Journal #4 Computing in the Clouds/ Nets-T 3 & 5

Journal #4 Computing in the Clouds

Johnson, Doug. (2009). Computing in the clouds. Learning and leading with technology, 37(December/January 09/10), Retrieved from http://iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Computing_in_the_Clouds.aspx

Nets-T #3
Nets-T #5

The author Doug uses his article, “Computing in the Clouds” to present a whole new way of learning inside and outside the classroom. He examines and presents the idea of requiring students to purchase a low cost netbook for about $250 and compose, save and interact via “the cloud”. This means that instead of using applications, students can use google docs, flickr, delicious and be able to access and work on any project…anywhere, no matter what computer. The three things that each student would need are netbook, web browser, ant-virus, and spyware. According to Doug, these would be the only necessary accessories for each student to be efficient in their studies.

Question#1: In addition to the students’ necessary accessories, what would each teacher require?
Answer#1: It would be necessary that each educator have training on how to use this type of learning inside the classroom. It is also important that the teachers are proficient in using all computer technology!

Question#2: How could students use their netbooks at home?
Answer#2: Teachers could assign homework from online websites, in addition to technology-based projects.

Journal #7 Creating Your Personal Learning Network/ Nets-T 5

Nets-T #5

Using Twitter and Delicious, I was able to create my personal learning network. Twitter is a social networking and microblogging site that let’s individuals answer, “What are you doing/thinking?” . Followers of my twitter receive my tweets when I text message a statement up to 140 characters, this creates for direct phrases. Twitter opens up a different avenue for communication, providing a place for quick collaboration and insight. Delicious is a social bookmarking cloud service that allows its users to store, share and find new websites. These websites are useful for all different groups of people, but specifically for educators. I believe that without sharing and teaming together, proficient learning cannot take place in our modern society.

On Twitter, I follow 4 times as many people than how many followers I have. I think that the main reason for this is because I don’t use Twitter to express my thoughts or days as much as I use it to consume new information from those who have been living life longer than me. My network consists of various music artists, authors, few personal friends, teachers like J.Heil and Greta Sandler, as well as collegechat and web2.0. I enjoy following communities like collegechat and web2.0 because I am able to relate with the information provided and talked about. Another inspiring person I follow is “Thanks2teachers”, used by Richard Lakin, an author of Teaching as an act of Love. He writes from Jerusalem, Israel which really provides many thoughtful articles from a different point of view, in a different part of the world.

I participated in an educational chat via (#elemchat) because I want to become an elementary school teacher one day. The topic discussed was about homework and it’s value or disvalue in education today. I liked this discussion because I thought that I was the only person who found homework inefficient and unnecessary for students. It wasn’t a chat like I was thinking, but more or less a place where people shared ideas using articles regarding what they believed about homework. It was actually kind of overwhelming because there were so many posts every second I could barely keep up. Afterwards I was able to go back and look through more of the articles! Through this discussion I “met” new people and now follow inspiring educators who will continue to add to my learning.

My delicious network consists of people like Bernie Dodge, JHeil, edtechtalk and sakruz. These people all tag educational and technology based websites that provide new and specific insight to ideas that can help a teacher, student and parent. Some websites I tagged as PLN are “5 truths of teaching technology to elementary”, “TeacherTube”, and “PLN to PLAN, moving schools forward”. I tagged these as PLN because they add to my learning and understanding of using technology inside the classroom.

The learning network I decided to follow is called, "The Educator's PLN" (http://edupln.com/forum/topics/ipads-in-the-elementary) where educators come together and dedicate the site to collaborate together. I chose to read a blog post regarding the use of ipads and itouches inside an elementary setting. The results teachers found from experimenting were not disappointing, and the most used subject teachers used ipads for was phonics and creative arts. Although, a problem one teacher found was that the size of the childrens hands made it hard for them to not rest their palms on the pad, messing up the interface. I think that using ipads or technology like it is going to be the new fad inside classrooms, especially young classrooms as early as first grade!

Twitter, Delicious and Digital Discussion Forums like "The Educator's PLN" are all resources any teacher could benefit from!!

PLN -My Personal Learning Network/ Nets-T 5

This activity involved Twitter, Delicious and Educators PLN which is a digital discussion forum. I actively participated in my twitter with a discussion and followed specific educational tweeters. Then I used delicious to create a network of users who tag and store specific educational websites. Last, I read up on a blog within the Ning of Educators PLN and reflected on what I learned.


Nets-T #5

Using Twitter and Delicious, I was able to create my personal learning network. Twitter is a social networking and microblogging site that let’s individuals answer, “What are you doing/thinking?” . Followers of my twitter receive my tweets when I text message a statement up to 140 characters, this creates for direct phrases. Twitter opens up a different avenue for communication, providing a place for quick collaboration and insight. Delicious is a social bookmarking cloud service that allows its users to store, share and find new websites. These websites are useful for all different groups of people, but specifically for educators. I believe that without sharing and teaming together, proficient learning cannot take place in our modern society.

On Twitter, I follow 4 times as many people than how many followers I have. I think that the main reason for this is because I don’t use Twitter to express my thoughts or days as much as I use it to consume new information from those who have been living life longer than me. My network consists of various music artists, authors, few personal friends, teachers like J.Heil and Greta Sandler, as well as collegechat and web2.0. I enjoy following communities like collegechat and web2.0 because I am able to relate with the information provided and talked about. Another inspiring person I follow is “Thanks2teachers”, used by Richard Lakin, an author of Teaching as an act of Love. He writes from Jerusalem, Israel which really provides many thoughtful articles from a different point of view, in a different part of the world.

I participated in an educational chat via (#elemchat) because I want to become an elementary school teacher one day. The topic discussed was about homework and it’s value or disvalue in education today. I liked this discussion because I thought that I was the only person who found homework inefficient and unnecessary for students. It wasn’t a chat like I was thinking, but more or less a place where people shared ideas using articles regarding what they believed about homework. It was actually kind of overwhelming because there were so many posts every second I could barely keep up. Afterwards I was able to go back and look through more of the articles! Through this discussion I “met” new people and now follow inspiring educators who will continue to add to my learning.

My delicious network consists of people like Bernie Dodge, JHeil, edtechtalk and sakruz. These people all tag educational and technology based websites that provide new and specific insight to ideas that can help a teacher, student and parent. Some websites I tagged as PLN are “5 truths of teaching technology to elementary”, “TeacherTube”, and “PLN to PLAN, moving schools forward”. I tagged these as PLN because they add to my learning and understanding of using technology inside the classroom.

The learning network I decided to follow is called, "The Educator's PLN" (http://edupln.com/forum/topics/ipads-in-the-elementary) where educators come together and dedicate the site to collaborate together. I chose to read a blog post regarding the use of ipads and itouches inside an elementary setting. The results teachers found from experimenting were not disappointing, and the most used subject teachers used ipads for was phonics and creative arts. Although, a problem one teacher found was that the size of the childrens hands made it hard for them to not rest their palms on the pad, messing up the interface. I think that using ipads or technology like it is going to be the new fad inside classrooms, especially young classrooms as early as first grade!

Twitter, Delicious and Digital Discussion Forums like "The Educator's PLN" are all resources any teacher could benefit from!!

Journal #10- 100 Things That Make Me Happy

100 things that make me happy:
1. God’s love
2. Brother Andrew
3. Brother Matthew
4. Brother Mark
5. Music
6. Cousins
7. Holidays
8. Flowers
9. Reading the bible
10. Sleeping In
11. Road Trips
12. Taking pictures
13. Dancing
14. Nephew Logan
15. Stars
16. Perfume
17. Learning new things
18. Beer
19. Listening to thunder
20. Coconut scented things
21. Laughing
22. Movies
23. Falling asleep next to someone warm and safe
24. Staying up late
25. Hash Browns
26. Hiking in Zion
27. The Beach
28. My Car
29. Listening to the rain
30. Smell of snow
31. Playing Soccer
32. Watching football
33. Cuddling
34. Memories
35. Brussels Sprouts
36. Clouds that make a story
37. Root Beer Floats
38. Disneyland
39. Bubble Wrap
40. Weddings
41. A hope and a future
42. Coffee
43. Cooking
44. Writing
45. Giving gifts
46. Setting and making goals
47. Sushi
48. Naps
49. Toby Mac
50. A dark haired, dark skinned… handsome guy aka my future husband
51. Bubble Gum Ice Cream
52. My own desk at work
53. Kids
54. Going out for dinner
55. Seeing family and friends happy
56. Seeing my brother walk down the stairs in the airport, coming home
57. Driving
58. Jeans and T-shirts
59. Doing something crazy and spontaneous
60. People Watching
61. Good make-up and hair days
62. Blankets and Heat Dishes
63. Traveling by plane
64. Rollerblading
65. Sales and coupons
66. Giraffes
67. Tattoos with meaning
68. Bread
69. Long talks
70. Planning
71. Good looking guys with accents
72. Karaoke
73. Visits to New York
74. Being goofy and ridiculous
75. Stretching
76. Fireworks
77. Cute puppies
78. Spring time
79. Love
80. Last day of school
81. Rock Band
82. Popcorn
83. Watermelon Sour Patch Kids
84. Hugs that leave you with something special
85. Facebook
86. Purpose
87. Compliments, even though I don’t know how to take them
88. Being appreciated
89. Getting a letter or email from someone special
90. Making dinner for the ones I love
91. Praying
92. Youtube Videos
93. Shoes
94. Filipino food
95. Saying what you mean, meaning what you say
96. My life group
97. Boba
98. New days, new opportunties
99. Hot Showers
100. Life

Journal #9 Is It Time to Switch to Digital Textbooks? / Nets-T 3

Journal #9 Is It Time to Switch to Digital Textbooks?

Griffin, M, & Cady, M. (2010). Is it time to switch to digital textbooks?. Learning and Leading with Technology, 38(3), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-november.aspx

Nets-T #3

This article was provided in a way that each author stated their views on whether or not our education system should switch to digital textbooks.  Meg Griffin who argues for the switch to ebooks, says that students already have digital tools like cell phones, iPods and computers, digital text books would only fit in with the lifestyle.  She goes on to state that removing print textbooks would give the students a new light in engaging with literature.  In addition, the tools that comes along with digital textbooks, things like translators, pronunciation guides, and vocabulary support students individual learning needs. 

Michael Cady who argues against digital textbooks, not only does not like the idea, he doesn’t like textbooks in general.  He basis his argument to state that students do not learn effectively when required to read textbooks compared to when teachers find innovative teaching methods. 

As far as desiring to be a life-long learner, I personally agree with the argument against textbooks altogether.  I think that with technology abilities today, teachers can incorporate new and exciting lesson plans that teach efficiently and effectively in comparison to textbooks. 

Question #1:  If digital textbooks are used, in what ways can they hurt a student’s learning and education?

Answer #1: I think that although our culture is changing and evolving to use technology in many areas of our daily lives, it is still important to recognize that engaging in print text is still used and important.  Technology based text is easy to navigate through because of “finding” tools, etc.  Therefore, being able to navigate and understand print text is more difficult and is a skill to be acquired and learned; not deleted.

Question #2: In what way can we teach and educate our children without the use of textbooks?

Answer #2: I think that giving our students the opportunity to learn by experience is the best teaching tool.

Journal #8 A Book Report Your Students Will Love/ Nets-T 1 & 4

Journal #8 A Book Report Your Students Will Love

Ferrell, K. (2010). A book report your students will love. Learning Connections, 30. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201012#pg32

Nets-T #1

Nets-T #4

The author Keith Ferrell presents the thesis that students lose interest in reading when the same book report is required of them year after year.  Besides that, he presents the idea that written book reports don’t serve education any good when students don’t care, and teachers simply grade it, hand it back to the student, and it is never to be seen again. 

He then goes on to tell a personal story from his childhood that brought him to using book trailers inside his classroom.  First, Ferrell requires his students to read the book and then organize the important ideas as a storyboard using Microsoft Word.  Second, he has the students use FLICKR to gather photographs that help represent the ideas they want to portray of the book.  In using the photos from this site, students must cite and therefore they must also make a citation page in Word.  Third, Ferrell has the students use Windows MovieMaker and SoundzAbound to create the book trailers.  They must include and arrange photos, transitions, and sounds appropriate to their topic and book. 

In closing his article, Ferrell discusses how he has the student present the project to the class.  They have a classroom viewing day, giving the class the opportunity to give awards, reflect, encourage, and also, find interest in a book they never wanted to read before. 

Question #1: In what ways could this project be improved?

Answer#1: I think that using iMovie and iTunes would help give this project more creativity and ease for the students! 

Question #2: In what other ways can we help improve the student’s interest in reading?

Answer#2:  I think that ebooks are a great and innovative way to get students to read.  From personal experiences, paper books put a person to sleep and for some reason, are not interesting to include in our every day lives.  

Journal #6 Change Agent/Nets-T 5

Journal #6 Change Agent

Rebora, A. [11 October, 2010]. Change agent. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01richardson.h04.html?cmp=clp-edweek&intc=bs&sms_ss=delicious&at_xt=4cb7dc75d0303b73,0

Nets-T #5

Due to the new technology changes in society, Will Richardson argues that the classrooms need to transform also.  In his interview, he brings up two ideas regarding the involvement of technology in education.  First, Richardson states that teachers need to be able to be online role models considering their students will be highly involved in technology.  It is important teachers get the proper training so that they can collaborate with their students online.  Second, he presents the idea that teachers and education not only need to include technology in the school days, but they also need to convert their ways of thinking in regards to learning and educating. 

Richardson blames the lack of technology involvement from teachers on the fact that there is a sense of pride in not sharing their strategies and ideas.  He encourages leaders in the education world, like principles, to model using technology appropriately and openly. 

Students should be given the opportunity to learn and communicate outside of a specific place and time; there are “network literacy” skills that are profound for personal growth.  It is not just about being able to work and use technology, but it IS about learning how to learn from online sources and technologies. 

As an educator, it is important to not desire our students to be successful in the world we were once successful.  In order to do this, teachers must engage in learning how to successfully communicate and learn via online, in addition to learning how to incorporate it within the classroom. 

Question #1: How can teachers take action in learning how to use technology in their own lives, that way they can be models for their students?

Answer #1: I think that first; teachers should seek out other educators in their schools and see what comes from collaboration.  Maybe starting a hash tag for their school on twitter or having blogs where they can share their lesson plans.  Teachers need to be open and willing to try something new, and practice only makes perfect.

Question #2: How could using the Internet and web cloud tools help decrease financial spending inside the classrooms?

Answer #2: First, using computers saves trees and therefore decreases the amount of paper usage for teachers and students.  Second, the amount of learning teachers and students can gain from PLN’S is amazing and can possibly over-ride the usage of books, which student’s don’t engage in and read anyways.