Web 2.0

   We have learned many different Web 2.0 skills in this classroom and it has helped me to get a better understanding of technology and things that can help me in the classroom to get students more familiar with technology as well. Two of the types of technology's that we have used in this class that I have really enjoy are the blogger and the bookmarking. I like the blogger because it is a collection of everything that I have done throughout the semester and you can add all your work to it and keep yourself organized. I think this would be a great tool to use when doing a study or large project.  In the chapter that I read about Web 2.0 it even discussed that it can "offer new opportunities for learners to take more control of their learning and access their own customized information, resources, tools and services" (pg. 301 under Web 2.0 as an Educational Platform- Pedagogical Implications). This statement describes how I feel about the tools that we have used. I think that the blogger has been one that is most helpful to me and would be for my students.
   The other tool that I chose was the bookmarking tool that I used from the Delicious website. I liked this site because it was nice to keep track of the websites that I use on a daily basis. I think this would be a great tool to use for a bibliography of websites for students doing projects. They could keep all their information neatly together and it would be easy for the teachers and other students to see and review it. This could also be a site that children do at the beginning of the year, that way the teacher and students can see what their interests are and get to know them more. This fits in with a part of the book that said that Web 2.0 can "encourage a wider range of expressive capability" (pg. 301 under Web 2.0 as an Educational Platform- Pedagogical Implications). Also I like to always add that these tools are great for the students that need some other type of instruction to receive their learning. These are hands on approaches that they can explore and use, instead of just learning about them from reading articles and books on the subject!

E-Learning and InstructionalDesign

After reading the chapter on the e-learning I came across a couple of passages that really hit with me. One of the passages was from the Technics vs. Trucks section it said "The logical assumption is that learning is "delivered" to learners (the method) and that the delivery vehicle itself (the medium) is not particularly important." I do not agree with this statement at all, and in the book it discussed how the medium or the vehicle in which we teach the method is just as important and the road that leads us to the knowledge of the method. So in other words Clarks doesn't agree with the statement either. I think in order for children to learn I have to be familiar with their learning habits. In my classroom some students learn with just the verbal explanation and then I have students who need me to model or to practice themselves before they understand the concept. It is also the same way with  materials, for a student to learn about the life cycle of an ant a book maybe helpful, for others they may need a video and to go even more into it some might need an interactive computer game. I think that it is important to know that the delivery is just as important as the information when teaching.
The other passage that I read that I liked was "Without question, incidental learning on the Internet is a rich area for systematic exploration and research by university faculty, corporate R&D groups and graduate students", from the Analysis of Learning Outcomes section. I think that this statement should be expanded to anyone. I think that the Internet can help with so much learning! The Internet is a tool that is used, by most people, everyday, and it is a constant source of information. It is nice to be able to explore things that I didn't know were out there and available, by taking this class. By taking this class as a graduate student, I have many tools that I have explored on the Internet and are aware of now, that I can use in my classroom now, even with preschoolers and especially some day when I get my own public school classroom. The information that I find when completing my projects are so helpful, that I even tell other people about. So I defiantly think that the Internet is great for exploration and research for the groups listed in the statement and also many others.

Free Website Reviews

    The first site that I looked at was FotoFlexer, this was a sight were you could up load photos and add things to them or change them. Some of the features that you could use when playing with this tool was change the effect, decorate it, add animations, beautify it, distort it, geek it up and add layers. There is a ton of different options underneath these sections for you to try out and pick. I played around with adding stickers to a picture of a sheep, giving it glasses, a hat and a scarf. I also changed the colors of a picture of a bridge and added some animated text and pictures to it. This is a tool that I think teacher's can use to teach their students how to add and change pictures, it would be really great for a photography class! I think this would be a fun tool to use when it came to creating projects. I think this would have been a really fun thing to have when doing my senior portfolio, I could have done more with the pictures I used. On the other hand if a teacher was making a PowerPoint or wanted to add some unique pictures to a classroom website this would be a fun tool to use. This tool is a highly related to the Instagram that many people use on their cell phones or Facebook, so that is one reason it would be a great tool, because so many people are related to it.
    The other tool that I observed was the Zoho account, which I found very confusing. I felt that this site was gear more toward people that run their own business or higher end people from a corporation or business. There were areas where I could add leads, contacts, accounts and many other items. I looked into these things but in order to use them, you have to have information like that to add to them, so I didn't add anything. It seems like a helpful tool and I would recommend it to people who are in the business field, but unless a teacher is involved with some financial part of the school, I would think this site would be unnecessary. However, this tool would be great for high school teachers who teach business classes or even some type of math class. For a preschool teacher, I see no reason to use this unless it was for a personal use.

Getting an Instructional Design Position Reading

    In the chapter Getting an Instructional Design Position: Lessons from a Personal History, I found some lessons that I found interesting and that I have done in small amounts but need to focus on more. One of the lessons that the author talked about was to become more active in professional organizations. I have been involved in some organizations but not to the extent that he talks about. I have done my fair share of volunteering, but there is instances where it has only been a couple of times and then I don't do it anymore. I think this is something that I need to do more often to get more experiences and to help in future careers. There are things that I volunteer to do for my work, when they come about, but there are things that I can be doing in my community and in surrounding communities to help the schools, which in turn might help me to get a job in a public school one day!
    Another lesson that I saw in this chapter that connected with me was about revising a job that doesn't fit or apply for jobs that interested me, even if you don't have the exact qualifications. This does apply for me because when I first got my job I was a preschool home base teacher, which meant I had to go to children's homes and work with the parents and young children ages 2-3. I got my degree in elementary education, with an early childhood minor, so it did apply to my job, but it wasn't something I was qualified for. Getting the job was a great start and foot in the door to where I am now, a preschool center based teacher for preschoolers, ages 3-5. I would like to have a teaching job in the elementary school, so what I need to do is to apply, apply, apply, to get myself out there and to participate in things so that I can get that job I desire!
    This chapter gave some really good tips, that you know about but often forget to do. I like the part also about how he says you will not get the first job or second cause a lot of people, me included, get discouraged if they do not recieve the jobs they applied for. This is a good chapter for people to read, because it puts things in perspective.

Snow Website

Here is a link to my website. I set up my website to have students and families use to connect what we are learning in the classroom to home. This website gives vocabulary words, fun facts and ideas of things to do at home!

HS Kids Explore

Chapter 18 Reflection

    One of the common themes that I have seen or have been hinted at is cross cultural integration. I think that it is important for business and education to take into consideration the vast variety of cultures that make up the United States as well as other countries. This is a concept that talks about integrating cultural values and language into the technology that is used in the businesses and schools. It helps people of various cultures feel more comfortable and to be able to do their job better and faster. It is also important to remember how it would be like if you were in a different country, and how much better you would feel if you had these resources when you were in a different country.
    Another aspect that I thought was a common item in these three articles was the interactive technology. The various types like the cultural programs and prototyping are things that help to make peoples work more easier. The cultural aspect of having the computer programs to help people from various cultures do their work is important. The other item that I mentioned was prototyping, this is a program that can give you a working model or rough draft of a final project of the model. This is a great program to help workers and students get things done faster and reach milestones quicker by seeing and knowing what the end project is going to be.
    Somethings that I think could be used in my work environment is to have more cross cultural items available. I know the Internet is a great resource for students and workers but I have never known programs to be available or where I can learn where these items are at. I know that in my preschool classroom we have some technology for children who speak Spanish. We have a preschool computer program that they are able to play and we also have leap frogs that have Spanish books, but that is it for technology, and I don't really know what is available otherwise. This also deals with the interactive technology, schools just don't have the money to buy multiple technology tools. This is one problem that is common, and needs to be addressed so that these options can be available more often.

Tree Concept Map

This is a concept map that I have create based on what a child would make when learning about trees. Trees is a unit that my preschool class has been studying so I thought I would use the things we have been learning to make the concept map. Many of these items are things that students in my class have brainstormed when talking about what animals live in trees, what are the parts of a tree and what can we get from trees. There are a few added items, as they have now learned them after reviewing the topics, so I added them to make the map more complete.

Ch. 21 Instructional Designers and P-12 Technology Integration

   I read the article about instructional design in the schools and during the reading it talked about how the technology that was used changed student and teacher behaviors. One thing that I read in this part of the article talked about how even though teachers are implementing this in their lessons and classroom it was having small or no impact on the students learning. The thought of this was surprising in some sense but also hit home, not so much for me but for things I have seen. Some of the reasons that the authors of this book thing that this occurred is because, students used computers for high-order use as well as low-level tasks. This caused a mixed approach which was thought to have impacted the students approaches.
   Another thing that they found was that teachers only used the technology because they had to, based on money given from educational technology grants. This means that they didn't put forth the effort towards it and only did it because they we expected to. Lack of teacher training is another issue that comes about. I think this especially falls for teachers that have been in the school system for years and are now getting trained on using items that they are not familiar with. This can cause the use of the technology to be ineffective. The last part that they mentioned in this part of the article, that can cause low impact on education is, that the assessments is used for low level learning. It doesn't work towards the high level learning activities, which in a lot of ways is something that you would want to work for. I would want my students to be challenged and taught higher level learning activities.
   These issues are something that I never really considered. However, I have seen some of these issues. I think that teachers with no background and that have no experience with technology can have an issue with not enough training, I have seen this happen, I have even had it happen with me in this class. I have not been familiar with some of this technology, but I am glad that I have had to do these activities, instead of just being trained on them. These issues are something that everyone should be aware of and think about when they are using technology in the classroom.

Screencasting

Business and Industry Readings

  After reading the Business and Industry readings I found some things that could be helpful in classrooms. I took the skills as things that I could do in a future classroom of older children. One of the things that the article talked about was about designing instruction for a cross-cultural workforce. This part of the article talked about making various word choices and to have illustrations that convey different meanings for various cultures. I think that this would be helpful in a class setting that has many English language learners. They can use it to help them do homework and classwork. It would give them a chance to make comparisons with things from their culture and things with the culture that they are currently living in. It would also make things more understandable if they are learning new things. Another thing about designing instruction for a cross-cultural workforce is that it would give students an idea about various cultures. For instance say that you were learning about the Mexican culture in a Spanish class, this type of program could help students to view things that are common in that culture, they could make comparisons as well between the two cultures. It would also give students a first hand look into some of the culture.
   As I was reading more into the chapter I read about technology based training. I thought that this would be a good tool for students who are absent often due to an illness or injury. This would let them view lectures, practice classwork, do homework and get feed back from the teacher. Another thing that this could be used for is homework or teacher/parent communication. This could be a site that parents went on to see what their child has been up to in the classroom. They could see some of the skills their child has been learning and practice them with their child. I think this would be a great tool to get parents involved in their children's education.
   This article gave me some great ideas on things that I could use in the classroom or to keep in constant communication with my families!

Gobles Google Map

View Gobles Businesses in a larger map

Google Map Lesson Plans

For my lesson plan I decided to use something that I have done in the past, and to use the new tool of Google Maps to make it better. Something that I always study with my children are the local business around the school I teach. Most of my students are from the area and visit these businesses frequently. I made markers on the map of the various businesses in the area that we talk and learn about. In the description I discussed what those places are used for.

Pod Casts and Human Performance Improvement

After reading the article there were some things that I thought that would be helpful. I liked the idea about how the HPI talked about being organized and having requirements that are strict and to the point (discussed in the stimulus part of Gilbert's Behavior Model). This is important because in order to run a successful classroom and for children to know what to do and to get good grades, they  need to know what is expected of them. I think in order to be successful it is important to know what is expected of you, and this is something that I try to do with my preschoolers. Another thing that I try to do, but need to do more of that is talked about in the stimulus section is feedback. I am constantly giving high fives and verbal praise to my students when they do something that is showing their knowledge of the expectations. Even thought this is something I work on, it is something that I can always improve on.
The podcast that I chose to highlight was the educational section of the website npr.org. This website is National Public Radio, it has podcast and topics that are current in the world. I looked under the educational section and found a podcast that talked about No Child Left Behind, giving funding or cutting funding to failing schools, using smart phones in class and so much more. I think that this website is helpful for teachers to see what is going on in the world and to hear from different people discussing their opinions on the matters. Whats nice about this site is that there are multiple other topics for you to see, hear and look at!
I think that pod casts could be something fun and educational for children in upper elementary, middle and high school grades. It gives them a chance to express their opinions and to present information that they have studied and learned about. Another thing that I think would be cool is to have a podcast that is represented by students that is presented to the school. They can use this to talk about certain subjects like bullying, drug and alcohol abuse, upcoming events, news events and other subjects. It could be a weekly thing for the students to listen to at the end of the day. I think this would be a great thing to incorporate, especially in a middle or high school setting!

Educational Blog

http://www.npr.org/sections/education/


This website will take you to the National Public Radio website under the education heading. These pod casts talk about current events in the educational field. It also talks about the hot topics and controversial items that come up in the world of education. This website also lets you listen to pod casts from other subjects that may interest you!

Teaching Learning Theories

    In the chapter about foundations for instructional design it talked about many different theories that are found. In the explanation of the theories it talked about what the state consist of and what tools are best to help learning in that state. In the question at the end of the chapter it asked how would you teach learners how to calculate and compare items that are of various sizes and brands of the same product. In order to figure out the question that I was having to ask my students I had to think of a product that I could use so I knew how to answer the question of describing how I would teach it. So I chose to use pop as my product. Students would focus on Coke products, Pepsi products and store brand products in the sizes of 12 oz., 20 oz. and a 2 liter size.
    For the cognitive information processing theory it mentioned that children need to learn and use attention, encoding and retrieval. I would have products in each size and from the three different brands as a visual so students could see them and know what we were talking about. I would not tell them the name brands or the sizes of the items. I would then have children get into groups with a partner and talk about what they already know about each of the bottles (sizes, brands, where they have seen them, have they tried them etc.). Also I would have them compare and group up bottles with similar sizes so that they can see the similarities and differences. I would then have the class come back as a whole group and make a chart about what we already know about the bottles and brands based on their small group discussions. I would also give feedback of items that they didn't mention or to correct a response about the sizes and ounces amount. I would have children think about math skills that we have used in the past and that we have learned and have them get into their small groups again to think how can we figure out the price per ounce of a 12 oz. bottle of coke that cost $1.50 at the store. After they brainstormed the ideas I would then meet whole group again and we would try them out and see which ones worked and which didn't.
    Another theory that I read about was the Schema Theory and Cognitive Load. In this part of the article it talked about how these learners need work examples,partial work problems and diagrams. If I were teaching students using this type of theory I would do a whole group brainstorming event. I would give the class the category of pop and ask them to name all the brands that they can think of and the sizes. Then we would limit it down to three sizes and three brands. I would then tell the students that we need to figure out how we would find the price per ounce for each brand and size. I would show the children work examples of how to complete the process and I would work through one in front of the whole class so they could see the results. I would then have children get back into their small groups to work on some problems. I would give each group a paper that has partial problems on it and they can work together to finish them. After they were finished we would come back together and go through the problems as a whole group to find the answers. I would then graph the results on a bar graph so the students are able to see the differences and similarities.
   

Map of Lake Powell

View Larger Map

What Preschool Teachers do

Funny Cat Video

Article Reflection on A History of Instructional Design and Technology

In this article there was a scenario about using wireless computers in the classroom and at home for a whole year. The question that was brought up was how does this project have very little effect on the instructional practices that teachers use.
   There are many reasons that this project would not work with instruction. One of the reasons that there is no effect on the instructional teaching practices is because that teachers think that there is no use for instructional purpose or they do not want to change their routines and schedules, especially teachers that have been set in their ways for years. They can get the supplies and think of some short, quick ways to use them, but when it comes to teaching the core subjects, they tend to fall back to their old habits. Another reason is that teachers do not have the training in computers, yes most people know how to use a word document and a variety of other items, but do they really know the tricks and gadgets that can help students? I am one that doesn't, I never knew about half the things that we have been doing in this class, so there is no way for me to teach children about them. It also depends on how much training a person gets, if you teach them one thing one day, chances are they are not going to use it because they do not feel comfortable. The third reason that this project had very little effect on teaching instruction is because teachers only used them for certain things. In the book it described that in elementary computers were used for drills and practice and in later grades they were used for teaching computer skills like word processing. Teachers again are stuck in certain ruts and do not have the tools or knowledge to go beyond the basic with technology.
     I think some factors that could help to contribute to the project to make it more effective is teacher, staff and student training. This is something that could benefit all school employees, so everyone is on the same page. Teach a new product or media and then let people explore it and play with it, like we do in this class. I know that I can learn so much better by doing rather then studying or listening about something. There are so many resources available out there and some students will benefit because they need a variety and choices when learning to find their understanding. The other factor that would help to contribute to the project is showing teachers the benefits of using the computers. This goes along with the choices thing I mentioned above. Computers could benefit so many children with various learning styles. They could help them to show their learning and gain their learning better then school issued supplies like textbooks. I think that teachers and students would have more fun, gain more knowledge and be better learners with the help of computers, if they were trained and comfortable with the use of them!

My flikr photo sharing account

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashkahl24/