Journal Entries
Module One:
This module is about the integration of technology in classrooms in the 21st century. Overall it impacts the classroom in a positive way by making it easier on the teacher with grading and feedback. It also takes some of the stress off the teacher by not being the gate keeper of the information, instead the teacher can now guide the students to said information using the correct tools provided by the teacher. The students would then have access to all the information in that said subject.
Module Two:
In this module we have learned about student centered learning over teacher centered instruction meaning how students are using technology to learn lesions at home and then coming in to the class to complete an activity. Also discussed in this module is active learning over passive learning and how student are better off doing activities using their prior knowledge because of them learning lesions on there own rather then just learning through lectures. One last thing that stuck out was authentic learning versus learning removed from context. authentic learning is taking subjects that the students relate to and using it to teach lessons that relate to subjects they are currently learning about.
Module Three:
This module is about collaboration and how different websites make it easier. To start off it lists a bunch of sites and explains how it makes collaboration easier, like how Google Docs can be accessible to many students for co editing, teacher edits, and for group projects. It also makes the editing of the paper easier by allowing the student to format the paper in any way they need it to be. Another website is padlet which is a sticky note upload of in class material. This will make collaboration easier because instead of relying on the students note taking ability they would have all the information accessible. On the opposing point of this module it asks the questions of how the groups will be formatted to not cause arguments. questions like "will the students be able to pick their groups or will they be set up by class ranking". In my personal opinion, depending on the project, students should be allowed to pick their group to a degree. One of my high school teachers had a system where everyone would pick a partner for the year and then he would go around the classroom pairing those partners with different ones every project so everyone had to work together at some point. I like this idea because it would force the students to work with people they normally would not pick in a group and still have a friend for a level of comfortability in that group. Now I do not think that solves the problems of individual arguments in the group but it will insure that those arguments wont be a whole year problem for those same people.
Module Four:
In this module We lwarn about the importance about digital citizenship and how as educators to effectivly use it in a professional way. Some of the ways this can be used is to create a positive environment that encourages better online behavior, promote curiosity of diffrent online sources, look over and guide students to use safe digital tools, and protect privacy within the students. Before this model i personally thought that educators should not allow students to have access to any of the educators social media or educators should not have a socail presence at all. This model showed me that creating a positive online presence can be a tool that educators use to better the education of their students by engaging them in a new way that sparks curiosity off of school grounds. I actually had a teacher in highschool who did this in the form of an instagram account that posted historical memes that his previous lesson were also about. I did not think much of it at the time but he was engaging with us in a positive way that made us curious about these events.
Module Five:
In Module Five we start learning about the ISTE stanadards for students. This is a very important piece of information as we are integrating Technology into the classrooms. The module goes through and specifically talks about some of the standards but it also describes that as educators we need to think about the culture of our classroom being apart of integrating Technology. I remeber when they first started letting us bring our own devices in my highschool. It did not change much because there was no provided devices and we still had to go to the computer labs when a computer was needed for an assignment. Providing students with their own devices allow for encouragement and voice. With this educators can become a powerful key to bringing good relationships between the students and the teacher to student relationships
Module Six:
In this module talks about student centered learning including technology. There is a youtube video that describes how the teacher focuses on the need of the students learning before she adds technology on to the lesson. I think this is a great idea because sometimes trying to learn something online while navigating new technology can be overwhelming. It also says it is important to keep tabs on if the students are actually learning or just reciting the information back. This would have been helpful because I can not remember how many times I only memorized the information for a test instead of actually learning it. The backward approach to design is about how to use technology to create and personalize learning experiences while accommodating the needs of diffrent kinds of learners. I think this is a great thing to unilize because there definitely are some things I have to teach myself using more of a hands on style that was never given to me as an option. The aproach also uses assessments instead of test or quizzes, I think this is good because it takes the stress off of people who get anxious for tests.
Module Seven:
This module is continuing the growth of teaching in the digital age. It start talking about learning networks and professional learning communities. These communities are a group of teachers that meet regularly to colaborate on how to improve their student success rate. In my LTC 2040 class we use PLC teams to collaborate on subjects and topics we will have to face as future educators, These groups allow teachers to take charge of our learning by picking out what we learn. I think this is a neccesity among teachers becasue it shows that no matter what stage of teaching you are in it means you are always looking for growth. The module also says how these teams meet virtually or even through social media like twitter. Making the web work is saying how youtube is a great tool to utilize for the classroom or tips. There are so many educational videos on youtube that are great reasources.
Module Eight:
The 3 main ideas that have had the biggest impact on my approach are positive social media presence, padlet, and PLC teams. Having a positive social media presence can help you as a future leader in job interviews and help students learn more outside of the school depending on which way the account is set up. I will probably have a funny school appropriate meme account that the students can maybe learn some social studies from. Learning how to use padlet was an awesome idea and resource becasue I definitely will be using it in the future to help get information out to students. PLC teams are not necessarily new to me but I did not know that I could go out and find one on twitter so I will be looking into that also. 2 resources I will use in the future is padlet and choice boards. Both of these effectivly organize information and make it easily accessible for myself and the students. My one feeling that has changed is having an online presence, going into that lesson I did not think teachers should ever have an online presence but that module has taught me how to effectively use it to broaden students education.