class reflection from 10/21

     WebQuest, WebQuest, WebQuest... tonights class mainly focused on creating our WebQuest to follow our recently completed trailer project.
      The example we viewed was extremely thorough and well thought-out, not skimping on any details or leaving anything to the imagination. It definitely leaves very little room to fill such large shoes!
      That being said, after reviewing and discussing tonight, on a scale of 1-10 I feel as if  I am about an 8 in relation to being ready to embark on the journey of creating this project. One thing I am excited about is harvesting my resources and finding solid, accurate interactive websites that will excite students. I want this to be a fun and interesting activity for my students that I can actually employ in my classroom, not just something that I completed as a requirement in graduate school and then never revisited. 
   My goal for this project is to step out of my comfort zone and learn how to create a valid and engaging WebQuest so that I may design additional ones for various subjects.
   Hope this goes well!

Chapters 5&6 Reflection

     In today's day and age, the availability of information is incredible due to the rapid expansion of the Internet. In just a few clicks, the answers to nearly any question can be found. As wonderful and useful as this ease of access has become, it also brings about the necessity of teaching information literacy and digital citizenship to our students because simply put, not all information is accurate information, and not all sources are good sources. 

     Students and teachers in today's society must work together to decide how to access and assess for accurate and useful information on the Internet. Prior to the digitization of learning, students would simply refer to a reference book for information or take out books to do research in the library; now, all they have to do is type in their topic in Google and their inquiry will be met by dozens of links to explore. It is due to this fact that information literacy must now be inclusively taught in our schools. 

     Nearly all classrooms and schools now have access to the Internet. These machines are used for information, gaming, and educational needs like reading  from a very young age. Along with learning physically how to navigate on the computer, they must also learn how to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner, aka practicing digital citizenship. This, and many other aspects of teaching informational technology fluency have become the responsibilities of the educator. Students must learn how to conduct accurate, lucrative searches, evaluate their information, and translate the information they find into their own words so as to avoid plagiarism. They must also learn the signs of cyberbullying and how to defend themselves against it, a skill that may be among one of the most important.

     In my opinion, teaching digital citizenship as well as information literacy is crucial for 21st century learners. These kids eat, sleep, and breathe technology, however, if left to their own devices, risk being exposed to negative content and subjecting themselves to cyberbullying and unnecessary trauma on social media and other related cites. Hiding behind a screen serves as a great confidence boost for people who are looking to say or do hurtful things to one another. All too often we hear of students posting negative things about other students or threatening to do so online. If these students are not taught how to behave with decency online, this epidemic of sorts will only get worse. It is our job as educators to do as much as we can to protect and arm our students with appropriate knowledge so that they may use the Internet for good while feeling safe and secure. Aside from digital citizenship and information literacy, there is much to be said for the many uses for technology in the classroom. Among other things, educational websites and applications foster a great deal of engagement and interest in the topics at hand. Digital content is a wonderful tool because it can be saved and edited to fit the needs of your specific students time and time again. Teachers now have the ability to bookmark websites that they find useful for access when applicable, and these resources may even be compiled into a webquests to be completed by students. The possibilities for curriculum enhancement are endless now.  Personally, I think utilizing Smart Board technology is one of the most engaging things we can do in our classrooms right now. It is fully interactive and allows for students to become immersed in their learning. I also feel that by utilizing either a classroom blog or other similar resources, the teacher can get an accurate feel for who in the class is doing well and who may be struggling with a particular topic. Technology has become such an important part of the way we teach now that it has changed the face of education completely. I can't wait to see what kinds of advancements we'll have made by the time I am ready to retire decades from now! 

Some questions I am left with after reflecting: 

1.  What kinds of websites do your students access most in schools aside from the obvious Google and the like? 

2. Do you think there are any con's to being so heavily reliant on technology in the classroom? Is there a downside to the constant stimulation from computer programs? 

3. What are some of the most useful online resources you have found yourself for teaching? what kind of information do they contain and for what age levels? 

class reflection 10/14

Tonight we went in depth into how to properly create a reflection for our trailer project. As it turns out, I, like many of my classmates, did not even skim the surface on what I could have written, so needless to say, I will be spending some time this weekend revisiting that assignment.
     After we were brought up to speed on that subject, we learned about three extremely useful websites for references and information that has been made available for educators.
    ISTE-  lists the standards for teachers, students, and administers to follow as a benchmark.
    Edutopia and Edudemic- are both websites for articles and ideas for educators to apply in practice in their classrooms.
     Following the three websites we explored Wikipedia. The goal of the lesson was to demonstrate that we have a lot of misconceptions about the internet. Wikipedia is about shared wealth and open-access. They believe everything should be shared equally by all. Knowledge should be accessible by everyone. What was interesting to me was that I had always been led to believe that anyone can instantly edit wiki articles. As we learned, that isn't true at all. One must go through a process to do so, and must earn your way up as your edits are approved and are accurate. It was definitely an eye-opening experience exploring Wikipedia in this way and finding out for myself why you actually can not refer to Wikipedia; which is only because they purposely hide the identity of their editors.

Concluding Thoughts 10/7

Today's discussion was eye-opening. The idea of whether or not students of the digital age require different teaching based on how they will learn was clarified. As I had postulated, the students of today will not learn any differently than those that have come before them as demonstrated by the many theories of education such as constructivism and behaviroism. It has also been debated that one can demonstrate their learning through many different pathways, passing their knowledge onto others and applying it practically are just a few of the ways in which it can be demonstrated. Also, we viewed  two clips on behaviroism, one with a pigeon being trained with positive reinforcement and one with Penny from Big Bang Theory being trained by receiving a piece of chocolate upon performing "desirable behaviors" in Sheldon's opinion. Both of these videos showed how positive reinforcement conditions the learner to provide the desired response, thus demonstrating " learning" through the lens of behaviroism. Overall, the discussion in class was quite informative and made me think about my own personal lens on education and the various theories of how it is best applied.
          Utilizing Windows Movie Maker was also explained tonight. Although my laptop did not come with this software standard, I will be downloading it tonight and completely understood the tutorial. This process actually seems much easier than I had originally expected it to be; which is definitely reassuring.  I  feel that I am now well prepared to effectively and creatively complete this project.