Digital Safety Reflection

      In my ED271 (Technology Application for Education) class, we were assigned a topic to present on that related to digital safety. My group and I got the topic of textual harassment and sexting. On the way to creating the presentation, we did a lot of research on the topic and learned things that would not even have known about if we didn't do the research. Did you know that if an adult were sexting someone under aged, they could get arrested and will forever have to register themselves as a sex offender? Did you also know that sending, receiving, and forwarding sexually suggestive photos is also considered sexting even though the pictures aren't yours? I didn't know that. So should we assume that everybody knows what the dangers are on the internet?
       The amazing thing when listening to the presentations about fair user practices and copyright issues, digital safety and privacy, cyber bullying, textual harassment and sexting, pharming and phishing, and digital wellness is that they all seem to connect to one another.  In the article "Student Safety in the Age of Facebook", Bosco says that "we are responsible to see that young people know how to use the tools of their culture in a responsible, safe, intelligent way." The dangers and the tips on how to avoid all the dangers on the internet that were presented seemed to be similar, which is great considering that if a student hears about one danger, they would take the same precautions as if they listened to all the presentations.
        If I were to teach my students ways of being safe on the internet, I would do it exactly like how my professor for this class, Dr. Jacqui Cyrus, did it. She assigned us into groups and had us search for the information ourselves. She didn't hand us the information on a silver platter. She made us work hard to look for the information which helped keep the information about the topics in our heads. I would assign my class the task to find the information and also present it in class so that the rest of the class would be informed of the other topics.
       I would not suggest any changes to this assignment. There are many other things we can inform students about when using the internet, but the topics we covered are sufficient enough to get students to think about how they should be using the internet. I also would not want to change it because assigning students to inform other students is a great teaching technique. According to the article "How Peer Teaching Improves Student Learning and 10 Ways to Encourage It ", students receive more time for individualized learning, direct interaction between students promotes active learning, peer teachers reinforce their own learning by instructing other, and students feel more comfortable and open when interacting with a peer. If there is a lesson that should be embedded into the minds of our students, it should be on how to keep themselves anywhere, even when they are at home on their computers.
      I believe that this assignment was necessary in this class. Technology is finding a way to progress and fast. It is also finding a way into our classrooms and into the hands of young people who don't really know the dangers of the internet. Since it is happening so fast and the dangers are just a send button away, I believe that it is crucial for students to learn about what we learned about. I would teach my students about the dangers of technology exactly how I learned in this class, by letting the students teach other students. Peer teaching is an effecting teaching strategy that would help students keep the information in mind.

References
-How Peer Teaching Improves Student Learning and 10 Ways To Encourage It - InformED. (n.d.). Retrieved December 16, 2015, from http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/peer-teaching/
-Student Safety in the Age of Facebook -- THE Journal. (n.d). Retrieved December 16, 2015, from https://thejournal.com/Articles/2012/03/02/online-safety.aspx?Page=2

Why I Want to be a Teacher

Whether we know it or not, everyday we are learning. As children, we learn how to tie our shoes and eat. As teenagers, we learn how to drive a car and deal with heart  break  . As adults, we learn in college or even learn how to do a certain job. Learning never stops. However, who are we learning how to do all these tasks from? Every time someone is taught something value to them, they remember the   person who taught them. I want to become an elementary school teacher to be remembered. I am not talking about being remembered as being someone famous. I want to be remembered as a teacher who was passionate about teaching, making a difference, and wanting to watch my students grow and succeed.    

 I want to become a teacher because I am passionate about teaching. I never saw it before, but my friends pointed out that I love to teach. I point out problems right away and I try to fix it or to help someone fix it. I tend to correct grammar when it is used incorrectly. My friends hate it, but I like it. I want to become a teacher to teach young minds. I have an understanding that children are much more difficult to teach, because they sometimes lose focus. I want to be able to do activities with them to help them not only remember, but really learn and keep it with them. My teaching philosophy is that every student can learn. It is just up to me to find ways in which that student can learn from.     

 I look back at all the teachers that made a big impact on my life and they are mostly in elementary school. I once had a teacher that failed to care for my classmates and I. I had another teacher who was so caring and ensured that if not all, but most, of my classmates and I succeed in the lessons. I want to be that teacher because I want to watch my students succeed and be the positive role model when they look back at me. I can imagine that when I am up at the board teaching, I am educating future teachers, nurses, doctors, and other occupations. I want to ensure that I encourage them to keep doing their best and to strive for what they believe in. I want to be that teacher who continues to lift up students even when they are down.    

 I want to become a teacher so that my students would say that they want to come and stay in school. Going to school, I know that many students would not want to go because their teachers are boring or fail to recognize their absences. But I want to create a positive image for school. School has been a tough road for me, but I constantly remind myself that it is for my future. The most attention I give to a class are the classes that involve me too, not just the teacher lecturing. I can only imagine that when I see my old elementary school teacher or maybe in the future work beside them, they would be proud to see that they are a part of my success. As a future teacher, I want to know that feeling of not only making an impact on the life of someone in my family or around my circle of friend, but to a child who is in need of direction when it has not been made or clear yet.     

 When I was younger, I wanted to become a nurse, not because I thought about how much they got paid, but because they always make a difference and helped people. As I grew older, I realized that I want to be a nurse of the mind. Having teaching embedded  into my heart, it has become natural for me to want to educate, especially to elementary school students who need the attention of someone who wants them to learn. Encouraging a child to succeed in school is something I would want to do for a living. I want to be a teacher because I want to teach each and every one of my students something so valuable that they will remember that I was a little part of who they have become.    

8 Technology Tools

Moodle  (5/5)
I think that Moodle is a great tool to use, especially in college. It is a way for students and professors to communicate and interact without having to use e-mail. However, it sends messages to your e-mail to confirm the assignment you have done and submitted and when a professor sends a message for the course. In addition, it provides a calendar for all the upcoming quizzes, tests, assignments, and our favorite, holidays. It shows the upcoming activities that will be done in class.
It is also beneficial for the professors because they can post up the syllabus for the course and not have to print one (especially for the professors that love to save paper). They do not need to send or print documents, individually to students, needed for the class and instead just post them online. They can also upload the grades of assignments and tests of the students so that the students do not have to go to their professor to find out their grades, unless they want to know why they got the grade. I personally believe that Moodle has been a big help to college students around the University of Guam campus.

Google Chrome(5/5)
Google Chrome has always been my favorite browser. It is fast and easy to use. Using Chrome, you can bookmark the pages you want to save for future references. When you open it, it shows the websites that you frequently use, so you do not have to type the URL over again. One thing that I most admire about it is that it is fast. Using it in a classroom, it would not waste a lot of time trying to load websites, videos, and other things.

Google Applications(5/5)
I have always used Hotmail for word, presentations, and other helpful things for class, but I did not know how useful Google is with their Google Applications. First of all, I thought that the interactive documents were cool and useful. There is no need to send information to each other, to copy and paste information from each other, and to ask other group mates what research or other things for the group they have done. The Blogger is a great way to blog things, especially important opinions that could be used in cases, such as Livetext. It is great when personalizing the things you want to say and is a great multimedia tool, which I am still getting the hang of. My most favorite Google App is the Google Hangouts because it is easy to use and there is an actual app you can connect to it with your e-mail other than logging in all the time.

Live Binder (5/5)
I will admit that Live Binder was a bit complicated considering that it was not familiar to me. But as I started to look through it and Dr. Cyrus explained it a bit more, I kind of got the hang of it. Using it as a future educator is a great way to keep track of great websites to gather information. It also can be a portfolio of all the websites we students have created. We can clash other websites we used in this class, such as Wix, Weebly, Prezi, and our Blogger to keep track of other classes.

Wiggio(3/5)
Using Wiggio for our presentation was okay. There were ways to create conferences and to chat about our project. However, every time we sent a message in the chat, we would get a message to our personal e-mail about what that person said, when we could just read it from the website. There was a way to turn that off, but you have to play with it and it did not have a tutorial on how to use it. Also, when creating the conferences, there were so many steps as to creating one, such as inputting all the members e-mail, having them approve, and so on. During the video conference, we had to go to another link to see our group mates and we have to click on whether we want that person to see us or not and hear us, which would be easier if it were automatic. It was great because using Wiggio, we can send files to groups, which would be great for classrooms and can update students on what their conference would be about.

Wix (5/5)
Wix is a great tool for creating a website. The first time I saw it, it was used for one of the games and what caught my attention was how the background was able to relate to their game. It would be great to use it in a classroom because it will forever stay online and you could still edit it, which would be great if a few information needs to be changed.

Weebly (5/5)
Weebly is another tool in creating websites, but was only okay. I had a hard time trying to change the layouts for my website. Another issue I had was that there was a limited amount of layouts and adding pictures. In order to add a picture, you had to have paid for the better picture, otherwise you would have to use pictures that sometimes do not relate to what was searched or one that looks old and out dated. It was also difficult because when I would type something in a textbox, it would go back to the example in the textbox, other than what I types. However, you can also edit the website after you have published it, which would give teachers a chance to update their information as well.

Prezi (5/5)
Prezi is a great alternative tool to using PowerPoint presentation. It has great ways to present different topics with different layouts. However, using it in a classroom, it may take some time as slides try to transmission. If your internet connect is slow, it may disrupt the presentation of students or yours. A great thing about Prezi is that it in online, so if your computer breaks down, it would still be available online. It gives me a headache sometimes because of the transitions it makes. To go to another slide, you would have to keep pressing back, other than stopping it to go to a certain slide.

Assistive Technology Meeting Needs

        Not all students are going to learn what is taught during one lesson. One thing that all teachers should know is that no two students are alike. There will be different types of learners in a classroom, such as visual learners and audio learners. But to what extent are we teachers willing to take to ensure that all our students are able to participate and learn during our lessons? According to the article “Supports, Modifications, and Accommodations for Students”, the key to success for a child with disabilities in the classroom is to have the appropriate adaptations, accommodations, and modifications made to the classroom instructions and activities.

        As a teacher, we have to be aware of the different things that are going on with our students. We have to perform certain tests that tells us how our students are, how they learn, how they think, and what drives them to do certain tasks. After we have conducted tests and spoken to the student’s parents, this is where we will create an Individualized Education Program (IEP), to set goals for the student. Having an IEP will also notify us of the student’s needs and it is our job to meet those needs.

        Learning the difference between modification and accommodation is especially important when dealing with students with disabilities. So what is the difference? Modification, according to the Jersey City Public School’s “Accommodations/Modifications/Interventions”, is defined as altering the expected content knowledge and the assessment administration practices. Also, they defined accommodation as not altering what the student is expected to learn but makes learning accessible to them and to show what they know.

        In the video “How Assistive Technology Enables Dreams”, they accommodated Lukas Bratcher with an instrument that was modified because his hands were not fully capable of pressing the necessary tools in his instrument. He showed a passion for wanting to play the instrument so Lee Shook, his first band director, sought out to find a way to do it. Though he felt it to be a very difficult task, they were able to find a shop that welcomed those with arms that were not able to play with instruments to fit their needs.

        Assistive technology has played a part in also creating modifications in classrooms because they can be assigned to each student and whatever meets their goals for their IEPs are included in their technology, such as iPads and computers. George Rehmet, a teacher at the Redwood Heights Elementary School, found it effective in meeting the needs of their content. In the video, they mention that first they have to teach the students how to use their device, which makes them believe that the earlier they learn to use their technology tool, the more proficient they will be with it, and will be able to teach their students more and more.

        Sadly, not all teachers are too familiar with all the assistive technology tools out there, which students can use. It brings a disadvantage to both the students and the teacher because the student would have been able to use tools earlier in their education and teachers would have had an easier time meeting or coming close to the goals set for a particular student. An example is Susanna Martini. In the video, she was currently attending college and has cerebral palsy. She said that assistive technology is a part of who she is because she would not be able to walk or do the things she is able to do. She even mentioned how she did not get a computer until her mom requested it and believed that if she had the equipment when she was in high school, it would have made her life easier.

        There are many ways to revise an activity to meet the needs of students with disabilities. In the video, their differences were apparent and their needs were meet with the help of their teacher and their assistive technology tool. A step to getting to know what to revise is to test them in order to complete their Individualized Education Program and to get to know the needs of the student. Another step to revising an activity is to know whether that student needs any modifications or accommodations in order to learn from the activity. Lastly, as teachers, we need to do our part and educate ourselves on the different types of assistive technologies that would help our students and ourselves when it comes to achieving the student’s annual goals in their IEPs.

References:

Accommodations/Modifications/Interventions. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2015, from http://www.jcboe.org/boe2015/images/pdf/depts/speced/13-14/links13-14/accommodationsmodificationsinterventions.pdf

Supports, Modifications, and Accommodations for Students | Center for Parent Information and Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2015, from http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/accommodations/

Yes and No in My Lesson

For one of our assignments, we were required to create an ASSURE lesson plan and be able to teach a class using that process. I decided to teach a 6^th grade middle school class because by that time, they would have already have acquired the skills needed in order to complete the objectives that I have planned for the lesson. The two objectives of my lesson plan were to (1) Students will be able to solve the difference between the amount of sugar, salt, and fat from the cereals and the Recommended Daily Allowance and (2) students will be able to visually represent the difference between the 3 cereals using bar graphs. As I was creating this lesson plan, looking through the plans I have created for this assignment and thinking of the different things that would have occurred during the lesson in a classroom, there are a few things I would do differently and some things that I would do the same.

One thing that I would do the same is put my students into groups of 5. Doing this allows for them to work together. They also get to decide who is going to record their information, do the research, and input their information, which encourages collaboration and agreeing. According to the article Cooperative Learning: Assigning Individual Tasks to Group Members, this is called cooperative learning. It promotes friendships and support. Living on Guam, there are many diverse groups and cooperative learning would be a great way to get the different groups to work together. Not only is it just group work, but assigning the facilitator, recorder, and other positions in a group helps with also completing an individual task.

Another thing I would do the same is the use the materials. I believe that using technology is a great way for them to learn how to conduct research and input their research. In elementary school, they rarely have students do research and just give them handouts and direct them to where they need to go. In using the computers and the internet, this enhances their ability to gather liable research, of course with me assisting them when they have any questions or need help.

Though there are things that I would do the same, I would like to change one thing about my lesson plan, which is the activity. Though it was enough for students to get the concept of graph their research, I would have wanted my students to represent it kinetically. According to the article Three Learning Styles, there are three types of learning styles, which are visual, auditory, and kinetics. In my lesson, there are two that I use, visual and auditory. As a teacher, wanting all of my students to learn is something I want, but what I needed to add to my lesson is hands-on learning. I would have wanted my students to use sand to weigh the difference of the amount of salt, sugar, and fat in the three cereals compared to the Recommended Daily Allowance.

No lesson plan will be perfect. The most teachers can hope for is that each student has learned at least a little part of the objectives if not all. As an aspiring teacher creating a lesson plan before actually teaching, I believe that incorporating group work into my lesson plan creates more to the objective than just doing the research. I also believe that using materials such as computers and the internet will help further their ability to conduct other types of research. However, I would have wanted to do a more hands-on activity in this lesson plan to accommodate the three different types of learners in a classroom.

References:

Cooperative Learning: Assigning Individual Tasks to Group Members. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2015. http://www.dailyteachingtools.com/cooperative-learning-tasks.html

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis IUPUI. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2015. http://blc.uc.iupui.edu/Academic-Enrichment/Study-Skills/Learning-Styles/3-Learning-Styles

CSI:Hat Snatcher in the Classroom

Our first group project for our ED271: Technology Applications for Education class was to find an educational game that dealt with our content area. The purpose of their project was to open up and find different types of games appropriate for students. Speaking to my group members, our similar interest was math and most of us were elementary education majors. Since that was the case, we searched through many games and eventually found the “CSI: Hat Snatcher” game on PBSkids.org. The star of the game was Ruff Ruffman and Blossom. They are popular characters on PBS where they have children as their guests to do a series of challenges on Ruff Ruffman’s game show in his headquarters. Being an elementary education major with a focus on math, I think I will be able to use our chosen game in my content area because the game is made for fourth graders and up, it encourages math skills, and it encourages the use of technology in the classroom.

The game is made for fourth graders and up because there are some tasks required for them to listen and solve problems. There are words that some students under the fourth grade level that may not be able to comprehend. I think it would be a great game to use because the characters are familiar to those who watch PBS, but if not, may be interested in watching the show after playing the game. Elementary school is where students discover the basics of each content. Playing a game where they have to use clues to catch the culprit will open up their minds to wanting to discover new things.  

 According to Margaret Taplin in her article, she wrote, "Presenting a problem and developing the skills needed to solve that problem is more motivational than teaching the skills without a context. It allows the students to see a reason for learning the mathematics, and hence to become more deeply involved in learning it." Since my focus is math, it is important that my students would need to use their problem solving and thinking skills. If I were to play this game with them, they would be able to use both. There are parts of them game where they have to match evidence to figure out which type of plant, sweater, or what kind of hair color. That is the time where they would have to use their thinking skills. In the game, the suspects are given descriptions of their likes and hobbies and in order for us to figure out the last two suspects, we would have to connect the evidence to their biographies, which is the part where they have to use their problem solving skills and connect.  

I would most definitely be able to use this in my content area because children these days are so used to being on their ipads, smartphones, and other wireless devices. We can hardly ask them to do something outside or even work on their homework with out using the internet. Using technology in my content area, especially students in elementary, would help keep their focus and interest in the lesson or even the game activity. In the article "Effects of Technology on Classrooms and Students", it says that the use of technology has been a motivational tool for students to become engaged in the classroom and to work cooperatively with their peers. It is also a great tool for instructional choices. Online games are allowing us to catch up with society and their technological advances. 

I would be able to use the “CSI: Hat Snatcher” game in my content area because it targets elementary school students, it focuses on math, and enforces the use of technology. The game consists of tasks and vocabulary that may not be appropriate for student’s third grade and under to play, but it would be a great game for students above that grade level. It would be for students in fourth grade and above because it requires them to use their critical thinking and problem solving skills. In addition to be able to using it in my content area, I believe that games like this would be effective in teaching elementary students to keep them engaged and focused in class because of their familiarity with technology. 

References:

 Effects of Technology on Classrooms and Students. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2015.  http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/effectsstudents.html

 Effects of Technology on Classrooms and Students. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2015.  http://www.mathgoodies.com/articles/teaching_values.html

CSI: Hat Snatcher in the Classroom

PBSkids