A Reflection

I can't believe tonight was the last class for my Computers in Curriculum Design & Evaluation course. It seems like just yesterday that I created this blog. Looking back from the beginning of the semester until now, I can definitely say that I gained extensive knowledge regarding how to effectively implement technology into the classroom.

There are several great online educational tools out there that I read about and/or used to assist in my projects, which I plan to definitely implement into my lessons. I especially loved QuestGarden for use in creating WebQuests, and since I am an aspiring Language Arts teacher, I think My Access! is an amazing online writing tool. I'm really looking forward to using both programs when I start teaching, which will hopefully be by this time next year.

I'm so glad that we were required to create a blog and write in it once a week as it allowed me the opportunity to learn through both my own reflection and through that of others. I definitely plan to integrate blogging in my classroom, as I think it's an extremely effective learning tool, especially for Language Arts teachers trying to instill a love for writing in their students.

I'd like to thank Dr. Luongo for a wondering learning experience, and I'd like to wish the best of luck to all of my classmates in their teaching endeavors. Happy Holidays to all!

Can the Text Message Cause Problems in the Classroom?

As most younger students are becoming increasingly more comfortable with using the text message to communicate with their friends and relatives, rather than picking up the phone or writing e-mails, I have started to wonder whether or not this will present problems in the classroom, especially for those teaching Language Arts. I recently asked a friend, who teaches high school English, for her thoughts on this topic, and her response was that she often receives e-mails and essays in "text lingo." She is finding that many of her students have little regard for proper grammar in their writing.

I wonder if there can be a similar negative impact on students' oral communication skills. If they are becoming more comfortable texting rather than communicating verbally by placing an actual phone call, can this have a negative impact on their interpersonal communication or oral presentation skills? Can the reliance on text message communication also later negatively impact their relationships with friends, relatives, co-workers, etc.?

After doing a little research to find out what other educators are saying regarding this topic, I found an article on The Columbus Dispatch Web site entitled, "Text Messages May Be Classroom Conduit." In the article, many educators seem to be in favor of the text message and note its positive impact on their students. However, there are some that cite a negative impact, as they are finding that their students are allowing the text talk to permeate through their classroom assignments.

It seems that the increased use of text message communication has both a positive and negative impact on students. However, I think that it might be a good idea for teachers, most especially those teaching Language Arts, to try to reinforce the message that the language used in text messages is not appropriate for more formal writing, such as in professional e-mails or essays for school. Also, teachers should discuss the appropriate use of the text message, stressing that there are times when an actual verbal conversation or more lengthy writing via an e-mail is necessary. I'd be curious to know what others might think about this topic.

NJ ASK- Why No Technology Section?

While working on a PowerPoint presentation, which focused on the NJ ASK test, for my Assessment of Student Ability & Achievement class, I began to wonder why Technological Literacy is not a section of the test. Though I still believe the basics, such as Language Arts Literacy, Mathematics and Science should be tested, I definitely think technology skills should be an additional assessment component of NJ ASK.

Technology should be considered a more valuable subject to 21st century learners than it is currently viewed in national education, as well as in state districts. Though technology has been integrated into national and state standards, it can be said that it is still not an area that is of equal importance to the subjects of Language Arts, Mathematics and Science, as it is not an area that is deemed necessary for a standardized assessment. I'd be curious to know what others might say regarding this issue or if this is something that is currently being addressed by state and/or local officials. My hunch would be that within the next 5 years, Technological Literacy would be a section added to all state assessments nationwide.

School Web Sites are Outdated

After completing an assignment for my Computers in Curriculum Design & Evaluation course, which required me to review an educational Web site and present my feedback to the class, I was a little uneasy, as I discovered that many school Web sites in my town are extremely outdated.

The Web site that I reviewed is actually the site for the Gifted & Talented school in my town. Though the site does present some really great information regarding the various programs the school offers, it isn't a very easy site to navigate through nor is it very aesthetically pleasing.

I offered some suggestions for improving the site, which included adding more multimedia to the site, such as real images, graphics, audio and video, to help make it more interesting for students, parents and other teachers, who may be visiting the site. I also thought it would be great if the school would require all teachers to regularly update their home page and link to a blog, which would provide an avenue for students to communicate with each other and with their teacher on lessons and other issues relevant to the class.

Though these sound like great suggestions, I'm sure I'm not the first person who brought these ideas to the surface. There's likely a problem with funding for the Web sites in this school district, which again brings up the issue of whether or not technology is an important part of education.

Facebook as a Learning Tool

After months of being pressured by my friends and relatives, who tried earnestly to convince me to join Facebook for social networking purposes, I finally gave in and joined a week ago. It took a while for me to jump on the Facebook bandwagon because I didn't know if I would find the time to come home everyday, check my profile and respond to friend requests and posts from friends. Now that I'm a member, I'm really glad I joined. I've gotten back in touch with several long lost friends and relatives, and I've really been enjoying it.

Since I'm a full-time student working toward my Master's in Teaching, I started thinking about a possible place in the classroom for Facebook. I definitely think teachers can use Facebook as a way of sparking discussions on assignments and lessons among their students. Since, I'm hoping to start my teaching career as a Middle School Language Arts teacher, I started to think about specific ways that I could utilize the program in my classroom to help with my Language Arts lessons. I thought that it would be a great way to post poetry and other literary works and have students post their interpretations and provide personal feedback on other required readings. This would allow students to start an online discussion by using a technology platform that they would enjoy using and likely already be familiar with.

I did a little research to try find out if any teachers were currently using Facebook in their classrooms in any way, and I came across an article entitled "Faculty use Facebook as Learning Tool", from The Independent Voice of Central Michigan University, which talks about professors' use of Facebook in their classrooms. One journalism professor uses the program to communicate with his students and provide feedback on assignments, and he said it's a program that students are really enjoying. He and other professors at the school view Facebook as a great tool for use in the classroom, and I'd have to agree with them. Facebook is a really great social networking tool, but it can definitely serve as much more than that in a classroom.

Starfall.com

Starfall.com is a really amazing educational resource for teachers of early childhood education, who are looking for fun and motivating methods for teaching their students how to read and write. It is suitable for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, first grade and second grade, and it provides several fun and interactive programs all devoted to engaging and inspiring young children to love learning how to read and write. As most young children have such short attention spans, I definitely think it's vital to keep them excited while they are learning with fun and appealing learning tools.

I navigated through a few of the programs, and I can definitely see how children will enjoy learning to read and write with Starfall.com. As they click on images and letters, they can hear audio pronounciations of the letters and sounds. They are also taught words and letters through very fun and catchy songs, which are sure to keep many young child amused and motivated as they become eager to continue to learn how to read and write. Students are also provided instant feedback, which is very motivational for young children, as it instills a sense of confidence in their abilities. Starfall.com also provides several helpful tools for parents to use when assisting their children in learning to read and write and to reinforce what they are learning in school.

Though I don't plan on starting out my career in education by teaching young children, it is definitely an area that I would like to experience someday, and Starfall.com would be a great tool to help me inspire and instill a love for reading and writing in my young students.

Discovery Education

Discovery Education seems like an extremely helpful online resource for teachers looking for effective ways to integrate technology into their classroom curriculum, and I was really impressed to learn that such an extensive Web site is available for teachers and parents. It offers various types of digital educational tools, including subject and grade specific lessons that include videos, virtual labs and explorations, which can definitely help teachers make learning much more engaging and motivational for students of multiple learning styles.

After reviewing the site, I was really impressed with the features of Discovery Education Science, in which the programs provide a highly interactive learning environment that allows students to research and explore as real scientists. I can definitely see how these programs can be effective in engaging students while they are learning science, which can often be a difficult subject to grasp for many.

Discovery Education Assessment was another tool that can be extremely helpful to teachers in preparing their students for standardized tests, as it assesses student progress toward meeting state standards for reading/language arts, math, and science. This allows teachers to better focus their instruction in effort to improve student learning and help to increase their test scores.

I was also happy to see that Discovery Education offers several resources to assist in enhancing curriculum, as well as teachers' professional development, such as Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators, which offers a categorized list of the best sites for teaching and learning and the New Teacher Survival Central, which offers helpful tips and tools for new teachers. That's one section that I'm sure I'll be visiting often when I start my first teaching job next year.

WebQuest Presentations

I presented my WebQuest in my graduate class this past Wednesday night, along with the remaining other half of our class. I must say that everyone had either created or modified a really great WebQuest, and the presentations were all excellent.

After seeing so many different WebQuests targeted for all grade levels, I can definitely see the great benefit for students. WebQuests definitely make the lessons more fun and appealing and teach students how to use the internet for research and learning purposes. Though they may be time consuming to create, I definitely think they are worth implementing in the classroom. Depending on the content, they can likely be used year after year or modified slightly to accommodate each new class.

I was really happy to know that programs exist to help teachers create the most efficient WebQuest, and though I've never heard of a WebQuest before this class, I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to learn about how to implement them into my classroom curriculum. Here's a link to my WebQuest: http://questgarden.com/71/20/8/081011204114/
Enjoy!

QuestGarden

I recently used QuestGarden to create a WebQuest assignment for an 8th grade Language Arts class. I'll be presenting the finished product for my graduate class tomorrow night. The program was overall pretty simple to use. As I created the WebQuest using the system, it offered checkpoints and advice along the way, which were extremely helpful. I didn't register for the 2-year subscription but instead registered for the 30-day free trial. After 30 days, I will no longer be able to edit the WebQuest I created, but it will be available for one year.

Though the system is quite easy to use, I did find that it was extremely time consuming and sometimes very slow due to so many users, according to error messages I received. There was also a bug on the evaluation page, which created a huge blank space before my rubrics. I decided to insert a photo to cover the blank space, which in the end, actually looked very nice.

I would definitely use QuestGarden again to create another WebQuest, and I would recommend it to others. I would just keep in mind that it will be very time consuming, especially if your goal is to make it as efficient and aesthetically pleasing as possible for your students.

After I present my WebQuest in class tomorrow, I'll be sure to include a link to it.

MY Access!

After examining the MY Access! Web site, watching a video that demonstrated students', teachers' and administrators' use of the product, as well as reading the MY Access! Efficacy Report, it is quite clear that this web-based instructional writing tool is truly amazing. Since writing is such a vital aspect of education in all subject areas, I am definitely a supporter of implementing cross-curricular writing opportunities for students whenever possible. As research has shown, students' writing ability is immensely strengthened with repetition and immediate feedback, and the MY Access! product provides those key features. All of the MY Access! program's impressive features undoubtedly serve to motivate students to want to write and want to learn how to write successfully. Just as Douglas Reeves, founder of The Leadership and Learning Center, states, "kids respond to feedback from electronic games because it is immediate, accurate and incremental, " I can see how students would want to submit a revised version of their writing as quickly as possible when they receive a low score using MY Access!. I can also see how students using this program will start to view the process of writing and learning to write fun. The instant feedback and gratification provided by MY Access! is definitely a great motivational tool for students at all levels.

As a true believer in having a dictionary and thesaurus near me at all times when working on any type of writing assignment, I was really excited to learn that MY Access! contains these important features and encourages their use, while helping students work to strengthen their spelling and vocabulary and improve their writing scores and overall writing performance. Since writing is such an important part of all school subjects and all careers, the MY Access! instructional tool is a great way to teach children at an early age to love and appreciate writing. I can't wait to use this program in my classroom when I become a Language Arts teacher.

NETS & NJCCCS For Technological Literacy

I had never read the NETS or NJCCCS before taking this class, so it was definitely very refreshing to see that guidelines were created for teachers to follow when implementing technological literacy into their lessons. While the NETS provides a general overview of technology standards and performance indicators for teachers and students, which can be used as a reference, it seems that the NJCCCS provides a more detailed guideline to follow, as it specifies the progress indicators for each grade level.

As the NJCCCS states that by the end of Grade 4 all students will know how to access the Internet to solve real life problems, I think it's great that this important skill will be taught so early on. Since the study by DeKlerk and others found that students will form negative attitudes about technology if there is no formal technological experiences in early education, I agree that it is extremely important to introduce technology education in order to provide the most thorough and efficient education.

Since it is evident that advanced technological skills are needed in nearly every career, I think it's vital that teachers follow the guidelines set for specific grade levels by the NJCCCS and continue to sharpen the technological skills of their students to insure that they will succeed in a competitive workplace in this Digital Age and that of the future.

It's sometimes funny to think that most of my technological skills were learned by repetitive use in my jobs after college and not so much in school as students are taught today. The first time I used Google was actually while working as an intern for ABCNEWS.com in my senior year in college. And to think, it's now being used by fourth graders on a daily basis!

Internet Safety & 21st Century Learners

After watching three videos for class on the topics of internet safety and 21st Century digital learners, I think it's extremely important for parents and teachers to consistently educate their children and students on both the positive and negative aspects of using technology. As evident from the YouTube video, Internet Safety II, as well as numerous news stories and television specials, including Dateline NBC's 'To Catch a Predator' , there are many child predators lurking in the digital world. These predators take advantage of young, naive children online everyday. Here's a link to the 'To Catch a Predator' package online, which includes many interesting articles and videos related to children's internet safety. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10912603/

I'm sure many parents believe that their children are smart enough to not reveal personal information, such as their name and address online, but the frightening reality is that many children are extremely comfortable communicating online and believe that whoever they are talking to online is just as innocent and real as they are. I think it is vital to show children age appropriate videos demonstrating how children can get themselves in trouble online with strangers on the other end. Though they may be frightened by the reality of some of the negative situations that occur through online chat rooms or social networking sites such as MySpace, I definitely think it will ultimately serve as a very beneficial education for them.

On a more positive note, after watching the video 'A Vision of K-12 Students Today', which focuses on the importance of engaging the 21st century learner through a digital education, I think it's extremely refreshing to know that students want to learn through technology.
Though many are already spending time listening to their iPods and playing video games on their computers, I think it's important for teachers to consistently guide their students through their learning of important lessons by using technology. Many children view the internet and other digital technology as a form of entertainment, and I think by implementing technology in their lessons, teachers can continue to engage their students, while they make learning fun and pleasurable.

Though I wasn't surprised by the video's statistics regarding the amount of time children spend using technology, including 3 1/2 hours per week gaming and 5 1/2 hours per week on the computer, I was shocked by the statistics on teachers' use of technology, including 76% of teachers who never used blogs, wikis or podcasts, 14 % of teachers who let their students create something with technology and 63% of teachers who never do. I think these are very frightening statistics and hopefully more teachers will soon catch on and realize how important technology is to the future of their students.

My First WebQuest...

As my first assignment and presentation for my Computers in Curriculum Design & Evaluation class will be due on either September 24 or October 15, depending on which date we are assigned, I have already begun the research that will assist me in creating my first WebQuest. Although I have never heard of a WebQuest before taking this class, I think it is an extremely interesting way to conduct a lesson while implementing technology in the classroom. I definitely think it's vital to encourage students to continue to use the internet while they research and learn, and a WebQuest seems like a great technique.

Though we are not required to create an actual WebQuest with live links for this project,
I think I'm going to go ahead and give it a shot anyway using QuestGarden, http://www.questgarden.com/. It seems like a fairly easy way to create it, and the 2-year subscription fee is only $20. Since, I will be a certified teacher ready to work in less than two years, I think it's a good idea to purchase the subscription now. That way, I can give it some real practice, and I'll be ready for the time that I may actually want to use a WebQuest for teaching a lesson in my first year of teaching.

As for now, I'd like the topic of my first WebQuest for this class to be Writing a Persuasive Essay, since I'm really hoping that my first teaching job will be for Middle School Language Arts. I'm really excited to be moving forward with this project and hopefully finishing sometime within the next week. I'll be sure to include a link to the finished product!

An Introduction...

I just created my first blog for my Computers in Curriculum Design & Evaluation class, which I'm taking as part of my Master's in Teaching program at Saint Peter's College. As I just recently left the corporate world, after spending more than 6 years working in the journalism and media relations fields, I'm really excited to be a full-time student working toward a complete career change. I'm really looking forward to becoming certified in both elementary education, K-8, as well as Middle School Language Arts, and I plan to complete the program by December of 2009.

Though I am already somewhat technologically advanced, it will be really interesting to learn how to implement technology in the classroom setting. I look forward to working with Dr. Luongo, as well as all of my classmates!