Final Reflection

I have learned so many things in this last semester. Last spring, I had the chance to take ECMP 355 with Dean. I enjoyed the class a lot and learned so much that I decided to take it to the next level with ECMP 455. Before these classes, I had never really thought about the use of technology within the classroom. I remember in elementary and high school there wasn’t a lot of technology use. Only with our scheduled computer time. It is clearly evident that technology is becoming more and more apart of education, and after this class I don’t see how teachers wouldn’t want to incorporate technology in the classroom.

There have been a number of things I have learned in this class. First is how useful blogging can be. Before taking either ECMP class, the thought of blogging had never really crossed my mind. I had read a few blogs, but never thought about starting my own. Now I see how useful they can be. Not only is it a place where you can share your opinions, thoughts and ideas but you can also find useful information and blogs from other people. I think blogging is a great way to communicate with other people. I’ve now seen how fun and exciting a class blog can be, or even the joy of reading a comment on a blog post. Blogging has been a big part of this class, and I have learned a lot about it. I’ve even connected with some great teachers who have class blogs, which make me want to start my own class blog in the future.

Another thing I have learned in ECMP 455, is the importance of connecting with other teachers. I have the chance to connect with a few teachers again this semester. Not only have they shared some valuable information and knowledge, but I have also gotten to work on an awesome collaborative project with a fellow student and teacher. It was a great experience, and I love how easy the use of technology made it to connect with the other teachers. Thanks again to Lee Kolbert and Lisa Parisi for working with me!

I also had the chance to teach my fellow students about one of my passions, as well as a tool I find to be very useful, Twitter! I find twitter is a great way to connect with other people, and find useful information. There are many ways to use twitter, an everyone who has a twitter account seems to use it differently. At the moment I use my twitter more for musical purposes, but there are also many great educators using twitter. There are many conversations to join, and a lot of information to find on twitter. I learned a lot through the other students presentations as well. It was great to learn from my fellow students, and have the experience of me teaching them something.

I learn a lot from the Ning. It was a great place to see all the conversations and topics shared by other students. I did find it a little difficult to keep track of the assignments and discussions, but after a while I got the hang of it. I think the Ning would be useful in a future classroom. I like the layout it has, and all the different feature there are on the site. The groups, and discussions were very informative and helpful.

Over all this has been a great semester. I really enjoyed the class ECMP 455. I was able to connect with some really great people and learn a lot of valuable information. I really think this class and the information I’ve acquired during the last few months with be very useful for my future teaching career. It taught me about all the endless possibilities the technology can bring into the classroom and how helpful and exciting it can be. I am looking forward to incorporating all the different things I’ve learned in my classroom, and I hope to continue to learn more about the use of technology in the classroom. I believe technology is becoming a vital part in education, and I’m glad to have learned more about it.

Thanks again Dean for a great semester! This class has taught me a lot, and was very useful.

2 comments April 15, 2010

Collaborative Project Videos!

Okay so the videos have finally uploaded. Hope you enjoy

We wanted to show that even though adults like to think they know everything, they don’t always know all the answers. Thanks to everyone who participated!

1. Can you name the planets in order from the Sun?

2. Can you explain why we have seasons?

3 comments April 10, 2010

Collaborative Project- take 2!

Today Chelsea and I were finally able to complete our collaborative project with Lee Kolbert. We spent the afternoon walking around the University of Regina interviewing students. As I said before, for our collaborative project we planned to pick a couple questions regarding fourth grade science and interview people. We wanted to make a video that was a mix between Jay Leno and Are you smarter than a fifth grader. The two questions we choose, with the help of Lee, were:

1. Can you name the planets in order starting from the Sun?

2. Can you explain why we have seasons?

We had a really great time interviewing students around the university. It was funny to hear some of the answers we received or the reactions from the questions. We decided to make two short videos, one for each question. In the first video we introduced ourselves a little and then showed the interviews, and for the second video we only showed the interviews. It took a while to edit to videos, and currently we are waiting for the videos to upload on YouTube. It’s now almost 1:00 am ….

When the videos are finished loading, they will be on the site www.youtube.com/chelseaandjanna. Until then I’ll leave this post, and add another post with the two videos later.

Have a great day!

Add a comment April 9, 2010

Interview a Learner

I was able to set up a little email interview with Lisa Parisi, who is a fifth grade teacher and has been teaching for over 20 years. Here is the link to her blog if you would like to check it out…

http://lisaslingo.blogspot.com/

How do you use technology in your classroom, and do you find it useful?
I use technology as a tool for success.  The students use various tools to demonstrate their knowledge (blogs, podcasts, videos, animoto, voicethread, etc.).  They also use technology to assist with learning (demo videos, online dictionaries, voice recognition software, etc.).  In addition, I use technology to help me manage the classroom (online rubrics, spreadsheets for grading, etc.)

Do you think teachers can be reluctant to use technology in the classroom? If yes, why do you think so?
Many teachers are reluctant.  The two major reasons I see are fear that they will break the computer and a time issue.  They do not see technology as a tool, but rather as an addon.

What types of activities do you use with technology? And do you have any favourite programs or ways of using technology in the classroom?
We use technology for almost everything.  Google docs for collaborative work is probably used the most. My favorite programs are VoiceThread and Class Blogmeister for demonstrations.  I also like Discovery Streaming and BrainPop for videos .  You can look at our website to see what we use.

http://www.herricks.org/webpages/spcollaborative/index.cfm

Do you have any tips for future teachers wanting to use technology in the classroom?
Technology is not an addon.  It is part of what you do every day.  Allow the children to have access to the computers at any time.  They should feel free to get a computer during a lesson when needed.

Thank you very much Lisa! I find your answers very informative and useful, and I hope other’s enjoy your wise words as well.

Add a comment April 9, 2010