broad consensus." Do you think technology is a strong enough reason to change how we have been taught to teach? Do you think we need to change how we teach?

On page 36, Ertmer says, "While the foundations for successful technology integration finally appear to be in place, high-level technology use is still surprisingly low, suggesting that additional barriers, specifically related to teachers' pedagogical beliefs, may be at work." Do you think as a new "generation of teachers" our pedagogical beliefs are different from veteran teacher or similar? Why or why not?

Week 6 Discussion

1. One of the major concerns several of us have voiced in class regarding integrating technology into lessons has been how it does or doesn’t play into the always prevalent role of high-stakes testing. On page 240, Hew and Brush offer an example for implementing technology into lessons while still considering state standards. The teachers at Newsome Elementary School let the students choose which SOL’s (Standards of Learning) they wanted to address the most, and the teachers brainstormed project-based learning activities that utilized technology in order to meet these state standards. What do you think of this implementation of technology? Do you think this is an effective way to use technology to meet assessment standards? Why or why not?

2. In Table 2 on page 240, Hew and Brush link the first-order and second-order barriers to strategies they present in their article. Which barriers listed in this table do you think are the most pressing—the first-order or the second-order barriers? In other words, which barriers do you think weigh as the heaviest burdens on teachers who are being asked to implement technology into their lessons? Why?

Week 5 Discussion

1. Kozma article (p. 10): Do you agree with Kozma that “students frequently have difficulty drawing on the knowledge that they have of situations in the real world. The knowledge of solution strategies that they acquire in school is frequently stored in ways that are not evoked by problem situations that they encounter outside of school.” ?

2. Kozma article (p. 11): Kozma gives two examples of how incorporating real world experience-type technologies into the classroom (ThinkerTools, Jasper Woodbury Series) help students better understand the material that they are learning. Students are always asking, “when will I ever use this in real life?” Within your chosen field, how could you incorporate more real world experience-type technologies into your classroom?

3. Kozma article (p. 16 ): Kozma makes the statement that, “Media must be designed to give us powerful new methods [of teaching], and our methods must take appropriate advantages of a medium’s capabilities.” So how do you choose the appropriate medium for a particular lesson? When is an audio clip better than a video clip? Why use a PowerPoint presentation when you can lecture? How do you make the best choices for your students’ learning when it comes to the use of technology?

4. Clark article (p. 22 ): Clark states that he believes that, “media is a mere vehicle that delivers instruction but does not influence student achievement any more than the truck that delivers our groceries causes change in our nutrition.” Do you agree with Clark or do you think a form of media can influence student achievement?

5. Clark article (p. 23 ): Clark claims that, “media not only fails to influence learning, it also is not directly responsible to motivating learning.” If this is the case, why have anything but lecture in a classroom?

6. Both articles: I noticed that all of the studies in the articles are extremely old. The most recent study in both articles was from the early 1990s, the oldest being conducted during the 1960s. Do you believe technological media’s influence or non-influence has changed since these studies were conducted? Do you think we would find similar or different results due to the fact that students today are more aware and involved with technology than the students ad instructors of when the studies were made?

Week 4 Discussion

1. After reading both articles for this week, what are your opinions on their findings? Do you agree/disagree with their assumptions about teachers and technology? Why or why not?

2. Cuban, Kirkpatrick, and Peck discuss two possible explanations for the results they found: the "slow revolution" explanation and the context explanation (pp. 825-829). Do you agree with either explanation? Why or why not?

3. There were some teachers that wanted to change the school schedule of 6 periods of 55 minutes and some did not want to change the schedule. Why would teachers not want to change to a block schedule? Which do you prefer?

4. Russell, et. al discuss the need to change teachers' perceptions about the effects technology can have as well as the need to show teachers how to incorporate technology. We have already talked about this in class, but when do you think this should be done? How do you think it should be done?

5. What are some ways a teacher can use technology in the classroom? What do you define as USE OF Technology in the classroom? Is it enough for a teacher to prepare a lesson using technology or the actual use of it?

6. Can you explain why new teachers and teachers that have taught more than 15 years share the same teacher centered approach compared to the student-centered approach of teachers with 6-15 years of experience?

Week 3 Discussion

Prensky article:
Do you agree with Marc Prensky that computer games (such as The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy) can really help students learn? If so, can you think of a game that would apply to your specific subject matter (e.g. math, english, history)?


Bonk article:
Do you agree with Bonk that online educational courses have improved learning? (He says that they have emphasized "mentoring, coaching and guiding" the learner.) Do you think all students can benefit from online courses?

Do you see the global improvements in technology as flat (in the way that Friedman sees them) or as spiky (in the way that Florida sees them)? Does "open education" bridge the gap between these two viewpoints?

Discussion Questions

Digital Immigrant Article:

With the fast pace that technology is changing, how important and realistic is it to incorporate it into the classroom?

Do you agree that digital natives have a different way of thinking than digital immigrants? If so, does this mean that there should be a shift in the way students are taught? (i.e. focusing more on "future" content more than we currently do)

"Bonk" article:

If technology is such a great educational resource that can be used to engage learners and share information, what are some useful ways that we as teachers can incorporate it into our classroom?

Discussion Schedule

Welcome to the EDMD7210 Blog

Throughout this semester, we will discuss class readings via this blog. Below is the names of each week's discussion moderators.

• Week 3: Kate, Lauren
• Week 4: Kenneth, Leigh
• Week 5: Kelly, Lisa
• Week 6: Melissa Danielle, Holly
• Week 7: Cliff, Emily
• Week 8: Allison, Mark
• Week 9: Brittney, Cobi
• Week 10: Courtney, Abi
• Week 13: Laci, Katy

- Discussion moderators: Post 2-3 discussion questions by midnight Monday
- Others response to the questions by midnight Wednesday
- Moderators lead an in-class discussion for about on hour (possibly group discussion, technology activities and summary)