Assessment Tools/ ETEC Course

Using a rubric is a good way to assess what kind of job a student has done completing a task.  Points are distributed accordingly over each topic the student was meant to address, and a fair grade is applied to all students using the same fair scale.  The clicker tool is a fun and instant way to assess how well students are grasping onto the concepts being taught.  The students are able to use a fun technology to participate in reviews or other activities that the teacher uses to find out how much the students have retained.

This course has gone over a wide variety of technologies that can be incorporated into learning in the classroom.  I look forward to finding ways to use many of the tools to allow my students a creative way to express what they have learned.  Creating web pages presents a wide variety of opportunities for students in the classroom.  Something as simple as a book report can be made into a web page offering many ways to express what they have learned.  Blogs can be shared in the classroom as a way to for students to interact and express what they have gained from a learning experience in the classroom.  The kidspiration tool is an excellent way to show students how to map out ideas and create outlines for stories or other assignments.  There is so much that can be applied using the technologies we have addressed, I only hope I am able to remember all the ideas that have come through.

Technology TEKs

§126.14. Technology Applications, Grade 6, Beginning with School Year 2012-2013.

(c) Knowledge and skills.

(4) Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. The student makes informed decisions by applying critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. The student is expected to:

(F) transfer current knowledge to the learning of newly encountered technologies.

The above TEK stood out to me as important because this will be something students are forced to deal with for the rest of their lives.  Technology is always updating and coming out with new things.  These things will build from what they already know, so being able to apply what they have learned from previous applications will help them to maneuver the newer ones.  In class I can't really show them new technology that isn't made yet, and because of budgets I won't always have new technology available to me, but I can show them how so many programs work the same in most ways, with just a few minor differences, knowing this key information will help them to be able to advance on their own in the future when they come across new technology. 



Copyrights, Fair Use, Cyberbullying & Nettiquete...

While reading about copyright laws and fair use I began to get a bit nervous, how do I make sure I don't break any laws? There are a lot of rules to keep in mind when deciding what information can be used.  It is tempting to just avoid the whole issue all together and only use what is provided in the curriculum, even though they did attempt to "dumb it down" for those of us that see all this as a bunch of gibberish. How on earth do you measure 10% of a video?  I feel a little better knowing that education facilities have a pass that allows for more liberal rules on fair use, but it would be handy to have a lawyer around to keep me out of trouble.  After reading through the information I feel a little less intimidated, but I will definitely proceed with caution.

The issues of cyberbullying and nettiquete to me go hand in hand.  Bullies all should simply know better, the fact that they have found yet another way to torture their peers is very frustrating.  I teach my kids the golden rule, treat others the way you want to be treated.  If it would hurt your feelings to have something personal shared about you online, then don't do it to others, always think about how they would feel if they were to see it and know others could see it too.  It is very important to teach these things to kids of all ages, there are consequences for all that we do, good or bad, and we should always be prepared to face them.  If we teach our kids to see things from the other point of view before making choices, a lot of hurt feelings could be avoided.  Some things just can't be taken back.

Information Literacy

Before going through the activity set up in this weeks lesson I was semi-literate when it came to search engines.  I was aware that there was information that was not credible, and that you could search using the specific domains, that some are more credible than others,  and even that there was a way to track down who the information came from, though I couldn't remember how. I usually use Google, but occasionally use Yahoo or Bing.  I type in my key words and don't often go past the first page of options.  I did not know that google listed things based on how many hits it had previously, I am glad to know that now so I will look further for information that may not be the most popularly searched. 

After having gone through the activities I realize the importance to actually paying attention to these things.  A site can appear very credible and if you plan to use the information as fact, you need to make sure it really is.  I had no idea how many search engines there are, but I will likely stick with what I know.  I will start including the more credible domains in my searches so it will filter out the things that I don't want to bother with.  In the future when instructing my students to search for information I will be teaching them about how to avoid less credible information by narrowing the search. 

I was very amused that I was completely fooled by the hoax of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, I even showed the website to my fiance!!!  I didn't consider myself gullible at all, but I fell right into it.  I will be much more careful believing what I read from now on, and if the information is important I will be checking further into who put the information out there.  As aware of searching options as I was, I learned a lot of new information that will help me to search more productively.

This is Me and My Feelings About Technology in the Classroom

Hi, my name is Malinda, my friends and family call me Mindy.  I am 36 years old and I have 2 children.  Though I may be biased, they are pretty fabulous.  My daughter is about to be 14 and my son is 11.  I have been raising my kids alone for some time now, but have recruited a wonderfully brave man that is willing to step into the role of my other half.  Our intention is to be married, though we have not set a time, as of yet...A couple of years ago I decided to return to college, unfortunately I didn't do this when I didn't have real life responsibilities, so now it will take me much longer to complete.  I am currently working as a technology/keyboarding teacher for 5th and 6th graders while I work on my teaching certification.  I hope it doesn't take as long as it feels like it will.

In my vision of technology in the classroom, I feel like it should be used in ways that will give students experience for when they enter adulthood.  They need to have opportunities to have hands on learning with all the new ways of communicating and sharing information with peers.  Kids these days almost always have some form of technology in their hands and it is natural to them, to give them new and exciting ways to learn would keep their interest up much better than the old fashioned textbooks and worksheets.  They want to be creative and use fun technology, so incorporating it into what they need to learn gives us the best of both worlds.

In this class I hope to learn about all the cool new technologies available and how to incorporate them into how I teach.  For kids to have a promising future, which is the whole point in teaching them, it is imperitive for them to have an understanding of many different technologies.