3rd Reflection Journal Entry

The Subject:

The Tech Savvy Educator is a blog that releases new information approximately once a week, although a lot more postings have appeared in the past three weeks. The main postings are written by Ben Rimes who is the owner of the blog. He takes current technology issues such as Ning which is planning to get away with offering free social networks and how it affects educators.
-Discussions are mostly about technology that is directly applicable in the classroom. The latest posting spoke about educational networking. The posting talked about how in the past educators had to learn html and gain technological knowledge in order to create blogs and ways to get their blogs seen by other educators therefore, when they took the time to create them they spend more time on maintaining them. However, the teachers of today has the luxury of creating blogs and other various ways of communicating and give them up within two posting due to lack of interest or training to use them appropriately. The author attempts to tackle technology in the classroom with suggestions of how to use it and what is available for free to educators in order to enhance students’ classroom learning.
-This week in Education is a blog that releases new information very frequently, at times within hours of each other. This is a general blog that covers a variety of issues from educational budgets to suggestions for using metaphors in the classroom.
-Discussions are mostly very short few sentences that provoke a person to think about various topics in education. The author attempts to quote or summarize a topic of interest within a paragraph and gives links to articles and websites to further research the topic being discussed.

My Participation:

The Tech Savvy Educator: The topic being discusses had to do with the use of “Hulu” in the classroom. The original posting spoke about how using Hulu in the classroom can be a great resource for teachers. It talked about how teachers are provided with technology in the classroom however, either do not have the training or final links to use it efficiently. We discussed how one could monitor the use of Hulu in the classroom. The discussion led to speaking of how teachers are allowed to create their curriculum, decide how they will teach it, however, are not given freedom to use all the available technology to enhance student learning. The discussion leads to talking about having administrators gain a greater understanding of what technology is out there and how teachers can use it. However, unfortunately it appears that in many schools administrators are afraid of technology therefore discourage teachers from using it even though they have invested a large sum of money in placing equipment in the classroom.
-EmergingEdTech blog which I discussed in my previous blog. I posed a question regarding a summer tech camp which was created in a state near the US/Mexico border. The teacher was assigned to create a camp in order to make all the students technology savvy. It is important to know that most of the children attending the school did not have access to computers outside of their school and that was as well limited until the application of this camp. I wanted to find out how the school was able to have the whole school participate if it was a summer camp. The response was that it became a part of the summer regimen therefore the students did not have a choice. In his response he did add that the program was so successful that he is asked to do the same thing in Colorado however, this time involve the entire family so that not only does it reach the students but also the community they live in.

My Learning:

I think the blogs which I have chosen have been able to expose me as an educator to many web technology based tools to be used in the classroom. An interesting experience that took place in one of the blogs is that the author posted a video and challenged the fellow educators to come up with ideas of how to use that video in the classroom. The selection of pictures and videos on the internet is staggering from being able to visit museums to exploring oceans, the idea is to figure out how we can use this resource in order to enhance the students’ learning. I think the most important thing I did learn however, is that teachers should use technology as addition not the main tool for teaching. We as teachers need to be very careful to make sure that we are not using technology as a tool for our own creative laziness. Videos and pictures are great however; they need to be used as enhancement not the only tool for teaching.

Final Reflection:

My advice for other teachers who might be thinking of subscribing to teacher discussion boards, blogs, etc. is that it is a great resource. It is meant to share information with fellow educators, to gain advice, and to stay on top of what is happening in the world of education. The great thing about blogs is that you do not have to be vocally active; you have access to conversations which might not be so common in your school environment. Blogs create an environment for educators to share, ask questions, and look for suggestions without fear of being laughed at.
The experience surpassed my expectations. When I was signing up for the blogs it was just a part of something I had to do for class. However, as I began reading the blogs I realized that it became a great resource. I thought that being introduced to Google Reader has allowed me to keep on top of the postings on my own time. I have added many more blogs since I originally signed up for the service realizing that it is an easy way to keep abreast of topics I am interested in.

2nd Reflection Journal Entry

The Subject:
-The blog I will discuss in this journal entry is Emerging EdTech. New information is posted every 2 to 3 days. The postings are in a form of articles linking the reader to respond and providing further research on the subject matter. Topics are typically given in parts to prevent overwhelming the reader with information.
-Discussions and articles are mostly about web technology products used in education. One of many interesting topics discussed was “Lecture Capture Technology.” The author of the website reviews the technology and suggests applications in the classroom; the suggestions vary from college to K-12 applications. Lecture Capture Technology is an umbrella for any technology that allows recording whatever happens in the classroom and makes it available digitally. This technology works especially well where students benefit from repeated viewing of content, when complex information is discussed or formulas with detailed steps are written. The article discusses various products that are available in order to perform lecture recordings. The great thing about this blog is that after every article links of other research are provided to encourage further study of the topic. In addition topics have a weekly follow through that detail the technologies of interest for example in this case the follow up were the features that each of the programs provided.
My Participation:
This blog is more of an article forum with comments made at the end. It does make it hard to follow in terms of conversation as participants comment as soon as the post is made and if one misses the posting by a day the likelihood of a response is close to none. I did make a comment to one of the postings. The blog owner asked teachers to submit a story featuring a great use of educational technology. One of the members posted a story about working with dual-language students of an elementary school located near the US/Mexico border. He created a K-5 Summer Technology Camp. The blogger/teacher was asked by the school’s principal to teach the schools’ students cutting edge technology even though the majority of the students came from poor households with no computers. I was inspired by the story and answer by posing some detail questions about the K-5 Summer Technology Camp. I was interested in knowing how the students were selected, if the camp was an elective since it was taking place over the summer and what was the participation rate. Sadly I did not receive a response.
My Learning
I enjoy this blog because it shines a light on some technologies that I might have not encountered otherwise. In this particular case I have always been a little intimidated of using recording technologies in the classroom. However, I think the blog has done a very good job explaining different sides of lecture capture technology and various methods in using it. What I have come out learning in this blog is that these technologies can offer very important benefits to the students such as: an alternative for students when students miss class, and an opportunity for students to review information. This is a great method to allow students to review the material in their own time, students have different methods of learning and giving them an opportunity to look over the material and make sure that they did not miss anything might just be the link to getting it. In addition as a teacher recording ones lectures allows for improvement in future presentations of the topic.

1st Reflection Journal Entry

Name: Emerging EdTech
URL: http://www.emergingedtech.com/
Description: The full title of the website is “Emerging Internet Technology for Education.” The purpose of the website is to educate educators about new internet technologies that might proof useful in the classroom. The website is owned by Kelly Walsh who has been in the field of information technology for over 20 years. The website researches technologies and composes an article with uses of that technology and possible applications in a classroom setting.
I picked this blog because I enjoyed the applicability of its resources to everyday classroom experience. An example of a recent article is “100 Ways to Teach with Twitter.” It makes internet technologies which might appear intimidating to a teacher and simplifies its use and application to enhance student learning.

Name: The Tech Savvy Educator
URL: http://www.techsavvyed.net/
Description: The website has been created and is maintained by educators who are committed to use technology in order for students to extend their learning beyond the classroom. It is meant as a forum for educators to find out what other educators are doing in their classroom technology wise. The website is broken down into content areas which make it very easy for an educator to find their way around.
This blog appeared to me because it was created by teachers for the teachers. It allows teachers to share their technology experiences within their classroom and bring forth what worked what didn’t work and how it could be improved. I really enjoyed that it takes free internet technologies and explains their use and applicability in the classroom.

Name: This Week in Education
URL: http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/
Description: This is an up to date website about things that are happening in education. The website brings you to current education related articles ex. an article that appeared in LA Times about firing of non-tenured teachers. It serves as a resource for teachers in instruction and curriculum and provides information about technologies that are available for in classroom use.
I chose this site because I think that it is important for an educator to stay updated about current status of education. It brings forth information about teacher unions, policies, and up to date instruction suggestions.

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