Ranking the ISTE Standards in my classroom was a cinch. I have a very creative classroom and I encourage thinking outside of the box in an artistic, knowledgeable, and professional way. As a result, the standard that is most important to me is to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. My standard preferences are listed in order below, but the pretty much follow the order that they are listed, as I try to teach my students all of these standards, but focus on the first three standards the most.
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
I have a very strong knowledge in my subject matter to the point that I feel that it is my greatest asset as a teacher. I also try to "facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments." When I think about what I want the students to learn, I try to come up with a project that can "promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness." I know that this does not model backward design planning, but because this is a completely new curriculum in the district, I find that focusing on the actual projects is more beneficial to me this year. The projects that I have the students do engage in real-world issues. I use local and national businesses to come up with a project for the students. I ask these businesses to come up with a form of digital media that they need and have the students do it. Until this point, students created a newspaper to print, designed the yearbook cover, designed a print media ad that ran in national magazines, designed a poster where the winners paid in cash for their services, designed program covers, designed business cards, designed webpages, etc. I feel that these are a great way for students to explore real world issues in this field.
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision
Making
Since my classroom is mostly creative, I encourage the students to use critical thinking skills solve problems and make informed decision. I cannot emphasize how hard this is to encourage for a teacher. I try my best, using examples, giving them authentic problems, and use multiple processes to explore alternative solutions. However, sometimes the students are not at a level where they want to learn, are willing to try hard to get a creative result, or are lacking the ability to think outside of the box. However it is still important to me and I still encourage it.
6. Technology Operations and Concepts
Since this is a technology-based classroom, obviously technology operations and concepts are very important. Students always have my help in class, however one of my main focuses is to get these students to be self-sufficient outside of the classroom. Being able to pass the class is not as important as being able to apply the concepts and knowledge of technology outside of the classroom. Until the last day of class, students are still asking for my help on technology-based issues, which I would like to see less of.
2. Communication and Collaboration
I love it when students work together on an issue or to discuss what they are thinking. I fell this helps students learn more and it shows me what they know. I always encourage interacting, especially since there are 30+ students and only one of me, I am not always available to discuss issues in a timely manner. This helps. However, "communicat[ing] information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats," is a very important part of my classroom, as explained in standard 6.
5. Digital Citizenship
I have discussed legal issues with students. Often they want to use images that are copyrighted. Though I show them how to remove a watermark or copyright visually, I explain to them that this is illegal and if they are found out, they'll have a lawsuit on their hands. The only reason why I show them how to remove the legalities in the first place is because it often involves a valuable piece of knowledge in the technology program. And they think that it's so cool.
3. Research and Information Fluency
The only research my students receive is when they are shown examples on the overhead where I want them to base their ideas on. Due to our lack of resources, I can't really enforce this too much.
I found the ISTE Second Life concept to be very groundbreaking. I learned about Second Life many years ago when I saw an informational TV show about it. The concept, at least at the time, was that each person can create their own avatar (digitally controlled image) and control it. Avatars can react with other avatars, which in a way is like interacting with the people who control them. It started as a social media site. At the time, my reaction was less than positive towards the idea. I wondered why people are trying to create a life on the computer when they are living their own lives right now and are wasting their time on creating a fake life. I believed that they could have spent their time better by actually living their life and putting the effort that they were putting into creating a digital life into improving what really existed. However, ISTE has taken that idea and turned it around for me. To me, ISTE is using technology to further education and professional causes. Now, Second life is no longer about treating a "second life," but is about allowing people who don't have the access and means, to communicate with others in a way that can improve their "first life." The association of ISTE seems like an organization that my professional career can greatly benefit from. Also, the definition provided by ISTE that students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. These are important topics for educators to remember when trying to incorporate technology into the classroom. By starting on the fact that students need to use this form of education by building off of what they already know, tells me that an education cannot just start at technology, but that there must be other forms of teaching and knowledge used.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Post #10 – Review the results of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, in Section 4, Chapter 2 of Technology Applications for the Digital Classroom. How has the ubiquitous nature of technology and the Internet served to define or shape the zeitgeist of the current generation of students? Discuss whether this makes our job as teachers easier or more challenging.
It seems that older people, are the fastest rising group that are using the internet more often and for longer period of time. I remember hearing research a couple years ago that showed that middle aged people are the fastest-growing facebook users. I observed this by the sudden influx of my mothers' friends trying to facebook me. I feel that this is because they had initial misgivings about privacy and it's uses. However since Facebook and other social sites began growing in popularity, they decided to log on.
The chart that shows frequency of internet teen use by race should be studied more. I feel that this is a topic that isn't focused on enough in education. It shows that white teens use the internet the most throughout their day. However, Mexicans showed a huge jump in using the internet only once a day. I can't figure out why this would be. Blacks are the largest amount of teens that use the internet less often than every 3 weeks.
Also the number of teens who own a cell phone seems to be about right where I would have guessed it. I am step-mom to an 8 year old daughter. I tried to convince her father to get her a cell phone that would only allow her to call 5 people whom we previously programmed into it for emergencies and to better get a hold of her. He plans on doing it when his contract is up. According to this chart however, only 1/2 of 12 year olds have cell phones. I feel that if parents knew that there were cell phones made especially for children that only allow them to call certain family members and emergency numbers and with no data or texting plan, that this number would go up. I feel that it makes our children safer.
It makes sense that teens 12-17 have the most mp3 players. For some reason, probably because of their emotional changes, this age group seems to feel like they would die if they couldn't listen to music all the time. At least that's how I felt when I was that age. It also looks like ownership of mp3 players are starting to take a dive, according to the next graph by the pew studies. I feel that this might be because music can now be accessed elsewhere like cell phones.
The chart that shows frequency of internet teen use by race should be studied more. I feel that this is a topic that isn't focused on enough in education. It shows that white teens use the internet the most throughout their day. However, Mexicans showed a huge jump in using the internet only once a day. I can't figure out why this would be. Blacks are the largest amount of teens that use the internet less often than every 3 weeks.
Also the number of teens who own a cell phone seems to be about right where I would have guessed it. I am step-mom to an 8 year old daughter. I tried to convince her father to get her a cell phone that would only allow her to call 5 people whom we previously programmed into it for emergencies and to better get a hold of her. He plans on doing it when his contract is up. According to this chart however, only 1/2 of 12 year olds have cell phones. I feel that if parents knew that there were cell phones made especially for children that only allow them to call certain family members and emergency numbers and with no data or texting plan, that this number would go up. I feel that it makes our children safer.
It makes sense that teens 12-17 have the most mp3 players. For some reason, probably because of their emotional changes, this age group seems to feel like they would die if they couldn't listen to music all the time. At least that's how I felt when I was that age. It also looks like ownership of mp3 players are starting to take a dive, according to the next graph by the pew studies. I feel that this might be because music can now be accessed elsewhere like cell phones.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Module 2 Overview
Yea Module 2! I will show my colleagues the bubbl.us. At our school, we have a growing push for web maps. As an art teacher, I've fallen through the cracks, however now I can help in the process. Wikipages wasn't the most enjoyable experience but once I have some more time on my hands and figure it out better I can definately use it in classroom instruction. The workdle is cute and I have it hanging on my classroom wall. Some students have asked about it and maybe I can put it in a lesson somewhere.
Pew Research Center's study Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, Section 2, Chapter 2 of Technology Applications for the Digital Classroom.
Millennial Generation- The millennial generation refers to those that were born after 1980 (myself). I think the presented research is wrong in that people in the millennial generation don't communicate as much as they claim, at least through my observation. Though there is some communication, I have yet to see it be a deeper level of communication. We can call our parents for directions and good financial tips, however I don't think that is unique to this generation, except within the ease in which we can call them. According to the chart by the Pew Research Center, it makes sense that this generation almost doubles the population of the silent generation. This is why I don't want to have too many kids: the world population is already too big. It also makes sense that there are a lesser amount of white people. I would attribute this to the growing acceptance of inter-racial relationships and the ability to move from country to country relatively easier.
Gen X- The people of this generation were born between 1965-80. It is referred to the generation that will "make or break us" and is the base of teachers and professors today. "Barak Obama is it's first star." This was the start of the "consciousness revolution" that resulted from issues such as divorce. As was polled, 2 out of 3 moms said that they'd stay in a bad marriage over the opposite for the baby boomer generation. In education students were often told "Their schools were failures. Their schools were dangerous. Their teachers were poorly trained. The students are stupid."
The Baby Boomer- the baby boomer generation consists of people who were born between 1946-64, World War II through the invention of the birth control pill. Karen McCullough says that this is a generation of "no coddling... who got our identity for praise."
The Silent Generation- People born between 1928-45. They got their "silent" label due to their conformist and civic instincts.
The Greatest Generation- Refers to people born before 1928. I could not watch the video because when I clicked on it, it said "This video is private."
I don't know if this chart can be seen, but I liked it the best because it shows the great difference between people of all generations and their different ideas towards social media and increased technology. I think I like it so much because I always laugh at the conversations my grandma tries to have with us about the hazards of social media. She often says quotes like, "Do you know that people post photos of them selves and other people can see it? I would never." She also refuses to text.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
“Chapter 9 Where Are We Headed?”
Video games are not a particular enjoyment of mine, however they have been an enjoyment of every previous boyfriend and male sibling that I've ever had. So there might be a bit of a gender bias when it comes to using video games as a teaching (or recruiting) tool.
I have used games when teaching, particularly reviewing. I have downloaded templates of famous game shows such as "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," "Jeopardy," and others. Students enjoy this type of learning. I do see it as a benefit some of the time. However I don't see how there can be an entire school devoted to this type of learning. To me there appear to be many red flags, such as the reward system it creates. Students will grow accustom to considering achievement only through a form of winning. Every time I have used a game to teach, I feel compelled to give a prize to the winner, either in food or bonus points. Also, as one interviewee put it, "School has to be the only place where you are not bombarded by machines." Until now, I never realized how much machines are around me all day long.
Another interesting quote in the online video was when someone (sorry I didn't catch the name) said, "
“distinction is an adult idea." This is well phrased. When teaching, I know I have to set aside a separate
The last tidbit I found amusing was that there was a professional title called “MIT initiative on technology and self." I found the name funny. Why would the words technology and self be combined as if they were cohesive or a natural pairing?
And on the topic of Facebook. Don't friend your students. Keep it simple.
I have used games when teaching, particularly reviewing. I have downloaded templates of famous game shows such as "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," "Jeopardy," and others. Students enjoy this type of learning. I do see it as a benefit some of the time. However I don't see how there can be an entire school devoted to this type of learning. To me there appear to be many red flags, such as the reward system it creates. Students will grow accustom to considering achievement only through a form of winning. Every time I have used a game to teach, I feel compelled to give a prize to the winner, either in food or bonus points. Also, as one interviewee put it, "School has to be the only place where you are not bombarded by machines." Until now, I never realized how much machines are around me all day long.
Another interesting quote in the online video was when someone (sorry I didn't catch the name) said, "
“distinction is an adult idea." This is well phrased. When teaching, I know I have to set aside a separate
The last tidbit I found amusing was that there was a professional title called “MIT initiative on technology and self." I found the name funny. Why would the words technology and self be combined as if they were cohesive or a natural pairing?
And on the topic of Facebook. Don't friend your students. Keep it simple.
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