Digital Divide

The digital divide is the gap between people who have access to information and digital technology and those who have no or limited access to the same technology. Many think that if we provide information and technology to those who currently don't have it, that we can improve their quality of life. According to Edutopia, people in the U.S. are trying to close the digital divide in schools by using federally funded programs like E-Rate or the Technology Opportunities Program, which provide discounts to schools and libraries. Blackweb 2.0 says that in Africa, where less than 10 percent of the population has access to the internet, 14 fiberoptic cables are being laid in the ocean to connect Africa to the European and Asian data centers. They hope that by providing information to the continent, they will spark economic growth which they say go hand in hand. I think that the digital divide will show up in my classes because I know that not every student in my classroom will have access to the internet at home, and maybe not have a computer either. Depending on where I end up teaching, most of the class may or may not have access to technology outside of school. I will address this by giving students assignments that don't always require computer use, or when I do have assignments that require use I will make sure to give them plenty of school work time to complete it. I plan on using technology in my classroom because I think that it is a great way to help students learn effectively, but I will not use technology just to use it.

Technopoly Presentation

I think that our presentation went well for the most part. Our introduction went like I thought it would, everyone uses a TV, computer Ipod, and phone on a daily basis it just helped start off our presentation. I think it helped people in the class understand just how much we rely on technology daily, how much it really does control our lives which is what Postman was trying to get us to see in this book. He challenged us to look at the negative sides of technology, which is the exact opposite of what society always tells us to do. Technology is such a distraction in our lives and we spend hours everyday using it. The Twitter activity went well and I think everyone participated in at least one tweet. The ending discussion really wrapped things up bringing all the information together well I think. Hopefully our presentation got others to maybe see the other side of technology even though it will not change their thinking, it might get them to think twice.

Twitter Chat on #collegechat

Tonight I participated in #collegechat which is a Twitter chat for students in college, looking for college, parents, teachers, and professors. The topic was about if college sports should be removed from schools and should legacies get special admissions treatment from schools. It was really awkward for me at first, but then I realized that these people don't know me and don't care who I am or what I say so that made me feel a little more comfortable chatting with them. As time went on in the chat, I started to learn more about how the chat works and what to do. At the beginning, I kept forgetting to put in the hash tag and kind of lost track of who I was talking to but eventually got the hang of it. It was really interesting to see how many people just randomly engage in chats on Twitter on a regular basis because I probably wouldn't have participated in the chat if it wasn't for class, but after doing it I realized it really wasn't that bad of a thing. I can see how this would be helpful for teachers to chat about their different subject areas or what is going on at their schools. Talking with a lot of other teachers from around the nation/world would be really cool to do I think. I learned a lot from this experience and may possibly do it in the future for my classroom.

IPad Apps: Dr. Seuss's ABC

An IPad app that I think could be very useful for younger elementary classrooms would be the Dr. Seuss's ABC app. It includes many of the classic Dr. Seuss stories and includes pictures, narration, and background sounds. I think it will make kids interested in reading because Dr. Seuss stories are fun to read. In the stories in this app, words are highlighted as the story is being read and words get zoomed in on if the picture with the page gets touched. The books can be viewed in three ways either with the "Read to Me" option where the story can be listened to and words highlighted as it is read, the "Read it Myself" option where kids can read it themselves, or the "Auto Play" option where the book plays like a movie would. I think this app could be used positively because it could get kids interested in reading and as time progresses it will teach them words, so they can eventually read it on their own. It could be used negatively because the kids could think they don't have to learn to read because it will do it for them. It could also be used negatively if the teacher relies on it all the time and  it could replace the teacher reading to the class which I think is important in younger classrooms. Overall I think this app could be really useful in the classroom and it is a fun way for kids to read. I found this app on a website designed specifically to show different educational IPad apps that could be used for different areas of education.

Edmodo in the Classroom

I think that edmodo.com could be very useful in my future classroom. It provides a way for the teacher and students to communicate through class discussions on the class page. It also provides a place that I could create posts of assignments, alerts, or even class polls. I would be ablle to pick what posts are sent to what groups, individuals, or specific classes. I could also upload any file that I want my class to read or view as homework outside of class time and have them comment on it through a class discussion. Any teacher can create a class page all you have to do is sign up. Any student can be added to my group or page by just being invited with a class code. With Edmodo I could view when assignments are turned in, monitor and reply to student posts, manage all groups, have an online gradebook, organize files, and locate files with tags or filters. With Edmodo I could also connect with other teachers to see what they are doing in their classrooms and could communicate with them through notes that are sent to their inbox page. Edmodo looks pretty easy to use and it looks like Facebook so I think that students would think it is something new and exciting to use.

Learning With the Interent Article

The article that I read for this assignment talked about how schools and teachers can use the internet as a learning tool it is Learning With the Internet by Muthu Kumar. The internet can provide three types of tools in the classroom they are: tools for inquiry, tools for communication, and tools for construction. The internet can be very useful because it provides a wide range of resources to students and teachers, rapid communication is available with others, and it provides learning scaffolding through a wide range of activities which supports higher order thinking skills from students. Teachers can also use online lesson plans that provide something new and exciting for students. With this teachers could spend the right amount of time planning making sure that the students get all they can out of the lesson; teachers just have to make sure the lesson plan they find and use is a credible source. The internet can also be a bad thing because students may not be able to tell the difference between websites with reliable information and ones that have unreliable information. There are also many other things a student can do online and not be paying attention to the lesson being taught.

Wiki

Over the past week I have been looking at, and trying to use the Wiki website. I actually used it today for one of my classes when I needed sources for a bibliography. Wiki is a simple online database where information is organized in all forms such as text, documents, graphics, or other multimedia. Anyone can add to a wiki to share the knowledge they have on a subject, or build onto the knowledge that others have already put in. It also allows for group communication through open editing where the information is constantly being updated. I think it would be really useful in the classroom for any type of research project, a place for a classroom to communicate, make a wiki about what they learned that day, or anything that information is needed for. I think that anyone could find whatever information needed on this website and could be really useful if used efficiently.

This site is the definition of Wiki
http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki

Education 109

In Education 109 today we talked about how to use Blogger in the classroom and its possible positive or negative effects it can have.

Technology in Education?

Before going to our first class last Friday, I thought that I knew how to use technology. Two hours later, I realized that I was completely wrong. I never though of using Twitter or Google for education, and had no clue so many people do. The first class opened my eyes to how much is out there free for educators to use everyday. I hope that I can keep working at these programs to get used to them and use them in the future. I can't wait for whats left to come in this Educational Technology class and know that it will help me in my future classroom.

Class 109

First day of 109 class!