Week 14

I complete steps 2-4 for this week's PLE.

Internet Safety Reflection

1. I chose to read one of the articles under the Media section entitled, "Rated 'A' " by Marvin J. Ashton (such a great article!).
2. I watched over 60 minutes of the video footage under the resources of Netsmartz, iKeepSafe Faux Paws, and the PBS Frontline Documentaries. Some of them were short, informative clips of hypothetical situations whereas others were real stories told by the kids who had experienced them. The videos covered internet safety topics ranging from child predator fears to social life revolution to kids growing up online to creating new identities. I was blown away by how manipulative people can be just through a few clicks on their computers. It was so good for me to watch these stories and recognize how these things actually do happen.
3. Some of the most important things I learned from these readings and videos were founded in the principle of preparing and preventing (instead of "repairing and repenting"). Just as that one "feather in the wind" video explained, once negative things are said on the Internet, it is extremely difficult to pick up the pieces. I enjoyed reading the articles because they articulated correct principles that should govern Internet use and the reasoning behind the principles. My favorite article was Elder Bednar's talk on reality and how Satan wants to minimize the importance of our bodies by getting us to use technology incorrectly--I thought that was really poignant. So many of the videos really struck me as well, but the most interesting one I watched was the one about the goth model who put her identity so much into her provocative Myspace account that it was devastating when she had to delete everything. It demonstrated to me just how careful we need to be in not allowing virtual reality to become more important to us than actual reality.
4. I talked to a parent who was actually pretty well informed about internet safety. Although she was not aware of all the specific ways kids could manipulate each other through the Internet (like cyberbullying), we discussed some of them and realized how most of these situations could be prevented by carefully setting up safeguards, starting when kids are really little. Then, if they start to violate the parents' trust in different ways, then the parents will come down harder on them with more restrictions. I was a little bit surprised to hear how she would restrict Internet privileges so much, but it made a lot of sense considering how hard she has worked on relationships of trust with her kids. I shared a lot about the videos, especially with the girl who shared her best friend's password and she was taken advantage of and her reputation was ruined. I think the person I talked to was amazed by how little it takes to destroy a reputation, and hopefully she will keep teaching her kids important principles about relationships and little safety tips like keeping passwords private.

week 12

I read "Early Connections: Technology in Early Childhood Classrooms" thoroughly for week 12.

TPACK report

week 11

Here are the links for my lesson plans:

• Science lesson plan: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddcbhwk9_1fkvj89c5

• Language Arts: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddcbhwk9_2f8stj2cd

• Math: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddcbhwk9_3gbc3kpd6

Also, I watched the videos for the PLE this week.

week 10

As I watched these three videos, I was impressed with the variety of technology these teachers used. Probably my favorite example was the technology activities helping the students to learn more about spiders. They took pictures using "spider cams" and then scanned their images into the computer so they could put them on a website. The best part was that the website was used to collaborate with an entirely different classroom a few states away. I love this example because it illustrates how technology can connect learners and create meaningful experiences (even across a great distance!) I also enjoyed watching about how the kindergartners (in the "Brown Bear Brown Bear" video) could use the computer to draw pictures to create patterns and make stories in an easy and accessible way. This was especially impressive to me since these were some of the students that had higher needs. The last video was an excellent example of how KidPix provides students with good opportunities to use drawing tools on the computer. Something I noticed about this specific activity was that it enabled students to interact with their teacher and with each other as they drew using KidPix. Overall, I thought that watching these videos helped me to understand even more options to increase my use of technology in the classroom.

week 9

First of all, when I visited two different preschool classrooms, I noticed how much school funding really influences the technology that is available. One school had very few resources, with only a CD player, an overhead, and a VCR (with the tv). While these are decent resources, they seemed outdated in comparison to the other class, which had those resources as well as several new computers (along with updated educational programs), a projector, a digital camera, and access to bigger speakers than just a CD player.

It was interesting to see the teachers' differing attitudes about technology. The teacher with fewer resources seemed more indifferent about its effects in helping the children learn and did not seem as concerned about how to integrate technology with lesson plans. The second teacher who had access to more resources displayed a very healthy and balanced approach to technology--she acknowledged how beneficial these tools were in helping her to teach and also in helping kids to discover the world from different perspectives.

I think the biggest way that technology influenced both classrooms in a preschool setting was just how much music played a significant part in the kids' experience. Both teachers had access to technology that could play music, and although better funding equates to better quality of music, teachers can still grab kids' attention so much and teach so much by using this tool regardless of its quality. So although it is nice to have more up to date technologies, the most important part is using the technologies that are available and incorporating those into the lesson plans.

It is very interesting to see how different teachers view technology and I hope that when I become a teacher, I appreciate whatever resources that are accessible to me.

Also, I completed parts 1 and 2 for this week (the mid-course evaluation and the informed consent).

voice thread for science activity

Week 7 planning

Description of Science Activity

Students will use Kidspiration as they test out different objects to see whether they will sink or float. First, they will be separated into small groups and each group will be given a bag of 10 small items as well as a beaker filled with 75 ml of water. After the students are given instructions concerning the activity, they will proceed to predict which items sink or float, then test these items. As they discover which items float, they will list these items in the “Sink or Float” Activity in Kidspiration. As the students discover which items sink, they will record how much the water level increases (by ml). Conclude with a class discussion about the students’ observations of their results and how the objects’ buoyancy may have been the same or different than what they predicted.

TPACK
Content:
First Grade, Standard 3 (Students will develop an understanding of their environment)
Objective 2 (Investigate water and interactions with water)
B. Compare objects that float and sink in water.
C. Measure and predict the motion of objects in water.

Pedagogy:
The pedagogy I will be using is helping the students observe objects as they sink or float, compare these objects, and then measure the level of water (when it increases from sinking objects). This pedagogy is a good fit for the first grade content since it allows students to engage in the scientific process at an appropriate level (considering this age group and this buoyancy activity).

Technology:
Kidspiration –Sink or Float Activity. This technology is helpful for this content and pedagogy because it allows kids to categorize objects in a visual way. Also, this program brings greater clarity and organization to the process of measuring and recording data for this activity.

Virtual tour

Tours I viewed:
1) Angela (Clocks tour)
2) Caroline (Cultures tour)
3) Lizzy (Nature in Utah tour)

Learning about this tool was very intriguing, but I can definitely see how using virtual tours on google earth have pros and cons when used in an elementary classroom (especially in the earlier grades, where I will be teaching). Although this teaching tool is an excellent visual and has the potential to really engage kids in activities, it could also become distracting or even too complex for the younger kids. Also, from a teacher's point of view, it takes quite a bit of time to prepare tours, so this tool would be most effective if used sparingly. Overall, a virtual tour in google earth is a great resource with the potential to really help kids learn when it's used in the right situation.

google earth virtual tour

Here is my final tour on various religious places: Tour

Also, I changed a few parts of my tour from my ideas in my table last week (although I did have the other images/videos ready to use from my previous plans).

Here is the embedded tour on these religious sites as well:

virtual tour prep

Location	Activity Description	Google Earth Content
1. Jerusalem--3 holy sites: Dome of the Rock Western Wall Garden Tomb	Watch the clips and write down the following 1) Your reaction to each site 2) Why you think there may be conflict because of these sites being close together in the same city.	3 short clips on these sites
2. Vatican in Rome, Italy	Describe 3 things you notice about this place	3 different images of the Vatican
3. Salt Lake Temple in UT	Visit the site and write down 3 new facts you learned about this structure and how it was built	Link to site
4. Taj Mahal in Agra, India	Respond by writing your thoughts on this video. What did it teach you about this place's culture?	video on YouTube

The core curriculum I chose to address was for 3rd grade social studies: Standard 2 (Students will understand cultural factors that shape a community) and Objective 1 (Evaluate key factors that determine how a community develops: a) identify the elements of culture, such as language, religion, etc.)) I chose to do a virtual tour on this topic because I felt that it would be interesting to students to see how different religious structures/sites are located around the world and also notice how these locations influence culture. A Google Earth tour would be more effective in demonstrating the distance between these locations and would more easily captivate students in learning about religious sites.

video (with music credit page added)

Digital storytelling

Movies I watched:

• Angela: "Who Am I ABC's"
• Lizzy: "Mr. Wig, Our Guinea Pig"
• Caroline "A Tasty Alphabet"
• Kate: "The Scarlet Pimpernel"
• Elizabeth: "Three Little Pigs"
• Kaylee: "The One Thing I Won't Eat"

As I was thinking about applying this digital storytelling project in a classroom, I realized that there could be some potential challenges. For instance, planning a storyboard and putting everything together might be easy for a teacher, but some children who have never worked with this type of technology may struggle with it at first. Plus, it could be hard for a teacher to handle around 30 students who are all trying to do this new skill at the same time. If teachers take advantage of the more simple options for the younger grades, however, this type of technology can be more approachable regardless of the students' ages.

storyboard

keeping track of TPACK

TPACK is essentially the means by which teachers convey knowledge to kids in a way they can truly learn it. The different combinations of pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, and technological knowledge all show how important it is for teachers to incorporate these different aspects to maximize students' learning. As I was learning about TPACK, I felt strongly that no matter how much content knowledge or technological knowledge a teacher had, it would be nothing without pedagogical knowledge (or the ability to use appropriate methods that will help the students learn). Of course, all three aspects of TPACK are necessary, but to me I felt that was the glue that made everything stronger and more effective.

TPACK is so necessary for teachers to understand and to incorporate because it involves careful planning and understanding of how to engage the students throughout the learning process. Without this knowledge, teachers' decisions about the curriculum and the lesson plans would be less wise and far less influential.

Some of this technology just blows my mind!

This week has been such an enlightening time for me -- well, technologically speaking, at least. By making my own website, learning how to embed google maps, posting slide shows of photo albums, and chatting live through a webcam, I felt as if a whole other world opened up at my fingertips. The most amazing part was seeing how that's just the tip of the iceberg...it seems as if there are endless resources on the Internet to help teachers to become more effective. Although I probably will not use all of these resources, I do appreciate the few tools I have been able to practice this past week. Hopefully I will continue to utilize them when I actually become a teacher.

synchronous video chat on gmail

asychronous video chat on facebook

Well, I learn something new every day...

Although I grew up in the city where the Internet was invented, I would not consider myself an extremely technologically savvy person. However, I have learned enough to survive in this generation of powerpoint presentations, excel spreadsheets, email, facebook, ipods....you name it. I love seeing the power of techonology make changes in the way people learn, and hopefully by taking this IPT 287 class, I can be an effective teacher using new technological tools. Hence, here's my blog...