Electronic Portfolios: Students, Teachers, and Life Long Learners

I looked at a website that was based on creating electronic portfolios for teachers and students and why they are such a great idea. students are always having to creat work land turn it in so with the help of electronic portfolios they are able to be creative by sharing information, artifacts and work done in the classroom. If a teacher is using this for themselves they can include teaching ideas, about themselves, work that they have created lessons, etc. for students this can be incorporated as a final project that the students would need to turn in. This can be an evaluation and assessment used for the students and their learning. A portfolio like this could be used for getting a sample or understanding of a person's work showing their range of abilities, experiences, and achievements. This website was great for giving links that would lead you to examples of both teacher and students portfolios that have already been used. This would help o it teachers a lot giving them a feel of how to implement the and effectively use them in the classroom. There are also links to places that tell you how to begin using this and giving them important background information they should know. This is not just a good idea for student work but also for teachers and professional development. Teachers can create these to document to develop fresh thinking about education, let them reflect on their teaching goals, and also include different methods and strategies that a being used. This is a great site that I think is very helpful for teachers who are trying to implement online portfolios. I think this way of assessm ent and students involvement is a great idea and would be a great thing for teachers to use with different subjects and activities.

Engage me or enrage me- Chapter 3

"Yesterday’s education for tomorrow’s kids.". This quote from the article I read really stood out to me and seemed to wrap everything up. This article Engage Me or Enrage Me was really investing and very blunt about pointing out that the kids of today's society are not the ones at fault for not listening or learning but it is the teachers. We as teachers are not using the technology that kids today are addicted to within the classroom. Children can sit anda play games or do other activities on the computer all day long, but in the classroom we are not utilizing their desire to use technology for our advantage. If we include the technology and give in a little to the desires and interests of students they will be able to learn the curriculum at hand but still enjoy and feel like it is part of their interests. In chapter 3 the author had a lot of statistics and research that shows just how much technology is being used by students as young as age eight. There seems to be a disconnect between teachers and students about what styles of learning should be used. I do feel that the curriculum and what Ned's to be learned is the most important thing to consider but if teaching sources and strategies use can change then the learning will happen in a better way. As someone who wants to be a teacher in this society and time I believe it is essential to understand the best ways to incorporate technology in the classroom. Like the article pointed out wE can engage students by reaching out to where they are and guiding them from there or we can enrage them and not care about what interests or different ways of learning would help them best.

Ch. 7- Lessons Learned About Providing Laptops for All Students

Schools all over the country are starting to move to getting aptops or iPads for the classroom creating one-to-one computing. This process can be more complex and challenging than most people think because there are a lot of areas that need to be considered and taken care of to make this all happen and run the right way. The Northeast and the Islands Regional Technology in Education Consortium wrote a paper About the different Easton's learned from laptop programs that have already been started. Some of the key lessons learned were about planning, training and professional development, hardware and software, managing change, and program monitoring and evaluation. There hope with this article is that other schools will learn and when they start there own laptop programs they will not run into the same problems as others. One of my favorite quotes from this papr was from a woman by the name of Bette Manchester, who said, “it is not about the technology; it is about the students’ learning and about capacity building in the schools." whether this is everyone's view or not it probably should be. One aspect of this process that I felt was really important was that change needs to be expected to be gradual. There are so many different parts of this program to set up and put in place before this can run smoothly and with the effects that the school would want so it is important to be patient and wait for everything else to get set up and fall into place before everything can run perfectly.
This article fits right along side chapter seven and a lot of what we have talked about in class. They both discuss the different procedures and steps that are involved in setting up technology in the classroom. The chapter in the book gives a good understanding Of how important planning is and that goes right along with this paper written and the points they were trying to make also. It is important for a technology coordinator and teachers as well to take time and learn as well as teach new technology brought into the classroom so that everyone can get the full learning experience out of this type of instruction. It is about using the tools to teach the children in the most effective ways possible and this takes time to implement new teaching styles worth technology, but it can be done with good planning, teaching, and follow through.

Ch. 8- Education Leadership

When first just looking at the website and the different information that will be provided it looks like this site will be extremely helpful for technology leads to use and share with teachers as well. When you pull up the page Education Leadership Toolkit there are several different links displayed and they all look very helpful and informative. The different links are Why change?, why technology?, Planning, policy, curriculum and assessment, Community involvement, Facility planning, funding, professional And leadership development. These are all points that tie in so well with the chapter on leadership and vision and how to incorporate this technology and set it up in your school. This toolkit is a collection of tips and pointers, articles, case studies and other resources for education leaders addressing issues around technology and education. These tools also go right along with the different steps and processes that Adam discussed last week when he was I b class. This would be a great site for someone who wants to be a technology leader to use just to get a plan for how to start implementing new technology and if they are wanting to present a new idea the planning link takes you to a list of important aspects to consider and cover with your research and plan. I do not really want to be a technology leader but if I was going to need to be one this would be a great site to look at to get an idea of all the different parts that would need to be covered to propose new technology in the schools. I do like though that the information on Why Change? and Why Technology? could be read and used by everyone to get on the same page of the Ned for advancements in the classroom and school systems.

Ch. 2 cyber bullying

The article I read was a report on cyber bullying by Amanda Lenhart. She did a study on cyber bullying and how many teens are being bullied and whether there are more students being bullied on or off line. She did phone interviews with students to ask them if they think that students get bullied online more. The students in this interview thought that bullying happened more offline than online, but I did find it very interesting that white teens thought that it happened more online than African American teens. Another part of this study was to see if bullying online happened more by girls or guys. I was not surprised and I don't think most people would be to find out that girls are involved more in the bullying than boys. The more people are on social websites the more opportunities will be presented for them to either get bullied or be bullied. Bullying has always been present in schools but it has now entered the digital world making it more public and noticible to the public.
The chapter over this talked about social problems that occur and as this article shows cyber bullying is a realm problem that exists. It is important as an educator when teaching about technology to cover all the important points of online etiquette and safety procedures. Students are going to continue and bully but with the use of technology in the classroom gives opportunities for those involved to have a positive influence on what the students will do online. I also think that this chapter about safety and the article about cyber bullying goes along with the topic of today's class. It is important to teach about password and screen name safety. Students do not want someone from there class to get their information and be able to log on as them and do inappropriate things blaming them. The use of technology and the problems that go along with it will always be present no matter how old of a study you look at. It is important as a teacher and educator to always take these problems seriously and share concerns and information with students trying to prevent anything like this happening in your classroom. This is such an important topic and involves so many of our students today statins why this kind of research is so important to look at and take into consideration when using technology in the classroom.

Leadership and management

Today when Adam Hotchkiss came he provided a lot of information and it was really interesting to hear everything he was talking about. He talked in detail about things such as policy, budget, staffing, leadership, etc. Here are some notes that I took while he was talking of aspects that I found really interesting and helpful to hear about: If you do not have the time to plan you do not have anything to instruct people on. As a leader you need To look ahead to see what technology should look like down the road. Need to make sure your instructions and goals align with the school standards. Every decision you make about technology will affect the classrooms and school as a whole. First get your strategic plan, then you can really think about the specifics. Change from leadership to management position for this process. Total cost ownership is how much money you will need to complete the whole process, everything over the lifespan of the process. Staffing is very important in this process, teachers need to be trained as well as people to work with them throughout their learning process. Make sure to set aside money for infrastructure, such as the things that most people do not see but that you need to run technology. Anytime you put in new technology it is a must to do initial training and then after they have time to work with it you can do another session where they can have questions. Technical support needs to be done fairly quickly so that they will continue to use technology most of the time. Best to have spares for cases like this so it will cut down on wait and fixing time. Policies govern the expectations of how people will use the equipment, have policies on everything.
All this information above is a lot to think about and process but it is all really helpful to those who are going to be in school or be in technology roles. I think information like this is helpful for even those of us who are going to be teachers because just knowing the process that goes into setting up the technology can make you more respectful and understanding of what you do and do not have. The is a lot that goes into the roles of technology leadership and as teachers we need to be sensitive to this issue and show patience within the schools.

Professional development

After listening to Polly speak on being a technology coordinator at her school it is evident that she has really integrated great opportunities for the teachers. She not only does her research and is involved in providing the technology needed for the schools she also sees a need for seminars and other opportunities for the teachers to learn. She has set up seminars during the evenings and summer on different aspects of using technology that she feels will best accommodate and be useful to the teachers atherosclerosis school. By leading these school activities she is providing a useful service to the community at Grace Christian Academy.
I do not want to be a technology coordinator but I do see the need for teachers and all those working with technology to have the right training and resource need to use the technology. If we are only going to use it in ways that do not get the students involved than the technology will be wasted. I think Polly covered this very well and just helped reinforce the importance of knowing about the technology you have and how to best incorporate it in the school and your classroom.

Tracking U.S. Trends

The article that I read was called Tracking US. Trends and it went through each state and which ones are being responsible for incorporating technology into the school.  This article looked at a study done that gave each state a grade on how they were using and incorporating the technology.  Only one state received an A.  This article is a few years old and so changes have occurred since then, but this just shows us how much work states need to put into developing better ways to teach and assess technology.  The chapter from our book talked about assessment and evaluation and according to this article very few states are requiring assessments in the form of online testing.  Also in this year the requirements of teachers even being required to have training was limited.  It is crazy how far we have come in just a few years how we are now requiring not only teachers to have training and assessments, but also students.  They did point out the number of computers per student and how this could affect the use in the classroom and that is what schools are still dealing with today.  If the schools do not have computers that are available for student use then it is hard to prepare and teach them how to be computer and technology literate.
     This article does fit somewhat in with the topic of assessment, but it almost goes even further back from just figuring out ways to test students and focuses on how teachers are not prepared and how schools are not enforcing the need for technology.  I think that training, which we have talked about in other chapters, is important and teachers are still not getting enough of it to prepare them for teaching these skills in the classroom.  How can teachers be told to assess something that they themselves do not fully understand or get prepared for.   I think it is important as teachers to try and incorporate technology in every aspect and it helps that I am young and have grown up with technology, but in order for assessment to go on schools also need to step up and give instruction for teachers to be better equipped for the new standards that are in place.

Digital Natives, Digital Imigrants: Do They Really Think Differently

     The article I read was from the chapter three section and discussed digital natives and how the students in today's society falls within this description.  What caught my attention about this article was the fact that they were going to look at home digital natives, or today's children, view learning and how their brains develop.  We have been talking about brain development in our other class with Dr. Bond and this just reemphasized what he has been saying about how what we do over a long period of time shapes our brain.  Therefore since we are growing up with kids who spend almost all their time using technology their brains might be constructed differently than teachers who have been around a while.  The point is that the teacher has two options: first they can ignore the fact that students learn best by using the very thing that they spend their time with, technology, secondly they can embrace this and use new forms of technology that will incorporate the interests of students.  This article talked about how teachers need to be looking into ways that they can incorporate educational games and media into all aspects of teaching.  One of the most interesting statistics that I saw in this article was that if you take out all of the lunches, recesses, and in between times in school that there is approximately 3 hours of instructional learning that takes place.  Their point in this was if you can incorporate technology in a way that is fun, such as through online educational games, that if students spend three hours in a course of a weekend also playing these games it is like they have gained another day of school.
     In chapter three of our book they discussed Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum.  They looked at different statistics and findings showing how much time children spend outside of school using technology and then looked at how little was spent in school.  These do not seem to correlate at all and I think that this is what the article I read was referring to.  If children are going to embrace the technology and enjoy it than shouldn't school be a place to show them how to enjoy learning as well.  The number of schools that use technology standards is increasing, but as we have all seen in the schools we are in the usage of technology is still on a low scale.  It will be important for this generation of new teachers to take our knowledge of technology and the need we see for it into the classroom to further encourage the use of technology to everyone around us as well.   

Teachers Talk Text 2006

     I read a report from 2006 where teachers talk about technology and how it is benefiting them in the classroom.  This report used information from an in-depth research study about how teachers feel about technology in the classroom.  I found that the statistics and information that was given was very helpful and I think shows a great advancement in the way teachers are viewing technology in such a positive way.  I thought it was interesting that according to this study the top three obstacles for fully implementing computers into the curriculum was access, time, and budget.  This came as a surprise to me because from reading the chapters in our book I assumed that it would be knowledge of how to implement and use the technology in the classroom, but this was not the case.  Even though that particular part of the study did not show the focus to be on training we all know that it does play a role.  Another part of the study showed that 1/5 of teachers did not receive any technology training over the past year.  This does not mean that these teachers cannot or do not use technology effectively in the classroom, but that as we have read in chapters 1 and 6 they are not receiving up to date training.  The more technology training these teachers receive the more likely they are to see the positive impact technology can have on students.  This report and study provided numerous different statistics and charts that could be helpful for technology facilitators and leaders to help improve on how teachers are using and can be using technology in the classroom.  I believe that the author of an article like this is trying to show awareness of important topics that are affecting our schools and students.  There will always be room for improvement in education which research shows us, but I also believe that research can help by pointing to the positive direction in which technology is heading.
     I believe that since this study was done a few years ago there have been some changes in the statistics and facts.  I do however think that our knowledge and use of technology in the classroom can always be improved and I think as teachers and future teachers it is important to always find ways to incorporate technology into the curriculum.  Looking back to when I was in high school and the lack of technology we had, mostly just a computer lab, there are so many other possibilities and opportunities that we have to use them in teaching our students.  I look forward to learning the new ideas and ways they come up with to include technology expanding the ability to learn for both teachers and students.