Wiki Reflection Blog Week 6

           The very first time I visited the Wiki I was a bit overwhelmed.  I had never done any work on or with a Wiki except for occasionally looking at information on Wikipedia.  Since the our Wiki space was created a good bit before we needed to post any information on it I was able to take the opportunity to look around the site and get my bearings a bit.  Our group leader Stephanie did an excellent job setting up our wiki and made it very easy to navigate and find where to post our information.  The next time I visited the space I worked on adding my references and writing the outline for my literature review.  At first I wasn't entirely sure where to post everything, but I found it pretty quickly.  I found that I do not like the way the spacing works when it is saved.  I tried several times to format the outline as it should be but came up unsuccessful.  The last time I worked on the Wiki was to post my Literature Review.  I decided to write the review using a Word document then copy and pasted it into the Wiki to avoid any trouble.  I thought this went pretty well, but again ran into formatting problems when saving the document.  Our group decided to color code the work that we did on our Wiki.  Each person wrote in a different color to make it easier to see the various contributions.  I wrote in purple and contributed several different resources as well as an outline and four pages for the review about BYOD curriculum.  Each group member is working on writing two questions for our test.  Since the concept is fairly new it was difficult to find resources that gave us information pertaining to the subject.  I do feel that I am much more aware of the concept of BYOD, and feel that it would be a valuable addition to a school if they were to choose to undertake a similar program.  Working on the Wiki allowed me to see some opportunities that I may not have known about before in working with students with what is available.  Not all classrooms have state of the line devices, but if there are digital devices available it would be great to try to implement them into the learning process.  I enjoyed working with my group a great deal, and I believe that the communication was very easy and helped a great deal when we really got into the meat of the project.     

Muddiest Point Blog- EDUC 639- Week 5

In the first video I viewed with Dr. David Brown I found the concept of metadata a bit unclear.  I understood that this metadata can be used to trace information sent from a computer or e-mail, but the use of the data was not clear to me.  I was not sure what the purpose of some of the data would be, or why it would be necessary to send the data.  Dr. Brown said it was possible to limit the amount of data that is sent from emails and from Microsoft Office Documents, but I had a bit of difficulty understanding how it was done.  I would be interested in making sure the data that is sent out with some of the documents I create is limited to only things I am comfortable with others seeing, but I did not understand how it should be done.  I have heard of metadata before, but I never knew the extent of how it could affect those who create the data or send it out unknowingly.  In the future I will definitely try to be more cautious about what others can view that is sent from my computer, and limit the private information the public can see.  I believe that this concept is overlooked in the digital age we live in, and that it is not addressed as much as it probably should be.  If it truly is an issue it seems that classes which require information to be sent over the internet should address the issue up front. 

Resource

Brown, D. (Performer) (2012). Presentation: Ask the expert- dr. david brown [Web]. Retrieved from http://bb7.liberty.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher?type=Course&id=_1980527_1&url=

EDUC 639 Week 3 Most Important Blog

I have found that most distance education courses are formatted with constructivist learning theories in mind.  I believe that is one of the most important theories in relation to online or distance education courses.  In these courses the students are required to be their own teacher in a way and seek the information.  The students must be self motivated to complete the assignments and do well on them.  As the saying goes the instructor in the constructivist environment is merely the guide on the side as opposed to the sage on the stage that does only lecturing.  In a constructivist classroom the students are challenged to think critically to solve problems, and I believe this helps them to develop higher order thinking skills and reach into the top 3 categories of Bloom’s Taxonomy.  Although a constructivist learning approach is positive, personally I find that distance education is more of a challenge.  In distance learning it is more difficult to develop a personal connection with the instructor or other students in the class.  This can sometimes make students feel isolated in their coursework.  More effort is needed on the teacher’s part to make personal connections with the students.  I believe that the constructivist learning theory has changed my view of the classroom to a large extent due to the fact that I was never exposed to anything like it growing up that I knew of.  I later realized that my elementary years were much more like a constructivist classroom than I knew since I was homeschooled.  I believe that in the future I would like to incorporate more activities into my teaching that allow the students to be more independent in discovering new information than me simply telling them.  This works quite well in lower elementary classrooms, and allows the students to explore the world around them and make discoveries on their own.  In the future I would like to do more research on using constructivist theories with educational technology in the classroom.        

EDUC 639 Most Important Blog

For my interview I talked with a former teacher who now trains teachers how to integrate technology into the classroom, and how to do it well.  This woman spent about 20 years in the classroom, but was put into the position of technology training about 5 years ago.  She travels to various schools in the district, and leads classes and sessions of teachers and future teacher about how to integrate technology effectively.  During the interview one of the important facts that I found was the importance of the technology personnel developing personal relationships with teachers so that they trust them and value the information they are presenting.  It’s important to give teachers the insight as to why you think the technology is important and examples of how it has worked.  It’s a great idea to do the research, find great ways to integrate technology, but if the teachers don’t buy into the practice that is presented it will not get used in the classroom.  I believe this will help me in the future because I think this concept applies to all educational situations other than just educational technology.  If teachers do not develop good relationships with one another and value each other’s educational expertise, than chances are they will not work together in the most effective ways.         

EDUC 638 Week 6 Reflective Blog

      Technology is becoming more and more important in today’s life. This means that teaching technology to our students is becoming more and more important. This must be done in an effective manner so that the students get the most out of the technology that they have the ability to use. So it is the goal of educators to make sure that the students have plenty of time to work with technology and have access to the technology. The technology director, principal, or teachers in the school have to work to effectively integrating technology into how things are done around the school. One method that seems to work for schools is if there is only one person over the technology throughout the school, they develop a technology team from the teachers at the school. This allows the technology director (or whatever their title is) to delegate certain tasks to his team. This also creates a team which the director can brainstorm about the direction of technology implementation for the school. This creates potential issues though. Anytime a group of adults are brought together there will be conflicting ideas and goals. “In 1965, Bruce W. Tuckman from Princeton published his now classic “Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing” model, which describes the developmental nature of small group dynamics” (Hall, 2008). Hall discusses the characteristics of each of these phases and the importance of each.  As the technology director forms this technology team, they must be aware of these stages of development for the group. Hall also said that it is important to have the group progress through the forming, storming, and norming stages as fast as possible while still working through the issues that each stage presents. He also cautions readers to understand that when the group dynamics change then the group could revert back to the forming or storming stages.

      As the technology director casts their vision for the technology at the school, the teachers can give the director different perspectives on how to best implement the vision. They can provide the details of how to use the “five levels of digital media” (Picciano, 2011) and how they might be best implemented. Allowing the teachers to have this type of input gives them a sense of “owning” the technology that is being used (and how) in their school and it helps to free up time so that the director can use to do things that they are only qualified to do. This is efficient delegation.

      As I have worked through the classes require for my major, I have learned the importance of effectiveness and efficiency. I always understood that there was a budget for schools but when you realize everything that has to be taken care of within those budgets then you realize how fast that money is spent and that there really isn’t as much as I originally thought. I always understood that as a teacher you wanted to effective and you wanted to be efficient. When the realization of the budget set in, I truly understood WHY you want to be effective and efficient. In businesses they always talk about profit margin and that is what we are trying to get to in our classrooms as we use technology (and other resources). We want to create that most bang for our buck in our classrooms and schools so we look for the most effective ways we can implement technology because it needs to be incorporated into our classes or our students will be at a HUGE disadvantage when they enter into the workforce.

Resources:

 

      Hall, D. (2008). The technology director\'s guide to leadership . Eugene, OR: ISTE.

      Picciano, A. G. (2011). Educational leadership and planning for technology. Prentice Hall.