Week 14 Using Games for Teaching and Learning

This week we further read about Second Life, a gaming forum whose use is on the rise in the gaming world and educational world. In Second Life, people create an avatar, which is a virtual alter ego of themselves. In this "second life," people mimmic normal everyday humans. According to the articles read, people can even get married, convert their money made in Second Life to real currency, and can teleport and travel. Although Second Life can be used as a fun tool and a great learning tool, as seen in the articles, it can also lead to some trouble. One lady was arrested for hacking into her online husband's profile and killing off his character because she claimed his character was cheating on hers. Instances like this have shown that people can take online gaming too far and there is need for its regulations.

Online gaming such as Second Life, however, can also be an increasingly beneficial tool for people in the field of education. The University of Florida has already adopted its version of the Second Life forum. This gaming resource can be a great way for students to experiment with what types of jobs they may want to pursue in the real world. With virtual practice, they can more easily eliminate what types of jobs they don't like, without having to spend a lot of money majoring in that field, and then realizing they do not like that type of work.

Below is a video from Indiana University, Coordinator of Educational Technology, Robert, Appleman. In this video, he explores, how students are easily engaged in learning through the use of video games. With some of these newer games, such as the Nintendo Wii, students have to be more social with their gaming efforts, which aides in their education.

Week 12 Creating a Professional Web Presence Page

This week we learned about Distance Education. We viewed a presentation and also looked at some websites that offer distance education. I was very familiar with this subject because its been present in my learning here at UF, and more specifically in this class. I did not realize however, that they were starting to use some of these online education forums for students younger than at the college age. Online education consists of fully online classes, and also blended classes, which only have parts of the class online.

I think Distance Education can be extremely beneficial. It makes it easy for teachers to give information to a large number of students, that don't have to be right there in front of them. I think though that for the most part, online learning should be left to college and and high school students. At an elementary level, students need to learn social skills and interact with other students like they will need to do in real world jobs.

Click here to view a link to a website I found through a Google search on distance learning. The website it was found on is Elearners.com. This particular page on the site goes through a large number of the different pros and cons to distance education.

Week 11 Open Source Software

This week we learned more about Open Source Software. I had actually never heard about Open Source until this class so I was a little bit confused at first when trying to understand exactly what it was. Open source software is free and easily available online. Source Forge is one of the Open Software websites. With this website you can search different types of software and download it for free!! The only downside is that if there is a problem with the software, there is no manufacturer to guarantee that the problem gets fixed. There are usually forums though, in which you can write your complaints and suggestions to the software editor.

With software programs being so expensive, Open source software programs can be extremely beneficial to teachers. Teachers already have a limited budget, and minimal pay. The access to free software opens many opportunities for teachers to use these programs.

Click here to view a short video I found on Youtube that helps explain what Open Source Software is. In the video, it shows that for almost any expensive software, there is a free online version. I didn't even realize that Firefox was one an open source software, and I already use it.

Week 10 Tech Tools for Critical Thinking

This week we learned and read about Open Source and Learning Theories. With open source, someone receives software for free with a specific software code. With this they are able to modify it, and make copies, either for money or for free. Learning Theories were created to better understand how humans and animals learn and respond to their learning environment. The three philosophical frameworks of learning theory are Behaviorism, Information Processing, and Constructivism.

Learning and understanding all of the components of the learning theories is very important to those in the field of education. With better understanding of each theory, a teacher can better teach their students and help their students retain information. As was seen from the presentation, each student will have their own learning style and it is a teachers job to help identify these styles and incorporate them into their lesson plans.

Below is a video I found on YouTube which talks about the Cognitive Load on students. In this brief video, the lecturer describes how it can be hard to retain information and understand it when there are all new concepts to be learned. To learn these new concepts, you must relate already known information to the teaching of the new information.
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Week 9 Social Tools and Cloud Computing

This week we learned and read about social tools such as bookmarking and GoogleDocs. GoogleDocs is a free web tool where you can create a document and then send out a link to your peers where they can view that document and edit it all in one place. Social Bookmarking is also an online tool in which you can share your favorite websites, pictures, or videos. With Delicious, one of the bookmarking sites, you have your own page where you can easily add different websites that you like and categorize them with tags. Tags are keywords or phrases that help describe the website you saved to your account. Some of the other social bookmarking websites are StumbleUpon, Digg, and iKeepBookmarks.

Both Bookmarking and GoogleDocs can be extremely beneficial to those in the education field. Bookmarking can be useful for both students and their teachers. For students starting out a research project, bookmarking different websites could be helpful in finding information and organizing it into one place. For teachers, they could collaboratively use socialbookmarking with other teachers to find helpful websites for classes they are teaching. GoogleDocs could be used to aid students in their writing of a paper in which there are several drafts due. Instead of having to continue printing out the drafts, students can jut submit them online to a teacher and the teacher can see all of the drafts on one webpage. Also, GoogleDocs could help simplify group projects so students could more easily exchange information for their project.

Here is a video about BookmarkingDemon which I found on YouTube. This video explains how there are numerous different bookmarking websites and it can become difficult and time consuming to try and put links to your websites on all of them. BookmarkingDemon helps to simplify this process with the use of their software.
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Week 10 Homework

Mywebspiration

Week 7 Digital Story Telling

This week we read about the digital technologies. I was excited that I have used all of the items described to us in the presentation. Some of the devices presented were digital cameras and its storage devices, PDA's, and digital video cameras. We were also introduced to Pod casting. This is basically an audio device uploaded to the internet that anyone can one listen to. The Mac computers have a Garage Band application that we learned how to use to create a PodCast.

It would be very easy to incorporate the digital technologies into the classroom setting. Most teachers have already begun to use many of these digital devices. I was introduced to podcasting in my AP Spanish class for my senior year of high school. We had to make our own podcasts in Spanish and upload them to the class website. Digital photography and digital videos could also be an especially fun way for students to present materials that they have learned.

Click here to view a website about Podcasting. I found this website through the Google search engine. It basically just gives ideas about how you can incorporate podcasts into teaching. It also gives links to some podcasting tutorials.

Digital Storytelling Example Week 7

Week 6 Visual Literacy

This week we learned about visual literacy and how it can be used. The first link defined visual literacy and explained in depth each of its components. It was interesting to see how an artist or author can put emotion into a picture just by changing the lighting or saturation. After reading about visual literacy, we were shown some sights which explained digital storytelling. My favorite link given was to the Center for Digital Story Telling: http://www.storycenter.org/ Here, people share stories about family, history, health, and so much more through the usage of videos, pictures, and music.

As an elementary education major, I think that digital storytelling is a great tool for the classroom. With the push for using technology in education, this is a fun and easy way to use technology to enhance learning. Not only can a teacher use digital storytelling to convey ideas, but I think it would be a fun project for students to create a digital story about about something they are learning about, such as a time period in history.

I was quite surprised when I typed digital storytelling into the search bar on YouTube. There were a great number of digital stories online created by students that had to do them for projects. I did not even know what digital storytelling was until I read about it in this class. Here is an example of one of the digital stories created by a student on YouTube

Week 5 Media & Information Literacy

This week we read and watched videos about visual literacy. Visual literacy is how we learn with pictures and symbols. We watched some interesting videos about how media can change images with photo shopping. The Dove Campaign video shows the makeover of a woman for a skincare advertisement and how she is digitally enhanced. Another video showed how and why visual literacy can be used in the classroom.

As an elementary education teacher, it is important to realize that when teaching with visual literacy images can be skewed. Using primary documents such as photographs of history to teach about a certain time period helps enhance the learning experience. Like, "they" say, "a picture is worth a thousand words." At the same time, however, whomever created or photographed the picture has their own personal opinion of what is being photographed and that can be picked up through the image. I think using visual literacy in the classroom is overall a very positive thing as it gains the interest of students, and enhances critical thinking skills.

The following is a video I found on You Tube.It further explains with the use of photographs, why we should incorporate visual literacy into learning. As noted by the author, it was created to "inspire teachers of all subject areas to appreciate the opportunity for learning using visual imagery in their classes."

Week 4 Copyright Law, Plagarism, and Ethical Issues

This week we learned about how to use technology effectively for teaching purposes. The first presentation taught us how to properly broadcast information on tools such as a power point. The four key guidelines given were contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. In the second presentation we learned about using multimedia and hypermedia and the advantages and disadvantages of using either. From outside links, we learned how to tell if a web site is legitimate and has factual information.

Learning how to tell if a website has factual or trusted information will be very useful as an elementary education major. When I get into the teaching field and my students are trying to research material it can be hard to find websites with accurate information. With the information given today, by being able to better understand the URL, I can more easily determine which of these websites are valid.

The following article, "Hypermedia in the Classroom: A Developmental Handbook for Teachers," is an article telling teachers how to implement hypermedia into a classroom. I found it using the Google search engine. Click here to read the article
Click here to view the website that hosts the above article

Week 4 Homework

Here is a video I found on YouTube called the Creative Commons Solution

Week 3 Web Technology

In week three we learned about Web 2.0, copyright, and No Child Left Behind. Web 2.o refers to internet users' ability to change change the content they see on the web, with applications such as Facebook, and Myspace. We went to a Web 2.0 applications forum and discovered that there are thousands of different applications on the web including those for use use in social networking, teaching, cooking, shopping, budgeting, and music. After Web 2.0 we learned about copyrighting and all of its legalities. No Child Left Behind was created in the United States due to low reading scores in school. One of the components of NCLB includes bridging the gap between education and technology and trying to get all students equal opportunities to experience technology in their learning.

I think the copyright laws are very important to understand as an Elementary Education major. With all of the new technology and information available to us its confusing to know what we are legally able to use in the classroom without infringing upon copyright laws. I did not realize that you could get a fine as high as $100,000 per offense. In this lesson there were some helpful links to help teachers understand more fully what the copyright laws entail.

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
The above link is to a website my brother told me about which provides different works that the authors put under a creative commons license. The sight also explains what it means to be able to use a work under the Creative Commons license. You can also find the website at the top of the Creative Commons search page:http://search.creativecommons.org/

Week 2 Educational Technology

This week was an introduction into the world of technology. First, we had an orientation on how to use Mac computers. I have a PC myself, but I love Macs. They are very user friendly and have so many cool applications. We also learned about the basics of technology. In a short video we were shown some of the terms that have to do with computers such as html, ISPS, servers, and URL's. Two other videos were presented as well. The first was about how internet is affecting society. The second was a brief history about the first e-mails. Lastly, there were a series of videos from PBS called "Growing Up Online," which showed how technology is having an impact on the younger generation.

As an Elementary Education major the last video "Growing Up Online" was a real eye opener for me. Children these days are so much further advanced in technology than when I was in elementary, middle, and high school. Teachers are having to implement all of the new technology into their curriculum. This class will be a big help in getting me up-to-date on how to better reach my students through technology.

Here is a link to a website I found called TeAchnology. http://www.teach-nology.com/ I found it through Google search engine. Its a website that has tutorials and other information on helping teachers how to use technology in the classroom.