tcwally04′s_techblog

Over the course of the semester we have uncovered several different ways to enhance a classroom and facilitate learning by using the seemingly endless technologies made known in this class. We learned from the beginning that although there are several ways that the Internet can be abused, there are just as many ways to use the Internet to enhance learning. With new technologies appearing all the time, there are endless possibilities for teachers as long as they take the time to learn the new programs and are open-minded to using new programs in the classroom.

I have learned several valuable things from this course and as stated in past blogs, I have learned about several programs that I will most certainly use in my years as a teacher. This class has not only made me aware of present technologies, but it has also made me feel comfortable trying new things on the computer. I feel now as though I would have no problem trying to get used to new programs that will enhance the classroom and it is because of what we learned in class that would give me a little bit more courage than I would normally have for learning new things.

Before this class, I felt that I was fairly computer savvy but I quickly learned that with the emergence of computer programs and the new things that are made readily available each day, there is no way to be completely computer savvy. This class has made me realize that with patience and an open mind, technology can make things in the classroom more interesting and can help a teacher to make his or her classroom more conducive to student learning.

I am new when it comes to creating websites but after working with Dream Weaver a bit more it seems fairly easy. As I pointed out in my last blog post, it is very helpful for a teacher to have a website for students and parents. It keeps them updated and informed in classroom activities. It is amazing that such an important tool could be so easy to create if you have the right tools. I have almost completed my home page for my teacher website and can already begin to see how the final product will look.

I am just so amazed that such a great classroom tool can be so easy to create and use to inform students, parents as well as administrators what exactly is going on in class each day. It would be cool to have a bit more time to work on them and make them fully functional because I could really see myself using this tool in the future.

I am currently helping to coach the Greece Athena Men’s JV Basketball team and the teacher I am helping has told me on numerous occasions that the best thing he ever did for his students was create a classroom website. For his classroom website he has included outlines of class notes, upcoming activities, homework assignments and even recently a basketball practice schedule for his players.

He says that his classroom website allows students to get missed assignments and homework assignments that they may have not written down in class. He believes that the idea of a classroom website allows students to become more accountable for their class work and at the same time allows them to interact with other students in class by blogging or participating in a message board that he has set up on his space. He has given me multiple ideas for my own website and he is also proof that the technology at the fingertips of teachers is a very powerful tool.

I have heard about web quests in the classroom but never had a chance to really see what they were until this past Wednesday. After looking through a couple it really seems like a good idea to get students involved in web quests that a teacher prepares. It allows students to safely surf the internet and find resources to complete the task at hand. There are many benefits to web quests such as group work and overall getting students ready for higher education. In college and graduate school it is necessary to be able to use the Internet for resources and if a student learns what a proper website looks like and how to gain information from then, then it is enabling them to do well in school.

The internet is a valuable resource and a web quest is just the way to get students acclimated to using sources on the internet.

Garage Band is a really great way for anyone to make their own podcast and in turn share it with the world. The possibilities seem endless and as long as someone has an idea, there is an application for Garage Band. In class we are creating our own podcasts, using Garage Band and it is probably one of the most fun things we have done this semester. Although it is a little tough to record your own voice sitting in a computer lab full of people, it is a very fun way to literally make your voice heard.

This tool gives virtually everyone the chance to make their own podcast and post it for the world to hear or see. It is a very good learning tool for students and can be a great way for teachers to inform their class. Whether a teacher makes his or her own podcasts, or has the students make their own for a class, it is an exciting new way to learn.

Since class this past Wednesday I have really found how valuable Podcasts can be. I have had iTunes for a couple of years but never paid attention to the podcast option on the left side of my library. Since the last class though, I have been exploring podcasts and have even subscribed to a couple music podcasts as well as History channel podcasts. I have always been interested in music and since I am a History major I thought it would be helpful to have a couple extra resources. But I did not think that it would be so informational and abundant. It is easy to find a podcast on almost any subject, and you get some interesting perspectives, depending on where in the world the podcast is coming from.

Podcasting really has caught my attention and I can see how it can be used in multiple ways in the classroom. Whether it is making your students podcast, or using podcasts to give your students information, podcasts are a valuable tool and I can not wait to see what else I can use them for.

In my placements I have found that many students still do not understand the mere basics of he internet and how they can be used to help their education. I am teacher at Wilson Magnet School in Downtown Rochester and today in class we took the students to the computer lab to find current event articles for one of their classes. I was pretty surprised to find that many students needed help to even get into a website that could give them the proper newspaper articles so that they could complete their homework. I started to wonder why these students did not know how to use the internet to their advantage but why they were able to look at videos on Youtube.

I think that children are just not as interested and or as motivated to use these new innovative technologies for good use. Instead students have become more interested in the entertainment aspect of technology and have lost touch with the great learning tools that computers and the internet offer. Teachers I believe need to fuse the two aspects together to help foster students interest in learning. Teachers need to become more innovative in their teaching styles and to use things like games on PowerPoint to help students become motivated in learning.

These reasons are why I really like the non-linear PowerPoint activity in class. Things like this can help students to find education fun, which in the long run will help them become more interested in learning and coming to school in general.

With the emergence of the internet, students began to find ways to try and cheat the system to make their lives seemingly easier by simply copying and pasting information they found on the internet and calling it their own. This method has been commonly referred to as digital or “patchwork” plagiarism and has taken the educational world by storm. In my research I found that students plagiarize for a variety of reasons and after reading testimony and research on the subject I can relate to some of the reasons why students at all levels of academia might plagiarize. I have known people in the past who will simple copy and paste information they find on the internet and pass it off as their own ideas.

After finishing my paper I feel as though I now understand a bit better why a student is not only cheating the people who he or she is stealing the information from without proper citation as well as themselves. Going into the research I thought I would simply write about how wrong it was to steal ideas from other people on the internet, but as I continued I could see the moral and ethical motivation for plagiarizing and the ways a teacher or future teacher like myself can stop plagiarizing in a more ethical way.

Sure, there is detection software out there that can catch students who are plagiarizing but I asked myself what are students learning from this? It is just putting strain on teacher-student relationships and I set out to find alternative solutions for putting an end to digital plagiarism.

I found that peer culture, the pressure to do well in school and most importantly the emergence of the World Wide Web was behind why students plagiarize. If examined more closely by teachers and administrators they would be able to pinpoint different ways to deter students from digitally plagiarizing without causing stress between student and teacher.

I found that if a student simply addresses plagiarism at the beginning of the school year and takes time to make students understand the rules of citing information and the seriousness of the punishments if they are caught for plagiarizing. This way a student knows the rules of citing resources and will understand that plagiarism is no small deal. Teachers can also do things like teach students how to think critically at an earlier age by assigning critical thinking projects and document based questions to get students to analyze material more seriously, which will get a student to formulate their own ideas and end some of the tension between students and teachers alike.

My experiences with PowerPoint in the classroom were the typical boring lectures in which a teacher or professor would stand at the front of the classroom and read verbatim their PowerPoint slides. It felt as though the teacher had nothing original to say and took no time to really understand the lesson but rather wrote it down so they could read it to the class later. Even when I was in class as a student I could see that the teacher was just reading the slides to us and not really teaching the material as much as he/she was simply reading the material.

My belief is that if a teacher is going to use PowerPoint in this way then there is a lack of motivation by the teacher to really understand the material that is being taught in the classroom. A good teacher as we learned in class can use PowerPoint in a way that is still engaging to a class and at the same time allows the teacher to fully understand the material that is being taught. PowerPoint is a very good resource for a classroom as long as the educator takes the time to learn the full capabilities of the program. Just to stand at the front of a class and read the information on the slides is not conducive for a classroom and can lead to a dependence on that style of teaching. That is why I believe teachers who use PowerPoint should take the time to learn how to really use the program. We learned of a couple very good ideas for PowerPoint in our last class that can really help students learn and if more teachers learn about these ideas I believe the PowerPoint stigma of boring lectures could disappear completely.