Make up for September 14th

Well, I spent part of my break catching up on the class I missed back in September. The beginning consisted of a pictionary game, which was quite fun to watch. Then, the class separated into groups to discuss how this class addresses diversity. It is unfortunate though, that spectators cannot listen to the group discussions, because it would definitely have been an interesting conversation. Luckily though, I was able to scroll through each group's whiteboard and from what I saw, there seemed to be an overall concensus that EDFN 302 caterers to the learning needs of all students, and does not discriminate against learning styles, experience, and so forth. For myself, I think that Lee has provided us with a variety of learning opportunities and has also made herself available to help those who may not have as much experience with technology. As a future teacher, I need to be aware of my own opinions and thoughts about disabilities and remember that inclusion is a practice that all schools have to participate in due to IDEA and I need to be prepared to teach to a diverse group of children. After this discussion, there was time spent talking about technology tools and how teachers could incorporate them into the classroom, a topic that has continued to be important throughout the semester.

Reflection on Damon's presentation

I found Damon's presentation valuable, because he provided a group of future teachers with a list of open technologies and tools that do not require payment to use(or install) them; a very handy feature for the money conscious. Some of the ones I had never heard of before were Twiddla, etherpad, evernote, and ustream.tv. All of them sounded very interesting and useful both in and outside the school community.
After class on Monday, one of the primary questions I developed from his talk, is what is the technology basis that ASD uses and provides for their teachers and students to use? I know that they use Mac computers, but what else do they offer? Are children living in rural Alaska obtaining better technological services simply because the district up there has to contend with distance? I believe we heard a little bit about the Bering Strait School District technology budget being conservative, however, now I am even more curious as to what ASD is doing to prepare the next generation in the various forms/tools available to them. I think that it would be helpful to hear from someone representing ASD, since that is the district I believe most of us will be working with.

Following again

This week, David wrote briefly about several schools whose teachers and students are being used as laboratories to test on how to improve teacher qualities. Although the results most likely won't be posted for quite some time, David asks his readers what sort of qualities we think a successful teacher needs to have; so here is my list of top ten teacher qualities in no particular order:
1. Love being around children
2. Enjoy learning
3. Flexible
(The first two were first revealed to me in EDFN 300 and I completely agree with Dr. M :)
4. Patience
5. Communication
6. Culturally responsive
7. Accepts children for who they are
8. Upholds the ethical standards of the field
9. Self aware
10. Open mindedness

If anyone has anything else they would like to add to list, feel free to do so; I'm sure we could spend hours discussing what qualities a teacher should have. :)

Another 2 cents

So this week, David discussed a school in Canada, that is experimenting with adding a school wide wi-fi system. The only problem with this, is how do teachers/administrators monitor what the children are viewing and if they access inappropriate material, is the school responsible for any harm or harassment that is a potential result of inappropriate sites. I think that computers in the classroom can be beneficial, but only if it they are needed for research or an assignment. Simply having a computer in class is NOT appropriate, because, let's be honest, how many college students who bring their laptops are actually focused on what the professor is saying the whole time? If adult students have a difficult time staying on task, how much more difficult will it be for an impulsive high school or younger student to use the technology appropriately.
As for liability, I think that the administrators should have the ability to block obscene or social networking sites that should not be accessed during school hours. This made me think of the schools creating an intranet, which can be accessed only by those with a code/ID and then the sights can be monitored and the children's safety and security protected. Overall, I like the idea, there are just several kinks that need to be worked out.

2cents-Following

A quick summary of David's post this Saturday: We learned to read, because it is a part of our life; we needed to be able to read to pass the tests, take in knowledge, and function. The same philosophy should be applied to the use of technology. Students will not be fluent, unless technology becomes a part of their everyday lives. They need to incorporate technological literacy into classroom life, they way educators expected children to learn to read. This also reminded me of the idea of 'use it or lose it', because it is much easier to comprehend an idea or how to do something if one continually applies it, rather than only using it in the classroom. If a student never uses a computer outside of school, how is he/she going to be fluent in it?

Review October 12th

To summarize and finalize the discussion on 'what teachers should know', I spent some time viewing the discussion I missed on October 12th. It was interesting to go back and listen/read what people thought was important on that day, versus what we talked about later. The list of what teachers should know, simply grew and grew, which from my perspective was quite intimidating. However, as I read through the list, I realized that most of my experience is with the internet features and most of the programs listed. The one area I feel rather weak is, is trouble shooting and I realize now how frustrating and helpless a person can feel if they don't know how to fix or use something. In addition, not knowing where to find the different pieces that create the computer's shell is also something, I feel teachers should know. I also liked the definition of hardware versus software, because I wasn't aware that there was even a difference. Now I know that hardware, includes things that I can touch, for example a memory card; software, are the operating programs that I cannot touch, such as powerpoint.
To conclude, despite our further discussions that I was able to participate in, I found that there were some colleagues who believed that teachers should know more or about most of the features of a computer; there was no agreement between us as to what we should, as future teachers, be expected to know and teach the children. Regardless of the fact that there is no set amount of knowledge we should have; all of us agreed that we should know our resources and know who to go to when we need assistance.

Standard Review

After reviewing the NETS-T 2008 standards, I would have to say that overall we seem to meeting them; we have spent an especially large chunk of time establishing Digital Citizenship and the Professional Growth and Development, and the others have been touched on and I believe we will continue to do so. What I especially enjoy, is that although we are learning how to use many of these technologies for the first time, at least for myself, we are still given opportunities to be creative with them. For example, the digital citizenship wikis were all very different from each other and people were able to practice using all of the tools, because our professor set no restrictions on what we could do, expect provide the appropriate information. Everything else was subject to the author and could be displayed, or not, as he/she pleased. Overall, I think we are heading on the right track, despite the bumps in the road that come from not being able to meet face to face in the classroom.

Assitive Technology 2

As I did my research of assistive technology, I googled the term with a + Alaska and discovered that there is an entire site that represents the presence of available assistive technology services here in the state of Alaska. The company is called Assistive Technology of Alaska (ATLA) and there site offers insight into the various disabilities and their potential needs, along with links that provide educators/families access to used material for sale. They also provide classes and trainings to provide additional information on the topic, so that consumers will be informed buyers. I was pleased to see that they did not endorse any particular brand, but rather wanted their customers to be informed about the variety of services, programs, and devices offered. When I was in Arkansas for a semester I was able to listen to a presentation by one of their local Assistive technology experts and it was amazing the types of programs they offered to the public. I think that assistive technology really goes to show how important it is for teachers to realize that virtually all students have the capacity to learn.