Blog #10

 

    I honestly didn't know you could so much on PowerPoint,  But then again, I never learned much past the normal slideshow type format. I really enjoyed this assignment because it will be a very useful tool to use when I am a teacher. There wasn't anything that I didn't like about the assignment. I do wish that I knew more about the software to possibly build further on future projects that I could use in the classroom setting.

    Data surveys can be a very useful tool to be familiar with in the class room setting. One area that this would be particularly easy to visualize would be in a high school gym class. If a teacher is a weight lifting instructor, spreadsheets are a great way for not only them to see the progress of the students, but for the students to see which lift they are excelling at and what lifts they need work in. It is in those areas needing work, where spreadsheets are so useful. Once adjustments have been made, both the student and teacher are able to see how the changes either helped or didn't help. The process can be adjusted until the right result is achieved. 

    

    I found the blog about teacher profiles to be a very interesting  read among my peers. I thought that the different point of views were interesting as well as what they perceived to be important or not important when it comes to the individuals teaching their children. It is interesting to me that the amount of time that a teacher spends with your child will exceed the amount of time the child will be with their parent. Considering the time at home will consist of eating and sleeping. I found the assignment to be a vital one. If the current students don't have children, but will one day have children. The idea of considering what type of adult do you want to be teaching your child is an important one. They will be a huge influence in your child's viewpoints on the world. 

    I do like the Badge concept and I have earned a badge myself. But if the amount of class load I currently have and the amount of things to complete in this class, I didn't have the time to expand my work to achieve more badges. If I had only had this class to do, I feel that I would have participated in the badge part of this class and have tried to earn more. 

    A technology related skill that I would like to learn more about would have to be a media based skill. Being able to combine my lesson with video would be a very cool tool to use in the classroom. It also gives the class a different feel as comparted to just lectures or death by PowerPoint. I do feel that both of the approach types do have their value in the classroom, but it would be fun to add another element. Students these days live on the internet and are constantly watching videos. To incorporate that into the lesson I think would reach more students and help them retain the information. 

Blog #9

     My experience in EME2040 has been good. It has been very challenging in a lot of aspects. I am enrolled in the online course as opposed to the in class setting. There are some cons to being online that I feel would be easier if I were in the classroom. I feel that I lost a lot of the hands on aspect of learning. Having to watch videos and lectures depend a lot on how I understand the information. If I were in class, I would think that we would be in a computer lab or have laptops in a classroom where I can ask questions in the moment rather than trying to explain my issue. I have learned a lot in this class that I truly feel will be of great impact once I am in the classroom setting. I may not be able to truly see the impression just yet, but I think it will come full circle. When I am a teacher I will be able to use resources that I have learned about in this classroom to use and hopefully the students will benefit from the different tools used in learning the material. 

    OER is a way for people to learn and share information that would normally cost money or would need something in return to use the product. OER gives the user a lot of freedom to use the work in their own unique manner. This is very useful in the classroom setting where a teacher could take the information that they need to teach, and add their own personality to it. Or put it in a way that they know the students will best understand it. I do like how things can be updated in real time. The only draw back I think would be if the information that was updated, isn't quite accurate. An website by EAIE describes how useful OER is and gives clear instruction that it is not to be confused with OER in management and Open Education in management. The difference being that one will give college credit and the other will not. However, it does have a standard test that will allow the person to receive credit that will look good on any resume. The website was also talked about how useful and invaluable the resources a person could get would be.

    Working on assignment 4: Power Point for Dissemination was a little intimidating. I've created Power Points before, however, I've never had to put it in a way that I would have to use to teach a class and then record audio with it. I didn't like the nervousness of the assignment, But I did like that I was able to complete the assignment and I hope that I will be better on a future PowerPoint and feel more comfortable in making one. Next  time I will have a clearer understanding of how to create and implement audio in with it.  

  

Blog #8

     The web design assignment was hard for me to do. I didn't like the layout of the themes. It didn't give me the kind of options that I was looking for. Not to mention already having to delete existing pictures and layouts made it more complicated. Inserting links and things like that wasn't easy for me to do. It was kind of overwhelming in all. I didn't really like the website at all. I've used another site to create a website for a small business called Wix. That was much easier to navigate through. I am not sure I would use Weebly for future use. I also have trouble accessing my account to make corrections. I guess it wasn't published or something like that. So, now I have to figure out how to get back into the account in order to make corrections. 

    Diigo was a pretty cool website. Being able to save searches and highlight main areas of it to be able to go back to if needed is great. Especially in a teaching environment when you go back to it next year with a new group of students. It will be much easier to access it and with the information already having been linked. Also, if you ever wanted to share said information with other teachers or collogues, it will be a sinch to just send that information with everything they'll need to have in just a click of a button.

     One website that I could use to stay informed with teaching and the rapid changes in the technology curve might be GlobalPD. This is the type of website with nearly an infinite number of resources that could help a person with anything they might need help with. There are over 900 videos for professional learning, multiple books on different subject areas, and there are live meetings throughout the day. If a person doesn't use this forever, it least is a great tool to help you get really creative and learn at a rapid pace on how to best teach kids for a better future!

Home - Global PD

Image Attribution

 

Blog#7

     Teacher pages are very useful in being able to learn a little bit more about your teacher and what they are like. Most of the teacher pages had information about themselves such as their interests, hobbies, and what they look forward most in the school year. In addition to the class curriculum. From reading different pages about the teachers, I can see how nice it is to get an overall feeling about who your child is spending their day with. Are they nice? Do they dress nice? Do they present themselves in a respectable way? 

Teacher Page

    When I become a teacher, I envision myself using the fancy projectors and smart screens to teach. Depending on the subject that I teach, I might incorporate videos that I learned from when I was in school (If the material is still up to date). Being able to see how the kids react to the material I learned from might be funny as well as educating. Programs like Canvas is something that I will be proficient in consierding that I have had to use this program while in school and the school that I will be employed with relies heavily on Canvas as well. They feel that if students can become familiar with the program now, then they will have an advantage once they graduate and go to college. 

    My experience working with PBworks was good. It was very different compared to other programs that I have worked on. It was very basic, and I felt very limited with what I was able to put into the page that I was working on. Also editing the page was difficult and I had little control on page layout.  I did like how easy it was to learn how to navigate the program itself and understand the limitations but also learning what I was able to actually do on the page.

Blog#6

     My experience so far using Diigo would be good. I can see how it would be a great tool to be use once I am in the classroom setting. I would be able to save sites that I could be able to go back to whenever I needed to. Perhaps, Diigo will become a far more important tool once I am more familiar with the program and am using it on a daily basis or just when I need to go back to pull information from a website. 

    Blogging hasn't been something that I would do on a regular. However, I think that if I were blogging and had a bigger audience, then it might compel me to write more and express more of my feelings. I don't not like blogging but feel that it isn't my thing. I wasn't a blogger prior to taking this class, and even after experiencing having a blog site and having people write on my page, I still don't feel like I would continue to do it after the class is over. 

    A 2.0 tool that I found that would be good for both personal use and for work is Dropbox. It is a lot like "The Cloud" you can store photos, files, and back up my whole computer just for starters. It is a very easy to use program that is usable of many different types of software. Another cool fact is that you can send information to someone who doesn't have the app and they are able to open it without issue. One key factor that is usually a go- or no-go aspect of a site, is the cost. The most you'll pay is $12.99 a month. That is almost the cost of going out to eat one time (paying for only yourself of course). 

Dropbox- Store, Share, Collaborate and More with Dropbox

Blog #5

     My experience with Twitter so far has been not so easy. I find that the layout is hard to navigate. I get the same feeling as I did when I first joined Myspace. For whatever reason, the "vibe" of twitter isn't like Facebook. Granted, Facebook has its own issues, but I find it much easier to find things on Facebook. I would have to work with Twitter more to become more comfortable with using it on a daily basis. But I will say that once I get more used to it, I think it could a tool I could use to further my PLN. 

    The digital divide has huge impacts on students who have and students who don't have computer access as well as the internet while going through school. I agree that students who go without are at a severe disadvantage in the work force. More and more jobs are incorporating technology into their systems. Not having the experience early on could cause a person to be looked over as a job applicant. As a teacher, I would make sure that my students wouldn't be at a disadvantage. That they would have access to the technology to complete the work that does require a computer. I know that with the direction technology is heading, it would be hard to not give out homework that didn't have anything to do without using the web, however, I would do my best to ensure my students would have plenty of time in the computer lab to get the work done. 

    One academic software that I would use is something that my wife used when she was teaching pre-k was a program called Mimio Board. It was a smart board where students could interact. When students are engaged into the material, I feel that it helps retain information. I can say in my own experience, that being able to interact with the information made it easier to remember. Another piece of software I would use is Canvas. Reason being is that a lot of universities use Canvas and with Covid being so widespread, online courses were such a major thing. Students being familiar with Canvas and how to navigate it makes a big difference in their new college experience. There is so much to get used to when attending a college fresh out of high school and even more so if you live off campus and are away from home. Being used to the software the colleges are using will be one less obstacle to overcome.