Television in the Classroom

At my high school, every classroom had a television. The morning announcements were in the form of a live broadcast from the technology department. This technology was amazing. The students would run a full news room at our highschool and inform students of upcoming events, weather, and information on school sports. This is only one use of the television in a classroom. Another example would be watching the news or a show on TLC or the Discovery Channel. This can be made possible through "Cable in the Classroom". Cable in the Classroom is designed to bring effective media into classrooms for the benefit of students. Televisions are a great way to incorporate technology into the classroom.

Cell Phones in Schools

Many elementary school teachers are having a problem keeping some technology OUT of their classrooms. High school teachers have been facing this problem for years. Should cell phones be allowed in school? Children seem to be getting cell phones earlier and earlier, resulting in third and fourth graders bringing cell phones in to their elementary school clasess. At this age, their parents most likely drop them off at school or at a day care provider, where there is an adult, then they stay at school all day, then go home or to an after school program. When would a child need to use the cell phone, there isn't much time when they aren't with an adult to be calling their mother and father. Cell phones are a great tool, but I feel they are a little unnecessary to have in the third grade.

Christmas Lists in 2007

What is topping Christmas lists in 2007? Ipods, televisions, digital cameras, cell phones, and lap tops are a few things topping christmas lists this year. Kids don't want puzzles and games anymore, its video games and mp3 players. Children are growing up during a time where they are surrounded with these techonological advances. There is no longer a need for board games, they can have an entire gaming system that fits in their hands and can be taken anywhere. There are commercials on television for video games for infants, cell phones that can store all kinds of information, and ipods that can hold more songs than you could possibly want to download. Apple, Sony, and Dell are just a few companies that are popular this year.

I am Thankful for... Technology!

Thanksgiving is a time to realize all that you are thankful for. Friends and family, my home, my accomplishments, are just a few things I am thankful for. I am also thankful for many technological advances. My computer, cell phone, car, and television, make my day much easier. Thanks to researchers and companies that figure out ways to convenience todays population, we have cell phones to text or call someone no matter the location, computers to research and share information, cars to easily transport ourselves to any location, and televisions to update us on breaking news and for simple entertainment. I take for granted many of these because I use them everyday. Without these, I would feel very disconnected to the world and other people.

Microsoft 2007

When I purchased my laptop this summer, I knew it was coming with Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007. I thought, just with past "upgrades", it would be pretty much exactly like the old Microsoft Office. I think this version is much different. I'm going on 4 months with my new laptop and I'm still finding new options, new templates, and new buttons. Obviously, the appearance of the programs themselves have changed. There is no longer a File, Edit, Help, etc options at the top. There are ribbons of options that you have to click and try to find out where these old options have been moved. Overall I think I like this new version, but as with anything that is new, it will take a while to get used to. With technology advancing so quickly, we'll be going through this for years to come!

Excel

I think Excel is a very good program to use for keeping a gradebook. It is simple to set up and once it is set up, simple to use! I like how you can find sums, averages, and determine letter grades within a few clicks. It is also nice to be able to present the information in a graph. It is easy to see how children are doing in class not only by themselves but in comparison to others in the classroom. The technology of Excel is definately replacing the old paper and pencil gradebook. I would imagine that teachers had to spend hours calculating final grades. If one grade changed, they would have to recalculate the child's entire grade. Using formulas in Excel, if one grade changes, it automatically updates all information involving that grade. I plan on using Excel, or a similar program, to keep my gradebooks in the future.

PowerPoint

I think PowerPoint is a very effective tool for instruction. These presentations make it easy for students to see the main points of a lecture or lesson. You can add words, pictures, charts, and graphs to get the points across. Most effective powerpoints use no more than six lines per slide and no more than seven words per line. Too many words on one slide can become confusing. Effects such as slide transistion, sound, and self timing, can also help to make a powerpoint slideshow very informative.

As a student, I find it very helpful when I am in a lecture where the teacher uses a powerpoint slideshow. Not only does is keep me alert and paying attention, but it helps me focus on the important things in the lecture. If it is important enough for a teacher to underline or use bold or italic font, then I know it is extra important and will most likely be on a quiz or test. When a teacher just stands in front of a class and speaks for an hour, students become very bored and stop paying attention. I think as a teacher, I'll be using powerpoints to keep that from happening in my classroom!

Search Engines vs. Search Directories

I'll admit that up until this point, I thought google, yahoo, excite, altavista, looksmart, etc. were all the same! I had heard about the pros and cons of using search engines but I never really took them into consideration when doing search assignments.

Search engines such as google, excite, and altavista, are controlled and edited by spiders and crawlers. When using a search engine, the results may be influenced by advertisers, frequency of terms, and the popularity of the page.

Search directories such as looksmart and yahoo, may be influenced by editors because they are put together by humans. These results will usually have less hits compared to those results of a search engine.

Plagiarism in the Classroom

As future teachers, we need to know how to prevent plagiarism in our classrooms. Plagiarism is when someone (a student) claims someone elses work as their own. There is a variety of ways that this can be prevented. When choosing a research topic, make the topic orginal so the students won't be able to find many essays online. Also, if you require them to write a rough draft or do their research in class you can monitor their computer/book copying and insure that their work is their own.

In my senior English class, my teacher used a website (www.turnitin.com) which scanned papers for plagiarism. We would submit our work online and the site would automatically look for phrases or even paragraphs that matched websites or other documents. This made it easy for the teacher to know who was plagiarizing and who was actually doing their own work. I know this strategy would work because a few of my classmates got caught plagiarizing on a summer assignment and it was detected by this website.

Copyright

Something that is copyrighted belongs to someone. Ideas, facts, titles, names, blank forms, and lists of ingredients are a few things that can not be copyrighted. Also anything before January 1, 1923 is not copyrighted.

Fair Use is a form of educational copyright. This allows a teacher to use an article from a newspaper, chart, diagram, or chapter when using it for only one course. The copyright is dependent on the nature of the work, the amount of the work that is used, and the effect upon the potential market.

TEACH Act (technology, education, and copyright harmonization act of 2002) says that a teacher must provide information to students, faculty, and staff regarding the origin of teaching material. An acceptable use agreement is often needed in schools.

Educational Technology: Beneficial to Teachers

In a previous post, I wrote about the impact technology in the classroom has on students. I also feel that teachers can benefit from the integration of technology in the classroom. There are numerous websites available for teachers that are making their lives easier. As a student I always wondered how my teachers came up with worksheets, word problems, or writing prompts. I have come across wonderful websites such as www.edhelper.com and www.superkids.com. At these website you can enter specific information such as weekly spelling words or sets of numbers and it will formulate a worksheet. There is also a tool where you can adjust the level as your unit progresses. Not only is there worksheets, puzzles, and activities for younger children, but they also offer SAT test prep and writing prompts for the high school level. There are themes for the holidays and months of the year as well. I think overall these websites would be very useful for teachers, especially those new to the profession!

I also think using Wikis and Blogs are beneficial to the teacher as well. With a Wiki, you can check multiple students' work by simply looking at their groups' wiki. It also makes it easy to see each child's contribution to the group activity. Sometimes when kids work in a group some kids are pulling the weight of others. With a wiki, there is no question who submitted what thoughts. Blogs are also an easy way to track a students thoughts. An individual blog stores their work over a long period of time so you don't have to try to remember what they wrote two weeks ago; a couple of clicks and you're there! If you are taking an entire class approach to blogging, it is also useful to be able to see entries from the entire class on one screen. No more taking folders full of papers home to grade everynight, all you will need is your computer!

Educational Technology: Beneficial to Students

I think it is very important to use technology in the classroom. Students can interact with eachother and share their thoughts using Wikis. Wikis are a perfect way to allow children to work in groups on a homework assignment, each child can add their thoughts or change the groups thoughts as a whole.

Blogs, like this one, are also useful in everyday lessons. A blog can be used for educational recordings or as a simple online journal for children to share what is on their mind. I remember using blogs in high school. The teacher would post a question on a class blog and everyone responded to that question. This question was usually opinion based and seemed to work very well. This was helpful because not only was I sharing my thoughts (and getting a grade!) but I was able to read everyone else's response and see other ideas or views on the topic.

As a student, I find it helpful when a teacher puts the lesson in the form of notes or bullets on a powerpoint slideshow. This makes it easy to see the main ideas versus what is not so important. It also makes it easy for a teacher to save that powerpoint slideshow onto a website or blog so the students can retrieve it later. This allows students to focus on the lesson and what is being said rather than frantically trying to write everything down.

I think the integration of technology is very helpful and in the world we live in today, it is almost necessary!