Internship PowerPoint May 2010

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Learning Summary

My personal goals were to learn as much as I could about digital media and use it in an educational setting. I learned about digital media and integrating it in curriculum last summer, but wanted to learn more. My professional goals are in digital media and education. For the last 5 years I have been interested in teaching how to use technology in the classroom and how it can engage the student to promote a higher level of learning.

What I knew before my first graduate course in elearning was that there are resources that can be found on the Internet for free, and can be used with curriculum. I have pretty good background knowledge for office software products because I worked as an administrative assistant for nearly 6 years and I own and use a PC and MAC.

This Course developed an understanding for promoting my skills and interests by creating media pages about my love for technology and exchanging ideas and comments with other people and teachers with the same interests through the Internet. This will also encourage teachers and technology enthusiasts to follow my technology blog. I also realized that I have to make myself visible. I learned to promote myself, my educational background and skills on an “About” Google page.

I learned new presentation software with Prezi.com, and I think I encouraged some classmates to try Picnik.com, Wordle.net, and look into how to create a webquest for the subject that they teach. I was happy to see some classmates’ digital storytelling projects and curriculum pages. They were very unique. I also relied on the support of other to help me reflect on what I could be doing better and hope I was there for my classmates too.

I think we accomplished more than we thought we could as our projects integrated into a bigger project. I am glad to have a permanent record of the Curriculum Wikipage, Prezi presentation, Slideshare, blog and "About" page. Preparing artifacts and reflections in a portfolio gave me a chance to look for my best work and tie it to technology standards for a final project.

I do regret the portfolio wasn’t portable as a standalone product like rcampus.com or foliospaces.com, but I am sure Dr.K. is on it for next semester.
I have attached a Wordle poster of some topics and words and phrases from this semester. –Janet

Please comment.

Curriculum Page Launched

http://pointofinstruction.pbworks.com/w/page/38238654/Course:-Computer-Applications-in-Business-2

AR7 It's Never Too Late for a Good Rubric Lesson

Rubrics are not my cup of tea. I started a project similar to my digital storytelling book on a webquest website called, www.zunal.com almost a year ago, but STOPPED in my tracks trying to create a good assessment tool. I have many resources whether on the web or from previous classes like a curriculum and assessments class I took last year, but still STOPPED in my track. I even hold onto simple rubrics from my kids’ projects that I like or that could be useful for business education projects. I like anything Kathy Schrock, looked through her links for collaboration, web rubrics, ed tech, there is so much. So I had to do some research, more or less, let it all soak in to work with knowledge I already have about assessments. I looked at my Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy, which charts key terms in the cognitive domain and references them to verb or doing terms.

http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom's+Digital+Taxonomy#Synopsis:-Bloom's Digital Taxonomy - Quick Sheets.

I wrote down all the standards for the project and tried my best to connect them with the cognitive domain. I also wrote down SWBAT, which means Students Will Be Able To… and referenced the curriculum framework for Computer Applications in Business 2, for what the students will be able to do, called the benchmarks or outcome. I created a rubric for the group and individual projects.
This was not only a reflection for a project, but my reflection to post my rubric to my Zunal page before it is too late. When I do I will post the link here on 21st Century technology Talk.

AR 6 Digital Storytelling Project

Involving students in projects is a student-centered learning activity and a great return on our investment as educators. Whether called a webquest or a digital storytelling project, it uses guided resources on the World Wide Web for an organized scavenger hunt. Dr. K. said it; if tomorrow’s workers will be evaluated on actual performance, then why are today’s students continually evaluated with tests? I am a graduate from UCF in the Technical Education and Industry Training program and I have been taught that we learn by doing. I do not want to quote what material is chosen for the FCAT exam and why, but to say what I think I know is the FCAT bases its material on critical thinking skills pulled from career development. Watching Dr. Gunter ‘s video was awesome. Thinking out-of-the- box and having her students interact with the environment , solve problems, and then follow the trash had a huge impact on the students. As stated in the textbook for this graduate course curriculum pages used well will provide valuable information that is relevant to your lesson. Creating a student example is a very comprehensive way to see how structured the curriculum page activity was. Completing our curriculum page and student example of a digital storytelling project was a long journey. Proudly, I say this at 11:10 PM, Friday night.

Digital storytelling_EME 5050

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AR 5 Curriculum Pages

Now let’s see, in the last 10 months I have created a webquest at the end of my internship in July 2010-still to be published. I created a webpage for my Adult Education Computer Lab students. This page has resources for basic education in mathematics, and language. I created an “About Me” page using a Google Profile and revised my technology blog that I wasn’t keeping up with until now.

These activities have worn out my fingers and brain.

Now it’s time for me to create a wiki curriculum page. I am exhausted. Wouldn’t you think the self-paced training I attended last summer for a Learning Management System called “Desire 2 Learn” at Daytona State College would get me ready for this curriculum page. It is all coming back to me. The reason colleges use LMSs is to give teachers a new way to present specific curriculum objectives and relevant material to students in a more visual and immediate way. Both face-to-face and online instructors can use this form multimedia for teaching. We learned that technology integration also called curriculum integration is the combination of all technology parts (Teaching Discovering, Computers: Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom; Shelly, Cashman, Gunter, Gunter).

My curriculum page is called, “point of instruction”, meaning putting students in the computer lab and technology at the teachers’ and students’ fingertips (Teaching Discovering, Computers: Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom; Shelly, Cashman, Gunter, Gunter).

Before I creating my curriculum pages I made a sketch of the widgets, listing the categories for Computer Applications of Business. I associate the curriculum page to the LMS I learned and still need to organize the information better. That is what is also great about technology at is at your fingertips. You can edit, edit, edit and tomorrow edit some more. I am looking forward to exercising and stretching for my figures and brain more while working on this activity. And think about how I will develop this into a digital storytelling project.

http://pointofinstruction.pbworks.com/w/page/38238654/FrontPage

RR 5 Zany and Trendy a mixed match

Courses: Computer Applications in Business Course # 8200210

Introduction:

My students, grades 7-8, will be collaborating on a digital storybook project using the artwork they created for their Trendy and Zany business brochures about a Popular, Successful and Trendy business. These brochures tell the story of its success, pictures or images are used from the business website and clip art/Gif files. For the brochure, FREE interactive websites such as; Picnik, Wordle, or Dabbleboard are used to design or redesign/recompose images and photos, create posters, and to help display images and photos in their brochure and then in the digital storytelling project.

Key Terms: collaborating, researching, analyzing, creating, engaging, comparing, presenting

Task: Students will research trendy companies on the internet that offer a service or product that is similar (ex: Toms Shoes) vs. (ex: Vans Shoes).

http://www.toms.com/our-movement http://www.vans.com/

Students will compare them using a Venn Diagram and an Excel Spreadsheet and then create a brochure using Microsoft Office Word or Publisher. When they are done, then the students will collaborate and tell the business success story using Digital Storytelling Software like Prezi or HyperStudio. Their digital storytelling project will tell the process they used to choose the business through and then tell its story with zany or recomposed images/graphic.

This project will relate to the following standards for Computer Applications in Business 2:

Develop and apply word processing skills utilizing current technology

Perform activities using the worldwide web

Develop and utilize business-related soft skills

Develop and apply spreadsheet skills

Develop and apply digital design skills

Resources:

TED Seminar Video-8 Secrets to Success -Richard St. John (4 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6bbMQXQ180

Successful Businesses http://www.ehow.com/successful-business/

Tips for Digital Storytelling: creating, timing, transitions, images, audio and video http://www.techlearning.com/printablearticle/8030

How to prepare before creating a Digital Storytelling Project http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan02/banaszewski.htm

Digital Storytelling Software: Create astonishing presentations live and on the web http://prezi.com/ HyperStudio: a powerful, educational tool for both educators and students. It allows one to easily create multimedia projects that can be used for presentations http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourFames.cgi?tour_id=14179

How to create an Excel Chart in Microsoft 2007 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/demo-create-charts-in-excel-2007-HA010200499.aspx

Upload photos from websites or from a file and edit them to create a new look. Then the edited version automatically downloads back to your computer or flash drive http://www.picnik.com/

Dabbleboard gives you drawing and graphic tools to create on a white board and you can upload images/pictures from files and then download them back to the picture file on the computer http://www.dabbleboard.com/

Create word clouds http://www.wordle.net/

A short video on creating a tri-fold brochure using Microsoft Publisher 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxgcql3dvZ4&feature=player_embedded

Short demonstration on using Microsoft Word to make a tri-fold Brochure http://www.microsoft.com/Education/themebrochure.aspx

Compare similarities and differences. Print this out or draw your own. http://www.sdcoe.net/score/actbank/tvenn.htm

AR 4- Prezi as a Teaching Tool

I started this hands-on activity for my Fundamentals of Technology for Educators course at UCF and wasn’t sure to compose a presentation for the adult learners I see every day in my computer lab or to set myself into “trainer” mode as I did for my internship this past summer.

The textbook, “Teachers Discovering Computers: Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom”, has relevant material for software products that I would really like to show in either a PowerPoint or similar presentation product and point out how important drill-and-practice software is for learning basic skills and remediation. Our students would not stick with the adult education program as well as they do without the computer lab. The relationship between video games and educational software was pointed out by Dr. James Glee how learning principles used in video games known as “social achievement skills”, are present in well developed educational games. Interactivity is one of the essential features of digital media applications.

Interactivity!

So this week the activity was to practice using digital storytelling techniques by choosing one of two free, online presentation tools and to then embed it right in our blogs. I quickly chose Prezi, a new way to create astonishing presentations live and on the web. It took me a whole afternoon to get use to it and by Friday afternoon I felt like a pro or things “All Prezi”. The content was from a Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation and workshop I held this summer. I changed it around a bit and shortened it up. I was happy to get away from PowerPoint and try a “new presentation tool” I can use professionally at a later date. I have used Zoho Show and presented it to teachers and felt a similar newest when learning Prezi. It is not the same but still different from Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. There was different preparation like loading images that were only pdf, or images. Similarities were when I download or inserted a video; I converted it to a Window Media Video File (WMV) from a larger format-Flash Video (FLV file), commonly used for YouTube videos so it would be compressed and able to insert into presentation software. I also converted any documents to the pdf format before downloading it. A lot of skill has to go into a produce like this. I also used as website called Veezzle.com that gives you rights to photos that can be used and distributed online or in your work.

So I went to town…I made it short for my own sanity… and have learned a new presentation tool that is very impressive to use as a trainer or workshop presenter. Presentation tools whether used by the teacher or student can enhance the way students learn. Being interactive helps students remember what they have learned. As a teacher, it is a very engaging tool to use, to keep content interesting and helps engage the student. This is 21st Century Learning after all.



prezi.com/ncunzriilm_c/using-prezi-as-a-teaching-tool/

Using Prezi as a Teaching Tool on Prezi

RR 4 Oh, Megabytes!

HyperStudio is a powerful, educational tool for both educators and students alike. I would like to purchase the software program as a Digital Storytelling tool. I would like to introduce it to my department; Adult Education and see if I can use it to create multimedia projects that can be used for presentations, student-learning modules, electronic portfolios, and even quizzes and tests that grade themselves (Alldredge).

This would be an effective teaching and learning tool for 21st Century classrooms.
My operating system to test this software is a laptop Toshiba Satellite T135.

Toshiba Satellite T135

The Operating System is as follows:

Operating System – Windows Vista,
Processing Speed-1.73GHz,
Memory (RAM) 2.0 GB,
Screen Resolution-1280X800
Video Card- Generic PnP Monitor on Mobile Intel(R) 945 GM Express Chipset Family
Removable Media Options: CD, DVD, Flash Drive

HyperStudio 5
The Specifications for the Software is as follows:

Minimum System Requirements:
System: Windows XP SP3 or later, Windows Vista SP1 or later and Windows 7
Processor: 1 GHz Intel or equivalent
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Video Card: 100% Direct 9.0c compatible
Display: 800X600 16- bit color
Free Hard Disk Space: 850 MB for 32-bit OS, 2 GB for 64-bit OS



I selected my Control Panel and System and Maintenance window to access all this information. I also have to think and convert at the same time. One thousand megabytes is about one Gigabyte (1000 MB=1GB). It is confusing to read the conversion from the book for this scenario so I use what I already know about Megabytes and Gigabytes. The O/S and the software requirements should give me no problem during this installation. The Laptop operates on Windows Vista which meets the minimum requirement.

The processing speed is 1.73. Memory 2.0 GB is larger than 512 MB needed for the installation. DirectX 9.0 is compliant with 128 MB RAM. My total available graphic memory is 224 MB. That will work. I can change the display size of my screen resolution to meet the software requirements. I have done this before on my MAC. The Hard Drive storage is 147 GB on the Toshiba.

Reference:
Alldredge, C. T. (n.d.). Welcome to HyperAbout Studio: Software for a MediaCentric World. Retrieved 03 04, 2011, from Hyper About HyperStudio: http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourFames.cgi?tour_id=14179

AR 3- The Invisible Woman

I went to a wonderful brunch today to celebrate volunteers in public schools. I remember the year, not too long ago where I was a recipient of one of the awards, well really I was in the photo op, but I was the author of the nomination that was selected as a district winner. So if you look closely, very closely, there I am in the back you can hardly see me there, there I am. That’s my life. Instead of me proudly standing in front proud of my volunteer team I stood in the back. The same goes for any online profile I have created. I am not a very good P.R. person for myself. So, I googled myself on a very cool website this week on an Online Identity Calculator. My name is common enough, and I am invisible enough, to not find myself. I have very well established and notable women with my namesake. If I was to be mistaken for any of them it would be a compliment. I do not have a negative profile I say and advertise very little on my Facebook account, no poor lapses of judgment with a video camera or anything distasteful.

I lack the art of positive self- promotion. I’d like to consider myself as well versed in the new generation of digital technology. I have a website for my students and any student or educator who can find it on the World Wide Web, but I need to link it to other sights so it can be found. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Connectivity! So I must start to practice what I preach.

So today I created an “About Page” using Google. com and thus creating my online identity or presence. I wrote a biography and some points of interest, professional and background information about me. Yes, me.

Professor Daniel J. Solove implied in his book “The Future of Reputation” that blogging is the rage today, that blogging is the active voice of everyday people (Solove, 2007). So if I have something to say I will say it to gain interest from others to start a conversation or discussion on education or technology in education or when adding content to my webpage that it is relevant for my students to learn from and maybe we will start a conversation. So this is my link to my very proud About Me page:

www.google.com/profiles/janabenn#about

Reference:
Solove, D. J. (2007). The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet. Caravan book.

AR 2 Blast From the Past!!!

Background:

I have taught Business Education to Adult Learners who were working towards a certificate of completion as Administrative Assistants. The book I used was, “Microsoft Office 2003”. So am I an expert? NOT AT ALL!! I knew what I know working as an administrative assistant for 6 years. Thankfully the textbook became the lesson plan and then I planned other benchmarks around it. I worked very hard to learn as I was teaching all Microsoft Office applications. I was also teaching the 2003 version when 2007 was what I had on my computer but not the school computers yet. Microsoft Access was not my thing. Actually no one I worked with was comfortable with Access. Anyway, I learned by teaching. I made a lot of mistakes in front and behind my students, but today I know Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher very well. There are many functions in these programs I rarely use or know what they are really used for, Macro is one of them. So I consider myself to have, “Knowledge of and some Proficiency” in Microsoft Office 2007.

Excel Task:

I was very comfortable working on the Excel Task this week. I did have to review “Linking Data between Workbooks”. I was glad I had my old textbook and had written on a banner on page F-7,”easier than appears”, in either 2008 or 2009. The task reminded me of a Hands-On test I would give my students. The Excel task really demonstrated how Excel a spreadsheet software application allows you to organize numeric data. The input is manual, but once it is entered you can do numerous math functions. They can be entered using Automatic or with Insert Functions. I track my finances on an Excel spreadsheet so I like to use the Insert Function. I am positive that there are some short cuts I missing, but it is easier than using a calculator or keeping a paper file. My 90 year old dad kept a paper file.

So I was OK with the task. Making the columns different colors was easy, however keeping track of the colors I used was a manual thought process. Inserting columns is easy to do I assigned grades to the Homework Column, by dragging the fill handle to increase the grade by one number in each cell then randomly mixing them up. I automatically selected the Auto Average “pulldown handle” to calculate the averages for step 3,4,and 5. The next steps I had to reread a few times and look up this information on Blackboard. I am still thinking about the Extra-Credit. Thinking is probably as far as I will get.

This task helped me experience what teachers consider when setting up a grade book. It is not only a computerized function, but also includes an important thought process from the teacher and other administrators at a school. I enjoyed this exercise.

RR 3 - My New School

Is it more unethical to deny students/teachers access to instructional-relevant Web-based tools and content than to allow threats to students/teachers like viruses, objectionable content, and hogs. The Internet is how most people get their information and resources today. A small percentage of information available on the Internet is unsuitable for children at home and at school (Shelly, Gunter, and Gunter 2010).

I believe that since the Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2002, (CIPA), most learning institutions and public libraries have implemented educational controls to block objectionable websites and pages from objectionable content.

At the college I work for, in my department, we do not block content, well actually not until earlier this month. To prevent misuse I post and reinforce our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), and observe the students working in my computer lab. So if they haven’t broken the AUP; denying students access to school computers is unnecessary. There are enough precautions a school can take to make using the web a safe and educational environment. Protecting again viruses are also a requirement for the schools to institute and apply to their computer system and to education employees and students on how viruses are received, spread, and how to prevent them. There are 12 Safe Computing Tips published by Cenage in Teachers Discovering Computers; Integrating Technology and digital Media in the Classroom, (6^th Edition) by Shelly, Gunter, and Gunter 2010, and I have heard of one more tip used by some Business Education teachers. It is asking students to bring in an empty jump drives and keeping it in school to only use on their computers in the classroom.

The technology tools in my classroom are limited, it is a computer lab so we do have computers, software and the Internet, but my job is also to make assessments on my students and how to help them focus on their class work and to make gains. A few of my students have been in the program for over a year and still are not making many gains. Thinking out-of-the-box is coming.

I am tutoring students that have few good study habits. They need to do something else to remember basic facts in reading,language arts, and basic mathematics. I am going to try to have them text themselves notes, with my supervision. Yes, I have tried this and I think it may help them move from no note taking to text note taking. I want to see more gains and using online resources and encouraging cell phone use, even setting their alarm on the phone to remind them to review their texted notes or study is a strategy I will be starting this month. Students can view their texts anywhere even around other students. It just looks like they are reading a text.

In the article “Lift the Cell Phone Ban, Craik School District in Saskatchewan, Canada has experimented with cell phone use in the curriculum. Cell phone tools like taking video have been uses to video a group of student discussions and upload it through Bluetooth for the teacher to view later. This lets her view one group and then the others through the videos. Partnerships between schools cell phone and software companies have started up to keep this type of innovation progressing in schools and have even piloted some technology to turn students’ cellphones into other software instruments they can be use in class (Rapp, 2011).

In this day of quality education, we need as much innovation as possible and supporters to continue 21st Century funding for technology and higher learning.

Rapp, D. (2011). Lift the Cell Phone Ban. Retrieved 02 10, 2011, from Scholastic: www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3751073

Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., and Gunter, R.E. (2010). Teachers Discovering Computers; Integrating Technology and digital Media in the Classroom, (6^th Edition). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning

RR.2 -The Networked Student-Connectivity

Digital Media has changed the way our children are accessing and sharing information more than they have ever done before. These are our 21st Century students, our digital natives. In the 6-8 hours they are home from school, a day in the life of a teenager may go like this.

Derek already received 10 texted messages from classmates and family. His FACEBOOK had 5 hits from friends by now who want to make weekend plans with him and his Smartphone helped get him home from a friend’s house using my GPS APP.

This is the changing face, and fast pace life of the 21st Century native. Our children, and students.

In school how do we engage our students? Educators need to embrace Web 2.0 technology.

In the video, “The Network Student”, by Wendy Drexler and CommonCraft, “connectivity” is a term that explains how these and other technologies can best be used in the classroom to not just make learning an engaging experience but makes that student part of the connection or a participant.

So do we connect or not, that is the question! I say YES WE DO!

It is as easy as 1,2,3. Most schools have computer labs and students would rather follow a virtual scavenger hunt or WebQuest to learn about presidents, NASA, theatre, history, science, economics, you name it. The student just needs a search engine like Google and sources like wiki, or Education World to get started after the topic has been created and published. They could even create a WebQuest. This is a student-centered project using a New Learning Environment incorporating new strategies, such as; Multisensory stimulation, Multimedia, collaborative work, information exchange, active based inquiry, proactive plans and real-world-context. All you need is a computer, students, and the Internet. Ok, and The Mentor, The Learning Architect, The Teacher.

So now how do we bring this learning experience of research, critical-thinking and application out of the student? Let’s say they followed the WebQuest, and learned about an important or current event in history. What can they do to Connect? With the help of their teacher or a teacher team they can create a BLOG. Say the students followed websites and webpages on a European or Eastern cultures and important events, a timeline, and people. They may be asked to start a blog, a journal format to reflect interests, opinions, and personalities of the author and sometimes site visitors, and ask students from the other country to post comments and share ideas.

This is just an example of how the traditional learning environment is not viable today for our 21st century natives. They need to connect with the World Wide Web.

Today history is being made (instantly) right in front of us, from thousands of miles away through multimedia. We are a society that receives immediate information, anytime, anywhere and it has changed us. So our children and students are changed by it and therefore it has changed the way they need to learn.

Please comment.

Must-Have Technology

READ this eSchoolnews article it is from 2/2/11

www.eschoolnews.com/2011/02/02/survey-reveals-educators-must-have-technologies/

A.R. #1 Researcher vs.Looker

Last year when I was a tutor for an elementary school servicing grades k-5, I had a resource room that had access to one online computer and an overhead project. Before the work week started, I looked for good website(s) for my lesson plans to allow for the limited time we had. Some of the websites were to enhance instruction or an interactive learning tool for the students.

I'm glad to find good resourses but, I need to be more organized to be more effective. I have websites and resources on flash drives, Diigo, Delicious, and on more than one desktop.

While home, my search usually begins with a Google search or going the Volusia County Schools homepage for educational links. In the "School" tab on top, the elementary school I worked for website includes educational links under the link for “Students”. The Google search usually located Education World in the top 5, a free online resource guide and it is always a positive experience to locate interactive games or information that I can use in a lesson.

So today I am a “Researcher”, I am taking my time to really look around educational websites. When I went to my old friend Education World, I loved their Math Machine it helps to answer questions for all different levels of math. The link is in Integrating Technology; Education World has always made it easy to put together a lesson or to increase my library for my current students adding interactive games for math and language arts. You can share the article you are reading through social bookmarking services like Diigo or Delicious or follow Education World on Facebook and Twitter.

I selected a second website and felt it was instrumental in locating resources, the websites was Pedagonet. I could really use the YouTube videos in Math Tricks. I tutor a group of 3rd graders and think math tricks are a great ice breaker when students are finding it hard to work on math or reading in an afterschool program. Other than that, I already have collected many of the resources that are on that website from other sources.

I've been on Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators before but really looked at it this time. This time I spent most of my time looking for resources for me as a teacher and student and for my students were the tabs, “Alpha Index”, and “Sites of the School Days”. This is where there are hundreds even thousands of links. There are enough to have broken links and it is no big deal.

Now that I have taken my time looking for educational websites, and bookmarking them, I hope that when I am in a rush that I stop and remember which ones can be used to help my students learn BEST through online resources and that I keep a better library where I lists my favorites.

RR 1 -“WHAT’S BEST OR MOST CONVENIENT”

Reading “the simple question” on Dr. McLeod’s blog and the short postings from educators that believe that teachers prefer to teach traditionally out of convenience. They feel there are too many risks in changing the traditional education system so they are opponents of technology in the classroom that is more relevant than using a few computers, some software and possibly an overhead projector. There is a lot of professional development involve in changing how our teachers teach. But what about the stakeholders? We owe them a generation of “technology smart” students. Learning at their full potential by using all types of technology and using creative teaching to keep them competitive in a global and progressive market.

Schools need to be prepared! All stakeholders: parents, students, teachers, administrator and the community, need to prepare for the 21st Century schools. I am not talking about one or two computers in each classroom; these are for digital dinosaurs, we need to prepare for curriculum-specific learning. Curriculum-Specific Learning requires; professional development, using technology as a productivity tool, bringing it into the classroom to your students for lessons, and for student assessments. If we want students that are learning with the 4Cs: Critical-Thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Creativity and applying our best practices, we need to speak to them using their own sound bites and at their social paces.
www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=119

In the Teacher Tube video, “Did you Know”, by Fisch and McLeod, it demonstrates that people want personal technology, cell phones, PDAs, and social networking and how it has made a HUGE impact on our society today. The way we communicate has changed, so the way we need to educate needs to change too. “Technology and digital media are everywhere and integrated into everyday aspects of individuals’ lives.”

In an article from eSchoolNews dated December 20, 2010, entitled, “Enhancing Classroom Instruction with Collaborative Technologies”, Secretary of State Ann Duncan was stated staying, “Technology presents a huge opportunity that can be leveraged in the rural communities and inner-city urban settings, particularly in subjects where there is a shortage of highly qualified teachers. Good teachers can utilize new technology to accelerate learning and provide extended learning opportunities for students.” We have to start using the technology in school that students are using to keep them engaged to make gains and progress.
www.eschoolnews.com/2010/12/20/enhancing-classroom-instruction-with-collaborative-technologies/

Apples or Oranges

Hi classmates at UCF. Since my last post in June 2010 I have graduated UCF from the Coll.of Ed.-Tech Ed. & Ind. Training with my Bachelor of Science degree and now working on my Master in Education in CTE/Elearning. I will post more on this in 2011-Happy New Year!!

Read this eSchooolNews article and tell me what your thoughts are on this.

www.eschoolnews.com/2011/01/13/putting-the-app-in-apple-does-apple-own-app-store/