Saturday, February 19, 2011

Learning and Teaching with Technology

Producing and Presenting, Including Podcasting and Digital Storytelling

What role can digital storytelling play in education?
Digital storytelling helps students explore teh meaning of their own experience, give value to it, and communicate that experience on multiple levels to others.  The stories can be people, places, things, and happenings.

Social, Ethical, Legal, and Human Issues

What steps would you take to ensure child safety on the WWW?
Some of the steps I would take are:
  • restrict access to sites that I have deemed safe
  • purchase and use child saftey montioring software
  • explain internet safety practices with child(ren)
  • ensure that computer virus protection is on and up to date

Information cited from Using Technology in the Classroom by Gary Bitter and Jane Legacy 2008

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Simulations and Data Analysis

What is a simulation?

     A simulation is the process of imitating a real situation or object with a set of mathematical formulas.  Computer simulations can imitate weather conditions, chemical reactions, nuclear accidents, medical techniques, cost required to produce a particular design, biological processes, cockpit and spacecraft systems, and product safety testing, to name just a few.
Here are a few simulation websites that the text recommends:

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Getting to Know the World Wide Web

What are good practice manners to follow when using email?

Our text lists several, so I will list a couple that I feel are important.
  • Check your email regularly.  Once people know you have email, they will start using it and expect you to do the same.
  • Scan unknown attachments with your virus protection software before opening them.
  • Never send anything that you would not want anyone other than the intended recipient to read.
  • Use all capital letters sparingly, only when what you are saying is extremely important.  When an email message written in all capital letters is read, it appears as though the sender is "SHOUTING!(Legacy 2008)"
Works Cited
Legacy, G. G. (2008). Using Technology in the Classroom. Boston: Pearson.

Productivity Tools and Application Software

Design a problem-solving exercise where computer applications and concept mapping will be used in the solution.

Our text shares kidspiration as a tool students can use to create concept maps for a variety of subjects.  I decided to investigate the inspiration website to see what the site has to offer.  Kidspiration is software you can purchase that allows teachers to design interactive concept maps for students to use.  Students fill in the concept maps with information from stories or problems the teacher gives them.  I am including a link to a sample lesson on their site that I thought was a great use of the software.  Check it out, they are currently offering a free trial download of the kidspiration, I am strongly considering the software for my family. 
Here is the link  Kidspiration Writing Lesson

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Getting Started With Technology

What are the trends of the Information Age?

An economy built on information rather than goods and services began to emerge.  Knowledge (cognition) and knowing how to learn and think (metacognition) increased in global importance, significance, and value.  The three significant trends with implications for education mark the Information Age:
            1.  A shift in demographics
            2.  An acceleration of technology
            3.  An ever-expanding base of available data through which to search,
                 sift, sort, and select

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