Blog #9

"The Flipped Classroom" is a instructional technique that makes students watch instructional videos at home or outside of the classroom so that the teacher can review concepts in class and have time to do more interactive assignments in class through discovery learning. To refer back to chapter 10 and the instructional design it discussed, the teacher can tell the students to listen to podcasts or watch vodcasts away from the classroom and then students can write blog posts or use wikis to discuss the information they learned on their own before coming to class and having a group discussion on the subject matter. This type of instructional technique is efficient because it makes the students learn the material before coming to class so that class time can be used to answer any questions the students have and allows them to discuss the topic more in depth in class. A source of educational videos is http://www.watchknowlearn.org/.

An interesting web-based resource I might use for professional development is http://www.discoveryeducation.com/. They have so much valuable resources and updates on new technologies and happenings for teachers. The website is friendly and offer community support for teachers on textbooks, professional development and programs that can benefit their students. Discovery is an amazing publication that has their own educational videos and news updates for teachers to use if they are relevant to their classroom as well.

One new skill I acquired from completing the PowerPoint Interaction assignment is using the hyperlink and action button feature to connect my slides together seamlessly. I also learned that PowerPoint is not only useful for presentations of information on bulleted lists but you can make games and stories out of it as well. I liked that I got to experiment and use PowerPoint for something else besides a bulleted presentation but this was my first time using it for interaction purposes so I can improve how I present my PowerPoint interaction better. I can use this assignment in my future career by creating a game that corresponds to the lesson rather than just coming up with a story where the reader can take different paths in.

Blog #8

After reading chapter 12 I believe the technology advancement that hold the biggest promises for education is 3D printing. 3D printers allow people to create objects out of raw materials through the use of computer-aided software. 3D printing can be utilized in education by allowing educators to easily create models and visuals for their students that could otherwise be inaccessible. 3D printers allow students to be able to hold and play with historical artifacts such as dinosaur bones instead of just seeing pictures being projected while a teacher is lecturing.

The digital divide is the gap between people who have access to technology and the people who do not have access to technology. This gap is not only seen in developing countries, it is seen in the United States as well. I am fortunate enough to have access to a computer, I have my own laptop in which I bring to all of my classes. Since I own a laptop I also gain computer skills that I need in order to do my school work and other online activity that I wouldn't necessarily know if I was not surrounded by technology. I am also fortunate enough to have Internet access in my home back in my hometown but I also have it on campus at Florida State University. I am on the side of the digital divide that has access to technology because I grew up in an upper-middle class area where my school provided computers and other technologies for me to use. I think the digital divide will affect my future classroom because I grew up with technology. I might have to change the way I will teach say a kindergarten classroom depending on the location, a suburban school and a urban school will have different technologies inside the classroom as well as what the students have access to at home. In order to address the digital divide I would have to accommodate to my students, if I teach a class in the suburbs then I might create a class website and post important information for the parents to see and homework for the students to do. But if I teach in a urban school then I might send home letters with the students for their parents to see instead of having a class website where the parents may not be able to see.

The PowerPoint for Information Dissemination assignment allowed to be gain more new skills than any other assignment we have done thus far. While I have looked through PowerPoints before that my teachers have created in the past, I have never created one that resembles a lesson plan. I learned that I cannot put everything I want to say on the PowerPoint. The PowerPoint is just a visual representation of what I am talking about and has the main ideas on it. The only aspect I didn't like about this assignment was having to come up with a lesson on my own, I didn't know what I should talk about exactly. I liked that I was able to be creative and mess around with the different features on PowerPoint though. I can improve for the next time I do a PowerPoint by having a detailed topic and know exactly what I want people to learn from it, it will help me not take as much time to make. I can use PowerPoint in my future career to help make lectures and discussions not seem as boring to students, it will allow them to stay focus and take notes from.

Blog #7

I could use PowerPoint to support student learning and achievement at each level of Bloom's Taxonomy. For my students to remember information I taught them before I can post the PowerPoint to my class website where they can go back and look and it and remember the discussion we had in class. For my students to understand information I would say minimal information in my PowerPoint and go into detail about that information by talking while going through the PowerPoint in class. For my students to apply the information I will take the information I wrote in my PowerPoint and use it in other situations during class time. For my students to be able to analyze the information I would use worksheets and other homework assignments that correlate to what was brought up in my PowerPoint. For my students to be able to evaluate the information I present in my PowerPoint we will have open discussions afterwards so they can critique and judge what they just learned. For my students to be able to create original work I will give them homework assignments such as the ones I receive in my EME 2040 class where I can blog about what I learn in class and create other things such as wikis and websites.

Adaptive technologies are the different types of technologies and services offered to learners with different disabilities. Adaptive technologies are used to support learners who need different technologies or tools in order for them to perform the same tasks as other students. Some examples of adaptive technologies are 3D printers, voice recognition software on computers, text to speech software which reads out-loud to a student, and others. I do not know anyone who uses these technologies themselves but I have gotten a chance to see some of them in the Sandbox in the College of Education on campus. Some challenges I perceive using adaptive technologies in my classroom are that not all of my students may need these technologies and it may single out the student or distract the other students. I also can see it being hard for a student to have access to in a public school.

By working on the Web Page Design assignment I acquired skills such as being creative and learning how to put a website together that does not correlate with the acronym CRAP that we learned in class. I liked that I was able to think of what an actual teacher would have on their website but I didn't like that Weebly wouldn't cooperate with me sometimes. For example, it was difficult for me to change the colors of different texts and I found it harder to change layouts on my laptop than it was on a desktop. I can improve it next time because I will be able to have specific content that I feel is important to put on a class website rather than making it up myself. After completing the Web Page Design assignment I will be able to create a more easy to look at website that will be used for my real classroom.


The link to my website is http://alyssaeme2040.weebly.com/.