I love quizlet!!! I revent was assigned a project to create lesson with three separate web 2.0 tools. One of the tools that I choose to use was quizlet. I had used this website for a previous class and loved it! It’s a great site were one can either create their own or use others flash cards to help in studying. That’s what makes it great, I could either create my own flash cards to create for my test or I could attempt to search and see if anyone else had already made flash cards with the information I need. This has helped be a lot with my studying because now I don’t have to worry about carrying around all those notecards in my backpack and trying to get them in order to study. I can log onto any computer and have my flash cards at the click of a button. That is why I believe that it can be a great asset to my students. We can create the flash cards in class and then they will be able to use the at home or any time they have free time. It is also an easy tool to use for those who are beginners in technology usage.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Qr codes...?
Just as with the glog I had never created a QR code or ever used a QR code before. I had little knowledge about what they where before the class. I am still a little skeptical about using them in the class because my students would need the technology to use them in class. But for this lesson I am assuming that my students have access to the proper technology to use them effectively. Which is a problem for a lot of school and teachers. For my lesson I embedded a link to different websites that give my students a link to what they would need to know about lacrosse, including history and the basics of men’s and woman’s lacrosse (because they are very different). If the technology is avaiable I feel that it is a cool tool to use to gain the students attention but for some students it would only be useful in school, because they do not have a smart phone or other technology to be able to use that information. As for if I would use them in my classroom I still do not really know, I still debate. As I said before it is something that I could use to grab my studetns attention and get their interest in the topic we are about to cover, but I feel their is better simpler ways for them to access that information. Such as just having a link on a class web site or wiki. I would have to agree that it is a really cool tool to use! And does have places were it can be use with more benefit.
Glogster in my education
For my education technology class our assignment was to create three lesson using three separate web 2.0 tools. The first one I choose to work on is Glogster. Now I have never used Glogster before but I had heard good things from students in my fellow cohort. At first I was thinking that since I didn’t have that artisy fartsy touch that I wouldn’t be able to create a Glog that would be useful but also appealing enough to grab the attention of middle schoolers. Once I looked at several other glogs and played around a little bit I found that my lack of Picasoness didn’t plan a huge part in making an attractive glog. The templates they already had available were very useful and made the creation process easy. It was fairly simple, just getting picture and finding some fact to place in there. Once I finished this glog I previewed it and thought to myself, “I really wish my teachers had stuff like this when I was in middle school!” I put some, of what I thought, were cool facts regarding volcanoes and some sweet pictures. I also embedded a video for them to view. Once I become a teacher, I would like to use this glog once my class begins its unit on volcanoes. I would be able to post this on a class website so that my students would be able to view it anytime they would like, it also has the aspect of having important and simply interesting information to help my students become more interested in the subject.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Twitter resources
This week our assignment in class was to create a twitter account and find five people and/or organization to follow. We were to collect resources that we could potentially use in our classrooms. Before this assignment I did not have a twitter and thought I would never get one since I didn’t really understand the desire to have one. I thought it was just status’s and I want more visually stimulating that just text. Little did I know I would soon find out how useful a tool this could potentially be in the classroom. Here is a link to my brand new twitter ( https://twitter.com/rwerhane ) After using twitter for a few weeks now I have found almost too many resources to use in my classroom! One of the resource that I become fond of was a website called The Spangler Effect (http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/the-spangler-effect.html) , which I found thanks to Richard Byme. The Spangler Effect is a science website that has videos of experiments that you could potentially use in your classroom. Even though my major is in Special Education I have always been interested in the sciences. It is a great website that can be used by most science.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
My integration
After reading the different stages of Technology Integration I felt as though personally I am in between stage 4 (appropriation) and stage 5 (innovation). I know of a good deal of websites and apps and what not that I could use and I am aware of different education websites and what not that I would be able to use, but I handle use any of them personally to help me. I am having trouble getting to that 5th stage, in my cohort I feel as though we are somewhat of the in betweeners, meaning that for the beginning part of our education we were taught the "traditional" but as we progressed is when technology really started to take off in school so we were getting more introduced to it. So most of us (my cohort) is able to swing back and forth between a more "old" and "new" school education and tools. That makes it hard for me to make the leap to the next level because while all of the apps and websites are good and can be extremely useful I feel that nothing can beat "a good ole fashion handwritten letter....that you pick up from the mailbox" as my mother would say. I have been lucky enough to observe a few class (all in Michigan, where my old school is) and noticed that none of them were heavy uses of technology and none were completely anti technology. They all had a different mix of integration. Mostly this is true because of the economic status of each school, a couple of them seemed to incorporate more technology into their classrooms they simply couldn't afford it. BUt I did notice that the classes that I observed where students were using technology more (mainly computers to play games and practice different aspects of English, Science, and Social Studies) the students seemed to be more involved in "regular" class (without technology) than those students who never even went to their own computer lab. Whether this be directly related to the fact that they didn't have the technology of because their status I am not sure.
Media outbreak
Today in class we view several studies that were done to evaluate how much technology we are using as a society. One of the statistics what stood out the most for me was the number of younger and younger people with cells phones, and not only cell phones but smart phones. I think that it is really young for a 5th or 6th grader to have a cell phone, and there were a surprising amount K-2 who owed a cell phone. While I was surprised by the number who owned their own phones it is also plays in our favor as educators. While many teachers and school have strict no cell phone policies those that do allow them, we can now utilize them in class. With such things as the web site were it's an online poll and students are supposed to text the answer. It is a great way for the students to learn how to use their phones properly moreover become more engaged and involved in class. As I progressed through school I noticed a changed in the way some teacher felt about cell phones and I believe that, just the same with most other things, the more you tell a child, or most people even, that they cannot do/use something they are going to want to do/use that something even more. More teachers are finally joining the band wagon and joining their students with the technology craze. Technology shouldn't be viewed as a devil instrument put on this Earth to corrupt and brainwash our children, if used properly can and will be a great way to get every student involved in class and help each of them learn and succeed at the highest level. Whether we like it or not technology is taking over. It is everywhere we look and so intertwined in our children's lives that it would be crazy not to use it in the classroom.
Monday, September 17, 2012
All about me
Reflective Post #1: Introduce yourself. Give the reader some background about how you arrived at this point in your career. What is your experience and opinion regarding technology in education? Feel free to include photos that express your personality (yet are appropriate to the blog), provide links or videos that you feel will help the reader get to know you
My name is Ryan and I am excited to be in this class. This is my first quarter at NL and am working on becoming a special education teacher. I am a transfer from a very small school in MI, called Adrian College. I attend Adrian for the most part because they were the closest school who offered lacrosse as a varsity sport. While there I was able to observe a few classrooms, two 8th grade classes and one 6th grade (each at a different school). One of the most interesting instruments that I saw was a pen, I forgot what it was called, that students could use and it would read the words to them ( as the students dragged the tip of the words it would read out the words to them). It is technology such as this pen that helps not only the student but also the teacher because now the teacher doesn't need to sit there and read the question to that them, they are able to help others who may not need it. Technology is going to play a huge role in the way classes are taught. It is already taking over the classrooms and will continue to play bigger and bigger roles as new technology emerges With technology teachers are able to have their students become more involved and able to witness things that in the past would not have been able to do. Teachers are able to "take" their students to different countries and states from their classroom with the help of tools such as skype or flickr. As a future educator I am very excited to see how technology changes and what new educational technology arises.
My name is Ryan and I am excited to be in this class. This is my first quarter at NL and am working on becoming a special education teacher. I am a transfer from a very small school in MI, called Adrian College. I attend Adrian for the most part because they were the closest school who offered lacrosse as a varsity sport. While there I was able to observe a few classrooms, two 8th grade classes and one 6th grade (each at a different school). One of the most interesting instruments that I saw was a pen, I forgot what it was called, that students could use and it would read the words to them ( as the students dragged the tip of the words it would read out the words to them). It is technology such as this pen that helps not only the student but also the teacher because now the teacher doesn't need to sit there and read the question to that them, they are able to help others who may not need it. Technology is going to play a huge role in the way classes are taught. It is already taking over the classrooms and will continue to play bigger and bigger roles as new technology emerges With technology teachers are able to have their students become more involved and able to witness things that in the past would not have been able to do. Teachers are able to "take" their students to different countries and states from their classroom with the help of tools such as skype or flickr. As a future educator I am very excited to see how technology changes and what new educational technology arises.
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