At the risk of getting off topic (that being education technology), it is interesting to me, much of the discussion about Common Core. The following article echoes that sentiment (from Matt Damon's mom, no less) and it does have relevance to me as an early childhood education major. While it doesn't mention Common Core specifically, there doesn't seem to be much doubt in my mind that it what is being referred to (though for all I know, she favors it):

How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become — from a child development expert

(Full disclosure regarding Common Core: I am not a proponent of it. Having been adopted “sight-unseen”, I think it possible it started with good intentions, but I don't like the top-down, one-size-fits-all approach that focuses on forcing children to learn things they weren't developmentally ready for. No matter how it is taught, broken down, or scaffolded, I think it reeks of control, rather than education. No one learns the same way as the next. We all have differences in how we process information and how we learn. I've talked to many people about Common Core, including teachers, and so far the only ones that seem to like it are politicians. Your mileage may vary).

Okay, so maybe I won't get too off topic here, because I think technology can be one of those ways that can help a person learn. I think that is quite true in particular for visual learners (of which I am) as well as other types such as kinesthetic learning (which I also respond well too) and auditory learning (not as much for me). Check out this link for more details.

Technology is Helping Students to Adopt Their Own Learning Style

I guess my point here is that technology can be used properly or improperly. If I've learned nothing else in my education technology class, it is that there are so many different resources available to teachers to find ways of reaching their students and interacting with them. This requires individual initiative from the teacher based on direct experience from their experiences with their students, not what a bureaucracy mandates from a detached position with no knowledge of what is transpiring in individual classrooms. How could a top-down approach possibly address what it going on inside each an every classroom? The answer: they can't, nor should they. I think decisions made at the local level work best.

All that aside, there are numerous ways that technology can be used to reach many of the different types of learners that I, as a teacher, will no doubt encounter. I found the class to be quite informative and I learned some things that even one very familiar with technology was not previously familiar with. The web 2.0 wiki and WebQuest resources allow for a teacher to research and provide links to sources for that can be used to support specific topics. Glogster allows you to make an interactive poster and with Kidspiration one can create an interactive graphic organizer, both support visual learning. The social networking tools: blogging & Twitter can be used to maintain a level of connection to both students and parents, but it should be used cautiously and judiciously. The casual nature of Twitter can be easily misconstrued in my opinion and maintaining too much of a presence there can be a distraction. Spreadsheets and documents can help to maintain some the record keeping duties that a teacher needs to do, so should be utilized as necessary. Hypermedia like Powerpoint can be a really useful tool; I had used Powerpoint many time before, but I learned some new features that I was not aware of that put using it in a new light. There are many presentation tools available to teachers, each of them can be used to various degrees of success. Powerpoint, Prezi, Slideshare all have their pros and cons. Creating the desktop movie was what I enjoyed the most. I found the whole process to be entertaining and creative (but then I am a visual person); production was an involved process, however so one should not get too focused on that at the expense of content.

Finally, I'd like to add a link to my complete portfolio of all the tasks and assignments that made up my Principals of Instructional Technology course.

Education Technology Portfolio

The end of the semester is near; The time has flown by! As I look back on what has been involved in this first semester at Ashland, I can see just how much work has gone into exploring education technology that has been a requirement for my related class. I'm fairly comfortable with technology, so I had no fear about learning new applications and programs. There were some frustrations to be sure; broken and non-existent links that were supposed to help give me a better idea of assignment requirements; Also, time it seems, was the real adversary as many of the tasks necessary to pass this class required time to complete. With 3-year-old twins, time is a precious commodity. Regardless, I have completed all my assignments on time and I come away with a better idea of the vast array of technological resources available for education. I know that there are several of those resources that will definitely be using in my future career as a teacher. Glogster was one that I liked a lot. I thought it made a very useful and fun interactive poster.

 

 

Powerpoint surprised me a bit; I did not think that that there was anything new that could be done with it, but I found the animation tools can allow for quite a bit of customization. Plus, it allowed me to me to create a lesson using Spider-Man!

I enjoyed putting together the desktop movie using Movie Maker (see previous post). Perhaps because I am such a visual person is why many of these appealed to me so much. I look forward to incorporating these into my classroom in the future.

Next post will likely be a link to my final portfolio.

How does a rocket work?

So I put together a basic video about how rockets work as part of an assignment and post it to youtube. One of the requirements was that the video be roughly 1 minute in length... so my explanation is VERY basic. It does, however engage a younger viewer to consider the concept. If I was teaching the subject in my own classroom, I would make a longer introduction video to expand on a few parts to engage a viewer more deeply (hopefully). I was pleased with how it turned out and several family members were impressed with what they saw (but they're supposed to say nice things, so who knows?).

All of the educational stuff aside, I have a greater appreciation for how long it takes to edit and produce a movie. I think I spent more time: trying to get the scenes to mesh together appropriately, matching voice over to images in a logical way (as well as marveling at that sound of my own recorded voice... do I really sound like that?); picking a decent soundtrack song that would accentuate the mini-movie and not over power it: getting the credits to appear appropriately, etc.The nice thing is that the Movie Maker software has a lot of nice little tools that help you manage all of those things and more. I just wish it let you import youtube footage into your movie, but obviously there is a whole legal side to that with potential plagiarism issues and all. I'm sure there must be a way to do it and give credit, but that was beyond the scope of what I needed to do at the time.

Overall though, I am finding a lot of very useful technology tools for education that I know I am going to try to use. Of course, by the time I'm in my own classroom, much of the technology will have changed in some manner or another, but I'm confident that I can keep up and adapt to whatever changes occur.