Final Blog

I learned a lot from class this semester. I learned how to use the Smart Board effectively. I will definitely use this technology when I get my own classroom. I plan on doing a unit on persuasion and the PSA project works great with this, so I plan to change it and make it for 4th graders. There were also a lot of little items that you do not realize you have learned until you actually have to use them.

I think it is really important to incorporate technology into your classroom because it keeps you on the same page as the students. It will keep the students interested, because you are speaking their language. It also makes the lessons fun and when lessons are fun the students learn and the teachers enjoy teaching. Incorporating technology also keeps a teacher up to date. I believe this, because technology is always changing, which means that our lessons will have to change along with technology.

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New Skills

I believe that this class allowed for me to become more technology efficient in different areas. As I have said in a couple of my other blogs, I believe that in order to succeed in the teaching world a teacher needs to be as current and up to date with technology as the students are. If we want the students to want to learn, we need to present it to them in a fashion that they understand and enjoy.

Learning about the smart board will truly help when it comes to interactive lessons. I really enjoyed playing around with the smart board technology and learning how to make different activities. I just hope that when I get my own classroom that I will have an interactive white board at my disposal.

The video project was awesome. I definitely would use that in some way in my classroom. I think it is a fun way to get students involved and working hard. I mean wouldn't want to make a video as a project in class.

I think that these kind of activities will bring out the best in the students and also might bring the best out of a teacher. Teachers should be having fun with what they are teaching and technology definitely adds some fun to it.

Interactive Whiteboards

I think interactive whiteboards are a very important tool for teachers to have in their classroom. They are fun and easy to use once you get the hang of them. Most importantly they allow for the students to have an opportunity to get out of their seats and manipulate different items. It is boring to sit in your seat all day. Interactive whiteboards can make learning fun for some of the students.

I would definitely want a SMART board of Promethius in my classroom. I would be able to come up with so many different lessons that would involve the students and I would probably even create some that only involve me. Interactive whiteboards are not just about entertaining the students and getting them involved. It is also for the teachers entertainment as well. I would like to have one for my classroom because I believe that as teachers we need to be able to be just as fluent in technology as the students are and having interactive whiteboards is one of the ways to do it.

The advantages to having these boards in the classroom, is that it allows for students to be actively participating though manipulating items. Interactive whiteboards allow for students to see and move items that they would never be able to do using an old fashioned projector. These boards open up a whole new world when it comes to teaching and how we teach lessons.

Students would definitely be more engaged, because it would be like we were speaking their language. The younger students are very technology proficient and I believe that they respond best when we use what they know and love to teach them.

PSA Video Project

The PSA project was a great experience. I had a lot of fun with it. When it came to working with the technology behind it, I found it more difficult than I originally anticipated. I had worked with video cameras before, but not to make a PSA and also not in a few years. I learned quickly how to do the basic functions of the camera so that the PSA could be filmed. Ann and I had to take quite a few video shots before being able to proceed to the next step. Once we had all the video footage, it did not take us long to realize that the plan we had developed may be to long for the amount of time allotted. We were definitely glad that we had already found the music and made it so it would fit with the PSA. Luckily I had worked with audacity in my Senior Seminar class senior year, which made it a little easier to use when we needed to. I think that the hardest part had to be cutting the video to make it work. This part took up the most time. We were constantly cutting and shortening in order to make the video not only fit in the allotted time but also so that the video would look good. There were other times when we had to take the video section from scratch again because we messed up the scene. Another part that seemed to be a little challenging was trying to get the voice overs completely perfect when it came to certain scenes. In some spots it wasn't exactly where we wanted it to be, but it turned out to work great.

I definitely would like to incorporate some sort of video in the classroom when I become a teacher. I think that it would be a lot of fun and that the students would learn a lot. When a person has to make something themselves I think it makes them retain much more about the project and also makes them appreciate it more because it was their time and effort that made the project possible.

Video in the Classroom

Video seems to be becoming more mainstream as the years pass. Students in classrooms know how to use cameras and video-cameras that are far beyond the technology that I used just 10 years ago. I believe that it is important to use items that the students find interesting and that follow along with the time in which they live in. That said, I think that I could have oriented many past lessons to use video. For example, I wrote a math lesson 2 years ago that could have went more smoothly if I had had a video explaining it. It also could have made the lesson more interesting. Another project that I did 2 years ago had to do with creating my own Utopia. It was a group project, and it would have been much more interesting if we had created a video that showed what the Utopia was like. For instance made the video so it seemed like it was a vacation resort video like someone would see on television. I think this would have made it seem more realistic and would have hit home for more of the other students in my class.

I would incorporate video in the classroom by allowing the use of video to assist me in teaching lessons and also allowing the students to teach using video. I would use video in the classroom by showing the students video of certain historical events or even science projects in order to keep their attention. This is useful, because it can keep the students attention and is also inexpensive to use because of certain websites such as United Streaming. I would allow the students to use video, by allowing them to do a group project where they make a video demonstrating a certain historical event. It could actually be used to teach any subject. It allows the students to get involved with what they are learning. The students have fun, act, learn new information, and finally have to teach what they have learned. Video is a great tool for teachers to have.

Success with the Net Generation

After reading chapter eight and thinking about how classrooms are evolving, I do not think it will be difficult for me to be successful with the net generation. I believe that to be successful with the net generation teachers need to be one step ahead of the students. We need to be up to date to the latest technology and interactive activities. If we can do this, then I believe there is a great possibility that we can get these students involved and wanting to participate in class. I know if I had interactive and online activities I would have been more interested. While reading this chapter I also thought about how cool it would be to have students have their pen pals online. If the school could contact a school somewhere else and the two classrooms could communicate via email, rather than having to write out a letter, then mail it, then wait for a response the students would be very excited and the writing would occur more often.

In chapter 8, it says if we want to be successful we need to step back and release a bit of the control. It always says how the students will be able to do science rather than just learn science or do history rather than just learn about it. If we do not embrace these advances then we will definitely fall behind. I also think that students know how to do many activities on the computer, but do not necessarily know the correct way. I think we need to refine what they know and make them better without them realizing that they are doing work.

Social Bookmarking Address

Forget to put my social bookmarking address in blog, so here it is...www.diigo.com/user/jnardiello.