Course Reflection

I am thankful for having had the opportunity to take this course because I feel that it opened my horizons about using technology in the classroom. In the past, I was only familiar with using Powerpoint, Microsoft Word, Prezi, iPads, and blogging within the classroom. After taking this class, I feel that I now possess the knowledge and preparedness to use other forms of technology such as podcasts, webquests, and websites within my future instruction. I love how these later forms of technology can be used to incorporate listening and speaking, whereas PowerPoint, Word, and blogging tend to only incorporate two of the language modalities, reading and writing. When working with ELLs, it is important to incorporate all of the language modalities because they help ELLs further access the curriculum.

I wish I had taken an educational technology course, such as this one, earlier during undergrad because I feel that we should have been given some technological instruction prior to student teaching and receiving our Bachelor's Degree in Education. In a quickly advancing technological world, our students must know how to interact with technology and utilize it to their advantage. However, most teachers, including myself, cannot keep up with the ever-changing technology and therefore are not able to adequately teach our students how to use it. Therefore, courses such as this one should be necessary for every educator to take, and not in their second-to-last semester of graduate school.

Blogging with First Graders

In one of my other graduate level classes, I was introduced to Ms. Cassidy's classroom blog and was so impressed that I decided it was worth sharing with others. Here is its link: http://mscassidysclass.edublogs.org/. 

Ms. Cassidy is a first grade teacher in Canada and she uses her classroom blog in a variety of ways for both parents and students. On her blog, parents can get a daily update about their students' progress and see what exactly they are doing within the classroom. Ms. Cassidy also frequently posts unidentified pictures and videos of her students engaging in lessons so that parents can again see their learning in action.

Ms. Cassidy also uses her blog as a place where each of her first grade students has his/her own blog page. Each student has his/her own page where his/her work is displayed for anyone to see and comment on. The parents and relatives of these students often will leave comments for their children on their blog page, which the children can then read and respond to with Ms. Cassidy's help. 

I love this idea of giving each of her students his/her own blog page for a variety of reasons. First, it gives the students a meaningful sense of purpose for writing and learning. Secondly, they have an authentic audience with whom they can communicate and publish their work for. In addition, each of their blog pages gives the students choice and ownership over something. Lastly, I love how friends and family can post encouraging comments on each student's blog. All of these reasons are motivating factors for any student, and I love how Ms. Cassidy has sparked this excitement for learning within her first graders by allowing them to incorporate 21st century technology into their learning.

Podcasts

Before last night's class I had never created a Podcast or even known how they are made. I never realized how easy they are to create with the right materials. To create a Podcast one must have a headset with a microphone, some type of podcasting software such as Audacity, and material to podcast. With the right equipment, podcasting is very fun to do. I think students would really enjoy creating podcasts related to different topics because they are engaging, relateable to students' lives, and creative. Podcasts would be an excellent method for performance-based assessments because students could demonstrate their understanding of a topic in an original way. 

Teachers can also use Podcasts to communicate with their students. For example, if they are out they can assign the homework via a Podcast, or they could create Podcasts about classroom events for parents. Podcasts can also be used in instruction to provide comprehensible input for students about any topic.

There are endless creative ways to use Podcasts, however there are some shortcomings as well. First, you must have the materials listed earlier to create one, which may be expensive for some schools. Secondly, you must have a script or plan for each Podcast. Writing a script and then editing it can often be time consuming for only a few minutes of a Podcast. Lastly, you must have access to sounds that will make the Podcast more interesting. You do not have to add sounds, but they help make the Podcast more engaging for listeners. Despite these few shortcomings though, I think I would still like to try Podcasting within my future classroom. I do not think I will personally have enough time to create them on a regular basis, but I think they would be great to have students use within instruction and for assessment.

Classroom Websites

Previous to this past week's class, I had no idea that creating a classroom website could be so fun and easy! I've always admired the elaborate teacher websites with links to their daily classroom activities, homework, calendar, and classroom photos. However, I figured that once I have my own classroom I probably would not have my own website because they are difficult to maintain and you must pay for them. Wrong!

There are lots of easy-to-use free website creators online now. Those who have a Gmail account can create a Google web page through their already established Google account. There are also other sites, such as Weebly, which are very user-friendly. I used Weebly to create my "class" website, http://missdietrichsclassroom.weebly.com/. This was my first time ever creating a website and I found it to be extremely easy and fun to use. There are a lot of templates to choose from which you can personalize with photos, text, font, and the overall layout. I will definitely use Weebly again to create any future websites.

The only downsides to using these website creators, such as Weebly, is that eventually, if you have a lot of content and multimedia (i.e. photos and video), you must upgrade your account and pay a fee to maintain your website. In addition, since teachers are so busy with all of their other responsibilities, websites are often neglected. Failing to maintain my classroom website is my biggest fear when creating a website. If the content is not up-to-date and relevant then it is almost pointless to have a website. Therefore, once I have my own classroom and design my own website, I will need to develop my own system/schedule for maintaining my website. If you have any suggestions, please leave me a comment!

Evaluating Apps for the iPad

Two helpful resources for evaluating educational apps are the Critical Evaluation of a Content-Based Mobile App (2013) by Kathleen Schrock, and Evaluation Rubric for IPod Apps (2010) by Harry Walker. They are both very helpful because they list specific criteria pertaining to apps. However, I do prefer Kathleen Schrock's resource more because it has the evaluator think about how the app relates to Bloom's Taxonomy. In addition, at the bottom, the evaluator is asked to write a quick summary of the app. I think including a summary is very helpful because it helps a different reader know what the app is about. In addition, the evaluator can use this space to write specific explanations about why he/she would or would not recommend this app to another user rather than simply answering the yes/no statements listed above in the criteria section.

Both resources have similarly listed criteria used to evaluate the actual content and components of the app. For this section, however, I do prefer Harry Walker's rubric because his rubric has different levels for each component. Conversely, Schrock's evaluative tool only allows the evaluator to answer each criteria as a yes/no. Walker's rubric allows the evaluator to specifically address each component and how effective the app truly is. Even though I do like the specificity of Walker's rubric, as a whole I prefer Schrock's evaluative tool because it gives the evaluator a more comprehensive review of an app.

Microsoft Excel in the Classroom

Before tonight's class, I had no idea that Excel can be used in so many ways. I used to think that it is just a way to graph data and document statistical information. I never thought about the practical ways I could use it in a classroom, apart from recording science or mathematical data.

Excel can be used in a variety of ways for all subjects. Teachers can use it for their own personal use by creating grade books with multiple pages and/or seating charts. Students can use it to create timelines or to complete crossword puzzles. Personally, I found the timeline tutorial to be the most helpful. I am still a pen and ink type of person meaning that I prefer to record grades on paper and draw a seating chart by hand. However, I found the timeline to be useful because it is something that students can easily create once they have been taught how to use Excel. Students could create their own timelines or work in groups to create one mass timeline. In addition, timelines relate to any subject area. For example, students could graph the development of mathematical theories over time, the stages of photosynthesis, or a timeline of WWII events. There are many ways to display one's learning, and Excel has a variety of tools that allow students to demonstrate their understanding.

Effective Use of Technology with ELLs - Research Paper Reflection

 Researching about how to effectively use technology with English Language Learners (ELLs) was very rewarding for me as an pre-service ESOL teacher. A lot of the benefits and advice that I discovered I had never considered before, which made the findings of my research very applicable to my own teaching. The things that stood out the most to me are found in the "considerations" portion of my paper. When using technology, teachers must consider some of the following things:

1) Make sure ELLs are familiar with the technological vocabulary. Since ELLs are unfamiliar with English vocabulary and most likely the vocabulary associated with technology, they must be explicitly taught the vocabulary that is associated with technology before they can be taught how to use technology. In one of the articles that I used in my paper, Kristina Robertson wrote about a teacher who referred to a "mouse." Her ELLs did not realize that she was referring to the computer "mouse" and therefore were confused because they thought she meant a real-live mouse! Simple terms such as a "mouse" must be defined for students. Until reading Robertson's article, I had never considered the importance of reviewing vocabulary and basics.

2) Not all students, especially ELLs, have had prior access to technology before coming to school. Therefore, as teachers, we must be sure to start with the basics of technology. Also, not all students have access to technology outside of school, so it is important to not always assign homework that requires a computer and/or the internet. We want to be sure that we are not automatically excluding students based upon their lack of resources.

3) Lastly, teachers must ensure that technology is used as an aid to instruction and that it has a purpose. In my paper I quoted Professor Margaret Hawkins who wrote, "When you sit a kid one-on-one at a computer, it’s not a very good use of anybody’s time." What she meant by this is to not stick a student in front of a computer without giving them a purposeful task. Her statement made me reflect upon my own experiences, and I realized that sometimes teachers who do not know how to teach ELLs or students with disabilities will unfortunately stick the student in front of a computer in the hopes that they will learn. Computers and technology are great instructional tools, but they cannot be divorced from a teacher's instruction and a purposeful meaning.

Before starting my research, I knew about the numerous benefits of using educational technology, but I had never considered the limitations that it can have on students if it is not used properly. Therefore, I am grateful to have learned about these limitations because now I am able to see a more complete picture of how to effectively use technology with my future ELLs.