Tech Play 4: Content Objects

Out of the two options, Information Literacy and Content Objects, I chose content objects because I feel as a beginning elementary school teaching I need to explore many technological options before entering a classroom of my own. I think that finding websites or apps that children can use at home is some of the best practice for them at this young age.

For the students:

One website that was really popular to the kids during my student teaching was ABCya.com. This website has a variety of tools and skills that children think are fun but it really allows them to think and be excited about learning. On their free time in the classroom this website was one of their top three at all times. One tool that I like most about this website is that it is separated by grade level. The grades that it provides games and learning skills for are Kinder-5th grade so no matter what grade I find a job to teach in, this will still be a good source to use. If students are not understanding a skill, practicing it on this website as a class is a visual for them to see graphing, subtracting, multiplying, and any skill they will need to learn, first hand and with images.

Another great tool for this content area is http://www.roomrecess.com/ This website creates similar tasks as ABCya except on this website you can search games by grade level, K-5, or you can search by skill, reading, writing (word), or math. It has a variety of different games that could be included in a lesson as a whole group or could be played at home for extra practice on a skill one might be struggling in, or just for fun.

I love to incorporate videos, games, or clips, into my lessons. The students are more engaged when technology is involved these days. As the technology is growing and growing, I must be able to keep up with it as well to better suit my students with the best options they can have.

For the teachers:

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/links_grades_kindergarten_12/lesson_plans_technology_elementary_middle_school.htm

This is another website, but this time for the teachers. I had never heard of it until searching for new tools to explore for this blog. It is a site that gives you links to blogs or lesson plans created by other teachers that incorporate technology into the lessons. Most are titled and easy to figure out what the lesson is on, others you have to click and read the lesson plan to see exactly what is being taught. This will be very useful for me when creating my own lessons for my classroom body.

If I was using the TPACK model to describe how I would use these websites I would first think about the content in which I am teaching. I would integrate the websites as a guided practice with the class as a whole depending on the TEKS to be taught that day/week. Collaborating the content, technology, and pedagogical stance is the best way to get the full impact of the TPACK model. I also think that many other sites could accomplish the same objectives as these, I just personally like the way these were set up and organized.

Tech Play 3: iPad apps/Creativity tools

I love using technology in the classroom and students do as well. Four that I chose as my favorites to explore were:

Google Drive: an online flashdrive

Science 360: a 360 view of science videos to view along with a news tab to show current science news

ShowMe/ScreenChomp: apps that allow you to use the iPad as a whiteboard

Corkulous: an app that is a corkboard full of sticky notes and reminder tabs

These were my favorites because they were easy to use which means I wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time explaining how to use them; and they were effective, reliable, and FREE.

Google Drive     – I really like to use GoogleDrive as a student. I can create folders and upload documents basically like a flash drive. I can share folders or make them ‘public’ so that classmates can view my notes or compare notes, study guides, ect. It is a great tool to use so that you don’t have to worry about keeping up with the tangible flash drive it is completely online. An affordance of this technology is that if students were working on a group assignment, for example a group paper, they could have one place where it is stored and uploaded for all of the group members to work on or edit. This would be quicker than emailing a document back and forth for others to look at or download.

Science 360 – This app was really neat. It was a 360 view of many videos. When you click on one it allows you to view the video or you can use two fingers to view news or videos that you have saved as favorites. The news section of this app would be a great way to have students find a video that is of interest and type a summary of what they learned to share with the class. Each week they could come with a new fact that they learned to start science class off, or maybe one child per week could share since time may not allot for everyone to share.

ShowMe/ScreenChomp – These two apps are whiteboards that you would use in the classroom but you can record the steps in which you write or draw. Since I teach elementary age students this would be great to use in a math lesson or in an art class. If I used it in a math class I could have pre-recorded a math problem to use as a focus of what they would be learning that day. When the kids come in they could get their whiteboards out that are in their desk and follow the steps that I have recorded for them. Everyone would be engaged and this would allow them to all get the answer correct the first time which would lead into a positive lesson. If I knew the topic would be intimidating to learn or if I knew I would be teaching one of the harder TEKS, I could pre-record the steps and have them do the problem as a warm up. They might not know what they are doing at the time but as the lesson is taught (after) they will have a visual of what they did before the lesson. The upside to using ScreenChomp is that you can send the link to your class or to a student who may be struggling with a certain problem or skill.

Corkulous – This app was really neat and could be used as a classroom organizer or calendar. I could update it with things that are due weekly, monthly, or daily. It wouldn’t teach the kids to be responsible on their own if I kept it up on the screen all the time but I thought about using it just to have. What I mean by that is it would be available but the students would have to go to the classroom iPad to view it on their own time. Another way it could be useful is to show at the beginning of the day when the students are arriving at school, it would keep them up to date on what would be going on that day. Another thought is to have it open in the mornings and have them post their own questions on a sticky note instead of coming to me (in the mornings only) I like for my students to be able to come to me to ask questions. One way the students could use this app as a project tool would be to use it as a poster board. They could compile everything that they had collected onto the cork board to present to the class.

Instead of choosing one to reflect on, I felt that I should reflect on all of them. It was so interesting to explore these different apps and choose favorites that I can continue or start to use. In using these apps in the classroom I can see that they represent the TPACK model used because the apps would show that the students were learning new skills and knowledge while staying engaged and focused at the same time. I didn’t see many ads on many of these apps, which means fewer distractions from getting their work accomplished in a timely manner. These tools offer things that you simply cannot get without technology. Most classrooms I have been in either have a promethium whiteboard or a classroom iPad. Children love technology and incorporating these into their learning would get a great reaction from the class.

If you are interested in downloading any of these apps, here is what the icons look like:

Tech Play Reflection 2: ePortfolio

Wow! I have learned so much the past three weeks. This week I explored many different sites to try and start creating my own ePortfolio. There are so many out there but I didn’t want to just choose one, I wanted to find the best one. I had to rule out several of the options out there because I was looking for one that was free of charge and not just a free-trail, free period. I also wanted it to have a certain look, I didn’t want to sign up for one that wouldn’t let me change the layout or the background. One of the sites that our classmate Hunter sent out was that TAMUC offered a free ePortfolio if you are a student and you can use it even after you graduate. I though that was awesome and they even offer tutorials on how to use them at certain times during the year. Here are the three main sites that I considered:

1. TAMUC ePortfolio through ManeSync

I loved this because it is easy to access. It is connected to the university. An affordance of this ePortfolio is that it is easy to navigate and edit. There are clear places for you to upload documents and the page is simple. You can download a PDF file of the ePortfolio AND it is completely free with no strings attached if you are a student at TAMUC. The one thing I don’t like about this source is that you can not change the layout or backgrounds to make it have the customized professional edge to it that I am looking for.
2. http://foliofor.me

When creating an account with this site I had already began to lost interest. I didn’t like the way it was set up for me to edit and I didn’t like the way others could see the profile. It didn’t seem like it was easy for others to access certain parts of the ePortfolio nor did it look easy to edit. One affordance is that it was free and did have all of the links needed to create a professional portfolio but it just didn’t seem like the one for me. It was almost as if there were too many options to choose from, but it was first on the list when I searched on Google for different ePortfolio sites to use.

3. www.weebly.com

I have accessed Weebly before and used it for a project. I have never thought of using it for an ePortfolio but it sounded like a good idea this time. One of the affordances I love is when you create an account you can have any different ‘projects’ or ‘assignments’ under one user name. What I mean by this is that the username and password that I created a year ago will allow me to have a different web address for each assignment that I do without creating a new account each time. Another great affordance of using this site is that of course it is free, and very customizable. You can always upgrade and pay money for more features but why not use the free one that has so many options! This is obviously the one I chose to create my ePortfolio with and you can check it out at this link:

http://eportfoliofromemmaline.weebly.com/

(it is not completed, I just created it and started moving things around, but there is an About Me section that I wrote to start out with)

As time goes on it seem that it will be easier to keep track of documents as most companies are going ‘paperless’ and storing everything on a database or computer software. As many things are priceless, looking at an image that a child has drawn you won’t give you the same attachment or reaction if you were looking at it online rather than keeping the hand drawn picture but technology has many affordances, many of which I haven’t even scratched the surface. I think a huge affordance is that you no longer have to worry about spilling coffee on your crisp research paper that was due today or having the wind blow it out of your hands and you having to run and chase it down because we can now submit these documents via email and other online services. Another affordance is education. I couldn’t finish my masters degree and keep a job to support myself it if wasn’t for technology so I am very thankful that we can now store everything that we will need for a job interview etc. on an ePortfolio! I really like the site I chose and I don’t think that I would change it if I were asking my students to create an ePortfolio. It is simple, free and easy to use and navigate.

Tech Play Reflection 1

According to Google a blog is “a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.” Google also states that until the 1990’s a blog was called a weblog. The definition on Google leaves out that blogs are chronological meaning that your first blog will end up at the end of your blog when you create more each day, therefore your most recent blog will show up first.

(click the image to make the view larger)

Before taking this course I had an idea of what a blog was and I had read some blogs but never had one of my own. I read most blogs via Facebook or other social media sites and most are moms sharing their sweet stories of their children and lives, others are people stating their opinions about a certain topic but there are tons of blogs out their about many different topics. I hadn’t heard of a glog but I had heard of vlog, discussion boards, and webistes. Wikipedia (2014) tells me that a glog is “short for graphic blog, is an online interface for mixing text, audio, video, images, graphics and more.” From this definition I think I have created a few glogs in my life and just didn’t know it. A vlog differs from a blog in the sense that it is ‘video blogging’ so there are more videos than pictures or words. People that vlog are putting thoughts or events down by recording them in a video instead of writing them down like a conversation. A typical webpage will give you information about a topic or lead you to find what you need by giving you links or referring you to someone who does know on the world wide web (www). I learned in high school that not all websites end in .com or .org, there are SO many out there I no clue about and they each stand for something and aren’t just letters. Com stands for commercial organizations, org stands for non-profit organizations, net stands for network related organizations, and obviously gov would relate to government organizations. All of the acronyms in the ‘tech’ world are called domains. There are many more than the ones I listed I just found it interesting how many options we have out their on the world wide web.

When searching for the ‘just right’ sight to create my blog for this class I began to think of my students that I have taught. I am always telling them to pick the “just right” book and wondering why some students can never find one that they feel is just right for them. Well… now I know. I have looked at Blogger, WordPress, Weebly, Blogspot, Penzu, and many others and yet it was still hard for me to make my decision. All of the websites for blogs are the same but yet they are all so different. All of them that I looked at have a free-trial or account for free but if you want to make your blog fancy you must pay the yearly or monthly fee on most, but not all. I have used Weebly before for projects and I love it but I don’t think I would like it for a blog so I chose WordPress. I liked WordPress the best for this blog assignment because when you view a persons blog there is a calendar on the side panel that lets you skip to a certain date to view the blogs. This one also allows you to view your stats, for example how many people viewed your page, commented and so forth. This is a neat feature if you blog a lot because you get to see how many people are seeing it and hearing (reading) what you have to say.

An affordance of using a blog is that they allow a person to be themselves. This can be for the shy, who don’t want to talk in person, the un-heard, the people who don’t have anyone to listen to them, or the people who just want to put it down to look back on. You can say whatever you want and you can use it as a journal to write down you thoughts or activities that you did that day. Affordances of using technology overflow out of the bucket. I think that an affordance of integrating technology is that it is more student centered. Especially in the elementary grades kids don’t want to sit in their chairs all day. This bores them and using technology engages them particularly the interactive boards. Everyone wants a chance to come up to the board and use the pen in front of their classmates and they know that they have to stay seated and paying attention in order to get that chance. I have found that when using the interactive board vs. regular expo markers on the white board, you have less kids having side conversations and you have more kids patiently waiting for their turn. It spices up lessons. Another way to integrate technology is when discussing a person in history or an author of children’s books that they read, is to show a video of the person. I usually show a biography that allows the students to see first hand what the person looks like, how they talk, etc. instead of me standing up there telling them what I know. The book that Don Norman wrote “Psychology of Everyday Things,” tells us that “affordances provide strong clues to the operation of things” (Norman, 1988, p. 9). So when we are planning lessons to teach our students we need to remember that if the affordances of using technology are working and are worth it, then we need to operate more on the fact that that is a strong clue to us that we should be using it more.

As I have mentioned before, I don’t have a classroom of my own yet but I am substitute teaching in the mean time and I see a variety of different sites/techniques that other teachers use. I might design a lesson using a blog as group work for students to work together on because I when I have a classroom of my own it will be elementary students and I have to find something that won’t take the majority of the time explaining how to use because that will only frustrate their brains. For writing lessons it is imperative that they know the difference between expository and narrative text. If I created a classroom blog that would take away the time I would have to spend creating each student an account and it would help me keep track of all of their writings. I could have them write an expository text as a partner activity and after going through the final stage of editing, they can post their final draft to the classroom blog. Another way that I could use this is when dealing with projects or research papers they could create a website on Weebly or another free site to share their findings. In one of my classes in the AC Program we were to create a website from our content area and at the time mine was 3rd grade and I chose science. Here is an example of what they might create from the teachers stand point if you would like to check it out:

http://scienceisfun2014.weebly.com

Even though this might be a tough one for students to master, it will give them experience using technology that they might not get to use at home and it will give them an opportunity to work with someone in their class which is good to develop their communication at that age.

According to Punya Mishra (2008), it is important when teaching and planning that we as educators think about the total package or TPACK. We have to think about the content, pedagogy (the way in which we teach a topic), and technology as a whole and we need to be in the center of all three (Mishra, 2008). If I was designing a lesson over the science content of the solar system I would first assess the content. What all do they need to learn from this? Depending on the grade would depend on what exact TEKS they would need but going with the solar system I would start by having them do some research on the iPads provided by the school. I would allow them 2 minutes to open the iPad and look around to see what is on it that way they aren’t doing that during the time they are supposed to be researching. Then I would implement the way I will teach the lesson, or the pedagogy, of the assignment. They should start my writing their findings down on paper. After they have compiled a pretty good list they can begin to post to a classroom blog (that I would create beforehand) on what they found. This is a simple explanation of a project that could last a few class periods or even a few weeks depending on what all they are to accomplish.

I am all for using technology in the classroom. I think that in this generation we almost have to only because that is what the majority of the kids spend their time on outside of school. Should we incorporate it just because they say we need to? Of course not. Some lessons don’t need technology to make it interesting. Other lessons could use the interaction for the students to get engaged. Particularly the lessons that the students haven’t heard of or the ones that you know will bore them. Adding technology can always improve the lesson IF it is used correctly and not just because we ‘have to.”

References:

Glogster. (2014, November 4). Retrieved February 1, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glogster

Google. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2015, from http://www.google.com

Hoffman, C. (2012, October 5). The Difference Between .com, .net, .org and Why We’re About To See Many More Top-Level Domains. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from http://www.howtogeek.com/126670/the-difference-between-.com-.net-.org-and-why-were-about-to-see-many-more-top-level-domains/

Mishra, P. (2008, March 18). Punya Mishra’s Web. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from http://punya.educ.msu.edu/2008/03/18/site-2008-keynote/

Norman, D. (1988). Affordances. In The Psychology of Everyday Things (pp. 9-10). New York: Basic Books