ILP 2: Digitech

For my second Independent Learning Project I attended the FSU DIGITECH exhibition event. There were so many amazing projects that blew my mind. A lot of departments that utilize technology were there like the Information Systems Department and the Computer Science Department. They were able to show me some of their software and technology they use to analyze things like WiFi use. I also went to a booth that was about assisted learning for children that have trouble communicating. There was a variety of technology that uses pictures of items or letters that children can point to and use to communicate. What was really fascinating is that this booth had really old technology and newer tools so you could see the gradual development. I also went to a booth that uses a 3D printer to recreate artifacts in museums for blind children. I never really thought about the fact that museums are primarily visual experiences. Printing out replications of artifacts lets visually impaired individuals hold the items and feel them. One presenter actually created his own Iron Man suit from trash he found in a dumpster. It took him three years to complete and it was extremely detailed. He even had a flame thrower attached to it and he wasn't even a STEM major in college, he was a drama major. He really emphasized through his presentation that anyone can create anything with technology you just have to try. Overall, I was stunned and really impressed by all of the tools and technology at this event. It was well organized and super interesting!

Blog 10

I would like to teach high school English if I become a teacher and honestly I don't really see an implication for Excel in my subject area. However, I suppose that Excel would help me keep track of student grades or attendance. I could also conduct surveys about novels to see what my students enjoy and I could log that data into Excel to analyze it.

The most interesting topics for me when reviewing my classmates' blogs were their opinions on flipped classrooms,  the use of twitter in educational settings, and their IPLs. There were many different opinions on flipped classrooms and my classmates all had different experiences with them. Twitter was also an interesting thing to read about because a lot of students have never used twitter in a class before. I liked reading what people learned through their IPLs and it gave me a lot of ideas for learning in the future.

I really want to learn how to code in Python. There is a lot of application of the program in the humanities field and I really think that it would benefit me to learn it. I learned a little bit of it before but I want to be proficient in it. A lot of professionals in academia are using Python for linguistic and structural analysis of texts. It would be in my best interest to learn Python well and be ahead of the game for graduate school. I think I am going to find lessons online, maybe through Ted X, YouTube, or Khan Academy.

Blog 9

The flipped classroom is when students watch information lectures or read chapters for homework and then do instructional activities to reinforce the material with their instructor at school. I personally had a history flipped classroom in high school and loved it. Our homework each night was to watch 10 minute lecture videos my teacher recorded with powerpoint and take notes. Then in class we would debate contemporary issues or do writing activities to reinforce the material. Here is a link to world history lectures that could be used for a class:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_w7pfulsn8&list=PL81BE1C0BAFD092AD

Open education is using technology to reach audiences that you might not be able to reach. It is the collectivization of education. Instructors can use any information that is open source to help them in their instruction, but they cannot access any software at anytime unless is it open source. Khan Academy is an example of an open source website. It contains instructional videos that anyone can learn from. https://www.khanacademy.org

In the new assignments I learned the seven points per slide rule and how to use actions to guide people through presentations. I didn't really know the limit to putting material not the slides before I learned the seven point rule. I like my design of the powerpoint but I wish I had picked better pictures. Next time I will spend more time looking for relevant pictures to help my presentation.  

Blog 8

PowerPoints are examples of creative visual content. Students have to create their own design and figure out how it will be presented. They also serve to evaluate and analyze an idea, as a student has to thoroughly research a topic and come to a conclusion about it before they can present it well. With this research comes the application of new content and understanding to put it into another context for their audience. Finally, students must memorize key points in their presentation to contribute to the overall performance.

I think technological professional development is crucial for teachers to stay ahead of advancement. Teachers need resources to attend conferences where they can collaborate and learn together about technology. This will motivate them as professional and give them the tools they need to stay ahead of technology for their students. This website, http://www.techlearning.com, is an excellent resource for teachers to find out what new tools they can use and how to efficiently operate them.

Blog 7

• Adative technologies are extremely useful to learners with any form of disability. There are many apps that are used for blind chilren that read text out loud and help them understand readings despite their inability to read. Language learners, although language isn't a disability, can also use technology to help with language learning like Rosetta Stone. These apps help enforce grammar rules and aid in learning vocabulary in fun ways. I have used technologies that help with language learning when I was abroad and I know many ELLs that use apps to help learn English. I think adaptive technologies are difficult because some students might not have access to them at home. So they can only use this technology at school. For a language learner this is hard because only half of the day will be spent learning the language and then they won't be around it at home. 
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• I learned a lot about forming a website when working on the Web Page Design assignment. I liked how easy Weebly was to operate. I had to create a website a few semesters ago for another class and I used Wix instead which was much harder. I like how my website is formatted but I had a hard time thinking of a theme. I with the parts blended together better. I also didn't have great pictures because I am not actually teaching a class. If I was teaching a class I would put pictures up of assignments to make it more personable. I learned how to create a basic website and further in my career I can make it more specific to my class. 
• http://mssheltonclasspage.weebly.com 

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Diigo is really neat and I will definitely use it in my classroom. Through Diigo I learned how to collaborate and interact on a Web 2.0 software system. I learned how to bookmark pages, tag words related to pages, highlight text, and post public notes. This application can be used to critique articles with students and share interesting studies with colleagues. I think its good to interact with others while learning and sharing ideas online about the same piece of information.

IPL "Design" - Prezi

For my first Independent Learning Project, I designed a lecture Prezi on the Avant-Garde movements of the early 20th century. I have always likes Prezi presentations in class because they are typically more artistic and engaging, but I have never taken the time to learn the Prezi software to create one. This project helped me familiarize myself with the tool itself and feel comfortable using it for future presentations. My topic is directly related to my research interests for English Literature, but for my presentation I focused on the study of visual art instead of literature from the beginning of the 1900s until 1945. These movements, collected to make up the Avant-Garde, are extremely political and have a lot of energy behind them which is what I particularly like. In my presentation, I go through each movement and outline the basic principles of each one. Most people think of Modern Art as meaningless or impossible to interpret. I hope through my presentation you can find that Modern Art is valuable because the meaning lies in the artist's intent rather than the actual piece of art you are observing.

https://prezi.com/67slxzoyiamv/modern-art-with-a-focus-on-the-avant-garde/

Blog 6

• I went to The Walker School's website and found a First Grade class page.  In the page you could see articles about presentations, celebrations, and changes being made to the classroom. The teachers also posted a lot of photos so it felt like you were actually involved. I imagine this is very nice for parents and helps them feel like they actually know what is going on in the child's school life. 

For my professional responsibilities as a teacher I would use Microsoft Word to create news letters and a class blog to increase parent, student, and teacher communication. I think I will be moderately involved with technology in my classroom. Word and Excel are really what I need to accomplish my activity tasks, but I like the idea of a blog to inform parents about my classroom. I also like that the blog allows students to interact. I think younger students especially need to develop social and literacy skills from an early stage in their academic career. 

In the technology sandbox we tried a new piece of technology called the Apple pencil. Writing notes on an iPad has always seemed harder than writing notes on paper because the pens usually don't work well. However, the Apple pencil is probably the nicest iPad tool I have ever used. It was smooth and it made note-taking fun. I think this could be used as an excellent resource in a classroom. In a math class for example a math teacher could project her or her iPad on the screen for students to see and use the pen as they write their notes. Then the teacher could save the notes on the iPad and put them on a class blog for students to have access to. This would help students because they will be doing math at the same time as their teacher, but they will also have the teacher's notes to help them at home. 

Blog 5

I think that blogs are the most useful Web 2.0 technology. They are an extremely efficient communication tool. Many younger or overwhelmed students forget to relay important information to their parents. With the use of a blog, a teacher can communicate information directly to parents conveniently. I think that blogs are nice too because it is a good way to keep students writing and interacting with each other. Student assignments on blogs will improve technological skills and literacy or writing performance. 

Scribd is an amazing library where users can publish and explore various documents in many different languages. I think it is amazing for foreign language classes and literacy classes because it is very diverse and interactive. Scribd has a huge collection of almost 60 million publications. This means that students have incredible access to a lot of valuable literature. They can also access the catalog from anywhere and don't have to worry about transportation to or dues from libraries. Also, over 1,000 publishers are involved with Scribd which is pretty amazing. Overall, it is extremely accessible and useful for students.

https://www.scribd.com/

I think that cloud computing probably holds the biggest promise for education. This is a solution to the digital divide. A student could store all information on one system that they can access anywhere. This is especially useful for children of divorced parents. It is difficult for students that have to constantly move houses to keep track of their online assignments. The could would also serve as a solution to this problem.

Blog 4

I absolutely love twitter and I enjoy using it as a classroom tool. I have been following a variety of educational technology, English education, and famous educator accounts to try and learn more about the field. I think twitter provides a nice community and you get to create that community yourself. For this class, my community is becoming one of future and current educators and you can always learn from advice or the experiences of others, as they are always relevant to your own experiences somehow. 

The digital divide, when students don't have the same access across the board to technology at home, is a result of socioeconomic variation. When students don't have the same opportunities to work with technology at home, they don't have equal skills and abilities to succeed in your class. As a classroom teacher, one will no doubt come across instances of the digital divide and must create ways of dealing with this problem. A teacher must plan for some way for a student to do an alternate assignment or find a way for students that don't have access to technology to get it. 

I really like the idea of educational games. When I was a student it was a fun way to learn and be a kid at the same time. I think students need a break to learn in different ways and educational games also give teachers a break as students behave well when they are focused on a task they typically enjoy. I want to teach 1st grade, which would involve basic games and basic levels of literacy and math. These go well together in activities for students and younger students get excited with the idea of being able to play games during school. I will probably use academic mapping the least as it might be tedious and a little much for younger students. Academic maps also require a deeper level of reflection and I'm not sure that 1st graders are necessarily ready for that quite yet. 

My Newsletter

Blog 3

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  I think I would do well teaching the "Multimedia" Literature standards to students. I am a literature major and it is what I am passionate about. I am also familiar with analyzing all kinds of literature online and using different kinds of tools to present literature. I think I will struggle however with R7.7 because I am not as familiar with films and other forms of art as I am with literature. But I still feel a very high level of confidence with this standard.
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• I would like to use Powerpoint and Word with my students. I think that they are excellent tools for students to use to build their writing and presentation skills from an early age. There are many forms of presentations that students can do with powerpoint, like Pecha-Kuchas, where they have a certain amount of time to discuss certain slides. I think learning about a variety of ways to present their thoughts on these tools would be beneficial for them in the future. I will be teaching elementary students ages 6-9, so I will need to emphasize how important originality is and giving credit where it is due. I think it is important for students to be learning this from an early age.
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• In the Newsletter Design Assignment I learned how to create a border and add extra effects to make my word documents more appealing. I usually only use word for writing, so I was unaware of all of the artistic options on it. I think I could've chosen a better color scheme to make it nicer to look at. In my future career I will use word to make information fun and enjoyable to look at through newsletters and articles to my students and their parents.
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Blog 2

I have used Microsoft Word a lot as a student. I write a lot for my major, so I am very familiar with operating Word. I like Microsoft Word because it is very simple and helpful as a tool. A lot of my teachers use word for informational purposes. They create flyers, syllabi, and other informational materials through Microsoft. 

I have had a moderate amount of experience with copyright and fair use. It is a big issue right now especially in academia. The consequences of plagiarism and not giving credit where it is due are becoming more and more serious. As a teacher I would educate students about proper citation. I never really got instruction on how to cite properly and when its appropriate or not. I think children just need more education on how to do it correctly and emphasis on them creating their own works instead of just telling them its wrong to copy someone else's.  

The digital gap is a big issue in the classroom. Some students don't have the chance to succeed the way others do because of the availability of technology in their homes. I think I would make sure that all assignments that rely on a computer are completed as class activities and not homework. If homework requires a computer, I would let students stay after school or discuss the issue with me and find some sort of accommodation. Privacy is also a concern in the digital age. Children in my class would not be able to create accounts with their real name and would not have to worry about their assignments becoming public attached to their identity. Cyber-bullying would not be permitted under any situation in my classroom. I would definitely take precaution and monitor my class to be certain that nothing is going on that would make any student feel uncomfortable. All dialogue would be monitored by me and a child will face consequences if they are negatively interacting with a student through technology in my classroom. 

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Blog 1

For teachers, technology assists in completing many administrative tasks. It also helps support teachers who need to address unique learning needs of any student trying to master a certain concept. Teachers use technology to make learning more effective for students. For students, technology allows for the interaction with material presented to them. Technology also reviews, reinforces, and expands on content that teachers want students to learn and provides a one-on-one environment. Teachers dont have the time to prepare and implement complex lessons and technology can help foster critical thinking for students and help teachers with time constraints at the same time. Also, students have diverse backgrounds and unique needs. Technology helps teachers address students individually while maintaining consistency in the classroom. 

I am really impressed with the ISTE standards. I support the idea of standards in education even though it is an unpopular opinion. I believe that it is important that all students have equal opportunity to exceed and that guidelines are put in place to ensure at least some level of success and preparation. I think that the standards give teachers relative freedom, but also provide a sense of structure. It is really important that children in this age are prepared for the future and can adapt to new technological advancements. My favorite standard was "Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity" and one I felt a bit challenged by was "Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility." I like that the standards are emphasizing creativity and individuality with the first, and with the latter I don't really understand the terminology and I am a bit unfamiliar with correct technological etiquette. 

I do agree with the label "digital native" for today's youth. The children of today have not lived without the internet or technological devices that improve and aid communication. Digital natives are individuals born into the digital world. I am much more familiar with technology than my older instructors. I am also much more comfortable with it. I find that some of my instructors act as if they are allergic to technology or they are scared of it. I still learn well even with teachers that do not understand technology well, but I find that a lot of time is wasted in class and is spent on them trying to figure out how to share something with the class. I think that future students will become more and more familiar and comfortable with technology. At this point, I prefer learning environments without an overwhelming amount of technology, but I anticipate that future generations will prefer the opposite and will learn better in more technologically advanced environments. 

My Twitter

@eme2040ls

https://twitter.com/eme2040ls

Blog 0

My prior experiences with technology are only basic interactions in the classroom. I have only used tools by Microsoft to complete projects and have been relatively timid to even try Prezi. I really enjoy the layout and structure of Microsoft applications and feel very comfortable with them. However, Microsoft is essentially the extent of my technological education. I have tried to educate myself on HTML code, but my skills are very, very basic. I am trying to get comfortable with writing code in the humanities field, as it is becoming increasingly important.

In this class, I hope to gain a better understanding of presentation tools that I can utilize in a classroom setting. I am very familiar with what I need to know for completing assignments for class, but I would like to learn special tricks that make it easier to use the software. I would also like to refresh my memory of how to use Microsoft Excel because it has been years since I have had to use it last. Essentially, I want this course to increase my comfort with educational technology.

My learning style results told me that I am a 1 reflective learner, 11 intuitive learner, 9 verbal learner, and 5 global learner. I have a pretty solid balance between active and reflective learning strategies, but I am not balanced in the other categories. I suppose I was aware of the process in which I prefer to learn; however, I did not have words to define me as a learner. I would agree with the results in that I prefer a setting where I can talk or read through situations and ideas in order to learn, and I very much prefer to learn ideas rather than facts. Only after I can comprehend the grand idea of an abstract idea do all the little details make complete sense, and this moment of comprehension is what makes learning enjoyable for me.