A Time For Reflection 3

Now that I have had a chance to experience Wikis, podcasts, del.icio.us, School 2.0 and Bookmarking, I realized how technologically challenged I really was. It is true that our students have more knowledge, and technological saviness than we care to admit. I really need to catch up.

I see so much potential in using the tools that I have learned in assisting students throughout all disciplines. I find myself "surfing the Web" for more and more sites that I can add to my blog which I find useful and others might too. As a Teaching Assistant, I need to keep up and be able to point the way to students to access important information relative to their course work. Teachers could actually adapt lessons to reflect the diversity of student learning in their classrooms making it truly differentiated learning. There is just so much information out there that students can utilize that it is mind boggling. By being able to furnish this knowledge to others, whether it be students, teachers, colleagues, and friends, can only improve the quality of work that we all do.

I hope that I will be able to instill in others my excitement about my "new-found technology." Being able to communicate with others in far away places, attaining new friends, sharing their ideas and visions can only enhance the educational experience.

What Might School 2.0 Look Like???

Ahh, wouldn't it be great to have a system depicted in School 2.0? I absolutely loved the concept and can see so many possibilities in implementing a system such as this. When I first starting exploring the map and reading all the different components to this far-reaching idea, I was struck by the thought that it would be too complicated, too costly, too labor intensive and too BIG to execute, especially say for a community like the City of Rochester. But then I thought that no, this is the future that I am witnessing and unless we step up to the plate, we'll be lost in the dust. Can this be accomplished? You bet. According to the School 2.0 website, "These new interoperable data systems and platforms allow educators to align curriculum, instruction and on-line resources with learning standards and assessments for each grade and subject area." It is able to integrate all aspects of learning. I can forsee the student who is home ill being able to participate in his classes via her computer and real-time feed. No more missed assignments, no having to play catch-up. How wonderful! The adaptablility this kind of program affords to students with special needs, learning disabilities is awesome. With the ability of this type of technology availble to educators at the touch of a finger, School 2.0 states that "Teachers who use periodic and formative assessments embedded in electronic instructional aids find that this information allows instruction to be continuously re-targeted towards the needs of each student. This wealth of information also provides opportunities to continuously evaluate the performance of programs and systems intended to improve students' success rates and to modify or change their use as the data dictate." Isn't that what education is supposed to be? To continue to change, adapt, expand, develop and challenge the minds of our young so that they are life-long learners!

School 2.0-Another Perspective on Challenges We Face

The interview between Alan November and Dr. Young Zhao was quite thought provoking. It made me seriously think about how we as educators approach the problem of education in the technological world. We are living in a digital world and we need to help our students interact with this globilization. Why, as a nation are we so resistant to change? We are not looking to the future and our leaders and policy makers are not willing to face the problem. Other countries are willing to adopt to these changes in this digital, virtual, global world but we are slow to accept these changes. We need to rethink the educational environment. Technology in the classroom can assit students in becoming powerful agents of education. They become active contributors and expand their knowledge into a new learning community. I have seen how on-line learning can trigger transformation of schools. It creates and increases competition between schools and enables the student to choose the option that is most beneficial to them. Right now I am currently enrolled in 2 on-line courses for the summer semester of college whereas one year ago this technology or opportunity was not available to me. The potential increase of learning through this type of technology that Alan and Dr. Zhao discussed is huge. Minds need to be changed about the relationship between teachers and technology. It needs to be integrated into the curriculum so that teachers can become 21st century educators.

21st Century Skills: Collaborative Project

I must admit that I truly enjoyed Kevin Honeycutt's presentation regarding using collaborative techniques in the classroom. He is a witty, insightful, teacher who is passionate about learning and makes one want to dive right in and incorporate his ideas immediately.

We all need to use different tools to help our students become successful. We not only "want them to play the video games, but be able to design them too." If we do not use the technology in our classrooms that our students already know, we are omitting an important aspect of teaching. I agree with Kevin in not trying to fit all children into the same mold. There are so many different ways of learning that this innovative technique can include all levels of students strengths. That way, students become the teachers themselves and it is so much more meaningful to them when they have a stake in their learning. The classrooms are essentially united into one global village, each member taking part and contributing to the success of all.

I thought how this type of teaching tool could be incorporated into a classroom and remembered how students in Global 9 learn the different religions of the Middle East. A different group could be assigned a different religion, using research, primary and secondary sources and a guide to report out to the other groups. They would be able to become "experts" in their field and "teach" the material to the others. Quoting from Gandhi; "You must be the change you want to see in the world" is what I believe that Kevin Honeycutt is trying to tell us all.

Reflections #2

How much fun I had creating my del.icio.us account and looking at my other classmates accounts to see what they found interesting enough to tag. It is so quick and easy to operate; a virtual one stop shopping place for me. I put so many different types of tags on my page from health and fitness, history, cooking/recipes, and travel that I had to stop before I had too many. I can pop in and out, add and delete things, research topics that I find interesting, the possibilites are just endless. I have just enrolled in two college courses at Roberts Wesleyan and I can already see the endless opportunites that this will afford me. I can do tons of research for a particular topic and have it all in one spot!! I am also enrolled in a co-operative teaching workshop and found many interesting web sites that my classmates had tagged which I also added to my page. I just wish I had known about this earlier!

Using Wiki's in the classroom

I enjoyed searching through the different wiki's and realized what an awesome tool this could become in a classroom setting. WikiHow was just fabulous; offering different teaching tools for students in preparing them for the High School setting or college. I plan to add this Wiki to my blog for students to utilize. Since I am a Teaching Assistant, I appreciated Julie's comment on starting a Wiki for TA's at the High School. What a great way to inform us of different events occuring within each of the classrooms that we push into and various events happening throughout the school community in general. Great Idea!!!

Exploring Video Resources

When looking at all the different choices to explore to assist students in my program I found that the most useful site happened to be TeacherTube. I found that it was more reliable, and had better information that was much more pertinent to the areas that our students are studying. I was not at all impressed with YouTube or Clipblast. The grievance that I have with YouTube is that there is so much negativity associated with this site and the possiblility of downloading a video that is totally inappropriate or meaningless is real. I had a much more difficult time trying to locate videos that were educational in nature (i.e. Lanugage arts, mathematics or history.) With the Clipblast site, I had difficulty in viewing the videos as they were constantly stopping to buffer which I found to be quite distracting and time consuming. The potential for using the data that I did located is limitless, especially with TeacherTube. Some of our students are learning how to construct line graphs, cite term papers, reading And then there were none, and pursuing knowledge of weathering. Summaries of these topics were easily accessible on TeacherTube. I plan on refering students to these sites to assist them in their classroom studies. It would also be beneficial to parents in discerning what is being taught in their child's classroom.

Feelings about Blogging

Now that I have completed the first 3 assignments for this class, I find that I'm not as techno-savvy as I had once thought and that I am both a visual and kinesthetic learner. I now know how disabled students feel when they can't seem to grasp concepts or ideas. What a beneficial tool blogging would be for those of us who find conventional learning difficult. Lessons could be designed to include all types of learners and since the "younger" generation is much more adept at this technology stuff, they would eat it up!!! I often hear students complaining how boring and mundane their classrooms are. Blogging, introduced into the class curriculum, would definitely liven things up, make things more interesting.

Welcome to Molly's Page!!!!

I am so excited to welcome you to my blog!! The purpose of this blog is to share some thoughts and ideas with all of you on many different topics. I hope that you will enjoy visiting my blog as much as I will enjoy having you stop by.