New Tech Standards and Requirements

For our last blog assignment we were to look at the New Tech standards for students these days and think about how we would implement them in our own classrooms and what challenges we may face. I thought that most of the standards were interesting, but chose 3 to focus on.
Looking at the standards is a bit overwhelming, especially if one is not used to using technology in the classroom. However, I didn't see anything that I thought was unreasonable for students these days to have an opportunity to learn.

One standard talks about the students being able to use communication and collaboration through technology. I can think of a few ways that a teacher could implement this in the classroom. The first thing that comes to mind is the classroom podcasts that I spoke about in an early blog (Mrs. Childers Classroom). Using the ipods and Imovie, the students are able to use technology to work together, and implement all forms of literacy, while learing more about technology. Another great way to implement this standard in the classroom is to simply have a "Classroom Blog". Each student can post 1 blog per week or something along those lines and the blog can be available to other classrooms, the principal, or parents to communicate with the teacher and students about what is going on in the classroom. Both of these strategies would be a great way to implement students learning to communicate and collaborate through technology.

Another standard talks about students being able to research and gather information via technology. I think that students can start learning how to do this at a very early elementary age if the teacher is dedicated. After all, many of the young students will not even know what a "hard back textbook" is when they read high school because they will likely have iPads. Showing students how to easily research a topic on the computer in 1st grade will have them doing it with ease by 3rd. A teacher can start by having folders of appropriate websites for the younger grades and then slowly give the responsibility to the student as they grow of finding good credible sources. The key to this will be adequate time in the computer lab, or working computers or iPads in the classroom.

The last standard that I looked at was the "Digital Citizenship" standard. I think that this may be the most important as well as maybe the most obvious. Digital Citizenship basically means teaching the students from a young age about internet safety and responsibility. I think, as I said in the above standard, this can be started at a young age and the teacher can use scaffolding by gradually releasing more responsibility for the student as they learn more and more about "do's  and dont's" of internet usage. I think a great way to start this conversation each year would be to make "Technology Expectations" at the beginning of the year as a group. Just as you make "Class Expectations" allow the students to have an active role in "How do we act on the computer".


The main challenge or barrier I see as educators in meeting these standards is the availability of technology in our employing schools. We, as teachers, may need to work harder (writing grants, raising money), etc to get acceptable technology in the classroom to begin to meet these standards for our students. I think that while it may be a challenge it is not impossible. Another challenge is taking a completely un-technological group of students and expecting them to use it efficiently. That is why I think that scaffolding and starting at the youngest we can in getting students used to using technology in the classroom is the best approach.


If you are interested in these standards and want to take a look for yourself:

Technology Standards and Requirements

Google Sheets

For class this week, we had an assignment to experiment with Google Sheets by following a set of directions. At first I felt that it was somewhat confusing. I was easily able to average all the students, etc; however, figuring out the graph seemed hard. BUT, once a classmate showed me how, it was actually fairly easy and I think I will be able to remember it in the future. I think this would be a great visual and easy way to make charts and graphs of students scores, etc for not only the teacher to see but the students (if listed anonymously). I could see myself continuing to familiarize myself with this and possibly using it in my future classroom!

Google Sheets Project




Analyzing the data:

I am more of a visual person so having the charts made of the scores made it much easier for me to see trends and how each student did versus themself and their peers. From looking at the data it is nice to see that each student has improved from test 6 to test 10. As an instructor that would be a great accomplished goal. There are a few students; however, that you can tell from the chart that went down in score after test 7 and test 9. Even if it is only a couple of students, as an instructor I would look at the tests for the future and see if any modifications were necessary, especially if each test was "supposed to" get a bit more challenging than the last. One thing that I really liked about Google Sheets and analyzing these test scores was that it was extremely easy for me to see when students made a dramatic increase or decrease in test score, and allows the teacher to see each student individually and versus their peers.

Google Forms!

Google Forms is a part of the google documents suite. I recently was able to use it for a group project and I loved it!
My group created a Google Doc with a description of what Google Forms can do and how we can implement it in the classroom and in our personal lives. Each of us added to the google doc as well as how we personally thought we could use it.
We opened up another doc and each wrote a question for our sample survey. Then, we quickly wrote answers to the questions and chose to to multiple choice. You can do a variety of question types with Google Forms, but we chose MC.
We then sent a simple email to our cohort and the questions were embedded into the email, SO easy for them to answer quickly. It took approximately 3 minutes for each classmate to finish our survey.
As a group, we were then able to go in and see immediate data results for our questions. This would be a great tool to use to keep data as a teacher or gather data

Click the following to see our GOOGLE FORMS doc and see what we've done!

Google Forms Doc!

Here is a copy of our survey and results!

I recently learned of and experiemented with Screenr. Check out my screenr video by clicking the link below or simply clicking play on the video below!

Screenr Experiementation

Screenr is a great, EASY, and best of all FREE service you can use to record your voice and whatever you are doing on the computer screen. I had never heard of it and I just went to the website and completed my Screenr in about 5 minutes from start to finish. SO easy!
I can think of many great uses for Screenr. Imagine that your friend or family member is a new member to a site and doesn't understand how to use it. You quickly whip up a Screenr and send it to them via facebook, blog, email, etc and WAA-LAA! they have step by step instructions, both verbal and visual.

This could be great for teachers blogs who want to explain and SHOW parents how to get around the class website.
I definitely see myself using this in the future in my personal life and career.

Favorite Web2.0 Tools!

As future teachers, Web2.0 can be extremely useful. As we are well aware, there often will be times when we do prep work at home. Web2.0 is a safe, secure place to store work at home and be able to retrieve it on our work computers. Web2.0 can also provide a place for students to collaborate and share information in a new technology setting, enhancing excitement in the classroom.

A tool specifically designed through Web2.0 that is helpful in this area is Dropbox:

We have all been there, the sheer panic and terror as our computer freezes or “crashes” only 2 days after we finished a large portion of that big research paper only for the “Geek Squad” at Best Buy to tell us that “it’s a total loss”. With Dropbox the worry is eliminated! Not only do you have your hard work on your trusty computer, but you also have it on Dropbox where you can access it any time (even when the trusty computer becomes not-so-trusty). This tool is invaluable for those of us in school and as future teachers. We have enough to worry about without worrying that our computer will crash or we will misplace our flashdrive. This is a fantastic and FREE! tool useful for students and teachers alike!

Dropbox! - check it out! Another great feature is more free space the more friends you have to join! No better time for peer pressure :-)

OTEN conference

On September 24 I attended the OTEN conference as part of the Willamette MAT requirements. At first, because it was at 8am on a Saturday, myself and my classmates were grumbly and not too excited about attending. When we arrived, I quickly decided that the information was interesting and useful and I am glad that I attended.
I attempted to do a YODIO (an online podcast)about my OTEN experience; however, YODIO did not appear to be working. I will begin with a written blog and find a way to do a podcast soon.

The key note speaker was Joe Morelock, who works for the Canby School District as a technology director. I was very engaged in his lecture and he brought alot of great information. I was really interested to hear about the specific statistics from the Canby School District since they have implemented alot of their technology strategies. I think that listening to Mr. Morelock and his experiences with emerging technology motivated alot of us to think about how we can use technology in our upcoming classrooms.

The first presentation I attended was by Jennifer Roberts, a professor at Willamette University. Professor Roberts presentation was extremely helpful in finding specific online programs available to teachers and students. She had a large list of many opportunities that are available for free or a small charge online. This means, as a teacher or student, we could access these things from any computer, anywhere, which is extremely useful. I have used a few of the programs that Professor Roberts demonstrated. I have used Yodio to do free online podcasts. I have used Prezi, which is a program like powerpoint but much more user friendly with many more layout options. Finally, I have used Dropbox (which we also learned about in Ed technology class). With Dropbox, I have 2G of free memory to store my school items (or personal items). This allows me to be able to access these items anywhere on any computer instead of carrying my laptop around, worrying about my computer crashing, or even losing my flashdrive.

For easy access, check out the direct links to my favorite tools from Prof Roberts presentation:
Dropbox
Prezi!
Yodio

The next presentation I went to was about classroom Podcasts for elementary students by Machelle Childers, who teaches 3rd grade in Forest Grove. I loved how enthusiastic Mrs. Childers was about her Podcast practice in her classroom. She showed many ways that a teacher can facilitate podcasts for his/her students in order to make sure they are engaged and having fun learning.She also has a classroom website in which all of the podcasts from this year and in the past are displayed for the students and parents to see. This is also a great resource for future teachers to see examples. Mrs. Childers had many specific examples of how the students were very excited and engaged when being able to use the iPods, iPads, and computers to make their podcasts instead of just writing a book report, etc. The greatest benefit I found from her presentation and doing podcasts in an elementary classroom is that in encompasses all forms of literacy, writing, reading, speaking, etc.
Check out Machelle's classroom website, she provides TONS of great examples!

Mrs. Childers classroom

Overall I found great benefit in attending the OTEN conference and am excited to start implementing the many technological benefits in my future classroom.

For more info on the annual OTEN conference:
Oregon Technology in Education Network

Blogs in the classroom

I think that there are many options to using blogs in the classroom that can be very beneficial to students. A fellow classmate told me about a website called kidblog.org which she had discovered in her Practicum classroom. Basically, it is a secured area that the teacher can set up for all of the kids to go in and blog certain topics/assignments. This can be a great tool to introduce children to techology while they are doing an assignment. If you have the students go onto the classroom blog and "write a blog" about the book they just read, it will likely be alot more fun and meaningful for them than just doing an old fashioned book report. This class blog site can be shared with as many or as less people as the teacher chooses. I think it would be a fun idea also to pair with another classroom and each class reads the other classes blogs and has discussions and replies on if they liked the book too, etc. This is a great way to make "assessing a student's reading comprehension" fun and meaningful for them.

Another great use for a blog is a teachers blog. This would be a great way for a teacher to reflect and talk about what the class is doing as well as what is coming up. This is a great way for parents to be able to go on daily and see what their student has done in class. It also could be a great tool for the teachers who are in the same grade and on the same team see what each other are doing and grab ideas.

I do see a few drawbacks to blogging in the classroom.One may argue that it is a little bit "inequitable" as not all families will have access to a computer at home or anywhere. Why is it fair for those families with the skills and computers to know what the kids are doing but not the families who cannot afford computers or have not obtained the skills to use a computer? A solution to this could include the teacher offering to print copies of the blog upon requests for parents that want hard copies.

Another small drawback is being the first teacher to implement this program with students. Alot of time and energy clearly has to go into teaching the students how to use the blog as well as expectations. But, like with any new idea or way of doing things, this is the case. I think that if a dedicated teacher recognizes this will take time and takes the time to do it, it will be beneficial and productive in the long run.