Blog Entries

Blog 1

Overall, my personal level of competency is pretty low in several areas. Starting out, I only checked off eleven out of the twenty- five competencies on the checklist. Coming into the course, I believe I had competency in using traditional and digital classroom technologies to support my teaching because throughout my time at Ivy Tech I have been aware that traditional and digital technology combine in the classroom to support many aspects of teaching a subjects. I can effectively use technology for communication and collaboration because we as students do that now and I have no problem reaching out to others. Technology is an aid for me as a future teacher so I know that I can use technology to manage my classroom. Using the internet for global communication and research comes naturally to me. Technology can help me support the diversity in my future classroom for many aspects. My students' safety is very important to me, and I am aware of ideas that are appropriate for my students in the classroom. These are all competencies I felt comfortable with coming into the course but I also checked off some competencies over the past two weeks.

The past two weeks I have gained some knowledge that has lead me to understand more competencies on the checklist. For example, the competencies that talks about the professional standards, I was made aware of the professional standards on the first week of class. To improve my professional productivity I can use technology I learned this through watching a video the first week of class and now I know I can do that too. Integrating technology is imperative in the classroom, I can do this now; after I read how to do so in Chapter 2 of our book. Equity is also important in the classroom and learning that I have to be fair after our reading this week ensures that I will carry this idea out. These are some of the competencies I have progressively learned the past two weeks of class.

I believe that most of my areas of confusion lies with competencies that suggestion professionalism in some manner. As a student I have not had enough experience on the professional level to be competent in these areas. The areas that I most need to improve on would be how to be aware of technology for my lifelong learning, the professional requirements and responsibilities for education, being aware of learning theories, using technology for instructional purposes, using administrative software, and the issues associated with technology. These are all areas that I truly do not feel comfortable with at all. However, I do believe that I will be able to check some of these competencies off the list by the end of the semester because I know that this class is designed around using technology as an educator. I plan to just do all of my assignments and keep up on my reading in the textbook to improve my understanding of these competencies I am uneasy about.

Blog 2

Blogs can be used to track my personal growth and development by progressively seeing how I have improved throughout all of the blog posts. I can also go back and read my older work to see my common mistakes. Blogs can be a valuable tool for the classroom because students can reflect and express their feelings about a subject to their peers. Their peers can comment on the student's blog and this might spark conversations. Social bookmarking as a tool for professional networking is great because teachers can bookmark a useful link for their fellow teachers to see. Social bookmarking in the professional world allows many teachers to provide help for other teachers. Social bookmarking can be a useful tool in the classroom because students can bookmark links that a fellow student could use for information in the future. They are great in the classroom because students can help each other find ideas or projects by bookmarking it.

Session six really opened my eyes to meeting the needs of individual students because not every child has the same needs as another child. Every child is at their own skill level and should be treated as such. In order to meet the individual needs of students, a teacher has to look at each student's needs separately. Technology can enhance the learning of kids with special needs by improving their skills overall. Students can talk to a computer and tell the computer what their wish to say; the computer will in turn type what the student says. Students can also use an auto summarize tool found in a Word-like program to understand a story if they are having a difficult time reading it. Kidspiration allows students with special needs to make concept maps with just pictures instead of words; this may be easier for special needs students to get an idea of a topic. Some touchscreen computers are useful for students with special needs because they may have a hand problem that will prevent them from typing; they can instead click on something using the touchscreen.

Blog 3

Academic software is software packages that enrich the teaching and learning environment for teachers and students. This type of software may include: desktop publishing, graphics, reference, tutorials, drill- and- practice, educational gaming, simulations, authoring systems, special needs, and integrated learning systems software. On the other hand, productivity software is software that is used for the business side of teaching. Productivity software helps educators with administrative and professional task. Academic software differs from productivity software because it is intended for both the teachers and students. Productivity software differs from academic software in the sense that it is used primarily for the teacher's administrative duties. I would definitely say that some areas and applications overlap. For instance, productivity software includes Word processors, Excel spreadsheets and even PowerPoint presentations; academic software although different from productivity software has a form of Microsoft office visual software. Academic software is more focused on making letters and flyers (the visual side) but productivity software presentations also have PowerPoint which can have graphics and visual aids.

Integrated software packages such a Microsoft Office can truly help with a teacher’s productivity for non- learning tasks. Microsoft Office has many programs that can help with non- learning tasks such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Publisher. In Word there are templates that either teaches or students can pick from for purposes inside but also outside of the classroom. PowerPoint presentations also have templates of set design backgrounds that can be used for a certain topic whether it is for a science fair project or for a short visual slideshow for friends. Excel can be used to create of manage the amount of money or bills that a teacher or parent might have to pay each month. Publisher can be used to make flyers for a lemonade sale or a lost animal outside of school. All of these programs can be greatly used productively both inside and outside of the classroom.

There are many applications in Microsoft Office that can aid in student learning. Such applications may be the templates I mentioned earlier which can be used for a starting point for a project. Excel can be used by students to help them see how their grades are figured by the teacher. PowerPoint is a great application that really allows students to include useful information but also pay around with effects. Publisher can help a student learn how say a traveling agency would make a brochure or a flyer. Microsoft Office applications can really promote learning for students of all ages.

So far in the course, I have learned about Microsoft Office more recently, smart boards, screen magnification software, word prediction software and even concept mapping software. Smart boards can now be used in classrooms when a teacher is say doing math. A student can come up and solve a problem and the teacher can print out the student’s answer for them. Screen magnification software is used for students that have vision problems; this software enhances the size of a set of text that a child is trying to read. Word prediction software is a type of software that is used primarily for students with special needs or that struggle with typing/reading. This type of software really allows students to type sentences based on the curriculum they are learning that week. Concept mapping software such as Inspiration or Kidspiration allows students to create charts or maps that express what they are currently learning in class. There are many curriculum related software that we have studied during this semester.

Blog 4

I have gained quite a bit of skills throughout the semester and after taking this course I am more aware of how to implement technology in my classroom. I would say that after this class I have several areas that I am competent in as far as technology goes. I feel as if I meet all the parts and am most competent in the facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity standard. I feel as if I can use my own knowledge to advance student earning, creativity, and innovation in several subject areas. I also rated standard three, which is modeling digital-age

work and learning with fours or fives. I feel as if I can competent in this area because I know that I can come up with new ideas that I can use in my classroom in a global and digital society.

I also have several missing components from a few of the standards that I need to work on. In standard two, I need to work on achieving competency in form various forms of assessment and using the data to inform learning and teaching. The reason why I need to work on this part of standard two is because I have little experience using the resulting data from an assessment with students and I know that with experience I will gain proficiency. I also need to work on promoting and modeling digital etiquette in the fourth NETS-T standards. The reason I know I need to work on this is because I have yet again not had to really submit or model digital etiquette to my own class; this can be improved by practice. The final skill that I need to improve on is exhibiting leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion. I sometimes find it hard to take a leadership role if I am not completely comfortable with using a new technology. I can improve on this skill by learning more about technology and putting myself in situations where I have to be a leader.

I have several strategies that I will using to enhance my skills I need to work on and continue my lifelong learning about educational technology. I will follow the above mentioned strategies to enhance my skills as far as the standards go. I plan to continue my lifelong learning about educational technology by going to meetings that my school or district holds when I am a teacher. I also plan to research and ask for help about any technology that may be useful in my classroom. Also, I plan on going to the NMC horizon report website to look at new technology that are coming out. Hopefully, I will continue my lifelong learning in educational technology by using these strategies.