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.

The address to my e-portfolio is www.jnardiellodigitalportfolio.webnode.com

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.

Social Bookmarking and Excel

Social bookmarking is a great advance in technology. It makes everything so much easier. Social bookmarking can be used to help students and teachers, because teachers can bookmark something that he/she wants the students to read and does not have to worry about having to send every student the website. All the students would have to do is go to the teachers page and look and see what websites he/she has tagged. This technology can also help a teacher, by allowing he/she to see websites that the students are finding on their own and bookmarking. It could be made into a homework assignment, and the teacher can follow up by becoming followers of the students and checking and seeing what they are bookmarking and making sure they stay on task. Social bookmarking helped me because it makes everything so much easier. If I want to bookmark something I click the Diigolet tab on my toolbar and it automatically will place it on my list of bookmarks. Also if I am trying to research something I need to only type in a keyword and many different sites will come up that other people have found that has the keyword tagged by it. This makes research much easier and I definitely will use it.

Excel is a great program to use when it comes to organization and can also be used in order to conduct fun activities. One option that the students can use excel for is to setup their schedule on it. They can make it so that the tests and quiz dates are underneath each class tab so that they will not fall behind. Next, the teacher can do use excel to conduct lessons, because there are different graphics that allows for the teacher to make different boxes and arrows that makes the lesson more visually fun. Excel could be used in history class, because there is a way to do hierarchy tables which would be a great way to teach them how many people felt when it came to race and gender in years past. There are ways to use Excel to make graphs that form circles with arrows which would allow for the teacher to teach that every action has a chain reaction. Excel would help because the students would be able to visually see what the teacher meant, and also could put in items they wanted. Finally, there is one that looks almost like an a template when it comes to creating a picture of the molecules of an element. It could be used in science class to show the students what the elements are made of.

Google Apps

When I was in highschool, we had to do a lot of group projects in history. They were long projects, and we were usually placed in groups of four. Google docs would have made everything much easier, because we would have been able to see what eachother was writing. We would have been able to write the paper together without actually being together. Since we didn't have something like google apps, we had to continually email eachother back and forth attempting to make everything sound correct and flow well.
Google apps would work well in the classroom, because the teacher can set up a calender with the entire class. Then the calender would show when certain items are due. This would make it so that none of the students could ever come into the class and say that they didn't know that something was due. Google apps is also a great way for the students to discuss different books or subjects out of class. The students can set up blogs and debate and discuss different topics.
The first lesson plan that I found has to do with teaching the students how to read and discuss a historical novel. The lesson plan has the students reading this novel and then using google docs to write questions about the novel. The questions are then separated by chapter. They then can be discussed in class if the teacher would like. The students also learn how to blog, so that they can discuss the chapters amongst themselves. Google maps is incoporated because the students have to find out where the places in the novel really are. Finally, google docs is used in order for the students to write a different ending to the novel.
I believe this is a great lesson plan. I believe this because it allows to students to take responsibility into their own hands. They discuss many parts of the book on their own and also come up with many of the questions that are used to discuss it.
The second lesson plan that I found was to be used to teach science to 4-6 graders. The lesson is basically learning about how to effectively use surveys. The students first need to formulate a question that they would like to be effectively answered. The students then need to find out what age, group they are going to be directing their survey towards. The students then create the survey and distribute it. Once this is done the students collect the data and calculate the results. They can use google apps to put the information into a spread sheet that everyone can see.
This is a good lesson plan because it allows the students to conduct a study on something they would like to know. It makes them find out the information for themselves instead of having the teacher just tell them what the answer is. It gives them the opportunity to go out and collect data and find out if their prediction was right or wrong.

R/w and Educause Blog 2

1. I believe the same things that the Net Gen does. My life seems to be based around technology. When I got a phone that allowed for me to check my email and go I the internet, I thought that it was making my life easier. In reality it was just connecting work and free time. There no longer a seperation. It is the same thing with students of the Net Generation. Their lives are based around this technology. It is how they keep in touch with the outside world. It interests them, which is why many students find online classes fun and exciting. It something that speeks to them in the language that they speek most fluently. The idea of the younger population moving forward with technology is not a new phonemenon. It has happened in the past as well when tapes became cds and vhs became dvds. It just seems that the Net Generation is taking it much further. I think that this is a great way to communicate. It is quick and efficient. The time of having to track down your professor is almost gone. Now it is much easier to send them an email and wait for a response because like me many of them have followed the evolution of technology and have phones or other resources that allow for them to check their email very frequently and quickly.
2. When I first saw r/w I did not know exacly what it was. Then I found out that it mean the read/write web. As I read further I realized that I knew and had used many R/W programs before. One of them caught my attention immediately, because I had never seen or heard of it before. It was aggregators, and it seemed like a very simple easy to use program. Google docs is a free online word processor, spread sheet, etc. Basically it seems as if it is like Microsoft Word in a way but allows for people to use it for free. It seems to be a r/w program because a person uses it on the internet. A person can read work that is sent to them by other people and also fix and write things themselves. I have never used google docs before but professors that I have had in the past had mentioned that if students did not have word, then they could use google docs.

Net Gen and The Digital Natives

Digital Natives and the Net Gen hits very close to home when it comes to me personally. I was one of the children born into the video game and computer craze. I remember as a child having Atari and Nintendo. I also remember always having a computer in the classroom. My parents bought our first computer at home when I was in elementary school.
I believe that students born into this generation become more and more surrounded by technology as the years pass. The old ways of getting the students attention don't work as well because the students play video games and watch TV for many hours out of the day. As teachers I believe we need to bring the technology that the students use in their everyday lives and teach them with it. It said in Educating the Net Generation, that students see teachers many times as being illiterate when it comes to speaking their language. Using technology and the computer in the classroom interests students and will hook their attention.
I believe that the new concepts or idea of using technology with students is a great one. I believe as educators we should be held accountable for learning how to use the new technology as it is developed. We need to stay up to date in order to be able to relate to our students. The ability to relate to our students allows for us to find items that can be used in order to get them to want to learn.
These ideas are not radical at all. The world keeps moving forward and changing, and as educators we need to be doing the same. The information that was taught to the parents of the children we teach is not all the same now as it was then. Just as the Oregon Trail was a hook many years ago, cell phones, ELMOS, and interactive white boards are the hooks now.

Day 1

Day 1 is interesting. Learning to blog is different because I never did it before.