9/30

The website www.atomiclearning.com was very interesting. First of all, it's really cool that a website even exists like that. That could be really helpful when trying to figure out a specific feature of a program, or even just wanting to explore all the programs' features to their fullest potential. When I am not sure how to work a certain feature, or not sure if there is a way to perform a certain function, the only aid I was aware of before now was the "Help" option, which I usually find to be completely useless. This website is a great resource for learning the ins and outs of programs, whether they are programs you already use but are unaware of some of the capabilities, or learning a program from scratch that you have never seen before.

One of the programs I explored was PhotoShop. I do not own PhotoShop but one of my hobbies is photography, so I am always interested in new ways to tweak photos to improve them or do other artistic things with them. There is currently a free Google program called Picasa that I use for this, but it has very limited abilities. I noticed that it gave you the basic how-to of each individual feature. The objection I had to to it, however, was that it didn't show you how these features would look on an actual photograph. They demonstrated the functions on a small graphic in the center of the screen and the tutorial seemed more like Microsoft Paint than a supposedly advanced system. I think I would have learned more simply playing around with the program hands-on than learning step-by-step how to use each tool. However, I recognize that this is one complaint for a visual program such as Photoshop. When I looked at the features for Microsoft Word, Excel, and Access, it worked much better and the tutorials were much more informative. With processing tools such as these, a step-by-step tutorial is much more helpful.

During class, one of the topics that interested me was when we brought up the science tools that had functions such as taking temperature, that would then load the information onto your computer and form a chart or graph for you immediately. An excellent point was brought up that with tools such as these, kids never learn how to make the charts or graphs themselves! Not only should the kids learn how to do it on Excel or Word, they should learn how to draw them and manually map them out. Even if more efficient ways are available, kids should be learning the basics as well.

In class last week, one of the things that was mentioned is the online magazine Edutopia. I have looked through this magazine and browsed some of the articles. The one that I found particularly interesting as well as personally helpful was the "Ask Ellen" article, giving advice to a first-year teacher beginning in an urban school. She advised things such as taking extra time to familiarize yourself with the school's curriculum and standards, seeking out help and ideas from fellow colleagues, and reaching out to the families of students to share your plans, hopes, and anticipations for the upcoming school year. I found this article very re-assuring, particularly the fact that the person who asked for the advice in the first place seemed just as anxious about beginning teaching as I am!

In Chapter 3 of the textbook, five different "categories" of educational software was explained (in an obscene amount of depth), including a detailed explanation of how the programs worked, how to best use them in the classroom, their benefits and drawbacks, and how to select the best ones to use in teaching. The category that I focused most on was drill-and-practice, because as a foreign language teacher I feel that this type of programming will prove most helpful/effective in vocabulary building, verb conjugation, etc. I definitely intend to use this type of program in my future classroom. In fact, I have already found online quiz sites that allow teachers to make up quizzes for their students to take either during class or for homework. They then allow the teacher to see the results which allows for the option of counting it as a grade. The book explained that the immediate feedback a student receives from these types of programs is much better than the feedback they receive from homework, which can take days or weeks for teachers to grade and return. By that point, they may have thought they were doing something correctly for an entire week, and then get the homework back and realize they have no grasp whatsoever of the concept. I have definitely experienced this problem in high school, and I would have benefitted greatly from this type of software.

Simulations is something I remember using in elemetary school: mainly SimCity and Oregon Trail. I don't know if there are any programs available for foreign language education that include simulations like these, but you never know. This is another type of program that I think could prove very useful, should it exist.

Chapter 2

While reading Chapter 2, the part that struck me the most was the list of ways that technology can aid learning. The book mentioned so many different advantages that technology can have in the classroom to meet each individual student's needs. What was most interesting was the range of ways in which this was possible. It could be beneficial to a student who is having a lot of difficulty keeping up with a class, as well as a student who is so far above the level that they feel bored with a class. It facilitates group work as well as facilitating each individual's intelligences and personal strengths. It is useful for introducing new concepts as well as reviewing previous concepts. Virtually any aspect of the classroom can use technology, and its versatility is what makes it so beneficial no matter what subject, group of students, teacher, or school system it is incorporated into. In my Teaching Methods class I have been researching web lessons to begin to formulate ideas for creating my own lesson plans. The lesson plans that teachers have recently posted on the web almost always include technology in some way, because it is such a useful tool.

First day of MD300

The topic we discussed in class today that most interested me was the fact that we would be going on school visits to see first-hand what technology integrated into education looks like and how it can help students in their learning. I came from a high school where we often took trips to the computer lab for papers, presentations, research, etc., and just as I was leaving they began to incorporate laptops into the classroom. As of now, they are used in the classroom and returned at the end of the period, rather than remaining in the students' possession. I would love to see how laptops provided by the school for the students for an entire year can aid the learning process. I also found it interesting how young the children were that Professor Grignano worked with in the technology field. 3rd graders using the internet, Powerpoint, and other technology to aid their learning is extremely interesting.