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/