Final Project: How to Integrate technology in the classroom

Final Project: How to integrate technology in the classroom

#futurePLN

         Personal Learning Networks are used to share strategies and interact with other professionals, for example teachers. Personal Learning Networks create an environment where professionals can accumulate new ideas or even share ideas to be able to expand their knowledge in their professions.
         As a future educator, I find that a personal learning network would be very helpful, especially in the world of teaching where new activities, apps and lessons ideas are being created everyday. One way I would use a personal learning network would be to utilize it for questions I may have in my first year or throughout my years of teaching. Asking questions would make it easier for my instruction so that I will be able to expand my knowledge in a topic or ask for help in a simpler way. Another way I may use a personal learning network would be to connect with individuals I maybe would not connect with. Being able to meet others with different perspectives of your own gives more insight and multiple outlooks on everything such as activities and lesson plans. I feel that seeing different perspectives on the same topic would definitely help me become a better educator. Lastly, I would use a personal learning network to be able to participate in virtual events and conferences. Being able to expand on my knowledge of what I already know would help me to grow as an educator for my students.
          A personal learning network is helpful in being able to learn new things, connect with new people and be able to be social outside of the school environment. I would definitely participate in the future.

Ruby Bridges Book Trailer

Ruby Bridges Story Board

Where Did You Go?

We were recently introduced to PowToon and Myslideshow, I loved Myslideshow and the easy way it took to create a How-To video. I created a video on two-digit division. I want the students within my future classroom to be able to be comfortable going home and doing their homework. I feel as though video and podcasts are very useful tools for at home instruction and differentiated instruction for the visual and auditory learners.

Link:

How to Divide Two-Digit Numbers

What is a flipped classroom?

Defining a flipped classroom: What does it mean?

Writing Tools

Tour of Brazil Assessment

Texting and Driving, Informing our students!

"What is the Internet Doing to our Brains"

       Even though the internet could be beneficial and is not a distraction for some people, I believe that the Internet is changing our brains. Just as Nicholas Carr has researched, the internet is causing us to become superficial, or shallow thinkers. As we engage in certain tasks, we continue to allow distractions such as a twitter video, or a text message distract us from the task at hand and at times not completing it on time or not at all. The internet creates an information rich environment and encourages compulsive behavior to where we have to constantly check our phones and the internet to seek new information, ideas, people, etc. As we continue to get distracted by the internet, information store in our short memory domain never reaches our long term memory and we lose it. 
      Personally, I do think the internet is changing our brains. Our reliance on the internet only continues to make us robotic seeking new information but never learning it or storing it for later use. I continue to see people around me on their phones at a date, with friends or in the classroom, including myself. As technology advances, our fascination with it increases, new apps are being made, more news is going on in the social media world, and phones are continuing to advance. In conclusion, the internet is changing our brains but if we find time out of our days to focus at tasks at hand without distractions, the internet will be an asset and not a distraction. 

Copyright & Fair Use: have you asked permission?

              Copyright is when someone's work is marked as their own and grants them rights to their work. In copyrighting, you must ask permission to use the work if you are trying to use someone's work for something such as teaching a lesson. Fair-use is when work is not copyrighted and you are able to use the work freely without fearing trouble.
           Copyright is very monitored in today's schools. Copyright can be ranged from music in lessons being only for educational purposes or copies only being for one student at a time. Originally, I did not think that copyright had much to do with education and the classroom setting, I really only related it to movies, music and other media. Now I am more surprised and even aware that it goes into the classroom and is a serious matter. I feel like it is important to educate teachers, students and administration to be able to avoid it and know what is appropriate and what is not.

Podcasts: How to integrate Podcasts in a lesson

Plagiarism: Who's work is it?

        Plagiarism can be defined as using someone else's work and expressing it as your own work without acknowledging the author. There are many other ways plagiarism can be seen as passing someones ideas off as your own work, to use someones work without crediting them, or to present new information from an already existing source. I know that plagiarism is illegal and that it is wrong to plagiarize in any setting. I find it confusing that although plagiarism is illegal it is not a civil or criminal offense. Examples of plagiarism include turning in someones homework as your own, copying someones word's or ideas without giving them credit.
         I find it interesting and honestly did not know that even if you have permission to use someone's work from the author, it is still considered wrong and the work will still be considered plagiarized. I feel like if you have the permission and authorization to use it in a lesson or as a reference it should not be a problem. I also did not know that there were different types of plagiarism such as whole-paper plagiarism, cut-and-paste plagiarism. I also knew plagiarism was a serious matter, but i did not know juniors and seniors in college would be expelled for a semester.
         I agree that plagiarism is a serious matter, but I also think it is important for schools to educate their students and not just assume they know about plagiarism and what kind of referencing or copying is appropriate or inappropriate.

Texting & Punctuation: Is it Necessary?

                 Many of us use texting as both a professional tool as well as a social tool. Some use punctuation majority of the time because it represents being proper. Many studies suggest that the usage of punctuation in texts is expresses emotion and gives the reader an idea of how a person is feeling based on the type of structure and punctuation the text conveys. Punctuation has many different meanings in text such as a period at the end of a sentence meaning seriousness and sometimes annoyance. Depending on the person, texting will always express and display their personality and emotion. I personally feel that punctuation in texting is important to effectively express our feelings and emotion and not have any confusion about it. Whether we are mad, sad, happy, annoyed, or aggravated, texting with punctuation will display the emotions we want to exhibit. Comma or no comma? Period or no Period? Its your personal decision.

Does texting make us bad writers?

            There are many benefits in the usage of technology in today’s modern world. Majority of the time technology is used to communicate a message, whether it is used for professional reasons or to communicate with another person. Texting can be beneficial in ways such as easy and fast communication instead of having to call someone, texting is cheaper and can be used with WI-FI instead of using calling minutes from your plan. Although technology is a big contribution to modern classrooms today, many have argued that texting affects students writing skills.

            I do not agree that texting has an effect on writing skills. Yes, in today’s world we do have slang, phrases and emojis are being used on a consistent basis. Although cyber slang is being used and words are abbreviated as well as symbols to get thoughts across rather than type everything out, I do not believe this can be harmful within the classroom. I think it is used that way to be a faster way of communication to get a message across. Many times there is a certain character limit and a message wants to be communicated so it is shortened so that it may fit the character criteria.

             Many believe that texting makes students bad writers and that they transfer their language of technology onto paper in school. It is still yet to be considered that texting is a world-wide phenomenon today. It continues to be argued that students are becoming poor writers yet those in college still use texting just as much or even more than younger developing writers. We must differentiate between appropriate academic language and texting language. Texting should not be mixed with academic language and success. Teaching and instructing students about their boundaries with language and its appropriate uses will help prevent the use of abbreviations and slang within the classroom. 

             I believe that as educators we have to distinguish the difference between educational language and what is appropriate to be used within the classroom. Students are able to distinguish what is appropriate but as educators we must get students to understand that there is a difference between “at home” language and educational language.  The problem of spelling is nothing that cannot be fixed.

             Overall, I believe that once we establish what is appropriate language and spelling for the classroom and what is appropriate at home, texting and the usage of “cyber slang” should not be an issue.