Final Reflective Post

   Over the course of this semester I have thoroughly enjoyed taking this EME 2040 class. I have learned so much about integrating technology into the classroom, and ways to help students who learn differently, and finally about all of the"behind the scenes" work that goes into teaching such as lesson planning. While you can learn a lot just through reading our textbook, I felt that our class assignments encouraged us to go above and beyond by putting what we learned  into practice and that was extremely helpful.

This class covered some very interesting subjects. The most engaging to me was when we learned about the lesson plans. I had previously known that teachers had to create lesson plans, but I had no clue how much work went into creating them for every day of the year. The chapter in the text book was very informative, but I really enjoyed that we were able to work on the collaborative lesson plan project with fellow classmates. It is one thing to read about lesson plans, it is totally different to do the work and create one yourself.

Another aspect of this class that I found very helpful and interesting was our group discussions. I found that by creating my post and then being able to read posts from my classmates really gave me an outside perspective on the assignment. It allowed me to understand other people's views on the material we had just read. The discussion that stood out the most to me was the one where we wrote about a student who had different abilities/disabilities. This discussion made such an impact because after I finished researching the disability that I wrote about, I was able to learn about other disabilities from my classmates, and to get some ideas on ways to accommodate those learners in my future class.

In this class we worked on many assignments and projects that coincided with our learning objectives.

• Communication: Some ways we worked on communication is through our blogs where we all were able to post our opinions and thoughts about our chapter. Also through our group projects like the collaborative lesson plan where we had to communicate to combine our ideas into one finished project.
• Critical Thinking: We practiced critical thinking when we found our information for our discussion posts. We also practiced it while working on our teaching portfolio and web-quest.
• Technology and Information Management: I personalty feel that we used this objective the most. We used technology management with every assignment in class, from our blogs, to our projects, to our discussion posts.
• Global Socio-Cultural Responsibility: We used this objective in our blogs and discussion posts by including our own opinions and beliefs.
• Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning: We used this objective in our web-quests, and discussion posts.

Overall I thought this course was excellent. I learned so much and feel that I have accomplished a great deal through the class assignments. The only thing that I believe would have made this class a little better is that, since I was taking this course online it was difficult to get the group projects completed in time. It was difficult to get everyone to respond to messages and then to agree on a subject for the project. SO I believe that having a few days to a week more to work on group projects would help the success of more students. Overall though I felt that this class was helpful and awesome! I feel that this video explains the concerns and support for using technology in the classroom very well!

References:

Hamilton, Paul. "Technology in Education." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2015.

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Tucker, Kayla Sky. "My EME2040 Blog." My EME2040 Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2015.

 Tucker, Kayla Sky. "My Semester in EME2040." Bitstrips. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.


 "What Teachers Worry about." What Teachers Worry ABout. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

Digital Blog Post #L

This chapter was about the stages of technology integration. Over all this chapter's purpose was to better explain ways to integrate technology into the classroom setting. The three  that I felt were the most important were, knowing how to use technology, the issues you face while implementing it, and lastly "infusion and inclusion." 

In order to integrate technology into the classroom setting you have to take the proper actions when introducing the technology. As a teacher, if you were to integrate technology into the classroom, you would need to be as informed as possible on that for of technology before using it with the students. The main argument against integrating technology is that if a teacher does not know how to properly use it, it could be harmful to the students learning. I believe that including technology in your classroom is a great tool, but as teachers we need to know how to properly use the technology with our students.

In order to use technology in the classroom, teachers go through quite a few obstacles. There are six main issues that you face; Administrative support, Unwillingness to change lesson plans, reluctance to incorporate technology into a new lesson plan, using technology as reward,using technology in addition to other activities, using technology to separate students based on ability. Working in a school has taught me that teachers need administrative approval for almost everything. If you have administration that isn't in favor of incorporating technology you will have a hard time getting the support to use it. Another thing I have seen working in schools is that the students love to be rewarded. In the class that I work with they are allowed fifteen minutes of computer time every time they have reached a certain behavior goal. This really encourages the students to do their best and to behave so that they will be rewarded.

Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Tucker, Kayla. "Bubbl.us." Bubbl.us. 28 Nov. 2015. Web. 28 Nov. 2015. 

Blog post #K

Created with Padlet

References: Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc. Tucker, K (2015, 14, Nov) Padlet http://padlet.com/wall/y8jbzqbf2t3e

Digital Blog post #J

References

Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Tucker, K (2015, 06, Nov) Emaze
http://app.emaze.com/editor/@AIWZWIZT

Blog post #I

After reading this chapter the three forms of internet capability that I believe best apply to this class are The ability to find and create lesson plans, Videoconferencing, and online learning. These three internet based tools make it easier for students and teachers to learn both in and outside of the classroom setting.

Creating lesson plans for the year is supposed to be a very stressful and time consuming task. Every lesson has to be planned out ahead of time so that the teacher can be on task each day. Luckily there are many websites that provide lesson plan templates, ideas, and even teacher blogs to share ideas that were successful in their own classrooms. I think this is great and extremely helpful for teachers. For lesson planning in Florida schools, you do need to know the Sunshine state standards for your lesson. Luckily you can also use CPALMS to find the standards for each grade, subject, and lesson. CPALMS also has lesson plans already made for some lessons. Internet access has become a necessary tool for creating lesson plans in today's day and age. 

Videoconferencing is great for communicating between teachers and parents, and teachers and administrators. Videoconferencing can also allow teachers to add guest presentations that they may not have been able to add without this technology. Many times parents can't make it in to parent teacher conferences because of work schedules. Videoconferencing can allow teachers and parents to have their conference without interfering with the parents work schedule. I believe this could be an extremely useful tool.

Lastly Online learning, my personal favorite. Since I personally have to work two jobs in order to pay for college, I don't have the free time every week to go into multiple classes. Online learning allows me to get my work done when I am able to, but still attend college and be involved in my school. FSW has a great online presence and they offer almost every class in an online format. This is so helpful for people like me, or people who have children and can't leave them alone to go to class. This is also useful for younger students as well. Some children are home schooled either by choice or necessity and online learning allows these students to stay on track with other students in their grade level. My friend has a little brother with Asperger's syndrome. He attended public school for a few years but it proved too challenging for him. His mother decided to home school him using an online learning system and he has come so far in his education since then. Online learning can really help students to excel!  

Overall these three tools are just a few of the amazing assets that the internet has to offer. From teachers having help lesson planning, and having the ability to video conference with any one you need to, to the ability for students to learn from the comfort of their homes, technology is incredible!



References:

Maloy, R. (2011). Fostering Online Learning with Educational Websites and Apps. In Transforming learning with new technologies (Second ed., pp. 132-144). Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Tucker, Kayla (2015) http://flipquiz.me/u/kaytuck95/online-tools-for-teaching

Digital blog post #H

     Technology has certainly brought about a change in the way that teachers provide instruction. When I was in elementary, middle, and some of my high school classes all of my teachers used chalk boards, and projectors that they would write on and then project the image onto the front board. If we needed to use a computer to do our assignments we would have one or two days where we would go to the computer lab and that was all the access we had to the internet during our school days. Now when I go into a class room I see smart boards and just about every classroom has computers. 

     

      In place of using projectors for note taking classes use power points for notes. Power points provide bright and entertaining visuals while note taking. Videos, sound clips, and pictures can be used in power points, and they can even be used to create review games. To me this is quite an upgrade from the technology we had in school. It makes note taking and lectures less boring and can be a fun method of teaching.

    

      Another tool that I really like the idea of is audio books. Audio books will allow the students to follow along in their own books while listening to a narrator read the story. This allows the students to hear the correct pronunciation of words that they aren't familiar with. Other technologies similar to this are Podcasts and vodcasts. Podcasts are basically the same as audio books but they can be recordings of a teacher lecturing. Vodcasts are essentially podcasts but with video. These can be highly beneficial because they will help audio and visual learners. Since the majority of these are available online students can use these tools at home to help them study or to work on homework. 

      Smart boards are probably my favorite new form of technology. They can do all of the functions of a projector, you can write on them like a white board, but you can save what you have written. They allow you to project your power points on them and really are an amazing advancement in technology. These have become an extremely common form of technology in the classroom and I certainly hope that my future classroom has this form of technology.

      Overall technology has come such a long way in just a few short years. teachers have almost every technological advantage that they could ever ask for, even attendance can be completed online. Of course teachers do have access to non computer based learning materials such as books, white boards, worksheets, and many other things. Needless to say teaching tools have come a long way!

References:

   Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

     Bellows, Adam. "5 Tips and Tricks for the SmartBoard." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2015.

   

   

         I 

The three concepts in chapter 10 that really stood out to me were, "Adaptations For Classroom Learning With Technology", "Assisting Technology to Reach Diverse Learners", and "how does technology promote learning success for young writers?" 

Adaptations for classroom learning with technology contains multiple levels of accommodations for at risk, or diverse learners.These levels were low-tech, which consists of easy adaptations that don't take too much work or disrupt other learning situations, are inexpensive and do not require much technology. Mid-tech, involves an alternate curriculum, and includes digital materials to assist in message delivery. Lastly, high-tech  which uses specialized digital material in the classroom. Using these technologies in the classroom can help integrate diverse learners into a class with all students.

 Assisting technologies for classroom learning focuses on integrating tools into the every day curriculum that help to teach each type of student in a universal form. Elaborating on that, these tools can help students with disabilities to perform tasks that they other wise wouldn't be able to do. These are important tools because it allows schools to begin to integrate students with disabilities into the normal classroom and it helps them to develop the ability to coexist and learn with other students. This also helps other students to become comfortable and learn to coexist with students that do have disabilities.

How does technology promote learning success for young writers? The internet is such a vast tool with endless amounts of information and web tools. As a writer these tools allow you to brainstorm, to use online dictionaries, to get ideas, learn how to publish your writings, and to get feedback from other writers n how to improve writing of your own. Even tools we use in this class could help a writer. Blogs are a good place to start, they can be open to the public and are a great place to receive some constructive criticism, or even to see ideas from others. Another great tool that we use in class are brainstorming charts. Technology allows young writers to research and write in ways that they never could before.

Resources: 

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.