Final Blog Reflection

Here is the link to the blog Also here is the link to my lesson plan on the wiki.

Now for my final blog reflection. I have narrowed it down to the two most useful technologies that I will plan on using in my classroom. The first is the class website. I have been thinking about how I could create a mini-Blackboard in my own classroom: a place where I can upload assignment sheets and links. Though I would never place grades on my class website, it is a useful source for my students to have access to outside of school. I don't know how many times I forgot an assignment sheet in my locker--or even my book at school, and this website will help students be able to access any document and helpful links from their homes.

The second technology I really enjoyed was the Wiki, which I chose to explore for my Personal Technology Project. I know when I do group projects here at college, my inbox is flooded with random emails from all group members or the conversation links fill the entire page and I can't find the information or link I need. The Wiki solves all of those problems. It's efficient and easy to re-examine previously discussed topics, as well as easy for me as a teacher to see which students are participating and who is doing most of the work. And for educaitonal purposes the Wiki is free.

I would just like to end by saying that I really enjoyed this class. I learned so much about how to use technology effectively in the classroom--not just throwing in technology for the sake of having technology in the classroom. Also, it opened my eyes up to so many FREE resources we have access to as teachers. I will definitely use the things I have learned in this class in my own classroom. Thank you so much for a wonderful and educational semester!

Week 15

On my google reader I found this blog post about a technology called Tagxedo. Basically it creates takes a letter, speech or just a paragraph of written words and transforms them into a visual picture. For instance, you could take The Gettysburg address and turn it into a picture of Abraham Lincoln. This could be a fun idea to help decorate your classroom--like and English teacher could have a group of action verb create picture of a person moving/running. Or, you could take student writing--such as a poem, or essay or list of words they choose to describe a book and create a picture for them to have in their portfolio. I thought it was a pretty cool idea.



picture from tagxedo.com

Week 14: Informing Another

So I have a little brother who is seventeen years old and I decided he would be perfect for this kind of thing. First I asked him what kind of personal information he puts on the internet and then we discussed the risks of each item he listed. I talked to him about what I had learned about being able to get a one-time-use credit card number or email account. I also shared with him about the importance of not becoming consumed in cyberspace and shared with him a couple of quotes from Elder Bednar's talk. I also cautioned about identity theft and the importance of keeping parents informed of what they are doing on the internet. It was really easy because my little brother is an intelligent person and really paranoid. He already untags himself in pictures online, ignores friend requests from people he doesn't know and an email account he only gives out when websites ask him for an email address. However, he was interested in the fake email website which would be safer than a single email account that he always gives out. So overall, I felt like he learned some new things and I was able to learn a lot to prepare my little lesson to give to him.

Week 14: Becoming Informed

I was really fascinated by all of the sources I read and watched about internet safety. It really helped me reinforce the importance of teaching children internet safety as we teach them to look both ways before they cross the street. This is something that needs to be taught from a young age. I decided to post my top three favorite sources I viewed to kind of give an idea of what I learned.


Here is the link to the PBS/FRONTLINE documentary on the problems with not monitoring children and their use of the internet. I remember being in high school and junior high and finding freedom in MSN chat and myspace and other social websites, but I can see that the generation coming after me is consumed by it. It is no longer adding additional benefit to their lives--it is their lives. I hope that since I grew up with technology I will be able to monitor it a little better because I have a better understanding of technology than my parents had. The very last clip of this shows a boy who figured out the parental filters and was able to manipulate them to his advantage. I think that is a very important thing to remember--technology is not reliable and there are ways around filters. I think as a parent I will never have a computer in child's room and I will never allow my children under the age of 16 (and maybe not even until they graduate) have a smartphone with access to the internet. Also, time limits for personal computer, and monitoring of children when they are writing papers. I don't intend to sit right next to them the entire time they write their essay, but walking in and out on a consistent basis to make sure that they are writin their paper and not just surfing the internet.

http://www.ikeepsafe.org/assets/videos/?vid=fauxpaw_video

Here is a clip made by BYU to help kids understand the dangers of the internet--specifically chat rooms. I think this would be a useful video to show as a teacher--probably only to grades 8 or under because it is a little childish, but it is useful to show kids that the internet is a place where crime takes place.


Last here is a link to a talk given by Elder Bednar in a CES fireside last year. I had not heard this talk before, and was quite surprised at the bold statements Elder Bednar declares about the evils of letting technology take over our lives. I had never associated that wasting my life on line in a cyber world and not using my actual body would be offensive to the Lord. Neither had I known about the idea of living in another reality such as Second Life and creating an avatar or pseudonym that I am denying myself who I truly am and to be able to devlop. I think this is an article I would share with my children if I felt that they were wasting their life away obsessing on the internet. It is a powerful talk. Also, it discusses the benefits of the internet which is a nice way of showing our children that there are many wonderful blessings of living in an age of technology.