Comment on Kohler and Mishra Article

It was almost 10 years ago when I started teaching in middle schools in Mexico. I had a hard time making my students engage on and learn what I was teaching. I decided to leave the textbook and use technology once a week. I had three options: A very old overhead projector, a computer lab with very out-dated computers and software, or the Smartboard. As I read the article, I was bringing all these memories back to mind. I loved using the computer and the Smartboard, I knew my students were excited to go to class when they knew we were going to use those two elements instead of the textbook and workbook. Honestly, I do not think of myself designing a lesson once week for making my students learn more or better. I was using the technology because it was more fun, the kids enjoyed it more, and because time flew when using it. It was something different for me and for my students.

Even though I was not able to deconstruct and analyze my practice back then, now I see some of the things that are mentioned in the article that are true in teaching, but that I was not able to take advantage of. When a teacher is able to use technology to solve or improve a challenging situation in his practice, a lot of good things could happen. The use of technology and the teaching design facilitate our practice, engage students in the content matter, and allow the learning process to take place in more meaningful ways. I also agree that the design and use of technology could help us have a more inclusive classroom environment. I believe that the model described in the article is a great tool to help us meet the needs of the different learning styles. Helping our kids learn should be one of the main goals as teachers. Learning about designing and learning about how our students learn could make a huge difference and impact on our students.

Looking for educational groups in the Internet

FaceBook
This page has many interesting links to websites and resources that could be helpful to different levels of education. My search started with phrases related to my current position and master program. I looked for groups related to the Migrant Education Program and groups for teachers or elementary grade levels. In my first experience on FaceBook looking for educational groups, I have to say I was not very successful. Many of the groups I searched for were not active or the content was not updated or simply not the best. However, I came across this group called Top Teachers Resources (http://www.facebook.com/topteacherresources).

This group reads “Top teacher/authors on Facebook sharing all their best resources, ideas, tips, tricks, and more!”  Even though I did not have the chance to explore all the different links, I found very good resources and links to different blogs and websites, however, some links were resources for free and some others for a low cost.

Classroom20.com

As I checked the website, I went to explore some of the different groups that are in there. Two of them caught my attention. The first one was about the use of cell phones in education. The second one was about downloading YouTube videos. These topics were presented as a Group Discussions. I liked the idea of posting a question and asking for an answer from the audience out there. The cool part is that the answers are related to education and by teachers or educators sharing their experiences and resources, not by “experts” trying to show off or sell something.

TPACK Article Response

Luis: Article Response 

The, Teachers Learning Technology by Design article showed me the many different elements that can be used in the classroom and how educators are learning about these tools and the way they are learning them so they can implement them in the classroom.  When the teachers are taking new technology course it important that they not learn how to use the programs, but learn how they can effectively use the new technology in the classroom. This article describes how teachers not only learned about new technology, but as small groups they created real life course work and web layouts. This is important because without real world application, teachers would only learn tech but not retain it. This is also true with students. 

Once the teachers have built their tech knowledge, the fun begins with classroom interaction. I believe that students are much more technology tuned because they have grown up with it. Students don’t just want to do computer work just to do it. Again there has to be meaning behind it. How can students use it in their real life? This is the most important aspect of teaching technology to students. Once students see how they can use it and what are the benefits of it, you got them hooked. Do not forget to make it fun and entertaining. It’s not about learning new tech anymore our traditional classrooms need to move to web 2.0 to keep up with the high volume of tech use. And as educators we need to be efficient and learn about new technology so we can prepare our students for a technology driven working world.

Luis: Social Networking

Facebook:

App:  http://www.educatina.com/
This first Facebook page that I came across is called Educatina. This is considered more of a Facebook app then just a page, but it’s definitely a useful tool that is presented on Facebook. This app presents material in Spanish. From math concepts to history learning, Educatina presents many different subjects in Spanish. Once you have added his app to your Facebook page you are able to view many different videos.

http://www.facebook.com/autismspeaks
I came across an autism page that has more than one million followers. It looks like a pretty powerful page. As I was going through this page I found many different stories of people with children with autism and there were also different tools and resources that are available to people that had liked the page. This page also share a unique tool for people in that it has an online chat form that is also open to people that like the page. Once they have liked the page they are able to participate in these chats. The special thing about this online form is that they get to chat with doctors. Another cool thing that this Facebook page does is it gives links to its web page and also their twitter account.  

CLASSROOM 2.0:

Distant Collaboration
As I was searching through this website I typed in, Spanish Teachers, in the group tab and it gave me 16 different groups that mention Spanish language. The first group that I found was distance collaboration learning. When I opened this page I found that teachers had posted or were looking for other opportunities to interact with other Spanish speaking classes so their students could practice more. This ranges from middle school to high school.  

Teaching Spanish with web 2.0 tools
I found another group under, “Spanish Teacher” was called, Teaching Spanish with web 2.0 tools. This group has a blog where they share tools they have found and used in their class. Within their blogs they direct you to the website and they also explain how they used it in class. This would be a great way to interact with other educators and share tools that have been used. With this we get a better understanding of what works and what didn’t work. I feel that if this website is used in effectively I can serve as a great tool with endless possibilities. 

Shane Robinson's Social Networking Post

Facebook Education Area Research Response:

It was exciting to explore Special Education throughout Facebook. I was surprised to find a few wonderful pages right off the bat that held my interest. The special education data, posts, url’s and comments had me bouncing around from posting to posting. I found some great url’s in relation to Special Education.

Classroom 2.0 the community-supported network seems to be a comfortable social webpage which a candidate such as myself could probably learn from. The digital dialogue seems to be authentic and thoroughly thought out.

A couple of the areas I found interesting I have copied and pasted here:  If you're new to the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! show you might want to spend a few minutes viewing the screencast on the homepage to learn how we use Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate), and navigate the site. Each show begins at 12pm Eastern (GMT-5) and may be accessed in Blackboard Collaborate directly using the following Classroom 2.0 LIVE! link at http://tinyurl.com/cr20live.

On the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! site (http://live.classroom20.com) you'll find the recordings from our recent show "Becoming a Mobile Learning-iSchool Initiative" featuring Travis Allen. Click on the Archives and Resources and recordings tab.

I appreciated getting to see Prof. Zijdemans Linkden page because I have a heard good things about this cite. It is apparently  the world’s largest professional network and it is in 200 or more countries. Since networking is key in earning a job than this seems logical to join and explore the benefits of the site.

On the way to work the day after lecture I heard the following story presented by John Mo on NPR

Like LinkedIn, Last.fm And eHarmony Suffer Password Breach ...

 
June 07, 2012 ... Like LinkedIn, Last.fm And eHarmony Suffer Password Breach. ... Twitter (23); Facebook (29); E-mail; Share: Stumble Upon; Reddit; Linkedin; Digg. ... By Eyder Peralta

  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/06/07/154518597/like-linkedin-last-fm-and-eharmony-suffer-password-breach
 

The Google survey feature seems to be user friendly and useful. 

Social Networking/Chapter Response
Andy Haugen

Richardson’s discussion about social networking through mediums such as Facebook and Ning was interesting. It seems like everywhere I go that has a computer people are working or viewing a browser but you always see an additional one open to their Facebook page. It is pretty incredible that the site adds an additional 700,000 new people every day. I personally do not have an account for different reasons but Facebook can be a great connection tools that students, businesses, schools, and adults can benefit from. I had really only thought of Facebook as a social, spare time, fun type of site rather than an educational learning tool before reading this chapter.

The examples the author gives on pages 138-139 are good. Obviously students bought into what the teachers wanted and it worked really well. I did think that the same thing could have been done on a website and a blog much like our classroom portal and blog is set up. I do realize that it can be made private and past and future learners can come and connect through Facebook. The teacher realized that because all the students were already on Facebook it would be a fun and exciting way to get students involved and learning about a subject that many find boring.

In regards to Ning it sounds a little more complicated to set up and run while he mentions several times not to click on the Apps. I am curious why and to what this might entail! Overall, the goals for both sites are being able to connect and exchange information. Richardson stated that teachers and education are both very hesitant to create learning environments on Facebook and they have some well founded reasons. I think the students would become more excited about it or depressed because they may either feel the site is either something they know and enjoy or it could ruin it for them that homework would be posted to Facebook. Right now I am not convinced that I would use it in a classroom especially with all the other tools like blogs or wikis that could be used just as effectively but it will be interesting to see if Facebook becomes more widespread in the educational setting.