Computer Talk In The Classroom!!!! (Blog # 8)

 Technology is rapidly changing how students learn, how they communicate, how they interact with the world, and how they work, yet schools are lagging behind in implementing technology in the classroom. Schools are not only struggling to keep up, but they also frequently focus on the possible misuse and abuse of digital communication and collaboration, such as bullying and plagiarism.   How can teachers help students become responsible digital citizens?  If teachers use digital communication in the classroom, they help students develop the workforce skills and industry-standard software proficiency they need to succeed in higher education or on the job. The use of digital communication and collaboration technology, often referred to as Web 2.0 technology, is well documented as an important learning tool for students of all ages (Richardson, 2006).

Here are some of the Digital Communication tools that can be used in the classroom:

• E-mail
• Video Conferencing
• Instant Messaging
• Text Messaging
• Blogs
• Wikis

Here are some examples of inappropriate digital communication

• Students use text messaging to cheat on test
• Students don’t use correct English when using instant messaging

Here are some examples of appropriate digital communication

• Blogging to discuss classroom topics
• Blogging to contact parents of class activities
• Instant messaging for students to communicate with teacher and classmates about assignments
• Video conferencing to bring teach outside of the classroom

Reference:

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Tools for

Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press

Blog # 7 Cross-World Education!!!

What is Globalization? 

According to Doherty, "Globalization is a process in which economies, cultures, and societies have combined through a global network of trade and communication."  Globalization influences all spheres of our life:  education, culture, business, trade, politics, and enviroment.  I think we can look at the rapid growth in cross-border social, educational, cultural and technological exchange as part of the phenomenon of globalization.  Technology make globalization change the way of life for us and our students.  The way we teach and the way students learn has change dramaitcally over the years, since globalization is more popular. 

Have you asked yourself, how will the change impact the way we value education and knowledge-based work going ahead?  Where we use to just communicate and collaborate with people inside of our educational community, now we can use the web to communication and collaborate all over the world. 

Where the cost of education and knowledge was great for the less fortunate students all over the world, now they have access to the same knowledge and learning tools globally. 

Nowadays everyone talks about the importance that the students of every career and country have an international experience during their school years. Professors, parents, businessmen and many other people argue that an international experience gives students an advantage because they can meet people and cultures from other parts of the world, which helps them to understand the globalized world of today.However, just a few ones talks about how understanding the globalized world of today will help students. Some say that this will help them to achieve a well- paid job, and others say that this will allow them to help their communities and countries making an international cooperation. For me, both of them are right, because an international experience gives you the tools both to success in a professional way, so as well to collaborate in the development of your country and two or more countries in the same time is the most rewarding for me.

I feel we as teacher can help our students learn about globalization, by teaching then how to use the tools that are available to them.  Also, if we incorporate interactive lessons, the students will become more prepared to excel as global students and citizens.

Here are some tools that students may use to learn and discuss global issues.

Reflect and Get Inspired

Take a moment to reflect on the world around you. Think about the things you know, the things you're not quite sure of, and all the things you have already experienced when exploring the many ways these Global Issues have impacted your life. At this step, you will learn what a global issue is, what TakingITGlobal's Global Issues pages have to offer, the many tools you can use to interact with the Global Issues pages, and all about the Global Issues team!

2 Identify and Get Informed

Is there a global issue that you are passionate about? Are you interested in connecting with other young people throughout the world to learn more about how to reduce poverty, raise awareness about child and youth exploitation, do your part to slow down climate change, and speak out against global injustice? At this step, you will have the opportunity to get a quick and informative snap shot of a global issue, which will serve as the basis for your future exploration and engagement with issues of global concern. Take a look at the Global Issues' online resources to expand your knowledge on the many different angles you can take to explore and interact with a global issue.

3 Lead and Get Others Involved

Once you have learned about the issues that affect your communities locally and globally, its time to learn about how others have taken the lead to inform themselves and their communities on the global issues that matter to them most. At this step, you will learn about how global issues are impacting our world one global citizen at a time. Come read the stories, case studies, and narratives of people just like you who learned about a global issue and then used that knowledge to reach others and make some change in their communities. It is at this step, you will have the opportunity to learn by example about the many ways that global citizens just like you have been bringing about change in their communities on this global issue.

4 Get Connected

Learn about local and global community networks, make your contribution, and get directly connected to the global issues you want to make a lasting impact in. Networking can help you generate new and innovative ideas while giving you access to real life local experiences where you can further develop your skills to create lasting change on a global issue. In this step, you will learn about the different organizations and projects that can help you get directly involved in your community with the global issue of your choice.

5 Plan and Get Moving

Have you ever wanted to take action on a global issue but didn't have the resources or skills to do so? Well in this step, you will learn about the many different action tools that are available on TIG and on the web that you can use to help you take action on a specific global issue. For example, you can use TIG's action tools to create a petition, make a commitment for a better world, or use one of TIG's action guides to learn how to start your own community project on a global issue of your choice. Here's your chance to build the skills you need to take action and make a difference in your community and in your world!

6 Have a Lasting Impact

Remember, learning about a new global issue is only the first step to developing the skills you need to have a lasting impact. In the end, the extent of your impact on a specific global issue will depend on your capacity, and the capacity of others, to create meaningful and sustainable change with the help and support of your community. In this step, you will have the chance to begin your journey with insight and collaboration through inspiring and engaging in intercultural dialogues with the goal of making the change you want to see with the help of your Global Issues Team!

Globalization has opened new avenues for both employers and job seekers.   So it is our jobs to help prepare our students.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i83l7ve3QcI

Resources: 

Patrick R Doherty:  (April 20, 2010).  Globalization and Education .   http://EzineArticles.com/4057621

Global Issues .  http://www.tigweb.org/global-issues/

Blog #6 Impelling Today's Learners

Are we challenging today's students?  Is it our jobs to motivate students? 

I believe the teachers can motivate their students with assignments that excite them and help them to learn the topic at the same time.  Students are exposed to a lot of new information at school.  We as teachers must use a variety of strategies to motivate students to learn in the classrooms.   If we look at students attending schools today, we see that they are very technologically savvy.  They have no problem navigating the internet and more importantly, contributing to the content on the internet.  There are many ways teachers can motivate students with their assignments.

• use the students curiosity
• use technology
• use mystery
• shorter assignments
• different types of assignments (not just paper/pencil)
• student involved assignments
• assignements related to students lives or environment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFKfXiCbLw

Teachers can make assignments that require students to publish their work on the internet.  Students would think more critically before writing anything that was going to go into the digital sphere for the whole world to see.  Also, if they wrote and received comments from people all over the world it could encourage them to improve and write more.

Teachers can motivate students by impelling them to inquire, think and interact in lessons.  Posing qustions as mysteries is a great way to involve students in discovery.  By having students debate and pose questions makes them think and come up with different answers.  Then they are curious to prove their answers are right, so they become engaged in ways to learn if they are right or wrong.

Teachers,  I believe that we must change and use technology to motivate our students to learn and help prepare them to be 21 Century Learners.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZJ7fkaCRFI&feature=related

I Can..........!!!!!!

Do you know what assistive and adaptive technology is?  Does it affect your classroom?  Now that we have inclusion classrooms, with students with special needs, we need to use assistive and adaptive technology.  Assistive technology is any technology used to directly help an individual with a disability in selection, aquisition or use a technology service.  Adaptive technology is any hardware or software designed to help a user compensate for areas of disability or impairment.  Adaptive technology gives individuals with disabilities the same access to information available to users who are not disabled. 

Adaptive technology enhances the vocation, recreation, education and the independence of the user.  With adaptive technology, blind and visual impaired students can learn at the at the same pace as the other students.  There are essentially five methods of output that can render computers and printed materials accessible for individuals who are blind or visually impaired:

• Screen Reader
• Braille Printer
•  reading device
•  electronic Braille displays
•  text magnification

Students who have learning disabilities generally don't have a hard time accessing standard computer equipment.  The availiabity of specialized software and technology has provided a range of products suitable for educational accommodations that support reading, writing, and organizational skills.  Here are some examples of computer accommodations for individuals who have learning disabilities:

• Word processors with grammar and spell checkers
• Word processors with ouline and highlighting capabilities
• Phonetic Spelling software which render phonetic spelling into correctly spelled words.
• Speech recognition products can help student dictate assignments and navigate the internet using voice commands
• Enlarged screen displays
• Speech output
• Different types of keyboard, monitor and etc.
• Mouth sticks, head sticks, or other pointing devices

As we teach disable students, I believe for us to be successful we must use assistive and adaptive technology in the classrooms.  These student are capable of learning, just not as easy as the others. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXchQnJ6PoE&feature=related

 

Screens Say Cheese!!!

Is it frustrating when you have to repeat the same step-by-step directions over and over again, when introducing new technology to your students or to your colleagues?  Not only is it frustrating to you, it might also be frustrating to your other students who want to go ahead.  There are ways to avoid that, by using screen capture tools.  By using screen capture tools, you can create annotated screen captures of the tools you're  introducing or create screencast videos in which you explain each step of the process.  Here are some of the tools that you can use to create the annotations and screen videos.

• Jing
• Screencast-o-Matic
• Screenr
• Sketchcast
• Aviary
• Talon
• Awesome Screenshot
• Bounce

Screenr is great  to use to create "How To" guides for staff and students.  Some teachers also use Jing along with Google Docs to give students personalized feedback on their writing assignments.  And to make the student have interactive feedback and not just receive a graded paper with red mark and comments they may not understand.  With Jing you can record your comments and the students can listen to them.   Here is comments from a teacher who has experienced this.

http://alytapp.com/2011/09/26/days-like-this/

Here is the website for Jing:
http://www.techsmith.com/Jing/?gclid=CN-TyKLL_6sCFQ8q7AoddxhokQ

Here are some other ways to use Jing.  I think this is a great software.

• Collaborate on a design project
• Share a snapshot of a document
• Narrate your vacation photos
• Capture that pesky bug in action

• Show Dad how to use iTunes
• Comment on students' homework
• Post tidbits on Twitter or Facebook

Here is the free download for Jing:  Download a free copy of Jing for Mac or PC

Screen Capture Tools are great tools for teachers to use to help enhance the learning of their students.

Face to Face

Does video conferencing for education create more compelling and interactive learning environments?  Yes, I believe it does.  The use of technology is very valuable to the classroom learning.  Video conferencing creates a virtual meeting experience so realistic, students and teachers feel as if they are in the same room as people far away.  Video conferencing has unlimited potentials in the classroom.  Some of the potentials are:

• Virtual Field Trips
• Real-time world experiences
• Interviews with experts in different areas of study
• global student collaboration
• teacher professional development

Video conferencing lessons for schools can also ignite an interest and enthusiasm for learning that traditional teaching methods sometimes  can't.  What if a science class could interact with astronauts  at NASA?  This field trip would be virtually impossible because of cost, travel and other problems that may occur, but with virtual conferencing ALL students would be able to participate.  

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has a program for video conferencing lesson in which teacher can sign up for to use in their classrooms.  These programs are schedule and the teachers can get classroom material to use with the programs.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/education/classroom_videoconf.cfm

Ginger Lewman remarked, "it allows our students ages 10-14, to begin to develop not only essential communication skills, but also an acute awareness of global issue."

I believe video conferencing will help to engage and make our students better learners!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BphlhfdHhGY&feature=related

Tech Achieve!!!!!!

The use of visual and auditory technologies help our leaners that need to see and hear what is being taught.  it's also a great advantage when working with English Language Learners, and students with special needs.  There are many types of technology to be used in classrooms.  Of course, these are personal computers, Ipods, e-readers, SMART boards, document cameras and too much software to name.  Using these advances in technology leaves little room for boredom or stagnation  in curriculum.  It also allows for many more options for students and teachers to learn and grow within the state mandated curriculum.

This year in my classes, which are Principles of Information Technology, I interact with many diverse learners.  What I have experienced is that even though these learners learn differently the use of technology brings them to a common ground of communication and creatvity.  I am able to use Project Base Learning and hands on learning.  They are eager to learn with the use of many different technologies.  I have reached some of the most difficult students by using interactive boards, powerpoint software and online learning.

By using technology to reach diverse students, in a lot of areas the teacher become more of a facilitator and empowers the students to learn in different learning styles.

Some of the concepts that teachers try to reach students with are more visible with technolgy.

• websites
• webinars
• social networks
• skype
• online learning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRwusEf61Wc&feature=player_detailpage