Computers in the Classroom

When I become a teacher, I can only hope that I will be able to have access to some great technology. I hope that I will be given computers to use in my classroom. My ideal classroom would have access to enough computers so that as a class I would be able to have two students at each computer. As a math teacher I want to incorporate having my students work together, and I think two is a perfect number for each computer. The students would both be able to use the computer to complete projects and work together to do so. I would also allow students to work on Math games that I find online for practice. I would only assign the computers to the students after I have explained everything and/or they are finished with their work, so that they are not distracted. A problem I might encounter is with having so many computers running at one time it could slow the internet down. This may be a hard issue to address, but one way is that if it was running slow I could combine groups, cutting down on the amount of computers that were trying to be connected to the internet. Another issue would be that there would be a lot of cords with so many computers being used. The way in which I would address this issue is make sure the computers are charged each day, therefore, we would not need the cords to plug in the computers.

Podcasts

I chose to listen to a podcast on Grammar Girl, discussing adverbs ending in –ily. I will most likely not use this specific podcast in my classroom because I will be teaching Math. However, I can see myself using podcasts in my classroom. I think this is a good way to back up what you are teaching, and give students another resource for learning. I can see myself using a Podcast when I think a particular subject or topic in Math is hard and the students are struggling. I will encourage my students listen to this Podcast at home to help them with homework and studying. It could also benefit students who were ill, and missed the class lecture; they could catch up on missing information using a Podcast. podcasts could also help those students who may take notes slowly or have a hard time keeping up. I also think it is a way to help a teacher, and have proof of what they are teaching. Also, especially in Math most of the concepts and what is taught is never really changed so these podcasts could be used each year without really having to change them. I think it may take some students a little bit to get use to listening to podcasts, but in the end they would really find them beneficial and helpful.

Online Security

I really enjoyed watching this video. I thought he did a very good job of relating all of the illegal online activities, into real life examples. An example was stealing music online, and how it is the same as going to Best Buy and stealing a CD. I think when students hear this then they can actually see how wrong it is. It also seemed as he made the audience feel comfortable with what he was talking about by keeping things light. I believe that all incoming freshmen at all universities should be required to view this lecture. It definitely gives rise to many issues that any college student could encounter that they may have never known about. I think informing the students before they engage in illegal internet activity could help eliminate some of these problems. I think one of the biggest pieces of advice I received from watching this is that nothing one posts is really private. I did not realize that pictures on one’s Facebook could be used against them in court. When I was in my undergrad in college we were required to be friends on Facebook with our coaches, which I think was one way for student athletes to keep from posting incriminating or bad photos. However, it is hard to control what others post of you, so I think this is something we all need to take into consideration.

Online Resources

I think that one kind of teacher who might be very difficult in convincing to incorporate online resources are those teachers who might be considered an essentialist. These teachers focus on the basics such as literature, math, and science. They do not think that elective classes should be taught. I think that these teachers would be hesitant with using online resources because they think their students should learn about what happened and what was learned before them, and this should not change. They may think that online resources do not have enough concrete information that is of quality to them. Since they think the students should learn the basics, they may think that text books and lectures are the best way for the students to learn. These teachers may be considered “old school” and want to keep their teachings very simple or they may not have much experience with technology therefore, they do not feel comfortable in incorporating online resources.

One way to introduce these teachers to online resources is to incorporate these resources in very small steps. For example, maybe have the teachers use online resources to find a game for the students to play. Incorporating online resources little by little will help the teachers become more comfortable and therefore, maybe they will be more willing to use them in their teaching.

Technology Standards for Students

This video exemplified several of the technology standards for students. The students showed that they had basic operation skills and knowledge of concepts. They were able to get onto Yahoo and find their cities, along with finding the information on weather about their particular cities. The very first thing the students were doing was a “cyberhunt.” They were looking for information about weather for their particular states that they were researching. This would fall under the standard for technology research tools. They were using the internet to collect information about the weather. The students were also using a program entitled KidPics. This would fall under the technology productivity tools. They were being creative using this program to create slides for their particular city and the weather of that city. Although, we did not see the students participating in e-pals, the teacher stated that she planned on having them do this activity in the future. This shows that the students are or will use technology communication tools. I thought this was a very interesting video. It showed a very diverse classroom with students using technology. I thought it was great that these young students were already using computers in a variety of ways. I think these students are at a great advantage because they have a teacher who is very willing to incorporate technology into this classroom in a variety of ways, and just not by letting the students play computer games. This video in a way supports my last post, which was it would be beneficial to introduce technology at a young age to children.

I think this is a very entertaining and interesting list. Many of the things on the list I could relate to, and I thought were very relevant. Others I really did not know that much about. I think the main purpose of this list is to get the students aware of how fast everything changes, aware of their current age group, what they have grown up with, and how things in the past have shaped our culture today. It could also help the students stop and think about some of their past, and why they think or act differently than people older than them. It shows the students how our society changes all of the time, and it happens rather fast. I know I was thinking of different things when I read through this list. For example, I thought it was funny to see that the flavor of chocolate chip cookie dough is a normal flavor now. Maybe this is the reason why when I order this flavor, and I am with someone older, such as my parents, they think that it is gross or weird flavor. This shows how it was something I grew up with and they did not, and that is why I just think that it is a normal flavor. I think this list is more for the reader to enjoy or relate to. There were a couple items that I could relate to not knowing about which were not knowing what RSVP stands for and I did not know that babies have not always had social security numbers. (I just looked up what RSVP meant.) I definately enjoyed reading this list.

Productivity Applications

Word processing is the application I use the most right now in my life. When typing papers or doing other such homework I will always use word. Another application I have used a lot is spreadsheets. I had an internship last year, and every day I would use a spread sheet in way one or another, a lot of time I used it to organize information. Even though I have used this application a lot I find myself getting very fustrated at times when I do use it, so this is definately one application that I would like to learn more about. Also, I think that spreadsheets will be very beneficial to me when I become a teacher. According to our book, Using Technology in the Classroom, I will be able to use it manipulate math information and it will also be a tool to help with teaching mathematical formulas, which is especially helpful to me because I am hoping to become a high school math teacher. Another application that I would like to learn about is the concept-mappy tool. I had never really heard of this application until I was reading the text. I think I will be able to incorporate productivity applications in teaching more than I thought I would before I read this chapter, which made me very excited.

Teachers and Using Technology

I think that it is suprising that newer teachers are no more likely to use technology than teachers that have been teaching over 20 years. Most of the older teachers that I have had experience are still using overheads, and not taking advantages of technology such as powerpoints. Also, when I was in my undergrad I definately noticed a trend of with blackboard, it always seemed as if the older teachers would start out using blackboard, but never really update it or post grades. In turn, the newer teachers always had announcement, updates, and kept our grades up to date. I believe I disagree with statement because recently I have encountered two more veteran teachers and their problems with using technology. For example, my mom has been teaching 30 years and she still has problems using the computer, and would rather keep grades in a grade book than online. However, I do have to give her some credit becuase she now does her lessons plans on the computer even though it takes her a lot longer to do them because she is not very familiar with a computer. Another example which makes it hard for me to agree with this statement is that I had an older professor who would put homework on the internet for us to do, but she did not know how to use the program herself, so we always had to show her. Although I use technology and feel like I am fairly comfortable and familiar with it, I will always print out powerpoints and write on them instead of using my computer to type them out, which is one example of how I do not take of advantage of the technology that is in front of me. I think it is difficult for people to adjust to using technology if they are not familiar with it.