Final Technology Reflection

Before this class began, I thought I knew a lot about technology. However, this class made me realize how little I knew about technology and all of the resources available to teachers and students.  One aspect of this class I really enjoyed was creating a classroom website. The classroom website will be a great way for me to keep parents and students up to date with what's going on in the classroom. I will also use the the classroom blog, located on my classroom website, to stay connected with the parents of children in my classroom. I think creating a classroom blog is a great way for parents to voice their concerns, suggestions, or questions that they might not want to ask in person. I also enjoyed learning about the Web 2.0 tools throughout the semester. I liked the idea of having students in the class teach how the tools can be used in the classroom and discussing the benefits of each.


Throughout this course, I also learned how to teach others, whether it be colleagues or students in my classroom, how to use technology. I learned that I need to slow down and break down the steps for students in my classroom. As I begin to integrate technology in the classroom, I will be sure to tie standards to each of the activities and make sure that the activity is appropriate for young children.

Final Digital Story

This week we put the finishing touches on our digital stories before turning them in. As I was watching my digital story I tried to envision what it would look like from a child's perspective. I realized that my text at the bottom of the screen was really hard to read because of the location and color of the text. I learned from a friend that I could enhance the text by having a black background behind the text. I also learned this week how to make transitions from one slide to the next. Overall, I'm really happy with my final digital story and cannot wait to use it in my classroom to introduce field trips!

Digital Storytelling

 

This week we learned how to use iMovie to create a digital story for the kiddos in our classroom. Prior to this assignment, I have made several movies through iMovie for my child and family study classes. Through this experience, I found out how easy and efficient iMovie is. However, I have never used iMovie to tell a story about what the children will be learning or experiencing inside or outside the classroom. During this assignment, I learned how to put captions on each picture that could easily been seen by all children. I also learned how to insert transition pages that can be used to ask questions before and after pictures are shown.

Now that I have learned how to make digital stories, I can hardly wait to make more for my own classroom. I can see myself using digital stories to introduce a new topic, for field trips, learning new routines/skills, and for assessment purposes.

Digital Diagram - Seasons

This week we completed our digital diagrams. I chose to do a digital diagram on the four seasons because it is relevant to what children are learning about in preschool and kindergarten. Before this assignment, I had never used or heard of digital diagram. I really enjoyed using this tool because it was easy to use and provided a lot of pictures that I could use for my diagram without searching for them on the internet. I can really see myself using this tool in the classroom and allowing children to add their own knowledge to the diagram as the learning occurs.

Digital Diagram

Today, we learned a small fraction about digital diagrams. Dr. Obannon showed the class examples of digital diagrams to help generate some thoughts and ideas about our own diagrams we will be creating. I am have created diagrams before with kindergartners and first graders but have never created one digitally. I believe the diagrams we will be creating on the computer will enhance the children's learning because of the use of videos, sounds, and pictures. I can see myself using digital diagrams in my own classroom to introduce new topics, develop K-W-L webs, and to represent the children's learning.

Interactive White Board

I am so excited to learn about and start using the interactive white board to teach and make lesson plans. I have used the interactive white board at my preschool practicum site in Lenoir City and have found that children really enjoy using the white board to learn. With that said, I have had some experience using an interactive white board but have no experience developing lesson plans on a flipchart. When I first pulled downloaded the flipchart I felt completely lost. To familiarize myself with the program, I went to Prometheam Planet and viewed other flipcharts so I could get an idea of what they look like and how I can develop my own.  I will have to explore all of the possibilities of making a flipchart and make sure that the lesson I create is interactive and fits the needs of all students in my classroom.

Picasa Web Albums

This is my Picasa web album for shapes.     This week, we learned about Picasa. I had never heard of Picasa until this week. I really liked using Picasa because it was an easy and fast process uploading pictures. Like Dropbox, it is one way for me to store pictures without taking up memory space on my computer. Through exploration, I learned that you can rearrange the order of the pictures and write captions for each. This will help viewers easily see and identify the pictures. I also learned how to embed my Picasa photo web album into my classroom site. I can see this program being used very often in my classroom as I prepare powerpoints, make presentations on the smartboard, and introduce new topics.

Shape Scavenger Hunt

 

This week, Monica Vesselles, Amy Starnes, and I participated in a scavenger hunt for shapes. I thought that this was a fun and useful activity that can be done in my own classroom. To modify this activity for children in my classroom, I will have the children search for objects inside the classroom or encourage them to bring in objects from home. Once items are found we can use a camera or Smart Board overhead projector to take pictures of the objects found.


The hardest part of this assignment was uploading and editing the photos. Since Amy took the photos of the shapes on her iphone, she had to share the photos with Monica and I through Dropbox. Once the photos were uploaded I drug each picture to my desktop for resizing. After much practice, I learned how to resize and crop photos so that they can be easily uploaded and seen online.


Today was also the first day I have ever used Picasa. I really liked using Picasa to upload my pictures because it was a very fast and easy process.

Wordle Presentation

 

This week, Sandy and I presented step-by-step directions on how to use Wordle. This task was not as easy as I thought it would be. Before we presented, we had to make sure that the Web 2.0 tool wiki we created was presentable and easy to follow for all in the class. I realize after presenting Wordle that there are even smaller steps that should be mentioned that usually are not listed in the step-by-step directions such as how to use the tilde to keep two words together or how to enable Java on the computer. I also wish I would have taken the time to print out one of my word cloud artifacts to see whether or not it prints a black background. 

As far as presenting the Web 2.0 tool, I found out from my classmates that I need to speak louder and slow down. My classmates probably could not hear me well because I was facing the computer screen while I was talking. Next time, I will face the class to give directions and then turn to the computer screen afterwards. I will also slow the pace I am presenting at so that all are on the same page as I am. I will also rely on my partner to let me know if I can move forward to the next step or not. 

Overall, I learned a lot of information about Wordle and how it can be used in my own classroom. I look forward to learning about more Web 2.0 tools and how they can be used in the classroom in the weeks to come!

Web 2.0

The Web 2.0 tool I was assigned and am responsible for presenting to the class is Wordle. Before this assignment, I had never heard of or used Wordle. However, I have seen advertisements that look very similar to the word clouds that can be made through Wordle. After using this Web 2.0 tool, I found it to be a very helpful tool that I can use in my own classroom to introduce new topics, provide word searches, and for individual/group projects.

 

I really enjoyed using this tool because it was register-free and it allowed me to use my creativity. One of my favorite editing tabs to use was the "randomize" tab. The "randomize" tab automatically rearranges the words, fonts, and layout for you. I liked using this tab because it showed me several different ways the word clouds could be arranged. The only downfall to using Wordle was that it requires Java. If one does not have Java enabled on their computer then they have to enable it on Wordle and then restart their computer. Overall, I believe that Wordle is easy to use and is a fun and creative way of grouping a collection of words!

Inquiry Based Lesson

This week was a rather challenging week trying to come up with an activity and worksheet that was developmentally appropriate for Kindergartners. I was really unsure at first how I was going to develop a lesson plan that required children to use the internet to retrieve information that helped them answer questions on a worksheet. Fortunately, I found a fantastic educational website that was very interactive and that tied back to the counting one by one topic in my curriculum textbook. After finding this website everything else seemed to fall in place. I was able to find standards that could be met both through the internet and the questions that were being asked on the worksheet.  I also learned through this experience that the format of the worksheet needs to be designed so that all children can easily read and understand the information given to them. I had a few problems with the format on my worksheet, but with trial and error I figured it out.

WebQuests

This week we evaluated many different WebQuests that can be used in elementary and determined which WebQuest would be the most effective for one's learning. Through this assignment, I learned a lot about what makes a WebQuest resourceful and what does not. I believe that an inquiry-based learning is a great way for children to learn about how information can be found on the internet. Since the internet is growing rapidly, I believe it important that children get a head start on learning how the internet can be used and the many resources available to them.

As I viewed each WebQuest, I tried to view them from both a teacher's perspective and the child's perspective. I had to determine whether the WebQuest was valuable to one's learning and could easily be accessed. I also determined whether the website encouraged cooperation among peers, easy to read, promoted higher order thinking, and was worthwhile to children. 

Website Evaluation

For this particular assignment, I evaluated the reliability and usability of a website of my choice. This assignment brought my attention to what a quality and effective website should include and look like. In the field of early education, teachers use websites for many educative purposes inside and outside of the classroom, but do they know if the websites that are being used are a reliable resource for children and their parents? Before I completed this assignment I was not aware of how much information actually went into making a website. I learned that a quality and effective educative preschool website is one that can be easily accessed by teachers, children, and caregivers. These websites should include a clear objective along with useful information about the authors and how they can be contacted. Additionally, all information should be relevant to it's readers and easy to navigate.


Overall, this assignment was a great way to familiarize myself with the different parts of a website. I know have a better idea of what to look for in order to determine whether a website is a valuable resource for children, caregivers, and myself.

Expectations for course

During the course of this semester, I hope to learn several different techniques and strategies for using technology. I like to consider myself as tech savvy, but with the growth of technology there are still a lot of things I need to learn. This semester I want to learn how to use several different programs that will best help me in my teaching profession. To help me become a better profession in the field of teaching, I will use these blogs to help me become a reflective learner. As I have learned in many of my child and family studies courses, reflection helps us recall and develop a deeper understanding of what has been learned.