Week 15: Can Technology be a bad thing?

In 2011, almost 2012, why is technology still a class kids go to to learn to use a tool and not an integrated part of the lessons we teach? 

I really feel that in the younger grades, it is still be in used to learn about the tool because of the home life that the students are coming from. There are such heterogeneous groups that show up at our schools, we are forced to continue to teach the student how to use it, not manipulate it for learning.  I do think that the computer teachers should have to start differentiating, just as the classroom teachers do, but unfortunately it it not a certified position. Also, the classroom teachers are not given an opinion as to what should be taught in the computer class, even though they really don't have a curriculum to follow. We constantly feel frustrated with the low level of knowledge that our students have of working with documents.

Week 9: Instant Messaging

Many moons ago, the teachers on my team and I used to use IM as a communication tool through the walls of our school. It was great until the SmartBoard came along! Now, it is not safe to have have something that can pop up on the screen for all to view!  I still like it because it is a more immediate way to get an answer from someone, versus even sending an email. Also, it lends itself to only being a short note instead of feeling that more should be said in an email.  I wasn't aware of Meebo, and I am still catching up on the short-hand writing!  LOL! (I remember having the discussion a couple years ago with a friend about how they perceived LOL- lots of love OR laugh out loud. Time and technology can even change the meaning of words, which can make communication awkward for someone who doesn't change with the times!

Week 8: Cloud Computing

I made a Google Docs page. I also had to research  how to cut and paste on a Mac mouse!!! Double lesson here!

23 Things Kansas Week 8 - https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=18wIEvVwvuhrwBI7RzxJo-hSMJzc6CZfizBhRjk1nhSo

Week 7: Microblogging

I remember hearing about Twitter several years ago when I had met a lady that was really involved in community development. I thought it sounded kind of weird for her to tell people what she was doing during the day. The term "tweet" hadn't even been established yet!  I am obviously way behind times, but I did create an account this year for my classroom. (My regular life is nothing anyone would want to stay up to the minute with!) I have about 20 followers. Some teachers, but it is really intended for the parents of my classroom. I would really love to hear about the little things that my baby girl is doing during her school day, so I hope that the parents that follow me enjoy getting periodic updates. I am not real good at remembering to do it, but maybe I will get better before the fad fades.  OHEgraham is my screenhandle.
I follow other teachers in my building. It helps me to see theirs so I can retweet common announcements that relate to my class. I also follow VisitKC  pbsparents and AboutKidsBooks. It was easier to find some sites with the suggestions that were provided.
I was resistant about adding another thing to my plate, but communication is such an important piece of the relationships with parents, so I thought I would give it a try this year. It isn't bad since it is pretty much a one-way information highway.

Week 6: Tagging and Social Bookmarking

I think I created a Delicious account this summer but of course I can't remember my password or account name! I created another one and now wish I could change the username- but if you want it, it is brendagrahamksu  - I am kind of putting it on here so I can come back to my blog later and retreive it! I did actually take all of my bookmarks from my school computer and put it on this website, just in case our genius I.T. people erase my bookmarks, again!

Effective Instruction

When comparing the two articles, I definitely gained more knowledge from A Model of Effective Instruction. I double checked to make sure that I wasn't missing any pages from the Principles of Instruction, but it only listed two principles. Both of the articles encouraged motivating the learners with various types of incentives. I feel that this is necessary, but can be overdone at times. It is a hard balance to find, especially when you start offering extrinsic rewards. I like how they encouraged the teacher to engage the students with activating their prior knowledge in order to get the most out the learning. I thought that the first article offered a more organized format for listing the elements of effective instruction. The QUAIT method was easily to follow and remember. It did seem a bit out dated, as far as some terminology that was used versus in the Principles article. Cognitive development was one reference that really stood out to me as showing it was a more up-to-date article.


I tried to see if the Mindmeister web site would work by posting the concept map, but it wouldn't display the map. I will be producing something similar on Word, but my laptop doesn't have a wireless internet connection since I am in the boonies right now (St. Paul!) The computer I am on has Word 1976 or something! My mom's dial-up even more ridiculous yesterday; pretty bad when you have to go to your grandmas for a better internet connection! I am spoiled by the city life. :-)


Lastly, I think that effective instruction is important for EVERY single educator, including LMS professionals. I think the most powerful piece of instruction is getting students to realize the connection that your lesson has to their real life. They need to know that their is a purpose for learning it, or they are like the rest of us when it comes to professional development and just are left wondering why their time is being wasted. I think we can help teachers by showing them news ways that technology is going to benefit the projects or lessons that they are learning. The time that a LMS instructor could save a classroom teacher is also a way to make them more effective. I can think of several ways that blogs could benefit a classroom, but teachers have such limited time to prepare the sites. I wish my LMS would time some time to set those types of things up for me right now in order for me to utilize what I am learning about technology. Hopefully I will be that "life-saver" some day!

P.S. Thank you Patrice for helping me with concept map!

Week 10: Presentation Design

This week we began studying presentation design, I had no idea...
    how bad I "sucked" at making Powerpoints! :-) Here are a few of the questions, comments and concerns that I came up with after watching everything. I will be using these as notes for myself in the next week.

1.       If we aren’t supposed to use any of the standard slides from PP, do we have to make all of them ourselves?? Yikes.

2.       I don’t know how to place pictures over pictures using the watermark or transparent method.

3.       I do usually use a color theme, probably because I have used the standard slides! Colorlovers.com- never heard of it!

4.       I agree that presentations are super boring when you have exact words in them, yet I do do that sometimes if I am giving it as a print-out for students.

5.       Uh, we can’t use Google images?? Had no idea! Royalty Free istockphoto.com and Creative Commons compfight.com or flicker.com - made a note! Skitch.com  as well for making arrows and such

6.       How do you embed videos??

7.       Slideshare.net sounds like a place I could make some money after I upload and share it!

8.       Recapping is often the missing element. Probably because everyone, including the presenter, is sick of the content by the end!

9.        I will try to Google “beautiful fonts” it may help me- but I get overloaded with options! I am a sucker for the default!

10. Wow! 30 hours suggested on one presentation! I don't think I have that many sick days left to use to make mine this next week!

Week 5: RSS and Feed Readers

Oh my..... I am not meant for the blogging world! Three sessions and hours later, I think I may have two blogs added to my subscription site. I looked for specific blogs that discussed the exact textbooks that we use. I was not able to find very many good ones specific to Trailblazers or Houghton Mifflin. I ended up following a 4th grade teacher because of his science references to the FOSS units. I hope they both are worth my time to read.

Week 4: Photo Sharing Birthday Book Club

library birthday 001, a photo by Bskyg on Flickr.

These are some books that the kids can pick from if their parents paid the $15 enrollment fee. They choose a new book and then have their name put in the front of it permanently. A great way for the library to get more new books!

Week 4: Hmmmm..... about technology in the classroom

Hmmm....
1.   Why does it always mess up when you REALLY need it? You know, like if you are giving a presentation or being observed or when you have a substitute!
2. Why does the district or those that install just expect that you automatically know how to use it, or even know how to turn it on!  They gave us these great Elmos and never once explained some of the features about it.

3. What will be the next “cool” thing to be invented- aren’t they all already here??

4. Why can’t I make myself put all of my appointments and reminders in Outlook? I can’t get rid of the paper calendar!

5. Why doesn’t my district have a site that compiles all the wonderful SmartBoard lessons that our teachers have created? Why are we each expected to create or at least find a wheel on the big broad internet??

6. What did we do before technology??

7. Why can’t some of my parents realize that voice mail and notes to school is a thing of the past- email me!

8. When will we stop ordering textbooks in elementary school? Kind of scary to think about.

9. Why do I feel that no matter how much I am learning about sites and new technology, I still feel that I know nothing?!

10. Technology is great, but I don’t think I can even keep their attention if my SmartBoard isn’t at least on, even if I am not using it! The stimulus factor for this generation is a bit out of control.

Week 3: 23 Things KS Webinars

I tried to choose several webinar sites, but I had trouble getting into them. Opal finally worked for me. I chose one called, "Let's Get Social."  It was hosted by Carol Hartman, Anne McDonald and Jane Plass. It was an information piece on Twitter and it functionality in the library system.  At first, they had a technical glitch that was VERY annoying- it kept clicking!  After a few minutes, they were able to stop it. This webinar did not show them live, but it had their voices and there was a texting stream going on the side with the coordinators talking.  I like that it had the PowerPoint up and I could sift through it while I listened instead of having to stay on the slides as they talked about certain subjects. I did learn that you can go to another website and bypass the 140 character limit for Tweeting!  I think this would kind of defeat the purpose though. Twitter was also originally called  "Status." In general, I think that on-line meetings or webinars will have a significant place in our future. Information needs to be accessible at an affordable rate. This can really cut down on travel expenses for a company. My school district tried this for our professional development. They had 4 different sites linked to the screen and then the presenter. I thought it would have been really cool, but the presenter overdid it with her time and lost her audience.

Week 3: Instructional Design

"Education has missed the boat, with respect to instructional design. Teachers come up with lesson plans on the fly, with little thought to why they are presenting information or even who their audience is. Teacher traning, at the university level and during Professional development, needs to focus on helping teachers become comfortable with instructional design principles."

I really would like to have a big strong rebuttal to this comment, but unfortunately I am at fault at certain points and days in the classroom. I feel that I put thought into my audience, but often don't take enough time to evaluate the results. We are so busy and pressed to stay with the district's timeline, that we just go on to the next unit, ironically possibly leaving children behind. In the past couple of years we really have started pretesting and post testing more and then creating intervention groups to help those that still didn't get the concept. I do feel that I spend more time in certain phases of the ADDIE framework. I think that the implementation phase is probably hit the strongest, and that possibly isn't the wisest. I feel that Instructional Design is a logical decision that should be utilized by teachers, but in the essence of time, its potential is not played out in most classrooms. Reflective practices have always been a goal of mine, but the articles reminded me once again that it is more than just looking at the grades in my gradebook. If I were to choose one, it would probably be the Morrison, Ross, Kemp Model. I preach "flexibility" in my classroom; so I think this one would be the best for me.

Week 2: I believe educational technology is.....

...something that I had a complete misconception of! My view WAS that educational technology mainly involved the media the that it took to teach the children in our classrooms. SmartBoards, Elmos, and computers were my answers. Now that I have read the articles describing the history and theory, my mind has been opened to the idea that problems in human learning can be indentified and solved using educational technology. People, specifically teachers, are a main component when it comes the field of technology in general, which is kind of ironic when I go back to my original thoughts! :-)

Week 2: 23 Things It's my homework!

I love that I can finally blame my Facebook time on my homework! I chose it because like so many others, I already have an account. I like that I am able to feel comfortable with at least one part of this technology challenge. It is also very popular, so it has been easy to connect with many of my close friends and reconnect with those that I have lost touch with over the years. I enjoy looking at my friends' pictures related to their lives and reading about the trials and tribulations they may be currently facing. Brenda's Facebook page

There is a first time for everything!

When blogging first came out, I thought it was silly and a waste of time for someone to put their lives online. Every once in awhile I would click on some friends' posts and eventually was amazed that I hadn't known what great writers and story tellers several of them were. They could make an ordinary event turn in to their own Seinfeld episode.

I am looking forward to learning ways that I can make this relative to my own 4th grade classroom. It should be a learning event to say the least! I chose the world background because I love to travel, but this is also going to be an adventure in itself, as is my decision to return to grad school. I hope I don't get kicked out of the country!