Final Reflection: Blogging & Virtual Environments

When I first enrolled myself into this class I believed it to be something much different than what it was. I thought that this was going to be a class about different types of technologies that we could use in our classrooms solely for the students use. I am happy to say that I was wrong. I realized after seeing everything the first day that this was going to be a class where I could learn something valuable to take with me into my own classroom someday. All of the projects that we did showed me a lot, I was doing things with programs I had never used before and never portrayed as being useful to me. Again, I was wrong. All of the projects and topics we covered brought me into a new light about technology. I have always seen pros and cons to different technologies, but never talked about it in depth or gotten many different opinions all at once. I found this awesome to be able to see different people’s opinions about a certain topic and they would bring up things I had never even thought of before.
Writing our blogs over the course of this quarter really made me think about different technologies that frankly I did not know anything about. The first topic we covered, that I found very interesting was blogging. Right when I saw that we were going to talk about blogging I thought of personal websites that people go on to talk about themselves. Of course after reading a few article about blogging in the classroom I have found out that blogging can be much more than just writing about yourself on a random website you have created. Blogging can be a very beneficial tool to incorporate into the classroom. It has so many great uses for the teacher and the student. As a teacher I would be able to blog every day or week about what my students are doing and/or learning and have it accessible to the parents.
Another great aspect of blogging is making use of it for the students. There are many programs available that are password protected to make blogging a safe environment for the students, which was one of my biggest worries. My favorite aspect of blogging in the classroom is that it creates a type of equality among the students. They would each be able to write their own opinions on a subject, even the shy kids that may not want to talk about what they think in the normal classroom setting get a chance. In a way I think that blogging would be a way to bring those shy students out of their shells. The more and more they did blogging maybe the more they would feel confident in voicing their opinion about a subject or confident to answer a question in class. Again, I would want my students to do this in a controlled environment that is not accessible to all on the internet, rather would be password protected so that just our class could get on it or password protected through the school itself.
The topic of virtual environments was another interesting subject that we covered. I am not a strong believer that learning through a virtual environment is the way to go. I at the same time think that it could be practical in few instances. To take away the face to face meeting of a student and a teacher in earlier education would take a lot more away than just learning subject matter in the school setting. Furthermore, it would take away all the very important social learning that goes on when being in that school setting. After being through my K-12 years the most important aspect of that time in my life that has stayed with me is the growing I did as an individual. I was able to see after time who I was, and see what I liked and did not like about different social environments. This is not to say that I am still not learning about myself now, in college, but if schools were to go to being all virtually based how is a student suppose to realize who they really and truly are from an avatar. I believe virtual environments promote people to be something that they really are not. With that all said I do see some benefit to having virtual environments in higher education beyond high school. Having virtual schooling for those that a traditional college life just does not fit into theirs is a great option. This allows those that would never be able to attend a school traditionally the option to still seek a college education. This idea gives people more leeway with their life, meaning that they would be able to work and go to school more easily. Having a virtual class would make it possible for those enrolled to work on class work at their convenience. Again, I do not see how this type of learning could ever take the place of the teacher to student interaction.
I along with others do have my strong opinions about all the different technologies discussed throughout the quarter. I am very thankful to get to see what other opinions are on the subjects, I value these opinions and some of the time they even convinced me otherwise. I can not wait to start my career as a teacher and be able to bring aspects that I have learned from this class into my own classroom someday.

Podcasts

The implication of podcasts into education is one of the new ways of teaching for teachers in higher education. It is thought that these podcasts can enhance the learning of information from a lecture or class notes. With having podcasts available the students can not only go back a listen to a lecture again, but also can create their own podcasts for projects if applicable.

I can see many benefits from having a professor in a huge lecture that may put his/her lectures into a podcast along with having physical class. If a student would want to go back and listen to a part of a lecture they might have not understood or missed a part that was talked about to quickly, the podcast would allow them to do so. This also shows that it could bring about a very negative side, being that it in someway could promote a student to not go to class. A student could use the podcast from a class as their substitute to class. In the mean time the student could very well be missing out on vital information that could be given during the class time that is not put on the podcast.

With technology, especially with education, becoming ever popular I can see in the very near future that the use of podcasts, especially in higher education are going to become very prevalent. I know that technology in education is suppose to bring about new and easier ways of learning information, but it also brings a new challenge with it. This challenge that is brought to a student particularly in higher education is the choice to still go to class and not to become a lazy student in result.

Digital Divide

After reading the article by Warschauer on reconceptualizing the digital divide it really made me think about things that I have never put much thought into before. I have never really thought about how advanced the U.S. is compared to other countries or just different areas of the U.S. are more privileged than others to have a computer or any other digital technology. I never really saw myself as a privileged person to be able to have a computer and be able to be a part of the digital community.

It does not surprise me that when all these different corporations, that were brought up in the article, were “trying” to help out and provide people of under privileged areas with new up to date technologies that it failed in many instances. When bringing in new technology to areas that have never seen it before it can be really intimidating for on thing and also it is important for the corporations to realize that along with the technology they also need to provide the support for the communities to go to if help is needed. This is also something that needs to be thought of when teachers bring in digital devices in the classroom. When teachers bring computers, for instance, into the classroom they have to do this with the understanding that the children are going to be on different levels of competency with them.

The teachers can have a positive influence in the classroom with the digital devices. A way for them to have this positive influence is to have a background with the device, to be able to show the children how to use the device, whatever it may be, in any way that is of importance in the classroom.
I believe by having computer use in the classroom and it be implemented properly, with well trained teachers, it can help close the gap of the digital divide. This is especially the case in communities of low income families that may not be able to afford to have a family computer in the home. The children would not fall behind in our technological society by having the opportunity in school to use these technological tools

Virtual Environments

Virtual Environments seem to be the way of the future and maybe even now. Does this mean that they should replace the traditional school setting? My answer to that question is no in a lot of instances.

I do not believe that a virtual environment can meet all of the needs that a face to face learning environment can. This would especially be noticed for elementary education and special education. These kids, at this level, need the support of a teacher in a real environment. The praise and motivation that a teacher can bring to a classroom is the drive that keeps the students trying a lot of the time. If a child is to sit in front of a computer and learn their lessons for the day they could become very bored. With a teacher, in person, they are able to get the lesson taught to them in different ways more suitable for the students learning style which could in turn make it so the child is less aggravated and more excited about their learning experience.

When talking about using virtual environments in place of the traditional higher education setting, I can see how this might be a little bit more successful. Once people get into higher education they know how they learn and what they need to do to make themselves successful with their learning. This type of environment can be highly taken advantage of by those that are going back to school and have a lot of other things on their plate as well. This would make it so they would be able to maybe work on the class stuff on their own time that fits best within their own personal schedule. Again, I can also see this as not being very successful even at this level of education. I still feel that the teacher to student interaction is very important in being a successful student.

Digital Storytelling

When beginning my search on digital storytelling I was not sure what it was or what it entailed. Through searching I found, in short, that it is a way to engage and combine the art of storytelling with any of a variety of available multimedia tools.

I watched an example of digital storytelling and it was called “The Look” and I have to say I found it to be boring. The guy that was talking in the background was very monotone sounding to me and made me very disinterested. On a better note I did think the way that the video was put together was very nice. The flow of the pictures along with the relevance of the pictures was very well executed.

I think it would be a really cool aspect to have in school to where kids could make their own digital story in the classroom. This would make it so they would be able to use and learn different media’s and bring them all together in one project. The only fear I would have with this in the classroom is that it could get boring for the students to have to listen to if a teacher was to implement this into a classroom. I would also fear that if the students were to make their own story that it would just take to much time out of the day. All in all I think this is a good idea to use in the classroom, I believe that new things are always good to use and liven up the classroom setting if executed effectively.

Gaming in Education

After reading the few articles on gaming and education I can really see the benefits of incorporating this learning method into a curriculum. The way that schools use the “skill and drill” method in the school system just doesn’t make sense with all of the technologies that are available. Yes, gaming is looked at as a leisure activity, but it is obviously something that kids find fun to do, so why not make use of it as an educational tool.
I played a video game on our super Nintendo called super Mario world. I have played this game several times, but I can see how it is a way of learning. It isn’t teaching kids math skill, but it is helping them learn problem- solving skills. They would have to know what would be the best way to go about defeating a level and how to get the most points possible when doing so. It has a lot of strategy behind it. I also played a game online called Math Baseball. This game showed that there were much more fun ways at going about learning math along with it being fun. The game would make it so that the gamer would have to solve any kind of math problem to swing the bat and then if they got the problem right, depending the difficulty, they would either get a single, double, or a triple. This game, to me was just a fun way to learn math skills. If a student was having trouble with basic math skills this game would be a great way to practice those skills.
In the High score education web article I like when it said that learning isn’t about memorizing isolated facts rather it is about connecting and manipulating them. I think that video games promote this type of thinking. There are strategies in gaming that have to be used to solve problems. I believe overall that gaming is a good way to learn. Kids will not feel like they are learning because they will be having fun while doing it.

Information Literacy

Like most I believe that literacy now more than ever is very important. It seems that this is always a topic that is being talked about, how technology is prohibiting students from traditional learning of literacy. I believe that technology is just another tool that should be implemented into the classroom to help develop then student learning.
When reading the article PowerPoint is Evil I was disagreeing with it quite a bit. I believe that the use of PowerPoint as a tool for giving presentations is a great idea. I believe that it is a more beneficial way to get information across to an audience rather than standing up in front of a class with a poster full of information that most times they cannot even read. I really disagreed when it was said that power point turns everything into a sales pitch with an attitude of commercialism. In the classroom I do not think this is the case at all. I just simply believe it is a more advanced way to get information across, in students prospective, rather than having the poster board up behind you as you present something. I liked how the article Scoring Power Points talked about the different ways in making a power point the most beneficial and effective as it can be. This is where the teaching of using this technological tool comes in hand. It is the teacher’s responsibility to thoroughly explain to a class how they want them to use the power point in a project or whatever it is they are doing. It is important for the teacher to explain the rubric to the students on how the information provided is what is most important rather than the “cool” special effects that they can put onto their slide show. To go back to the PowerPoint is Evil article when it was said that “rather than supplementing a presentation it has become a substitute for it” I do not agree with this statement that much. To explain, I do think that a presentation could end up as said, but it is up to the teacher to make sure that it doesn’t.

Blogging as a Pedagogical Tool

When I first think of a person blogging I think of it being a tool to write down crazy ideas and a way for people to express themselves. I have honestly never looked at blogging as a pedagogical tool. I have to say that after looking through a few websites on the internet about incorporating the blog into the classroom, it seems like a very positive thing to me. With that everything that has positives also has negative sides to it as well.
From the few websites that I looked through about blogging they showed me that blogging can have its advantages in the classroom. From looking at the web page called “Blogs in School” it showed that blogging can bring a sense of community to the class as a whole. Everyone in the class would be able to share their own thoughts about a subject and even the kids that are shy in class are able to get their voice out on a blog. The kids are also able to give each other feedback on each other along with the teacher. This promotes learning from each other and not just the adult in the classroom. I believe that this type of learning if implemented the right way, being that the feedback from other classmates would not always be negative, would over all make the children more excited about learning. From the site about blogging in elementary classrooms I found a very valid point which stated that a blogging site for the children would help the students become better writers. This thought is because the kids do not want their classmates to think that they are bad writers, so in turn the students try harder and do a better more complete job when writing these blogs because they know that everyone is going to have access to them.
The only negative thoughts I have about using blogging as a teaching tool is where and how the sites are used in the classroom. When I say where, I mean what sites the teachers are using to do this blogging activity in class. It is the teacher’s responsibility that these students are not accessible to the entire world through this blogging. I think that it should be some sort of private site that the teacher would set up so that it was just their particular class that had access to the blogging site. If the sites were not private in some sort of way I could see blogging as a negative tool in the classroom. Furthermore, how the sites are used is very important as well. A teacher could turn this into a very negative learning tool by using it too often, I believe. The student teacher interaction in the classroom is still very important in my eyes. Bottom line is I don’t think that a teacher should become too lazy and do all of their work through blogging, some subjects are still meant to be taught is a traditional type learning way.