Blog Post 5: Driving Questions Answered

Why should teachers use technology to communicate with students, parents, and peers?
1.Teachers should use technology to communicate with students, parents, and peers because it is extremely efficient. As long as the person is familiar with the interface, questions can be asked and answered in under five minutes, even from hundreds of miles away! In college and in the real world, students are going to be expected to be able to communicate effectively via technology. Teachers can set an example of what this effective communication looks like.

Which technology tools have the greatest potential to improve communication between teachers and others?
2. I believe email and blogging have the greatest potential to improve communication between teachers and others. As of right now, most adults are familiar with email and able to use it proficiently. Blogs are not difficult to navigate if they are created well.

How do these tools improve communication?
3. Technology allows teachers to reach out to students, parents, and peers when they are not able to be in their physical presence. Whereas sending notes home can be somewhat unreliable, email ensures successful delivery. It also allows the person to reply at their earliest convenience without having to worry about the time it takes for the information to be returned. Websites and blogs are easy places for parents to visit when they have questions and a great place to showcase student work.

This Youtube video does a great job of explaining the importance of technology in the classroom.

Blog Post 4: In Defense of Gadgets

Ten gadgets are currently operating on this blog, each of which was chosen to enhance a visitor's experience. At first, a ten gadget requirement seemed excessive, but after exploration, I realized many can be very helpful. The gadgets found to the right of this post and below are:
1. Profile (About Me) 
2. Pages
3. Blog Archive 
4. Poll - this poll allows readers to participate and share their feelings on technological tools within the classroom. From the data, I can recognize themes that my readers would like to see more posts about. I could post research and articles backing up or contradicting the majority.
5. Technology News - this gadget posts up-to-date titles and descriptions from Cnet news articles about technology.
6. Education News - this gadget posts up-to-date titles and descriptions from Education Week news articles.
7. Visitor Worldmap - many of Plugged In's blog posts explore issues regarding access to technology. This gadget displays the location of all site visitors across the globe. 
8. Google Translate - this gadget allows visitors to view all blog content in the language that is most comfortable to them, making the information accessible and relevant to more people.
9. Tech Dictionary - many terms used in blog posts and news articles may not be part of the everyday language of visitors. This tool allows them to search the internet for technological terms they are unfamiliar with.
10. Search this Blog

Sustainability

Today, our class discussion revolved around sustainable technology and the disparities in funding that exist. Mrs. Langston put together a slide show of thought-provoking images about the topic. Each student then added their own comments to the slides.

Technology: Yay or Nay?

Accountability: Does technology in education HELP, HURT, or BOTH?

click image to enlarge

Blog Post 3: Blogs That Work, Blogs That Don't

I performed a Google search for “4^th Grade Class Blog” and was given 3,880,000 results. I honestly just chose random blogs from the first results page to evaluate. I explored Mr. O’Brien’s 4^th Grade Blog and found that it “works.”  I recognized the Blogger icon and realized the blog was created using the same website as our Educational Technology blogs. Mr. O’Brien chose to stick with a template blogger provided and I couldn’t see many alterations from the original layout. This ensured that fonts worked well together, background colors meshed, and the layout was simple and effective. The blog is very easy to navigate. The week’s announcements and lesson plans are posted on the left and all links are on the right. Each lesson plan is supplemented with several videos. These include interviews about the subject studied and short informative pieces created by students around the world. If I were a parent, I would enjoy watching these and learning a bit about what my child is studying. I could gather some information and then ask my child more questions about the subject. A link list to the left is titled, “What We Are Studying Now.” It lists a learning theme, like Probability BBC, and acts as a hyperlink to a website where the theme may be practiced, either through online games or short tutorials. There is also a link list that includes resources like Online Thesaurus and Create a Graph. I think that all links provided are relevant and helpful for both students and parents. Links to homework assignments, spelling lists, and student work are also provided. I didn’t appreciate the Live Traffic Feed Gadget. This showed the number of site visitors and their locations. While this may be interesting to the teacher, it is not important for parents and students to view and takes up space where other valuable information could be posted.

Mrs. Ponsart’s 4^th Grade Blog didn’t work. The background is appealing and the layout is simple and easy to navigate. Why then, does the blog not work? It is lacking in content. The only posts seem to be creative writing prompts. I’m not sure if they actually are creative writing prompts, because the blog does not have an introductory message to new visitors or any summary of assignment requirements. Students have posted responses to prompts, and maybe that is its soul purpose, but it is not explained. The blog doesn’t possess any links to other information sources or documents. I feel there is so much more information that this teacher could be presenting. Even a monthly update about important dates would add to the content.

The Digital Divide

1. There are those who believe access to technology and/or the Internet is not a fundamental right of all people. Why would someone take this position?

2. Do you agree or disagree with the idea of a "digital divide?" What evidence do you have to support your position?

3. Should disinterested people without access be "dragged" into the 21st century?

Blog Post 2: Esponsibility

I do think it is fair to scrutinize teachers’ private lives that they display in public. Teachers are community members that represent the school system they work for, the community itself, and the values they are trying to instill in their students. This representation does not end once they step outside of the school. Furthermore, teachers are always on duty when it comes to mandatory reporting and handling emergency situations that arise. This constant responsibility requires a professional manner in every public setting. As teachers, we will spend up to eight hours a day working with young, impressionable children. The job requires trust and trust is earned through our behavior both in school and out of school. That being said, public is public. I believe that a person’s own living room that lies behind closed doors, and their online accounts only accessible by close friends, are not public. This boundary is a hard line to draw, which is why it should be tread carefully and all efforts to ensure limited access to both places need to be taken. Any time a student, parent, or professional colleague enters either of these areas, they become public once more.

Social networking sites are convenient when it comes to keeping in touch with old friends and family members far away. They can actually be incredible tools. A teacher who is friends with her peers from her education program can post questions regarding, for example, curriculum choices, and receive responses from dozens of sources within a short period of time. Teachers who choose to use this tool, however, should remain cautious because the Internet is a place where the feeling of anonymity is largely false. We leave digital footprints wherever we travel and whatever we post. Teachers should make these footprints as difficult to follow as possible. They should NEVER accept students, parents of students, or even faculty members they are not close with, as their friends on these sites. They must ensure all settings are set to “View only by friends.” Also, care must be taken to refrain from posting things that could later be used against them. This may be difficult to foresee, but teaching requires good judgment and this is another time it must be utilized.

Blog Post 1: Tech History

I grew up in an extremely rural town in Southeastern Oregon. There were few technological resources available to students and the ones that were offered were very outdated. In fifth grade, we learned to play the Oregon Trail Game on the oldest Apple computers. In 7th grade each student took a mandatory typing class. In most of my high school classes, we used the computer labs to write papers and for state testing. I became involved with the yearbook and was able to use one of the two nice, up-to-date computers the school owned to edit pictures and design pages. An Econ class used an online learning and testing program and an Accounting class allowed me to learn the basics of Excel and Quickbooks. It was not until my Senior year of high school, when I bought a laptop to bring with me to college, that I really began to explore computers and use them efficiently. When I came to college, I noticed that almost every teacher lectures using Powerpoint. In my high school, the biggest piece of technology used was the overhead projector.

If I were to begin teaching tomorrow, I would utilize many technological tools. When it was appropriate, I would use Powerpoint to present lectures. This way, I could show the class many pictures and video clips to supplement the main ideas presented. To communicate with parents, I would use email. I would try to meet a parent in person before emailing them, but I feel many issues could be resolved quickly through this form of communication. Both the parent and teacher can  choose convenient times to respond and issues can be addressed immediately without papers getting lost. I would not only communicate with my parents through email, but also through a class blog. It is so convenient to have all information about your class (assignments, grades, announcements) in one place. Parents can also consult the blog if they have questions before they send you an email. Maybe their question can be answered without even communicating with you directly! It is important to be aware that not all families have direct access to computers. Because of this, I would make sure that paper copies of every announcement, assignment, midterm grade check, etc were available. Those who wished to bring them home to their parents could do so.

Edst 220 Driving Questions

1. Why should teachers use technology to communicate with students, parents and peers?
2. Which technology tools have the greatest potential to improve communication between teachers and others?
3. How do these tools improve communication?