Things I Learned About Integrating Technology

It is amazing how useful and versatile technology can be in the classroom. It was so cool to see how a smart board can be used for every aspect of a lesson. It was used to look at pictures, search for important information, fill in a worksheet as a class, and show a video. It was also interesting to see that you can use all kinds of technology to teach the same lesson. I used a digital storybook to lead into my lesson about water, but another girl in my group used Kidspiration to teach about the water cycle.

Talk About Internet Safety

I talked with a 13 year old about internet safety. It was interesting because she was actually discussing a lot of the things we learned at her school. She knows what cyber bullying is, but said it is not something that she has come in contact with. She never gives personal information out on the internet. She has a facebook account, but it is blocked to everyone but the friends she adds. She said that she only adds friends that she knows well. I told her how important this is and that people on the internet aren't always who they say they are. It sounded like they've been taught all of this in school which I think is really important. It is especially important to present information like this in a way that will get the point across to kids, not to scare them, but to make sure they don't try to push the limits. I think the youth I interviewed was very receptive and will continue to do what she is doing.

Media Article Reflection

1. I chose to read "The Message: Mushrooms, Music, Movies, and Magazines" by Elder Spencer J. Condie of the Second Quorum of the Seventy.
2. I thought it was really interesting that he related listening to, viewing, and reading all kinds of media to mushrooms. He talked about how some media, like some mushrooms, are good and beneficial. Others he called "doubtfuls," meaning that we may not be able to tell if they will be good for us or bad for us. In these cases, it is better to stay clear of doubtful media, rather than get into something that we will regret later. Still other media and mushrooms he called "look-alikes," these were things that look like the good, beneficial media, but are actually poisonous. Elder Condie then provided a checklist to use to help determine if something is good or bad. We are to ask ourselves if the media: a. Is virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, b. Allows you to stand in holy places, c. Does not take the place of your desire to seek first the kingdom of God, d. Does not keep you from striving to deny yourselves of all ungodlines, and e. Helps you to abstain from all appearance of evil.
3. I think it is important to teach children right from wrong and how to determine what media is uplifting and good for them, and what pulls them down and takes away the spirit. Parents should discuss with their children the way they feel when they read or watch or listen to something good, and how their mood changes if they are exposed to something bad.
4. I will try to make a better effort of watching only uplifting things, sometimes I fall into midless TV watching or computer game playing when I should be doing something more productive such as serving others. I am going to try to be better about this.
   

My Technology Project Presentation

What a Wonderful World

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Using Technology in the Classroom

This week I was able to present a digital storybook to my class. The pictures were all drawn by the class, and set to the song "What a Wonderful World." This was part of a unit on the 5 senses, in the song, Louis Armstrong sings about seeing trees, hearing babies, etc. It was so fun to see the kids react when they saw their pictures come up on the big screen. This was a good way of ending the unit because the kids felt like they had accomplished something and learned something. They especially loved seeing their names in the credits at the end of the video. I think this was a really fun way to use technology in the classroom, and got the kids really excited about the subject.

Technology Lesson Idea

In the 1st grade class I am working in right now, we are learning about the 5 senses. The students listened to the song "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong, and then each student drew a picture to correspond with a line from the song. I think it would be fun to create a digital storybook using the students' pictures to show to the class as a final activity in the senses unit.

Classroom Technology Inventory

I thought it was really interesting to see how technology in the classroom has changed since I was in school. When I was in Elementary school, we had an overhead projector, a TV, and a couple of computers with really old games and word processors on them. In the classroom I am working in, they have access to projectors, wireless internet, and laptops.

My teacher does not use a ton of technology in her classroom (from what I've seen the last 4 days), but the kids go to the computer lab to do word processing, and to supplement some of the things they've been learning in class. I am excited to use some technology in my lesson, I think the kids will really enjoy it and learn from it.

Google Earth Virtual Tour

Here is the link to my Civil War Virtual Tour on Google Earth.

TPACK for Virtual Tour

Content:
In this activity, students will learn about the Civil War. They will visit Gettysburg and read the Gettysburg Address, and see the cemetery there. They will see the border between Union and Confederacy, and learn about the economy and industry of the North and South. Students will learn about the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest battle in the history of the United States, and learn about the generals of the Union and Confederate armies during that battle.

Pedagogy:
There is a variety of activities to keep the students interested, and to help them learn information from the Utah Core Curriculum. Standard 4: Students will understand that the 19th century was a time of incredible change for the United States, including geographic expansion, constitutional crisis, and economic growth. Objective 2: Assess the geographic, cultural, political, and economic divisions between regions that contributed to the Civil War. b. Compare how cultural and economic differences of the North and South led to tensions. Objective 3: Evaluate the course of events of the Civil War and its impact both immediate and long-term. a. Identify the key ideas, events, and leaders of the Civil War using primary sources (e.g. Gettysburg Address, Emancipation Proclamation, news accounts, photographic records, diaries).
Technology:
Google Earth was used to take the students to sites of the Civil War that they could not go to otherwise. There are pictures and documents overlaid.

Virtual Tour Plan

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1. Union and Confederate Border	Look at statistics comparing the North and South. Number of people, soldiers, supplies, etc.	Terrain, chart of statistics.
2. Gettysburg, PA	Picture of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg. Read the Gettysburg Address	Picture of Gettysburg Cemetery, copy of Gettysburg Address, picture of Lincoln at Gettysburg
3. Antietam, MD	Learn about the generals of the battle, look at pictures of battlefield, and that it was the bloodiest day in the history of the USA	Link to information about Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan. Panoramia: pictures of Antietam Battlefield.
4. New York City, NY and Fredericksburg, VA	Pictures of Factories in the north, information about the economy and industry in the North. Pictures of a plantation, information about the economy and industry in the South.	Pictures of factories and a plantation, and links to informative websites about the industry and economy of the North and South during the Civil War.
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:	Overlay: Pictures, Gettysburg Address, links to informational websites

Digital Storybook

TPACK for Digital Storybook

Content:
The content we will use in our digital story is the poem Oh my Darling Valentine by Kenn Nesbitt. Students will be expected to listen to and interpret the poem. After their interpretations, students will create their own art to go along with each stanza of the poem.

Pedagogy:
The teacher will read the poem to the class with enthusiasm, and will direct the students in the different aspects of the assignment. She will guide the discussion of the class interpretation of the poem. She will then walk around the room as the students create their own pictures to go with the poem, helping students when needed.

Technology:
For our digital storybook, we searched for poems on the internet, then searched for pictures to accompany the poem, and we will use freeplaymusic.com to add musical accompaniment to the storybook. To create our storybook we will use PhotoStory.

Storyboard

TPACK in Science Activity

Content:
This science activity focused on the 4th grade Utah Science Core Standard 1: Students will understand that water changes state as it moves through the water cycle, Objective 2: describe the water cycle.

Pedagogy:
The teacher had to know how to lead a discussion, and how to get the information across. Also, the teacher must be able to teach how to use Kidspiration. This is a good fit with the content of the lesson because it contrasts in order to teach to different learning styles, auditory and visual.

Technology:
This activity is done on the program Kidspiration. The activity allows students to organize and reorganize, and to visually see the information. Using technology makes the activity a lot more fun that doing it as a worksheet, it allows students to feel that they have created something. It allows students to interact with the information, and therefore internalize it more.

The Tech Savvy Teacher

The use of technology in the classroom is one of the best ways to help students progress in their education. Technology allows for a great deal of variety in the classroom, and therefore, all teachers should remain up to date on technology that can be used in the classroom. Because students are exposed to so much technology outside of school, they are better able to relate to lesson plans that incorporate technology in some way.

The Utah Science Core Curriculum for 4th grade requires teachers to teach about the water cycle. Standard 1 says, "Students will understand that water changes state as it moves through the water cycle. Objective 2: describe the water cycle." The class began by discussing the different stages of the water cycle and learning about the forms that water takes throughout the cycle. In order to incorporate technology in the study of the water cycle, we used the program Kidspiration to create an interactive activity for the class to show their knowledge of the water cycle. Kidspiration is a program which has a wide variety of computer activities the students can do to help reenforce their knowledge of a subject, from science to language arts to history. There is also the option for teachers to create activities that relate to their lesson plans. In the assessment, the students were given pictures and labels of the four different stages of the water cycle, (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and accumulation) in a random order on the side of the screen. They were asked to put the pictures and labels in the correct order on the screen.


As the students go through the activity, they will drag and drop the pictures and labels in the order of the water cycle.

Step 1

Step 2



Step 3


Step 4

In the text box where the pictures had been, the students write the forms that water is in at each of the four stages of the water cycle.

This activity helps students remember the process of the water cycle, and what form water is in throughout the cycle. It allows them to be accountable for the information, but gives them a more interactive way of remembering it. This activity would be very beneficial in any classroom, and allow students to learn the information on a deeper level.

Science Technologies

I thought that all of the technologies that we explored in class were really interesting, and could all be applied in a classroom. You could use Stellarium to do a unit on constellations and show how they move throughout the year, and some are only visible from certain places and at certain times during the year, this would make the information a lot more interesting and meaningful to the students. The microscopes were really cool because they were so easy to use, and would involve the whole class, it would be fun to do something similar to what we did, and send the class to find things to look at. I was amazed that the microscope didn't cost more! I loved experimenting with the temperature probes, I think it would be a really fun thing to make ice cream in a classroom like they did in the video we watched. Seeing the possibilities for science projects in the classroom, and recognizing the fact that they don't have to be over the top made the prospect of teaching science less daunting.

TPACK

This week I learned that TPACK is technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge. The best teachers use all three of these types of knowledge in their classrooms. When teaching a lesson, you can get the information across to the students best if you know how to teach well, use the latest technology to present it, and have understanding of the subject. Oftentimes people have knowledge that is less specific, or does not use technology, or knowledge that they cannot teach well. TPACK is knowledge of how to present specific information through technology in a way that will make it easy to learn.

Web 2.0 and RSS Feeds

I learned that Web 2.0 refers to the changes in the internet. Web design and technology allow for creativity, improved communications, and the opportunity for collaborating with others. Examples of Web 2.0 tools are blogs, information sharing sites, and collaboration sites. Because these sites allow you to put information online for people to see, Web 2.0 sites would be very useful in the classroom. You could use a blog to keep the parents informed of assignments, and to provide links for them to have easy access to information learned in class. Parents could also look at lists of books online and choose from the teacher's recommendations.

RSS is often called "Really Simple Syndication," it allows you to subscribe to different information on the internet, and access it all from one place. To receive RSS feeds you must have a reader which takes the information you want from the websites you have specified. You get the latest information regularly. RSS feeds could be used in the classroom to quickly and easily access information that relates to the units you are studying, you could have feeds from National Geographic, NASA, The History Channel, and news providers.

Technology

My technology background is average. I know how to navigate myself around the internet, but I know I could be more informed. I know how to use word processing, spread sheet, and presentation programs, and use them fairly regularly. Technology is a very large part of our culture now, and so it is very important to be up to date. I am excited to learn more about using technology in the classroom.