Digital Badge: Chapter 4

Digital Badge: Chapter 4

After reading chapter four of Transforming Learning with New Technologies. The most important concepts I found  interesting were:

Academic Content (What to Teach)

As teachers and future teachers we are  going to be making choices about our academic concept. What is academic concept? Academic concept are the facts, skills and understandings we as teachers are going to share with our students. It important that the school systems guidelines, the state and national curriculum frameworks define and in some cases orders what will be educated. As teachers,  it important  that our lesson development connects to local curriculum frameworks , which are aligned to state and national standards. Meanwhile, since there no local curriculum spells out teachers decide what they will be teaching everyday. Technology plays an essential role in assisting teachers, such as answering them "What to teach" question. There digital content available on the internet it includes a vast connection of curriculum resources and information. Using internet search engines, online encyclopedia, blogs, wikis and other technology tools both the student and teacher can gain access to powerful new ways to explore and regain information.

Teaching Goals, Method ,Procedures (How to Teach)

Teacher don't just decide on the academic concept. But they also decide the teaching goals, methods, and procedures they will use with  their classroom/classes. What are goals? Goals are the reason why a lesson is being taught. The Student learns new information that he or she would implied in their lives or can use in the future. Methods are the instructional strategies teachers used to convey academic concepts to student (large groups or small group discussions) case study, creative writing, reflection journals and  learning games. Procedures are the scheduling and grouping of students by teachers doing a lesson and the decision  of how much time to spend on each activity. Everyday  teachers are combining  their classroom goals, methods and procedures. However, academic content, goals, methods and procedures equally support each other  in a dynamic process of lesson development. Another support of lesson development is technology. Technology supports  in a variety of ways such as the following presentation Software: wikis, teacher developing websites, blogs and Web Quest.The video above demonstrates a teacher creating a lesson plan in which show what he or she wants their student to learn.

Learning Assessments (Knowing What Students Have Learned)

Teachers have many obligations .One of them is the Learning assessments . Learning assessments occur before, during and after the teaching lessons. The learning lesson enable the teachers to evaluate student in what they had learned at the end of the lesson, what's the student reaction as the class lesson unfolds and diagnostics what students already knows. Teacher include multiple-choice ,short answer essays , oral discussions class participation, portfolios and performances, all of which provide evidence of what students have learned and are able to do as a result of the teaching. Technology also  support the learning assessment by the teacher providing their students with electronic tests , quizzes , grade keeping software, and online surveys, ect.

Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

The Revised 5 Minute Lesson Plan. (2013, May 23). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV4jo9f9ZWU

Digital Badge H

Digital Badge: Chapter 9

After reading chapter nine of Transforming Learning with New Technologies. The most important concepts I found  interesting were

Power Point and Next-Generation Presentation Tools

Today's students are all about technology. You will find there more students involve in class activities when their teacher involve technology in the class lesson. Teacher use technology such as PowerPoint. What is PowerPoint? PowerPoint is  a multimedia presentation software package that features in many of today's computers. PowerPoint  computerize presentations that were previously done with chance tendencies of an overhead projector or slice in a slice projector. In a PowerPoint, you will find images, text and data. Teachers take advantage of this PowerPoint features which helps their students' have a visual view of the information that is being displays in the projector. Teachers use different types of colorful graphics, pop-ups and words to keep the student attention in the PowerPoint slice their presenting. PowerPoint  is a useful tool for all teachers  and students at every grade level that I would recommend to included in a class lesson activity. The video above shows a tutorial of how a PowerPoint is done.

Videos In The Classroom

Like PowerPoint presentations showing educational videos is another way to keep the students attention and a great way to included technology in the class lesson. By showing educational videos it offer ways to present information while redirecting the method of instruction from the teacher to screen for part of the class time. There are teachers who read books with their class. Once, they finished reading the book, he or she shows the movie that goes along with the book so his or her student have a visual idea of what they read. In these days, students are been raised in a culture where televisions and computers screens are constantly present. Why not show an educational movie that would educate the student and keep them entertain instead of watching shows that are not appropriate for their ages!

Photo taking and Movie making with students

Students can have a fun time making a PowerPoint and watching a movie in class. Yet, they can have more fun by taking photos, editing them and presenting them to their classmates. In these digital era, students can include multiple mediums for photo taken and can be taken in every subject area at every grade level. Nowadays, students are more involved with technology to the point that teachers are asking them to video tape themselves doing a class project, introducing themselves or simply interviewing someone. When the students take photos they express who they are and by videotaping they build confidence, learn how to communicate and express themselves. I strongly recommend that teachers should take advantage this all this tools!

Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Creating a Presentation - PowerPoint 2010. (2010, September 2). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZUwFwooMrY

Digital Badge: Chapter 10

Digital Badge: Chapter 10

After reading chapter ten of Transforming Learning with New Technologies. The most important concepts I found  interesting were:

 



Photo credit to Public Stock on 
https://flic.kr/p/g5uvX9

Word Cloud

There many types of educational tools that students can use to improve with their education. One of  many is a Word Cloud. What is a Word Cloud? A Word Cloud is a visual representation of text. It allows both the student and teacher to show a large amount of written text in a visually engaging format on a computer screen. Word Cloud  are generated by software programs that take a count of the words most frequently used in a document and re-position them in a nonlinear pictorial image as it shows in the image above. I believe that Word Cloud is an important tool that should be use in the beginning of the  school year . Through Word Cloud your students can get to know each other .You can have each student create their own Word Cloud where  they write about themselves: what they like, what they did over the summer, hobbies, family, the things they are interested in, etc. They can use the Word Cloud to give the 'big picture" of themselves and they can also easily see what their classmates are all about, too!

 

Electronic Spellers and Dictionaries
 

An electronic speller and dictionary are two of the many important tools that every classroom should have. An electronic speller helps the student find correct spelling, they have the opportunity of listening to words spoken aloud and they can also check the currency of their spelling with no adult help! The electronic speller helps students of all ages, hearing impairments, non fluent readers and  students learning the English language. Through the electronic speller the non fluent students have the chance to see and hear  the words that they may not be able to sound out. The electronic spellers does not cause disruptions in the classroom lesson, the student just need to plug in their headphones. Once, the student plug in their headphones they hear the pronunciation of the letter names and then the whole word. Also, the electronic speller check spelling. The student types in the word then the electronic speller accepts the word even if its spell incorrectly. The electronic speller offers a list of possible standard spelling and says each word aloud for the identification of the correct word.  Meanwhile, when the student need to find a definition, check the part of speech of a word, or find the English translation of a word in your language he or she can use the dictionary, too. Both of this educational tools are a must have in the classroom! I have attached a YouTube video above which demonstrates how an Electronic speller is use and how students benefit from it.

 

 

Handheld Calculator

 

 

Photo credit to Rich Foster on
https://flic.kr/p/cmj9HE

Like an electric speller and dictionary, a calculator is also an important learning tools that all students should have at their reach. A calculator is a handheld device that performs mathematical operations and computations. Calculators are small computers that perform specific data operations, have electronic circuitry and posses a limited memory function. There many types of calculators. However, am going to mention a few. The first is the basic calculator. The basic calculator is the most common type of calculator (as shown in the image above) , it does number operation and has a minimal memory function. Meanwhile, the scientific calculator is used by scientist, its more capable of performing more complex operations and  possess more memory. Last but not least, it the  graphing calculator.  The graphing calculator is used in math teaching, for scientific and engineering purpose, these calculators has a larger screen for displaying graphs, it has  an advanced memory capabilities, are programmable and can handle more complex formulas. As the students advances grade levels they use  different type of calculators.

Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

(2011, August 24). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqlYvnR0D1E

Digital Badge: Chapter 8

Digital Badge: Chapter 8

 

After reading chapter eight of Transforming Learning with New Technologies. The most important concepts I found  interesting were

Electronic Communication Between Teachers And Students

There are several social media technologies to use in teaching. Email is one of them. Emailing is a online communication that features electronic exchange between teacher and student. Emailing can be successful when used carefully and professionally. Like emailing , a classroom website is another way a student can communicate with his or her teacher. All teachers should have a classroom website. Through a classroom website the student has the opportunity to know what they miss in class (if they are absent) and the parents  can see what  their  child is learning in class. Teachers should also have discussions outside their classroom. Nowadays, technology plays a big role in education. A way that a teachers can include technology is by having online discussion with their students. Online discussion in which the teacher and student discuss educational topics, share their thoughts  and what they have learn.

 

Energizing Students Writing

 

Nowadays, writing is in an essential skill that all students should have in order to communicate and be successful in school. Electronic communication system (emailing, blogging, ect) opens multiple possibilities for students to write to their teacher/s. It gives the students in opportunity to improve their writing skills and build a student to teacher relationship. In elementary school, students spent little time in writing. Meanwhile, in high school students are ask to write a three to four  page essays. Writing has become an important approach in communicating with our students. Every curriculum involves writing . Every subject requires students to be able to communicate what they are learning in class and learn different forms of writing expressions. The YouTube video above  explains the importance of writing and it advantages.

 

Sharing Information With Family

 

As a teacher we the opportunity of teaching students from different backgrounds, cultures  and beliefs. As teachers,  it's important to get to know each of our students and their families. It's important to provide the families with the following information: grading policies, class assignments, homework, and upcoming class events. According to Harvard University Family Research Project, found that more than one in three families use the internet to communicate in school, if only once or twice a year. Those families tended to have higher incomes, more education and greater access to computers. In today's generation technology has become the main resource for teachers to communicate with their student's parents. However, things have change. Parents who couldn't  afford a computer now use their cell phone  to email the child's teacher or use a public library computer. These parents are not allowing their financial or educational statues from stopping them from getting involve in their child's education and build a relationship with their child's teacher. The video above explains why ALL parents NEED to be involve in their child's education!

 

Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Parent Involvement Matters. (2013, July 26). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOhZ6U5yaXA

Why Writing is important. (2013, September 30). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tponSqTvAyc