Technology Class Insights and Experiencs

Experiencing the variety of technology available to aid in engaging students in learning has been invaluable. It has been invaluable not only to me as a future teacher, but also to my future students. The more engaged in learning the students are, the more successful they will be in their individual pursuits as adults. This class opened my eyes up to a host of technological tools and their applications that I had never had to use and therefore did not know they existed. I feel it is very important to present information to students using different tools and methodologies. The class assigned readings also helped show where and how these tools can be used to be most effective. These tools incorporated along with traditional methods of teaching will help make my lessons more captivating, thoughtful, and realistic. The class had me worried in the beginning, but now I feel like I can figure anything out. I just have to be patient.

Google Docs is a fantastic tool for teachers. It enables them to communicate to their students as they work on an assignment. The teacher can assign projects using Google document, spreadsheet or presentation and make correction or suggestions to the student easily via email. This tool extends the classroom! I think it also helps in organizing the students work and keeping it all in one central location.

I will definitely have a blog for each of my classes and will have it as an option for students to make one for individual projects. This tool enables the student to work independently, take ownership of their education, and feel a sense of accomplishment when the project is done. They are the creator. I may also use this as a reporting system for group projects,. There are many ways to incorporate blogs in the classroom. The students take what you taught them and extend their learning by creating a blog and at the same time entrench the material that they learned in class.

Video games are something I want to pursue. More and more studies are showing them to be a viable and successful learning tool. Even though the studies look promising, parents, teachers and school administrators still have a lot of negative feelings about them. Elite colleges are working together and researching "effective learning" from video games and tabulating the results.

The Smartboard has turned out to be my favorite tool. I can't say enough about it. It incorporates the abilities of a chalkboard, video player, computer, TV, and the Internet. It would take me years to find out all the ways I can employ it in my lessons. Changing, updating, and researching new ways to present information to my students is very important to me. Making the video was completely new to me, but I know my son (16) makes them for fun. This tells me that this would be a great tool to use because it incorporates their tech world with learning. When a student is interested and enjoying school; learning is taking place. Polling by cell phone is another tool I want to use in the classroom. It is a great way to assess student content knowledge.

Yes, I will be using these tools and hopefully keep up with the new technology as it becomes available. I learned a great deal in this class and thank you for all your help along the way.

Electronic Portfolios - Some better than others

Searching the Internet for examples of electronic portfolios pulls up a great deal of information. Information concerning the different types and contents which both vary depending on the purpose. I had a difficult time finding portfolios to look at and judge. No matter what I did I could not locate a sample (or labeled) example of a "bad" portfolio. I finally found a bunch of graduate portfolios and looked at all of them. By reading the assigned article and the information I had found on the Internet, I was able to view the graduate portfolios and come to my own conclusion of which were good portfolios and which were not so good. Ms. Bammi's portfolio I rated as very good. You can view it at this link, http://web.me.com/bindu61/Bindu/Bindu.html. Her home page clues you into her area of expertise, which is art and design, specializing in graphics and technology. As you look at the different areas in her portfolio each section reflects her vocation. It is very well organized and easy to move from one section to the next. She has labeled tabs on each page to help direct you to any section you want to view. She has the necessary component parts of a portfolio, an introduction (shown as her welcome), teaching philosophy, resume, description of her teaching practices, artifacts which detail her class planning, and show her effective teaching skills, and her future educational plans. Each page not only details the information but reflects visually her artistic talents. It may sound corny but viewing her portfolio gave me insight into her personality that connected me to her on a deeper level. Portfolios provide a great advantage for employers (and job seekers) over the traditional resume. The only thing she does not list is teaching standards and that is because she is not teaching in the states.

Most of the portfolios were good but one stood out because my reaction to it surprised me. It was so flat. It consisted of just a report with a few pictures on the main page. The pictures remained the same on each page with just the information on the page changing as you clicked the different tabs. He covered the basic information needed on a portfolio, the introduction, his philosophy, his future tech plan (listed this way), and his resume. There is no spark, joy or enthusiasm for teaching conveyed in his portfolio. You can see it at this web address,
http://www.msu.edu/~guttinge/portfolio/Electronic_Portfolio/MSU_Year_1.html. I didn't feel like I knew him any better after reading it. In fact it gave me the feeling that he did not put a lot of effort into his portfolio, which if I were a prospective employer would deter me from hiring him. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, it may just be that he is so young that he doesn't have many artifacts to put in his resume. Still he could have had a much better and inviting design.