Blog Post #13

I'm on a roll! First blog post #12 now #13! (Okay,so I technically already did this when I had a mind block on what to do for blog post #12, but didn't want to post it out of order because I'm detail oriented....)

For this assignment I watched Back to the Future, a video created by Brian Crosby from Agnes Risley Elementary School in Nevada as well as A Vision of Students Today, a video created by Michael Wesch and a group of students at Kansas State University.
Both of these presentations showed me the impact that technology can have on learning. In Mr. Crosby's classroom, for example, the students used technology to enhance their learning when studying about air pressure and its impact on a hot air balloon. The students were able to watch a hot air balloon in flight and then pop once it reached a certain point. The students used this real life experiment from a science concept to write creatively on their blogs, a story from the view point of the hot air balloon. They also connected to students in other parts of the world through their wiki space and blogging. This created a learning environment where students were engaged, and I imagine, excited to come to school the next day.
The second video created by Mr. Wesch and company presented information about typical college students and the impact of technology on their lives. You realize that their lives are directly linked to technology. The purpose of the video was to encourage the use of technology to get students at this level, in the technology mindset, hooked on learning and engaged in what they are learning. In order for them to engage, professors would need to change from a traditional "I talk; you learn," classroom setting to an interactive community where learners are encouraged to explore and engage with one another through the use of technology.

How Will You Teach Me in the 21st Century?
After watching the video "How will you teach me in the 21st century?", I am pumped up about incorporating technology into my future lessons as a teacher. Mrs. Melinda Kraft lists in her presentation that the students should be taught the following:
1.How to use technology
2.How to communicate effectively
3.Understand the impact of media on my life
4.Interact in a global economy
She points out that we as teachers email, surf the web, buy online, and collaborate. She basically wants to know when we will step out of our comfort zone and teach children how to think on their own.

The following is what I want my students to know, to do, and to have experience doing.
To know
1. How to find their way online
2. What sites are appropriate and not appropriate.
3. Proper etiquette when blogging or communicating online
Be Able to Do
1.email
2.surf the web
3.express themselves
4.collaborate
5.explore their creativity
6.tell their story through podcasting
Have experienced
1. Using the basic functions on a PC
Using Melinda Kraft's approach I would create a movie similar to hers using pictures of real life examples of people engaging in technology in a classroom setting.

Technology Tool Kit
After reading Dorothy Burt's Technology Toolkit post I realize that I am behind in the different forms of technology that the teachers in her school are required to learn quickly how to do/use. As I commented on her blog post, some of the things that I am not able to do include: Google Apps, Mac0S basics, saving files in a variety of formats, using a sound field, and finally the use of photo booth. These are all things I hope to become more familiar with in my future as I study and develop more into a technology literate person. I agreed with her other lists as well. I would assume that teachers would be able to do all the following functions listed in her blog, re-listed below:
All our teachers are able to:
check an email account daily and manage it efficiently
use a computer or laptop and trouble shoot basic functions ie on/off, connect
to printer, connection to internet
use the internet to search, find information and to communicate
particpate in online environments eg blogs or forums or Nings or Trademe or
Facebook etc
manage music files in software eg in iTunes
manage photo files using software
download photos from a camera
use a word processing document efficiently
store and retrieve data from a hard drive eg your computer
access Google Docs
edit a short video clip using simple software ( was "create a movie" - changed
due to feedback below *)
All our teachers are able to use the following independently:
video camera
still camera
laptop
cellphone
I would expect that most people today learn how to do these things at some point in their life. I can not think of anything having to do with technology that I would like to add.

The Next Generation of Movie Makers
In his blog post Exemplar of Student's Work With Video, Mr. Webb is advocating for allowing students to take ownership of their work. For example, in this post Mr. Webb shares a video created by students displaying their ability to use technology to create something that was there work, and their alone. The two boys in the video spoke without a script. It was a real life, real action video without any prior planning or rehearsals.
I think that this idea was a great one! Students won't know what they are capable of until they are given the opportunity to play. This was a great example of using technology to our advantage in a classroom setting that allows students the freedom to interact with one another and use technology to enhance that interaction.

Mrs. Jenny She
Just finished looking at Mrs She's Classroom blog. It appears as if she is very big into implementing technology into the classroom. It appears as if her students in her room are having a great time as well engaging in learning!