Meaningful Learning

The use of rubrics is more helpful to the students but causes more work for the teacher. I think they are helpful because then there is no confusion of what the teacher is asking for in the assignment. I have found them very helpful in my college classes, it gives me a base to work off of and a guideline to follow when doing my assignments.

I believe that Clicker Assessment Tools can be used for certain types of assessments but there would need to be guidlelines set for the students, in some studies they showed that students being able to cheat had increased. Using Clicker tools instead of paper tests keeps the use of paper to a limit which can be environmentally helpful. The use of technology is growing this is just another way to use technology for assessment purposes.

Kidspiration is a great educational software that K-5 students would love to use to learn. There are many different types of software that Kidspiration offers, math, reading, writing, vocabulary, maps, etc. This would be a great option for students to use when they have free time to choose an educational activity to play with. Students like to use things to learn with that don't seem like they are learning, this type of software is just that, they make it fun to learn.

Rubrics are very helpful for students so they can know exactly what the teacher expects in an assignment, it is more work for the teacher but it is worth it so there is no confusion on assignments. I think rubrics are great for older ages but might not work as well for the younger ages. Clicker Assessment Tools would be a great way to test for learning and comprehension, it is more fun than the normal paper and pencil tests. I also like Kidspiration and would like to use it in my classroom.

Reference:
Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning With Technology (3rd Edition). Columbus, OH: Pearson/Prentice Hall

Kidspiration http://www.inspiration.com/Kidspiration

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling by Kate Kemker in our text states that digital storytelling does not focus on the activity but rather the tool to create a story. Students first create a story board on paper then record their story with a camera then use the computer to edit their story. When students can create their own story, they feel more involved in the work, it brings out the students creativity. Students also like to use cameras and computers so for them to put their story onto a camera and a computer will definitely strike their interest and make them want to do the work more.

Students seem to understand mathematics better with visualization. In the class that I have been observing in the teacher gives each student base 10 blocks and then uses the smart board and creates base 10 blocks on the smart board, the students have their own blocks to work with but the teacher also models the problem on the smart board, this is a great visual for students when working on math problems. The text states that graphing calculators make math seem more real to them.

The TV has a lot of information both good and bad, I do believe that you can learn a lot from TV, my son is proof of that. He was a TVaholic when he was little, he would know things and when I watch, now in the 6th grade he is GT and in advanced courses. The TV is a great visual it is not just hearing the instructions but you can see the instructions.

Podcasting

Podcasting is a great tool and would be very useful in classrooms.  The teacher could create a podcast that the students could access in the classroom or at home when doing homework, this could help students remember how to do the work the teacher taught in the classroom that the students forgot how to do the work by the time they got home.  Podcasts are convienient, they can be put on portable devices and taken whenever.  Podcasts just like wikis have to be from a reliable source, anyone can create a podcast so just because it is on the internet doesn't mean the information is true.

Podcasts and Web 2.0 are similiar because they are both used online but are different because Podcasts can be  uploaded to any device where as the Web 2.0 seem more like applications that are used for the internet.  They can both be used to create something that you want to create and design it the way you want it.

I don't own an Ipod or MP3 player but I do have an Iphone 4, I mainly use my phone for calls, texts, and internet.  I haven't really used it for music, I know there is a ton of stuff I could do with my phone but just don't know how to do it all.  I have used my Iphone when I coached my daughters cheer team, it came in handy because I could just plug it into a speaker.  A lot of stuff can be downloaded and used on portable devices such as, Ipods, MP3 players, and smart phones, this type of device could be extremely useful in the classroom.

Wiki's, Blogs, and Voicethread

I don't think I will be using wiki's in my classroom due to the fact that anyone can create and put information in a wiki. The students may find information that is false, I don't want them to have false information. It could be really fun to create a classroom blog, it would be fun for students to help create it and decide what information we could add to the blog. Parents may also like the blog idea so they could see the different daily things that their children are doing that they don't usually get to see or hear about.

Socialbookmarking would be a great tool to use to make internet browsing easier for the teacher and students to find information or websites that they need. When you are looking around on the internet and find useful websites it would be great to be able to bookmark or tag the website to use again in the future. Voicethread could be a useful tool for older students, I don't think it would be useful in the elementary level.

I had never heard of Tapped In but after researching it a little bit I think this would be a useful tool as a teacher. It is always a good idea to communicate with collegues, it is great to share and get ideas from others. Tapped In offers many ideas and different resources for teachers to use.

References:
1995-2010

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.SRI International. http://tappedin.org/tappedin/web/about.jsp

Assessment and e-portfolio

Assessment activities help teachers to know where the students are individually and as a class. There are different assessments some work on some students but since each student is different as the teacher we need to find which activities work for each of our students. It is important for teachers and parents to know how students are progressing. Portforlios are a great way for assessment, the teacher not only can pick the work that goes in the individual portfolio but the student can also choose their favorite work to put in the portfolio. The student can also see the progress in the work from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Another good way for a teacher to assess her class is to make a group portfolio, this allows the teacher to see the progress of all her students and create activities for the needs of the students.

An e-portfolio is a collection of electronic data, sort of like electronic storytelling. This is fun for teachers and students, this allows them to put pictures and things that they have done throughout the year to show their parents at the end of the year. I think using an e-portfolio would be easier to create for the whole class instead of using it for an individual student. Computer-based tests, such as, AR tests can be simple for students to use. This allows stduents to take a test when ever they are done reading their books. When taking tests as a whole class it may be harder to have computer-based tests unless you are in a school district that can afford to have a computer for each student to use. I do think that they would be easy for teachers to set up.

As a teacher I will be using portfolios for each individual student, I will use group portfolios for my class so I can keep up with the group needs, and I will use e-portfolios for the times that I have parent show off nights. I can have the e-portfolio going on the big screen for parents to see all that the students have done so far that year. I will also use an e-portfolio to show what my students have done throughout the year.

References:
Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology (3^{rd ed.).}

Copy Right and Online Safety

Copy rights and fair use rules are very important. When someone comes up with an idea, makes a new product, writes something, or creates music or movies this belongs to them nobody should have the right to step in and take that from them. In order to help students understand the importance of copy rights and fair use rules I will compare it to cheating on a test, you are taking someone elses answers, they don't belong to them they belong to the person they are taking the answers from.

Online safety is being safe while you are online when your doing different things online, such as, while your shopping, your personal information, websites that you may look at, and your computer not being able to get hacked into. Cyberbullying is a new way for young children or teenagers to bully one another, this is getting extremely popular and extremely dangerous. It is important for us to know what websites are real and what websites are fake, we need to have antivirus software on our computers, we need to monitor what our students are doing on the computer, and we can also put parent locks on certain websites to make sure our students don't get on websites that are inappropriate.

I am learning how to blog I have never even been on a blog but have always thought it would be fun to start a blog, so I am glad that I am learning how to navigate and create a blog. I also think that learning about cyberbullying is important, even though this does not happen in our school or classroom we can still try to help stop cyberbullying if it is going on with our students.

References:

http://home.earthlink.net/~cnew/research.htm http://www.ccsj.edu/blackboard/BB Copyright_Fair_Use.pdf><http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html