Reflection 10

I was just wondering if younger teachers are more preferable to older teachers because younger ones would probably use technology better. I'm just curious of how serious Principals and different School Districts are to having their teachers use technology effectively. Because if they were very serious, then getting a job wouldn't be so difficult since I've grown up with technology and can use it semi-effectively. However, if this is still something that schools and principals stuggle with, then landing a job might be more difficult because although older teachers can't use technology as effectively, they do have more experience.

Week 13

I use Word for every single essay that I am required to write for any class. I've never used any other type of word processor for this.

I use Powerpoint if I have to give a presentation to the entire class with visual aids. I know that there are more and probably better things to use for this, but I know exactly how to use Powerpoint, and I don't have to worry about messing anything up.

I don't Excel as much as I use the other two, but sometimes an opportunity comes up when I need to make a graph or a chart of some sort. I've learned that Excel is the fastest and most effective way to do this. However, sometimes I still struggle with how to make things work on Excel sometimes.

I would probably have my students learn these different tools by doing similar things to what I use them for. I'm an English teacher, ao assigning an essay for the students to write on Word, or having the students present a 3-5 minute explanation of who they are at the beginning of the year using Powerpoint would also be helpful. I could also do an assignment in which the students have to create posters using Word to do the writing or PowerPoint to find pictures on clipart. These are all just rough ideas, but they could be helpful.

Technology Project Plan

Audio recording >>

 This is my podcast for the project I plan to do. I think I explain everything sufficiently in the recording, but I guess I'll give a brief introduction. So I plan on doing a symbolism unit making masks. The students will draw symbols that represent them onto their masks, and then present their masks using with technology. Either powerpoint, movie maker, or anything of their choice.

Week 12

The first question I would like to ask is why more teachers are not using the amazing technology that this school offers to enhance their lessons. I haven't had a single teacher use the smart board as anything more than a projector. I've also had very many teachers not use Panopto to record classes. I would like to ask why? I, as a student, am paying quite a lot of money to go to this school, but the technology that part of my tuition pays for is not being used effectively.

The second question I would ask is seeing as these teachers are very well educated in their feilds, most with doctorates, I would ask just for what they think the most important aspect of teaching is. I know this sounds like a genaric question, but I really am curious about what they would say. Their answers can help me form my own ideas about this, and really help me become a better teacher.

A third question that I would ask doesn't really have much to do with teaching, but more with their education. I would ask them how long it took them to get the degrees that they have so that i could gage whether or not I could advance as far as they have.

Reflection 9

I was watching "I Robot" yesterday, and realized that we are not too far from that movie becoming reality. The plot is that robots exist as pretty much human servants. Throughout the movie the robots start killing humans off in the attempt to save them from themselves because humans are slowly killing each other off anyways.

What I mean is not that we will soon have a robot invasion that tries to destroy human life, but I honestly could see robots existing, and being tools for us to use to make our lives easier. I might sound crazy, but I don't see it as too far of a stretch to have robots working in factory jobs, or fast food restaurants. I see this as a really possibility in the next couple of decades.

I don't know how useful this post is, but I was just reflecting on how far we've come, and how far we have the potential to go with technology. It's a bit sobering at times, but also very exciting. Our children will have access to things that our minds can't even think up right now.

Week 11

I chose to look at a blog called Free Technology for Teachers. This blog was very... flashy is the best word I could find for it. There is information in every corner that you look. It is very easy to navigate because there are different tabs at the top to help you find what your looking for.

I left a comment on a blog post that talked about Google Earth. From reading this post, I downloaded Google Earth and started to play around with it. In the comment I talked about all the ways that Google Earth can help English teachers (looking up an author's origins, looking up the setting of a book, etc...) I thought it was very insightful. I'm not sure if my comment really would help anybody. I'm sure all English teachers can figure out what to use Google Earth for by themselves, but it felt good to say something that could be meaningful for somebody on a professional blog that hundreds of people visit.

This blog has very many tools for educators to use. It goes through step by step instructions of how to use different pieces of technology, and how it can be applied in different classroom contexts. I'm really glad I stumbled upon it because it really is helpful

Week 10

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's way of differentiating between different ways of learning is genius. There is the cognitive learning: increasing ones intellectual knowledge, affective learning: increasing ones ability to interact with others affectively, and psychomotor learning: increasing ones physical abilities. It is a genius idea because this almost always means that everybody is intelligent in their own way. They may not be the most "book smart" person out there, but they may be really good with people or really good with sports.Not being "book smart" does not necessarily mean they aren't smart.

Technology can be used to advance all of these intelligences. The congnitive intelligence seems the most obvious. The internet is full of information can can help strengthen a students intellectual mind. The affective intelligence can be strenghened through technology just as easily. Technology allows people to interact with one another at all times. This can help a person become more open around people. However, it can also hinder actual face to face interaction abilities. The third intelligence - psychomotor, can also be helped through technology. We have a lot of available research on proper use of the body regardless of what sport one wishes to play to help prevent injuries. Technology has also increased materials available for athletes to help them perform better.