Starting this class at the beginning of the semester, I wasn't sure what we would be doing and how this could help me with my future classroom. It is like going in blind and not knowing what to expect but it has changed my perception on technology within the classroom. It is more than using computers, tablets, and white boards. It is creating an enviroment for every child to grow and to learn to use technology in a healthy way. At least everyone in my group stated that technology can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing. I believe as a teacher we have the opportunity to change that for some children and change the mindset of bad technology. This class was very helpful in teaching us to use tools in different ways and also allowed me to use tools that I would of never thought of like using iMovie or Recordings. The tools were helpful and this class has inspired me to branch out and find other useful tools that could help my classroom thrive. Although this class was very helpful, it was also very stressful. Some of the tools we were required to use were not user friendly and hard to use. While she provided examples and tutorials it was very hard to understand exactly what she wanted. I generally am a fast learner and some of the assignments took me forever to complete because the directions weren't very clear. Also this class required online meetings that were scheduled at a certain time on a certain day. This was very hard for me and I couldn't attend any of them due to my busy schedule with work and my responsibilities outside of work. It was just very hard to attend the meetings when I have other things scheduled for months in advance. Dr. Wang was very engage in our learning experiences and was very helpful. She would answer questions over email and if she couldn't be reached she had Charles answer. I think that was nice having someone else there to answer questions and provide help. She was also very gracious on grading and allowed us to improve our grades by letting us revise our projects. This class was a great experience and I am glad Dr. Wang pushed us out of our comfort zones. I believe this is what makes great teachers, is teachers pushing us to do something different.
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Key strategies for integrating technology into music and art From my experience in helping in our music and art classes at the school, it just seems so easy to incorporate technology into these classes. I would definitely start with music first, not only will you need technology to listen to music but it can also be helpful in teaching musical literacy. Most children are not going to come into music and know how to read music, so I would use computer programs and animated apps to give my students maximum experience to learn to read music. I think that integrating technology into music but your program has to be willing to spend the extra money on upgrades. Music is a great way to give students the ability to escape or a way to express themselves. The music program at my school uses the Promethean board for fun songs, and also teaching the students how to stay on beat with the different apps that one can download. Art is a little more difficult to integrate technology into art, not only is it hard to integrate in schools just are not funding art programs anymore. The same with music, you can watch videos in art for instructional projects, create designs on the computer, or just using it to teach technique. Not only can technology be used for showing students examples and informational power points but it can also be used for creating digital designs such as using iMovie, Final Cut, and Premiere. In the art class at my school, my students love to watch art clips on how to create pictures and to watch tutorials on how to draw. I think that I will always try to integrate technology into my instruction to provide my students will all the tools they will need to understand the content. Issues of integrating technology in special education As educators we must be aware of the different learning abilities in our classrooms. We must also be willing to try different ways and to be prepared and knowledgeable about learning differences and resources that would help. Some of the issues that students with disabilities face with technology are the lack of knowledge, resources, and funding. With having students with disabilities it is important to have the right software and equipment. Some equipment could be specially made desk for students with wheelchairs, text to speech products for blind students, and hands on functional skills for students that need help with managing life. With the school I work in, we happen to be very fortunate to have a district that supports students with disabilities and will help provide their needs even if it means putting them in a different school. Some of the schools around us house different programs for children with disabilities and depending on their needs they place them their until they are comfortable enough to go back to their regular school. When I think about web-based curriculum my mind always goes in the direction of online courses. I believe that online curriculum environment all depends on the creator of the site. This is very important for a creator of a web based curriculum that the website is user friendly, constant, and appealing to the eyes. It also needs to be a very diverse website, which that can be operated by young and older students, parents of the children, and grandparents. For the assignment this week, we had to create a web-based curriculum website. It was a little difficult starting off. Trying to make the site flow and trying to make it easy to use, was difficult. The site domain was is very hard to understand and hard to figure out how to make it looks appealing. For me as an elementary education major, I don’t really see me using this in the future for my classes. If I do I think it would be for parent updates and newsletters but as far as assignments and other things, I just don’t think it works. After this project was complete, it was nice to see the final produce and see how it could be used for my future classes. You can view my Website here: Sea Turtle Species Web Tools Reflection The web tools assignment was different from all of the other assignments because we had to create a topic to use with all of the tools. My topic was Sea Turtles. The assignment was to create an online rubric, online test, and an online bookmark with websites that were helpful for our topic. Out of all of the tools we used, my favorite was the online test maker. It was easy to use and user friendly. It was a simple website and flowed really nicely to create an organized test. The other tools were fairly easy to use but a little difficult in set up and it was a little difficult to get around the website. I had a little trouble figuring out how to save the test and the rubric. I also had to figure out how to remove the password for the online bookmark. I think that in the classroom these could be incorporated into instruction. For me, I could see myself using the online test maker more than the online bookmark and rubric maker. Here is my project if you would like to view it: Online Test Online Test Answer Key Online Rubric Online Bookmark Audio Instructional Reflection With creating the audio instructional piece, it was a little difficult to work because I had never used anything like that before. I have recorded lectures with my phone in class before but I had never recorded myself teaching a lesson. It was a little weird at first listening to myself on the recording, I had to redo it a couple of times because it just wasn't what I expected to sound like. One of the problems that I experienced was trying to save it. I tried a couple of different things and it just wasn't right, so I tried until I got it saved the way it was supposed to be. I think that this program will be great to use in a classroom. I think that I would use it for recording of lectures for students that were absent or just for a recap of a lesson. I also think that it would be great for the parents, I could record important information or updates for them. Here is my Audio Instructional Recording: Pedestrian Safety: Stop! Slow! Go! Resources and skills required for multimedia/hypermedia design, development, and integration Multimedia and hypermedia design are becoming more and more popular. With the resources that have been created today, anyone is capable of creating a webpage, a short film, or the use of software tools. They are so accessible and have been created to be user friendly and easy to create. The skills that are used can be downloading to our computers or we can download a video and learn how to do it. With anything practice makes perfect and development skills will become greater over time. Hypermedia is not only for website and web communities but it involves sound, videos, pictures, and text. It creates a different way of community using different tools and it helps developers use other people’s designs for help and guidance. It can also be integrated into our educational classes by providing digital literacy, applying art and music, learning print and graphic design, and even video editing. My experiences of creating a multimedia project When creating the digital story, I didn’t quite know what to think about the project. It was difficult trying to come up with a topic and learning to use IMovie. I had never used IMovie so of course it is a little nerve - racking. Before starting, I went online and watched a couple of videos on how to create short films on IMovie. It was actually very interesting watching a short film be put together and doing it all myself. I think that I will use this in my classroom for learning activities to help get my students up and moving, class discussions, and even projects within the class for the students to complete. I also think that using multimedia in the classroom could be used for more than communicating with students but also with parents. It can be a great tool in the classroom and it is one I plan to improve on and figure out how to use it in a better way. Here is my Digital Short Film: How to Become A Super Student? Google Group Project Over the past week, my teammates and I have been working on a group project using Google Group and Google drive. This group project has opened my eyes that I don’t know everything about technology. As a young adult, technology is everywhere. I use it for work, school, entertainment, shopping, and even paying bills. We often get in a state of mind that we don’t need to learn anything else or we have all we need to get by but with this project it allowed me to learn things that I didn’t know. When I got the assignment I was a little worried about working with a group because I know myself and I like to work at my own pace and sometimes I tend to wait until the last minute. Before I started this group project, I set a goal for myself that I would not wait until the last minute that I would try my hardest to get things done and help in any way possible. I also learned so much from my teammates, we had to answer discussion questions about technology and their answers were amazing. They gave great detail into how they would integrate technology once they are in their own classrooms. It was good to get other ideas from future teachers because I would have never thought of using technology in the way that they would use them. Below are links to view our work: Our Group Discussion Our Group Power Point Our Group Story Our Group Spreadsheet Our Group Survey Instructional Software The definition of instructional software is used specifically to provide instruction or assistance with the delivery of instruction for a topic. Instructional software is created to only provide support within the classroom to help learning and to guide instruction. Instructional software provides classrooms with the tools they need to succeed for all students, even students with special needs. It allows the teacher to use any method she or he would like and provides them with tools to help their students succeed. Instructional software has 5 functions: drill and practice, tutorial, simulation, instructional game, and problem solving memory challenge. As a future teacher that is very hands on, I prefer the instructional game. It allows students to be entertained while playing a game that is effective and delivers what they need to know academically. The Features and Capabilities of Word, Spreadsheet, and Presentation Software When using word, spreadsheet, and presentation software tools in a classroom it shows effect organization. It allows teachers and students the opportunity to deliver assignments faster, neater, and possibly more accurate. You can incorporate word with language and reading lessons, it would allow them to learn to spell words by typing them into word or have them create a story using word with pictures. A teacher could also incorporate spreadsheet in a math lesson and let the students enter data from some research they have done and they could add or subtract the results using the formulas. Students could also use presentation for creating a lesson or project to show the entire class using slides, pictures, music, and animation. These software programs can also be used for teachers. Teachers can use word to create news letters for parents and it can also be used to create test, assignments, and homework. Spreadsheet can be used for teachers to enter data for information for their principal and also used to create list to take role or watch behavior throughout the day. Teachers can also use presentation for creating lessons in the form of slides and use it to teach about a topic, it just provides a different way to teach and incorporate technology in the classroom. Software Tools Three tools come to mind when I think about the classroom to help support teaching and learning skills. Word, spreadsheet, and presentation are ones that generally come to mind and what most teachers use. Since technology is becoming more and more acceptable everywhere some teachers are finding different tools to use in the classroom. Tools like mobile apps, web-based collaboration tools, and software suites. Just like what we are using in our IT class with Google Drive, it can also work within an elementary class. One of the main software tools that I have had to use in a classroom would be Prezi for presentations. Educational Technology – Definition - Pros and Cons The definition of educational technology can be defined by one’s own perspective. As a future teacher, I would define educational technology as a way of utilizing resources and applying the works together. For instance, having a computer and projector and using it for students to take turns teaching a problem to the class. This not only helps them to learn to use the space they are given, but this could help any student with public speaking and using the tools they are given to explain a problem or situation to others. With education, technology can be a great asset or a detrimental down side. With technology at our fingertips, we have the ability to find any answer, communicate with people around the world, and locate items or people within minutes. As teachers, we must be aware that using technology in our classrooms opens our students and ourselves up to another world of teaching. For example, the classroom that I currently work in, we do not have phones in a close proximity to our classroom, so we are encouraged to use our cell phones to call parents. While this is convenient for us, it also causes a problem because parents think that it is appropriate to call or text us at any time. Technology can also bring distractions within the classroom, like cyberbullying, privacy issues, cyber cheating, increase of illegal software and music. With these issues, technology can be a great asset, it can open student’s views on learning and even how they learn. Students can work on assignments at home and submit the assignments without having to be near the classroom. It opens up possibilities with different ways to reach students who learn different ways. Learning Theories for Technology Integration The learning theories for technology integration can be broken down into two different views: Directed instruction which is based on objectivism and Inquiry-based learning which is based on constructivism. My name is Mindy Mathias. I am an Elementary Education Major at The University of Southern Mississippi. SMTTT! I am a Kindergarten Assistant at Anniston Avenue Elementary in Gulfport, Mississippi. I absolutely love it and know this is exactly where I need to be in life. Children are my passion and I believe that teaching is my calling in life. I am very involved in my church's children and youth ministry. I enjoy being with my family and friends, shopping, and crafting. Most teachers dread decorating their door and bulletin board, I am probably the only one that enjoys it. I will be using this blog to reflect on projects that I complete for my Integrating Technology in the Classroom course. I truly hope that you will enjoy reading my experiences and watch my journey as I learn to utilize technology in my future classroom. |
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