Blog Post #2

Article: How Can We Embed Digital Literacy into the classroom? (Purposeful Technology)

I.               Summary of the article highlighting main ideas

• Technology is an advantage in the classroom because it motivate students, reaches students of various learning styles, and it allows students to create and design their own unique product.
• Teachers will try to promote higher order thinking skills in their students by incorporating digital-age literacies and technology into lessons and activities.
• Common Core State Standards (CCSS) encourages technology use in classrooms because students need to explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing.
• In all grade levels, a standard exists where students need to use technology (digital tools).

II.              3 Discussion Questions

1.     What are some advantages of using technology in the classroom?

2.     What are some types of digital-age literacies that we can apply in our lessons?

3.     How can I promote digital literacy, higher order thinking, and construction of meaning in my classroom?

III.            Personal Reflection

As I was reading this article, I was able to reflect on how I was teaching as to using technology in the classroom. First of all, teachers nowadays have to supervise for different clubs, activities, and attend PDs and meetings. I was able to think about how I create lessons and activities to promote digital literacy, higher order thinking, and construction of meaning in my classroom.  I would love to try using the SMARTboard (interactive whiteboard). I have tried using the Smartboard when I was student teaching at Garapan Elementary School. Students were able to play various interactive games on different topics. Students were motivated and engaged throughout the lesson. I also had students film there role-play/skit about a topic and they had to present it to the whole class. Students had fun at the same time they learned a lot. That is why I chose to take this course because it will help me use technology in the classroom more often. I now learned how to use screencast and I look forward to use it in my classroom. I am excited to learn more programs, softwares, and websites so that I will be able to use what I learned in my classroom. 

Blog Post #1

1. What is a blog?

A blog is a regularly updated website or web page. It can be run by an individual or small group which can be written in an informal or conversational style. An individual or small group can add new material to or regularly to update a blog. 

2. What is the purpose of a blog?

The main purpose of blogs are to share your ideas and knowledge with the world. Blogging is totally free, so you can express your ideas and thoughts, to connect with other people, and to stay active and knowledgeable .

3. How can you use this in your official capacity? (teacher)

As a teacher I can use blog to accommodate all learners (probably upper grade students) by using blogs as a classroom management tools such as posting class requirements, homework, handouts, and more. I can also use blog as a discussion board to collaborate with their peers. Students can also use the blogs to create a student portfolio to present, organize, and protect their work as digital portfolios. 

For example, I created my first blog when I was a student at NMC taking Education Technology class which was ED480. We had to do all our homework online and post it on our blog. We had to collaborate with other students by creating iMovie, and a video about using prezi. I also created a student portfolio when taking this class. We made a weebly to create an online student portfolio then we post it on our blog. 

4. What are the benefits and drawbacks of a blog?

Benefits of a blog: You can share your knowledge with other people , you can collaborate with people by getting positive feedbacks, and you can build yourself to become a better writer. 

Drawbacks of a blog: Most people are unable to write in a clear manner, it is easy to start but hard to maintain, it is time consuming, and most blogs are not updated time to time.

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47 I used this website to find out how to use blogs to integrate technology in the classroom. 

Week 14 (Prezi)

ed 480 on Prezi

1. Our presentation was about Tablet PCs and PDAs. 

a. We researched the advantages and disadvantages of each and how these can be used in the classrooms. We used Prezi for our presentation. It was my first time using Prezi so it was hard for us at first to put things where we wanted it to be. It kept on zooming so I was frustrated at times. 

b. 9 We basically had all the information, pictures, and how it can be used in the classroom. We followed the rubric that was provided. 

c. If I had to do it again I would make our presentation more interactive and creative. 

d. Using Prezi was frustrating at first but it was fun and interesting to see presentations with this software rather than using the powerpoint. At first it wasn't user friendly because I had a hard time trying to put things where I wanted it to be. It kept zooming in but later on I figured out how to put textbox or words in the designated place. I would try it use this software again when doing presentations in the classroom. I have seen classmates from ED 480 use this software in other Education classes. One of the challenges was when adding pictures to the slides it didn't look nice when moving from one slide to the other. So we had to think of where exactly we wanted each picture to be and how it would look when moving from one slide to the other. Basically it was difficult for us to use this software, and for first time users they would most likely have a hard time using prezi. 

e. I would use this in my future classroom not all the time but several times just to show the students that there are other ways to do a presentation rather than using the powerpoint. 

Blog Entry Weebly

1. Describe the assignment.
This assignment was for us to create an account on weebly in order for us to create an online portfolio.
It had to have the Home, Experience, Education, Skills & Awards, Hobbies & Interests, References, and the website to Blog ED 480.

2. What are the benefits of having an online portfolio?
The benefits of having an online portfolio is that people can just easily access it online. They can see your background information and personal experiences easily since it's already organized online.

3. What are the features you liked about the weebly site?
I liked how we can change the designs. There were so many designs to pick from. I was also able to change the fonts for just the title, or the text and the sub-headings. It was also nice to be able to add pictures together with some text.

4. What were the challenges?
Since we did not graduate and have teaching experiences it was difficult to input information for that sections. I wanted to put some high school graduation pictures but I wasn't able to find them. Overall, it was fun! :)

5.) How would you use weebly in your future classroom?
As most of the Education classes use weebly, I may use it for posting homeworks, assignments, projects, and links to videos that students can watch or even if students are at the level, ask students to post projects so that everyone else in the class may be able to see it without student actually brining in all the posters and pictures.

Weebly

Week 7 (i-movie)

1.) Describe your assignment.
Our assignment was to come up with an educational invention or device which can be used in the classroom. We decided to come up with a pen called AA pen. This is called Academic Amazing Pen. Basically the device is whenever students use it, it instantly transfers to the teacher's computer. This would be easier for the teacher to quickly see what students are writing.

2.) What features did you use in i-movie to enhance your video?
We used captions for our first part of the movie. We had different ways to show how the words will display and how it will pop up. We also found the music online and added to the video clip. We also use the microphone to record our voices, saved it, then added to the place where we wanted the voices to play.

3.) What did you like/dislike about i-movie?
I liked how we are able to edit cut out and add different parts to the video clip. I didn't really like the way how when we chose a template that we wanted to use in the i-movie, we couldn't change some words we had to just use the ones that was there. So we decided not to use that template.

4.) Would you use it in your classroom? If so, how? Give other example lessons.
Yes. I would ask students to perform or role-play a story or their favorite part of the story. I can also have students film each other like an interview having interview questions and acting it out. (The assignment can be interviewing a profession that you want to become.)

5.) How did you like using the flip-cams? pros&cons
Flip cams were helpful because we were able to use the zoom in, zoom out, and the resolution was pretty good. It wasn't as useful because the flip-cams did not have the "pause" button.

6.) Give an overall rating of this assignment.
Overall rating of this assignment would be 8 out of 10.

Week 6 (Quiz and rubric software)

In class we created an online quiz which other classmates had a chance to answer the questions. I didn't thought that this website can be used as a tool for students in the classroom. First we had to input questions and the multiple choices of answers about the sun. Then we switched with our classmates and took their quiz. This can be used in a real classroom except if it's take-home then students will cheat by having another page open and looking through or reading it again to find the answer. Other than that this is an interesting tool that teachers may be able to use integrating technology. 

Week 5 (Pixton)

In class we were introduced to Pixton. This was a site where we were able to create comics by adding characters, words, bubbles, pictures, and other elements. Our topic was about technology so our group decided to use an alien for our main character. It was a little difficult to drag things and trying to make the size the right size you want it because once you move or change the size everything follows that and changes. This is a great tool teachers can use because this can motivate students and engage students because they love comics and being on the computer. Creating comics themselves with a topic or theme given can be highly effective for they will be using their imagination and creativity. Overall, it was fun.