Spreadsheet Assignment (NETS 2, 3)

Area Chart

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Spreadsheet Assignment

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Both these spreadsheets were created using Microsoft Excel 2007 with the help of a web tutorial. It showed you how to input different information, create charts and label those charts.

Copyright Paper (NETS 1, 3)

Copyright Paper

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This paper was created as a collaborative document between myself and two classmates using GoogleDocs.

My iMovie! (NETS 2, 3)

This was a movie I edited using Mac's iMovie software.

Journal #10: "Fusing Art and Technology"

This article, although not as technological as the rest of our journals, still includes technological aspects that have been integrated into education for the purpose of interesting and inspiring students. In this article, Downey visits an art ‘gallery’ of the art of students from a nearby magnet school. These works of art were mostly created in a graphic arts class, although the entire magnet school focused on art in general as well. One piece that the author focused on was an Andy Warhol-inspired piece created by an African-American seventh grader.
The teacher had asked his students to create a four square Warhol piece with specific concepts for each section – the first square was of three images of the student in a white shirt, black shirt, and white again, all superimposed on a background of rainbows. The second square was the student superimposed on a background of a tropical, red sunset sky; the third was the student with angel wings and a halo; and the fourth was an entirely blue square with the students head superimposed on a body and wings drawn with a black line. The article shares information about the magnet school and the graphic arts class that teaches students how to use many different tools in Photoshop.

Q1. What can benefits can we gain from implementing classes such as graphic arts?
A1. The benefits we gain from classes like this one are that students are interested in what they’re doing, and are having fun while they learn. A graphic arts class is more related to a traditional class setting than say a music class, but students are still learning, and these types of classes give students an outlet free from all the studying and stress that their other classes may give them.

Q2. Can the skills students learn in classes such as this help them in the future?
A2. Of course! These skills can turn into a passion and a career, or they may just help the students create projects and work harder in future classes. If, for example, your English Literature professor in college asks you to create a flyer for a poetry reading of Walter Whitman as an assignment, you can use more than just words – you can use photos of Whitman superimposed on a photo of your school, and add some students to liven it up. These are skills that can last a lifetime and be useful in school and in the workforce.

Downey, Allison L. (2009 March/April). Fusing Art and Technology. Learning and Leading with Technology, Vol. 36, Retrieved 08 April 2009, from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200904/

Journal #9: "The Kids are All Right"

In this article, John K. Waters discusses students and their use of technology outside of the classroom. The MacArthur Foundation did a study investigating the understanding of the impact of digital media and communications technologies on how young people learn. Originally this study was supposed to find the impact on how students would learn in the future and instead found that it is impacting the way young people learn right now. The results of this study showed that young people are already participating online at different levels and educators just need to learn how to use that to their advantage.
The three levels of participation that the study identified are “hanging out,” “messing around” and “geeking out.” These levels range from lightweight social contact to complete intense interest. Young people are learning how to use these new technologies faster and better than their adult counterparts, so if educators would learn how to use these in the classroom, they could relate to their students more easily and could possibly encourage them to participate more in the classroom if they used these technologies to their advantage.

Q1. How can we encourage students to participate more in the classroom?
A1. We can encourage student participation by using some of the things we know they already understand, enjoy, and possibly even use on their own time. These are things such as blogs, where students are writing stories or posting general information about themselves and their lives.

Q2. How can we exploit the use of new technologies in the classroom?
A2. I don’t really like the use of the word exploit – it sounds like we’re using something we shouldn’t to get something a person doesn’t want to give. We can take advantage of the students’ use of technology in the classroom by asking them to complete an assignment by using their favorite technology. For example, ask them to create a project about a play you are reading – some may create a skit through YouTube, some may re-write it as though it happened today using GoogleDocs… there are a range of possibilities.

Waters, John K. (March 2009). The Kids are All Right. T-H-E Journal, Retrieved 08 April 2009, from http://www.thejournal.com/articles/24104

Journal #7: "Mining for Gold"

This article delves deep into the use of RSS usage and helps explain it to the readers by using “normal” language (as opposed to computer language) and gives examples pertinent to teachers, or anyone else in the education field. One of the first things Bigenho talks about it subscriptions and how useful they can really be. He says that if you subscribe to a website and subscribe to its information with something called an aggregator, you can control what information is sent to you this way, and you can adjust your feed from the website to send you only information pertinent to the topic you are using in your classroom.
RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. RSS is a technology that has two main parts: a feed and an aggregator. RSS feeds use a special HTML known as XML and include channel tags of specific information. Aggregators read those tags, track the subscribed page and send you new information when it is posted. Some examples of how to use RSS in your classroom are to subscribe to student blogs, subscribe to social bookmarks and feeding content to HTML pages.

Q1. What is a benefit of using RSS in your classroom?
A1. Some benefits are that you can subscribe to student blogs and the RSS aggregator will notify you when new information is posted so that you don’t have to waste time checking each blog every day for new postings. Also, using the technology of feeding content to HTML pages allows you to send all sorts of related information to one spot for easy access for your students.

Q2. Can RSS be used in an elementary school setting?
A2. Probably, but not nearly as much as in middle or high school settings. Elementary teachers could use bits and pieces of each part of the RSS technology, but not all of it would be accessible for students at such a young age.

Bigenho, Chris (2009, March/April). Mining for Gold. Learning and Leading with Technology, Retrieved 08 April 2009, from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200904/

Journal #6: "Grow Your Personal Learning Network"

Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) pull together data from many different online and technological tools and resources to provide users with information relevant to whatever topic they are looking at. PLNs help users to stay connected while they gain information necessary to what they happen to be working on. Some examples of PLNs are Twitter, Skype, Second Life, Diigo and Delicious. These networks open doors to information sources that weren’t available in recent years, and are making it easier to capture and tame the information overload that occurs.
There are three main types of PLNs: personally maintained synchronous connections, personally and socially maintained semi-synchronous connections, and dynamically maintained asynchronous connections. Synchronous connections are the traditional networks that include people and places you consult for answers to questions, solutions to problems and goal accomplishment. These networks can be enhanced with tools such as chat, instant messaging and Twitter. Semi-synchronous connections are connections that aren’t completely synchronous, but almost are. Synchronous is used as collaboration that does not have to happen in real time. Asynchronous connections are networks that connect us with content sources that we’ve identified as valuable. They bring us information that helps us to do our jobs.

Q1. What are some major educational benefits to using these PLNs?
A1. Some educational benefits from these PLNs are that we can talk with other classes from around the world – time is not an issue, we can obtain fresh information for reports or lessons that won’t bore us to tears, and we can visit places we could never take a field trip to through virtual tours.

Q2. What are some examples of how we can use these PLNs educationally?
A2. Some good examples of how to use PLNs educationally would by a class blog, asking students to upload photos to Flickr, using Google Docs for collaborative efforts, or to use Skype to share information and activities with classrooms from around the world.

Warlick, David (March/April 2009). Grow Your Personal Learning Network. Learning and Leading with Technology, Vol. 36, Retrieved 07 April 2009, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/LLIssues/Volume3620082009/MarchAprilNo6/36612w.pdf

Journal #8: "Google Earth"

The Technology tool that I followed a discussion of was Google Earth and education. First of all, GoogleEarth is an interactive / real time GPS type system. You can download this technology, and through a satellite, you can type in a specific address or area and that satellite will zoom in and show you a real time picture of the place you typed in.
The discussion(s) I followed began with a man talking about how he integrated this technology into his classroom to interest the students more. Google Earth is a web tool used for 3D images from satellites to assist in people’s travels and explorations, and now in classrooms. Google Earth is a fun tool to use just to get to places you’ve never been, but this discussion was about the use in and out of a classroom for educational purposes. Teachers are using Google Earth to teach about latitude and longitude, about how to figure numbers with miles or other measurements, geography and even geometry.
For example, if you ask your students to do an assignment on where they would love to visit, they could take themselves to Hawaii or to the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden without ever leaving the comfort of their home. Another example would be for the mission projects in fourth grade, or the state projects in fifth grade. If the students have never visited the mission they are building and writing a report about, they can jump onto Google Earth and zoom into the surrounding area of the mission and the mission itself. If the student has never visited Alaska, but is writing a report about it, Google Earth would be a great way to find some little known places in Alaska to talk about, and they can even print off pictures to show. These are just a few examples of the millions of places Google Earth will take you for educational or personal purposes.