My Reflection on Blogging

When I first started this blog project, I had never tried to blog. I have a friend that is an avid blogger, but it didn’t seem like something that I would be interested in. We were required to post reflections, articles, and our own thoughts to the blog. We also had to comment on each of our group members’ blog. I think I enjoyed reading the other blogs the best. It was great source to find out information that they had gathered and to read their reflections about the projects that we had completed together. I think that uploading the pictures was the hardest part to learn, but eventually I got the hang of it. Blogging is definitely something I plan to share with my staff and hopefully implement with the next year in at least one grade level. I look forward to becoming a blogger.

PBL Article

This article was one of the best articles that I have read in this class so far. I was confused about the project-based learning activity and this article was able to clear the confusion for me. The author starts of by defining project based learning. Jones (2007) defines project-based learning as “the in-depth investigation of a real world topic that will motivate students to explore and learn.” She continues to explain in her article how to help your staff to become more comfortable with integrating the project-based learning idea into the curriculum. Her first suggestion was give the teachers time to become familiar with the standards and become comfortable with them.
Jones then gives suggestions on how to choose a project. She suggests that four primary questions must be answered to determine if a topic will make a good project-based learning. She continues to give examples of ideas that would not make a good topic and things that would make a good topic. She reemphasizes that standards must be met, but that teachers can meet the standards indirectly by project-based learning activities. However, it is up to the teacher to create a web to identify if there is enough information to develop the project. Then it is up to the students to drive the project by developing questions and generate ideas to answer those questions. All the steps seemed overwhelming to me at first, but after reading this article I feel that this is something I would like to implement in my classroom.
Jones, R. (2007). Project-Based Learning and Early Learning Standards:
Making the Connection. Exchange: The Early Childhood Leaders'
Magazine Since 1978, (174), 8-11. Retrieved from ERIC database.

Educational Value of Blogging

I feel that blogging could very beneficial in any school setting. The first benefit that I can see is that it encourages children to communicate with one another. Children that would not normally speak up in class could blog sharing their ideas and express their views about the ideas of others. Another benefit that I can see is that it allows the children to step outside the walls of their own classroom. They could do a book study and actually share their ideas with the author of a specific book, or share ideas with children from another part of the country. Often are ideas are limited to our environment, so including students in different parts of the country helps to expand our ideas. I believe teachers should monitor blogs, but should not intrude in the conversations. Teachers should teach their students about appropriate discussions and language and ensure a safe environment for discussions.
Teachers can also use blogging for communication with parents. Newsletters and/or experiences that happen in the classroom can be published to the blog. Parents could reflect on learning that they see happening in the classroom and question new learning as it is occurring. The teacher could provide websites to help with student learning at home. I think parent communication on a blog would be a benefit for teachers.

Features of Blogging

The feature I enjoyed the most was the sharing of ideas and articles that we found. By commenting on each other blogs, I learned about an ELMO, Flip cameras, and many websites that I will be able to use in the future. I was able to see what other people felt about the projects that we have completed and how they planned to implement those projects in their classroom. If we had not been required to comment on each other's blog, I don't know that I would have ever read any of those ideas. I think blogging creates a safe atmosphere for sharing ideas and thoughts.

Knowledge Gained From Blogging

First and foremost, I learn to set up a blog. This was my first ever attempt to blog. I have heard about blogging, but I had never read or created one before this class. I learned that blogging can be used to journal new learning and or reflections of on going projects. I think I was was surprised by how easy blogging is. It is so easy, I believe that even elementary students could benefit from blogging. Blogging creates a safe atmosphere for students that normally would not speak out in class. Blogging can also be used for communicating with parents, sharing ideas with other students in different classes or in different parts of the world. There are unlimited ways that blogging can be used in the classroom.

Reflection of Project Based Learning Activity

Now that we completed our planning of our project based learning activity, I can see how this project will support our objective of getting them to see math being used in real world applications. However, after studying and reading what project based learning truly means, I have discovered that this is really not a project based learning activity. The first step in a project based learning activity is that students identify a problem and they research and develop a solution to the problem. However, as students in this class we identified this as a problem in this Math I class and developed a solution to the problem. So, for the purposes of this class it could be considered a project based learning activity.
We started the project by planning for college. This gave the students an opportunity to research possible occupations that they may be interested in and the amount of college needed for that occupation. They will also research colleges and compare tuition prices and decide what college will fit into their financial budget. From this activity, they will use the information to plan a budget. They will include details such as automobile repair, doctor visits, and many other monthly expenses that they will incur each month. They will then move on to the next three activities using the budget they have created. They will purchase a car within their budget; plan a vacation, and a special event. I think that the students will enjoy these activities and appreciate their parents more when they realize what they have to pay just for them to have the things that they have.
I like the activities that we have planned and would love to see this actually taught. However, I am a kindergarten teacher, so I doubt I will ever benefit from seeing this project actually carried out. I think our group worked well together, in fact I felt that this project was the best that we have completed so far. Keri was an awesome group leader and we had great communication. I would be willing to work with any of these people again on a group assignment.

Project Based Learning Description

Our group has decided to focus on improving the basic math skills of Math I high school students. The problem is that students have a hard time with relating math to real world applications. We have designed activities that will be implemented over a ten week period of time. Each activity will build to the next activity. The activities will include planning to go to college, creating a budject, buying a car, planning a vacation, and planning a party or event. The information gained from each project will be used to complete the next project. I believe that this project will show them how we use math in everyday life and the importance of continuing their education.

Blog Entry #10 - Emerging Technology That Supports eLearning

Antifaiff is the coordinator of technology and learning for Qu’Appelle Valley School Division in Saskatchewan, Canada. She wrote this article to inform the readers of Ebooks. Also, she provides a couple of websites that the reader can explore. The first is http://www.globalschoolnet.org on this website students can go on virtual expeditions or virtually travel around the global. This website also letter writing capabilities and shows examples of Ebooks. The next website is http://www.saskschools.ca/~ebooks. This website has pre-made Ebooks and templates to create new Ebooks. The downfall of this website is that the Ebooks need to be read by the classroom teacher to make sure the content fits their classroom. These books were made in Canada, so the book that shows money displays Canadian currency. However, the templates are very beneficial for teachers in creating their own Ebooks. I think the templates are so easy that even a kindergarten student could eventually create their own Ebook.

Antifaiff, Gloria. (2005). Ebooks for young readers. School Libraries in Canada, 25(1), 57.Retrieved November 7, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 940309351).

Blog Entry #9 - The Arrival of an ELMO

The arrival of an ELMO caused my principal some concern earlier this week. Someone from our technology department just showed up and handed it to my principal. She had no prior knowledge of this arrival, so she called me to her office to find out what to do with it. I told her I would love to have it in my classroom, but that I thought until everyone was trained that I think it should be housed in the library. Later, we found out that our librarian knew it was coming but she has no clue what to do with it. So, I am now in the process of learning more about it so I can provide some inservice training on it in the future. I look forward to learning more about it!!

Blog Entry #8 - Digital Storytelling Article

Bloch (2008) a freelance writer from Atlanta gives us insights to a few instances of how digital storytelling is used in different parts of the United States. In Nevada a teacher by the last name of Crosby uses blogging, Skype, and GoogleDocs to promote communication between his students who are not fluent in English or their native language. His students are paired with students in New York and they edit each other’s work in GoggleDocs, conference with each other using Skype, and blogging to create a story based on a drawing in a story that they had previously read. This type of communication helps Crosby’s students to focus on learning and communicating in English real for them, but also interesting and fun. Bloch (2008) also emphasize that digital storytelling is a modern spin to the ancient art of storytelling. He also informs his audience of TIES this is a training session that teaches digital storytelling processes and even gives us a website www.digitales.us to receive more information about the author of this program.
I think that this article is beneficial because it proves that if a teacher can do it with 90 percent of his class not being able to speak English, then it should be manageable for anybody. It provides a few websites to demonstrate how students have benefited from the digital storytelling process. Also, a few of us have felt the grief of having to communicate on GoggleDocs, but seeing that even fifth graders can survive the process shows me that it is an effective tool. Also, www.digitales.us has many examples of digital storytelling that helped me understand what I will needed to create to help my students.

Bolch, M.. (2008, May). Show and tell. T.H.E. Journal, 35(5), 28,30. Retrieved October 25,2009, from Research Library. (Document ID: 1484234801).

Description and Reflection of Digital Storytelling

My digital story was created as an instructional tool to teach kindergarten students about the five senses. In the movie, I included video clips from www.unitedstreaming.com, pictures from www.pics4learning.com, and music from www.freeplaymusic.com. With the use of all of these tools I created a movie that will capture my students attention and maybe spark some interest in creating a movie of their own in the future. Since our group ranges from media specialists to elementary to high school we decided to use Moviemaker as an instructional tool instead of an actual example of how students use it. However, I will continue to work independently to create a story with two fourth grade students for staff development at my school. One student is writing a story to describe her experience with the hand, foot, and mouth virus. The other student is creating a story about her relationship with her stepfather. This was a very challenging project. It took many hours to create a four to seven minute clip. It is amazing what you can do with the application once you learn how to do it. I discovered that the best way to learn was through trial and error. There were many times that I had questions and didn’t know how to do something only to find that my team was having trouble also. I learned that I don’t back down from a challenge, but one time for about two days I felt very defeated because I was having trouble uploading a video. However, after the optional face to face(which should be required), a lot of my issues were cleared and I was ready to create my project. Another limitation was that I teach kindergarten and this program is not really fitting for a kindergarten student. However, I could see a teacher putting the pictures up and the students narrating or creating a story. Some of the tricks to moviemaker that I learned were that when you download a video form unitedstreaming that you only need to focus on the clips that you need. The whole video was too much. The next thing that I learned was that pictures and music need to be copyright free. I have started to bank some websites for future use in my favorites file on my laptop. Another important thing I discovered was how to time the music or adjust the pictures to the music. The above listed things are the most important things that I learned. I know I would use this in the future. How I will use it is still up in the air. However, I am not going to wait too long. I don’t want to fall victim to “if you don’t use it then you will lose it” theory. I hope by redelivering it over and over to my staff at my school, that it will stay forever in my brain. Here is the example that I created. http://stu.westga.edu/~kbowen1/moviemaker

Blog Entry #7 - Digital Storytelling Issues

I started creating a story for my kindergarten students teaching the five senses. At first, I did not think that it would be very time consuming. However, I had a lot of trouble downloading and adding a video to my Movie Maker project. After days of trying, I finally discovered that I was trying to download a video that was too large for the Movie Maker application. I then discovered that I could download clips within the video and that made life much simpler. Now, I am trying to decide when I plan to use the video, when to speak, and what to say. I can see how students that go through this same learning process would be great authors. This storytelling application requires a lot of thought and can incorporate a lot of different details. I can't wait to see my final project and look forward to using it in the future.

Blog Entry 6: Emerging Technology that Supports Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

In the article Beyond Gaming, Hertzog and Klein (2005) discuss their observations of exploring, inventing and experimenting with the use of technology in the early childhood classroom. They give many examples of children helping one another on the computer. They tell about the use of digital cameras in the classroom and how children use them for documentation. They show an example of a kindergarten student that demonstrates what they have learned about eggs by creating a web on Kidspiration. While most K/1 children use the programs like Microsoft Word to type up information. They can demonstrate critical thinking skills through Powerpoint, Kidspiration, iMovie, digital cameras, and scanners. Often teachers can hear discussions from other children about the steps in using the technology. The authors state that the communication between students is much greater than that of children playing in the home center or blocks.
This article was very eye opening for me. While I feel very comfortable with technology (most days), I still see kindergarten children as incapable of understanding. My mentality has to change in order for students to reap the benefits of the technology in my classroom. Since starting this program, I believe that my eyes have been opened up to the possibilities that lie ahead for my children. Now, I have to get through the planning and implementation stages to reap the rewards.

Hertzog, N., & Klein, M. (2005). Beyond Gaming: A technology explosion in early childhood classrooms. Gifted Child Today, 28(3), 24-31. http://search.ebscohost.com.ts.isil.westga.edu

ComicLife Sample

I kept playing with my ComicLife sample because of its length and used Picasa and created a movie out of it.

Blog Entry #5 - Presenting VoiceThread to My Staff

At our last faculty meeting, my principal asked the four teachers that are pursuing their Instructional Technology degree to present something we have learned in our classes so far. Since we had just completed our VoiceThread examples we started with this information. No one in the room had ever heard of the program. I got the impression that a few liked it, but many seemed overwhelmed by it. We are very limited with technology in our building so many teachers still believe that if they touch the computer that they will break it. Our brief description and presentation was enough to stir interest, but no one has yet to ask if more information would be presented later. I feel to implement more programs of this type that we are going to need to hone in on the few teachers that seemed interested and properly train them. Then maybe the enthusiasm for programs like this one will grow.

ComicLife Article Summary

When looking for an article for ComicLife, I found that there are very few articles that discuss this topic. However, the one that I found seems to be appropriate for the workshop plan that our group is putting together. The article is a good introduction of what exactly ComicLife is and the situations that it can be applied to. It can be included with a handout or as introduction of what to expect from the workshop. Even though the articles were limited, I think this will fit in our plan.
Kenny (2006) lists many examples of ComicLife being used across the curriculum. Kenny has seen it in use in science, reading, writing, social studies, foreign languages, and technology. He states that it promotes creativity in children by sending them out with a digital camera and take those pictures to create their own story. He also seems to briefly describe the instructions and how simple it is to create a comic. However, at the time this article was written this was Mac only software. It now can be downloaded to a PC.

Kenny, J. (2006, June 2). Stories for the visual generation. The Times Educational Supplement , p. T29.

My Comic Life Experience

I have loved experimenting with Comic Life. The flyer I created for our group is next to this posting. My team decided to use a graphic organizer in Comic Life. I decided to teach my kindergarten students how to write a story. First, I will tell them about what makes a good story. I will explain that a good story has a good beginning, middle, and end. I will then show them my gold mining example and we will discuss how it started, what made the middle, and what made the end of the story. Then I have included two examples that I could dictate their responses and add speech bubbles based on those responses. I can't wait to use it. The hardest part was uploading it to the blog, but once a friend talked me through it I felt like an expert.

Blog Entry 4: Emerging Technology that Supports Communication and Collaboration

There are many ways to send and receive information today. Boss and Krauss (2007) suggest that teachers should be faciliators and model the technolorgy for their students. Egbert (2009)offered a lot of ways that children could collaborate and use email. However, as a kindergarten teacher, I feel that my responsibility is to model and supervise their use to make sure that they are using the technology properly. I feel like children will be more successful if they learn how to use programs and equipment properly. I can see that future use of www.kidmail.net with my more accelerated students could enhance their communication skills.

Boss, S., & Krauss, J. (2007). Reinvesting project-based learning. Eugene, OR: International
Society for Technology in Education.
Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Blog Entry 3 - Kindergarten Children Using Technology

This week in our lesson plans we decided to try to incorporate more technology in our classrooms. How many times has a child asked a parent, or basically anyone with a camera if they could take a picture? Well, we are providing our students that opportunity this week. Our standards state that children need to be able to identify and name basic shapes. So, we decided to draw shape names out of a hat. The teacher that drew circles took her class out today to take pictures of all the circles that they could find around the school building. She said that they had a "blast". They found circles that she had never noticed before. Not only did she help them learn about circles, but she connected them to "real life" by showing how shapes make up the world we live in.

VoiceThread Reflection

Before I started this project I had no knowledge that a tool like VoiceThread was available for teachers to use. After becoming the project leader, I really got to researching and playing with the program. I decided to use my kindergarten students to create my example for VoiceThread because we are required to document many standards for GKIDS. I felt this program was the perfect fit for this documentation process. The Georgia standard for kindergarten is retelling a story in their own words. I had previously read the story Brown Bear Brown Bear and decided to use this story for the project. In the past, we just marked a sheet if they were able to do this or not. Now, with this tool I can record my students and even play it back for parents. This is good documentation for GKIDS. Also, the kids enjoyed doing this and could not wait to hear themselves played back on the computer. I definitely plan to use this tool again.

Example of VoiceThread

I used Voicethread to document how well my students were able to retell a story according to the Georgia standards. http://voicethread.com/#u468891.b602522.i3213816

Brown Bear Brown Bear by Eric Carle

Chapter 2 - Egbert Reactions

I found it very interesting that the book stated that there should be on computer to every 3 to 4 children. You do not find this in a typical classroom. Also, I never knew anything such as Flotillas exsisted. After reading this chapter and some of the postings of my fellow classmates I found out that they are more prevalent than I thought. However, I believe that they are misused by most school systems.

VoiceThread Article

VoiceThread the article is more or less advertising the use of Voicethread. However, the links listed in the article were very informative. The URL link http://digitallyspeaking.pbwiki.com/Voicethread provides a tutorial of how and why to use Voicethread. Bill Ferriter teaches 6th grade language arts and gives an example of how he uses Voicethread on his blog http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/2007/11/using-voicethre.html. These are two wonderful websites to check out.

Article Summary on Electronic Books

This article went into great detail about the use of electronic books to support readers with disabilities. It discussed how young children as well as children with disabilities could use the electronic books. It listed benefits such as sequencing, tracking print, and listening skills. An overwhelming benefit is the retelling of stories. Students use their own language and pictures to retell stories. By using traditional stories and retelling them through multimedia resources, the child’s understanding of the content is demonstrated. The article states that students with disabilities often feel more successful when using technology. They are able to control the learning environment to meet their needs.
The article provided step by step instructions on how to create an electronic book. There are many e-books out on the market today, but if a teacher has Microsoft PowerPoint then the cost can be reduced. It gave an example of how a second grade teacher used it to reach the modalities in her classroom. The e-book is a strategy that enables all learners to be successful in the classroom.

Integrating Technology Defined

The context for my working definition is integrating technology in the elementary school classroom. Integrating technology means the inclusion of technology in the everyday instructional plan. It is the teacher’s job to make sure that integrating technology in the elementary school setting should be exciting and informative. This involves a lot of planning on the teacher’s part. Most of the time the teacher uses the technology to make the lesson more interesting. Then later teaches the student the ability to use the technology for their use later. This is a very important and necessary step. Elementary school teachers often receive students who have never even touched a computer and it is their responsibility to teach them the basics.