Sunday, March 30, 2014

Personal Learning Network

There are many sites in where we can learn and gain knowledge about education and technology. I subscribed to The New York Times-Education where I learn about education issues that are happening around our nation. I am able to see local and nationwide news about education issues and gives me tips by providing critical thinking articles. Digital Inspiration is a blog that I found to be really helpful to me because I was able to read some articles that showed me what more I can do with my Google account and drive. There are so many things that I learned of how to use my drive much more useful and inspires me to use is in good ways and take the benefits from it. Yahoo tech is a place where I can find anything fun to explore and find fun and interesting facts about the technology world. Some of the information given is helpful and other is fun to find out what is going on with technology and how it is evolving.

Twitter is a way for the news to come to you and not us looking for it. I follow the NEA Today which I love because I am able to learn so much from them. Sometimes it is very valid information and other tweets are just to make us laugh about the wonders of being a teacher. We see how teachers are portrayed and how it can be seen a different way. It keeps updated on information that we need to know especially when they send their magazines to your door. It gives you and insight of what teachers are doing to better the public school system. Education.com tweets are there to give us some inspiration and ideas to make learning fun. Some of the tweets just put smiles on my face because it lightens me up of all the ideas we was future and current teachers can use in our classrooms. PBS Teachers tweets a view to some free digital resources. It also giving us information on how to be able to transform learning into something great. One example is music and it was showing us that music can be online know since technology is being a big part of student’s lives now.

Diigo is a play of networking and learning tool because we are able to find credible site that our classmates or peers look for. For right now I only follow my classmates in my education class and I am able to see what else they are finding about technology. The more people I follow the more I am able to see what is going on in the technology world. As of right now I am not an active member looking for people to follow, but I will in the near future. It is interesting to see what my classmates find in the world of technology.

I joined both Educators PLN and Classroom 2.0 and I found them to be very helpful. I was able to read some comments and some articles that teachers have put up and learn from them. Some teachers load up other articles they find so everyone can see and get help. It is a place where teachers help teachers out without knowing it. I found some of the posts to help a lot because it was not just about technology, but about any subject or helpful tip to teachers.

My PLN experience was overwhelming because there are so many good sites out there and networks we can join, but I say too many accounts. There was a lot of reading to do which took time, but in the end I found it worth it because I was able to learn so many things. I had accounts everywhere and I was not just able to keep track of what I read and where I read it. I enjoyed and found interesting facts about technology and how helpful it can be and I understood it, but sometimes I found it to be overwhelming of so much information given. Overall I enjoyed learning and see what other teachers and sites had to say about education.I will certainly use a lot of the sites and blogs as a future teachers. I will try my best to be update on everything I can and I am sure I can use some new ideas and inspiration from other teachers in my classroom.

Monday, March 24, 2014

My Pledge for my iPad

I pledge all the following for my iPad:

*I promise I will take care of my iPad as it were my own and bring it fully charged to school everyday.
*I will not put personal or inappropriate information on my iPad.
*If I feel that my security is not safe I will file a report.
*If any damage or lost of my iPad I will inform my teacher.
*I will expect random inspections of the information contained on my iPad by my teacher.
*I will have my iPad in my site at all times.
* If there are any damages or I lose it I will take full responsibility for it.

.........................................................
Student Name (Print clearly)


........................................................              ..............................
Student Signature                                          Date


https://docs.google.com/a/cougars.csusm.edu/file/d/0B6R87_VjJse-VklNMWFOS3Z3a28/edit
https://docs.google.com/a/cougars.csusm.edu/document/d/1GJ-EyxmQ8AGumXSB2rAcHgxkF-nOsqpMYujDcKSDf6I/edit 
https://docs.google.com/a/cougars.csusm.edu/document/d/1y7l1zuurXR_HwiUwSGV_2O_he41AQKA7hvWPcg9ib2M/edit
https://docs.google.com/a/cougars.csusm.edu/document/d/1MJF80g2KZB4ix6T0hX1Prf2TmshUKE2ycNA_QsRuXcI/edit 
https://docs.google.com/a/cougars.csusm.edu/document/d/1OZfJRkjlqigEIcYDR6LvgCKmOmzgbh8yUuFQMo7kAWk/edit
https://docs.google.com/a/cougars.csusm.edu/document/d/161_fW2U7pVu0uhxMNFrsQDzBQo8igyodmwgLxYWbyRU/edit

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Build an Assistive Technology Toolkit -- Reading Reflection #3

Assistive technology is a way to help students with any special need to grow in their learning. It provides many learning styles with the form of technology. There are many programs that are offered for free online and for all types of students. There are not just for PC computers, but for all types of computers. Not all schools will offer every programs and parents need to be aware of that because may be there students needs are not being meet. There are many programs and books online that can help students to be able to catch up in having the same reading skills. Not all the programs out there are for every student and that is why many schools do not provide it, but we as teachers and parents need to make sure that our students has everything they need to succeed.

My overall view on this topic was supportive and encouraging because not all students learn at the same pace as others and they need special attention to be able to succeed. Every student is different and should not be treated the same as everyone else their needs to be provided with what ever they need to be able to be successful in school. 

NETS for students on this topic is expressing the research and information fluency they need. IT is helping students and parents to look for new ways to learn and get information that is need to them. They are selecting information that is going to be valid to them.

Ahrens, K. (2011). Copyright law and technology. Learning and Leading with Technology. 39 (3), 22-23

What if Abraham Lincoln had a facebook page? -- Reading Reflection #2

History doesn't seem fun at all for many students, why do they need to learn about all the dead people, they might ask themselves. There needs to be a way to help students get an interest in history and learning about all the wonders of our country. One big idea comes to mind, Facebook is a powerful tool and social network for many of our students today. Facebook with history looks like a weird combination, but they can go hand in hand. Letting students create a Facebook page for a historical figure can help them learn more about history. While using history and modern technology can help a student explore more about the lives of any important person of our nation. It does not just work with people, but also with nations. A nation or country can have a page and write all importance that has happened (ex: war,dictators, etc.) and current issues of the country. They can provide educational videos and comments to others classmates, while the student is learning so are their classmates. The project can become a year long project and turned into sections throughout the school year. Many teachers do not want to change up or even update part of their lesson plan to integrate technology. If teachers see that the old methods of teaching are not providing a new chance of learning for students then we should fit to what students are interested, which seems to be technology. To be able to integrate a social tool into a classroom can be very beneficial to students learning especially in history where most students don't see the importance of it.

The way I looked at this article was interesting because I never saw the importance of facebook. I myself don't have a Facebook because I saw no use in it, but this article has given me a new way of looking at facebook. I see a new way into taking something such as Facebook and taking advantage it for the students learning.

NETS students is provided in this learning activity of using Facebook as a tool of learning. This activity expands all the standards that a student needs to know about technology. It helps the students understand the value of learning and technology together. 

Clover, B. (2013).  Copyright law and technology. Learning and Leading with Technology. 40 (8), 38-39

When will we ever use math in real life? -- Reading Reflection #1

Math, math, and math don’t seem to be important to many students because when will we ever use the function of f(x) in life. Many students find math to be complicated and a complete waste of time. What students don’t know is that math is the universal language of our universe and we use is constantly even though that it is not part of our career. Even though our students may not see the importance of math we can get help from technology to share the importance of math. Bringing experts into classrooms and showing students the importance of math is one way to do it. Since it is hard to get some of these professional to present in a classroom, Scaling up STEM Learning provided videos of experts that show how math is really important in their workforce. Some even said that in high school they did not think about how useful and important math was going to be in their life and know they can’t do their job without the use of math. Some examples of careers that use math are architects, technologist, and computer networking researcher, biomedical engineering, and much more. By providing students a better insight with career highlights that deal with math, students seem to be more interested in the subject. 

My point of view on the topic is great and not just for math, but I believe that teachers can provide examples of each subject and the careers students can achieve with it. I believe math is very important not just for career wise, but for everyday use. We need to be educated adults in how to manage credit cards, house mortgage, insurance, and basically manage our account money. We either learn now or learn the hard way by our mistakes about the issues of money math in our lives. Talking and informing students about their future and what careers they can pursue they can take advantage of all the opportunities of each subject they learn at school. 

NETS for students doesn’t address for students to learn about career wise chooses for their future, but I say the digital citizenship can fall into place with this article. It helps students find an issue and they were able to see through technology the advantages of what they are learning at school can help them. It will not just help students during the present times, but in their future careers and lives.   

Ware, J. Stein, S. (2012).  Copyright law and technology. Learning and Leading with Technology. 39 (8), 34-35

Saturday, March 8, 2014