This week we worked on social bookmarking. This site was used to link various pages that I have interest in onto a page for other people to see. It also gave me information about other followers of that page, so I can see people that are interested in the web pages and topics I am. I also like that I can tag information about that page so it makes it easier to know what pages I want to go to under certain topics.
    I think that social bookmarking can be helpful for teachers in students in many areas. One thing that I thought would be a good beginning of the year project, is to have each student create one and add websites that they use or are interested in. This can help students get to know more about their classmates as well as their teacher. It can be a kind of icebreaker to find people in the class with common interests. Another thing that I think this site would be helpful for is when doing group projects. Children can team up and then post websites to their bookmark about the subject their are doing their project on, this gives their other classmates a chance to look at what they have found. Another great idea is to have teachers share with other teachers. I know that on my page I have a website to a behavioral assistance program that we use at my preschool, some teachers may not be familiar with it so they could look at my page and then go to the site to learn more. I know that I am constantly looking for new sites for lesson plan ideas and other information to help me in my classroom. If I had access to other teachers bookmarks then it would be nice to see what they like and they use! There are so different things that this can be used for.
    After reading the Back to Trends and Issues, I noticed how the definitions changed over the years. I agree with the newer versions of the definition, I think that they incorporate more things into them then just talking about teaching and media. I find mostly when I, and many other people think about instructional technology, we think about the media types that are used and not so much the processes of teaching, learning, using, evaluating and all the other things that you can do with the media. In my teaching, of a future job, with older children, I would like to teach about the various types of items that are out there for students. I also want my students to use these items, like we are in the classroom, most of the things we have done so far, I haven't even heard off, let alone tried. I think it would benefit children more to do things first hand rather than just sit and learn about them.
    I noticed when reading the earlier definitions, they were short and missing information. However once I got to the definition that the authors of the book came up with, I don't think there was anything missing, it was a pretty long, descriptive description that touched base with many aspects of technology, design and instruction. I think that this book did a great job telling the coming about of the Instructional Design and Technology.

I have been working on socialbookmarking and have set up an account at delicious.com, check out my link:

http://delicious.com/ashrox2410

Article Reflection # 3 about the wiki

Before setting up a wiki page I was able to view videos and got definitions of what a wiki was, because before doing this assignment I didn't know anything about it. I would not be able to do this with my class, because I teach preschool but if I had a class with older children, this would be a fun tool to use. I would be able to have so much information on the pages for my students to use. There are spots for syllabus', course outlines, assignments, agendas and sidebars for easy access to the areas of the page.
One thing I would use this for is for a class project or presentation. Children could pick a subject to make a wiki about. I could put a syllabus with the outline of the project and goals and I could make an outline of what I want the project to look like. I also could make an agenda so that children have the due dates to turn items in. This would be helpful for children to create their projects on the open pages, and still have all the information they need in the same area. This is also electronic so you do not have to worry about paper copies and things being lost.
I could use wiki in my life to help keep myself organized. Help especially with school functions like we are using now, if we didn't have elearning this could be an option for an online class.
I did not have any trouble setting up the wiki, the only thing I had trouble with was making sure the right information was put onto my wiki. I need to keep in my this item to help me in the future!

Here is information regarding my wiki page:

Front page
http://akahl.pbworks.com/w/page/58714105/FrontPage

O'Reilly Article #1
http://akahl.pbworks.com/w/page/58845446/O'Reilly%20Article%201

O'Reilly Article #2
http://akahl.pbworks.com/w/page/58863799/O'Reilly%20Article%202

Article Reflection #2 RSS and Dale and Siegel Readings

            My first assignment for this class was to create a personal blog. This is something that I had no idea where to start and what it even was. The directions that were given to me to click on blogger and go from there was really helpful. The directions walked me through step by step and I was able to create the blog and now I have even figured out how to make it more personal with font and color changes. I think the blog was easy and nice to use. The next assignment I was given was to set up a RSS, of course I went to Wikipedia and looked up what it was, and that didn't even make me feel more comfortable. Setting up the RSS was easy it was almost like it was already sent up when I got on to the Google page. The most difficult part was subscribing to all my classmates blogs. I would get some that would work and others that didn't, I did it three different ways before I was able to finally get everyone. This is the time that I wish I was face to face with someone who knew how to do this, that way I could have them help me. But I got it completed and am relieved that it is done!
             When it come to the article by Dale and how the blogger and RSS fit it I think that there are some various areas. The blogger fits in to the visual symbols section and the still pictures, realistic drawings, radio and recordings section. Under the visual symbols section it describes representations such as graphs, diagrams, representations and so on. I think that the blogs are able to lend to this section because there are so many options of things that can be added to your blog. I have seen other people, just in our class, add pictures. I am sure that people that are more skilled in the blogs also add various other items. The still pictures, realistic drawings and so on section it describes that various types of media that people can get information from a blog can be pulled up on some of the technology described by Dale. Also the information can be used by groups or one person.
              The RSS falls under the still pictures and visual symbols as well. The reader is able to give people specific information about topics that they are interested in. These topics can come from various types of media like photos, writings, video clips, websites and more. All of the medias that I named can be brought to a person through their RSS, or they can get links and other resources from reading the information from their RSS.
               Siegel talks about computer imagination in his article. I think that the one thing that blogger can do in reference to this article is individualize. The blogger is an area where students can get on their computers and enter their homework and personalize the website to fit them. This gives them the freedom to give their opinions like we do for our class. It also gives students the opportunity to keep things organized and not have to worry about losing papers and turning in hard copies. The thing about RSS that relates to this article is that it gives children the freedom to connect with other student's blogs and to connect with various other blogs that have topics that are interesting to them. This would make reading articles more interesting for them, if they can find their own. I chose to subscribe to multiple early childhood blogs because I teach preschool and now I can get information from them, as well as my classmates, and not have to weed through various other "junk" that I don't really care about!

Reflective Entry #1

     Technology has been a big part of my life since I can remember, but it hasn't always been the top gadgets that have gotten me through the years. I had an older computer when I was growing up and it made due to help me get school work done and get on the Internet. I enjoy technology but I have always been the type to write out a paper before I type it out just because I like to always have a hard copy, because you never know what can happen with computers and technology. I of course have a smart phone as most people do, and I use it for various things throughout the day, but it is also not a necessity.

    In the Reigeluth, Joseph reading it talked about the importance of technology to help our teaching. It also mention a lot about having various teaching styles for children and having them keep up and be responsible for their own learning. I agree with a lot that was said in this article. I think that is important for teachers to individualize for each student, and with various teaching styles like the ones listed in the principles for a learning-focused paradigm of education, this can happen. I like the fact that this article is pro technology but not only that, it is geared towards transforming our way of teaching to help students the best we can.

    The Postman article talked about the technology boost that is constantly happening in the world today. He talked about the improvements and the new technology that comes out to help people when they really don't even need help in the first place because the things they were using before worked just fine. I like reading about the part when he went to go get a new car and the dealer was telling him about the cruise control and automatic window features and he asked why the car needed them and what was wrong with the old way of doing things. I agree with his arguments that technology is not the answer to everything, it in some ways limits us and make us more lazy. Also in this article he talks about a big part of school being where children learn social skills and how to live in a group. Technology isn't always a top resource when teaching these items.

     There are things in both articles that I agree with and it makes me think about my own life and how technology helps or hurts me. There are great things about technology when it comes to finding resources and being able to learn about various subjects using multiple types of media. This also helps to individual students various teaching styles. Then there is also the negative part of technology, for example, texting and spell check on computers has caused the younger generation to often misspell words or not even know how they are spelled. I think that technology is a wonderful tool for students and teachers but I don't think it should be the answer for everything.