Digital Blog Post #F

Chapter 8

Communicating and Collaborating with Social Media

While reading the first section of Chapter 8, I had to think about how tremendous teaching with the help of technology changed over the last couple of years. When I went to school, teachers used worksheets, a chalkboard, communication notebooks for parents and in really early times handwritten and photocopied activity sheets. Now I read in "Electronic Communication between Teachers and Students" that much of the communication with teachers happen electronically. The teachers are able to create a classroom website with information and homework while in earlier days the homework and class information was written on a sideboard to copy at the beginning of each class or supposed to be copied in a notebook by the end of the class' conclusion for the day. I think classroom websites and information pages are a good thing. Students have all their information they need together and the parents are able to get all the important information at one click that they might miss without that website. The book suggests to establish an online discussion group. This is also a nice idea for teachers to let parents and students get information and answers to questions quicker than before. It might help students to improve their work and get better grades.
Another section of the book I like to talk about is "Social networking for educators". According to the book, sociologist Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman noted that a social network is a "set of relations among network members". The book describes that individuals share information and profiles by textmessaging, chatting or blogging and participating in online communities. Also it says that Teachers are engaging in educational networking. This involves teachers who use social networking technology for educational and professional development.
When I am planning for our next lesson plan, I mainly use search engines like google to find material. Most of the material I find on the Pinterest. This is a website were people post ideas and information for other people to share and try out. I found out many teachers and educators post ideas and activities on pinterest for other teachers to use. Some of my science fun activities and monthly theme activities came from ideas on pinterest. I also heard that our school has a pinterest account and posts our projects with pictures from time to time. 

 This video shows a college class who uses social media like twitter, Facebook or Wiki in their classroom


The next section I would like to talk about is "Integrating Electronic Communications into your Teaching." The book points out "Sharing information with Families" and I think this is a very important point since parents should be integrated in their children's school day and special happenings that will be going on around the school. According to the book, researchers from the Havard University Family Research project found that more than one in three families use the Internet to communicate with schools. Those families tended to have high incomes, more education, and greater access to computers. A positive connection was found between internet based family communication and higher academic achievement and expectations among twelve grade students. How internet based family school communication helps student achievement is not completely clear but researchers believe that the availability of online information may promote greater family involvement in student learning. Like I said, I think it is very important for families to get involved in their childrens' school days. Our school just gave the parents an opportunity to come to school and talked to the VPK teachers about their children's efforts in learning. This gives the parents the chance to listen about strengths and weaknesses of their children and work with the teacher together to help the child improve academically. I think, information for parents in general can help keep up a child's success, no matter of it is modern and electronically or traditional. The book also says that as a teacher, it makes sense to provide information to families about class assignments, grading policies upcoming activities and other topics online in a easily updatable format. I agree with that, parents have a right to know every detail of their childs school life. Our preschool has created a Facebook information page for parents and other family members to get information from. Our director maintains the Facebook page. The teachers have the opportunity to send her pictures about projects and activities and special events in their classrooms and she will post and share this information on the Facebook page. The parents have the opportunity to communicate with her and with each other and can be able to see that their children had fun in our special events or seasonal special projects. The book also points out a section called "Publishing students work". The book says Every year dance performances and art exhibitions and similar performing art project great interest in students. I agree, after students work hard on projects or performing arts, showing and displaying them to parents make them feel proud and enhances their self esteem. Our children plan and establish a Christmas program with songs and short poems every year for their parents. This event makes them feel special and proud. This year, we had some videos and pictures with information about each classes program posted on our facebook page. The parents were happy to see this pictures and videos. This created a lot of feedback and communication through the page.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, it is tremendous and very exciting how much change we experienced during the years from when I went to school to the school aged children now. But, I also have to say that having all this modern technology can be a good thing to find information easier and make communication faster if necessary. This article "Web-based learning" by Judy McKimm, Carol Jollie and Peter Cantillon identifies web-based learning and distance learning and describes models of web-based learingAs a college student and a full time working teacher, I am very happy with the fact that the college offers Online based classes. It makes it easier for me to reach my educational goals and stay in my regular work hours at the same time.

references

Freitag, Julia (2015) Communication Technology + Learning, retrieved from www.linoit.com

Judy McKimm, Carol Jollie, and Peter Cantillon (2003) Web based Learning, retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

www.Pinterest.com

Public Domain TV (2014) Amazing Science- Social Media in the Classroom: Forget Textbooks! Use Twitter! retrieved from youtube.com

Digital Blog Post #E

Chapter 7

The first section of chapter 7 "Exploring Problem solving with software, Apps and Games" I want to talk about is "Open Source Softaware." Since I have a computer specialist in my house, I am used to work with Open-source software every day and with everything I do on my computer. The book talks about Linux and describes it as a widely used open-source operating system. Since a couple of years now, I have been using Linux as my operating system. The book says that some technology educators consider open-source software to be safer to run on computers because it is more secure in terms of privacy. I can agree with that. Also, it is more secure in terms of virus problems because computer viruses won't be able to run on Linux systems. I am also using Libre Office as my writing/spreadsheet/presentation software. LibreOffice writer works similar than Microsoft Word and is easy to use. It also lets me safe files as .doc files to upload and share as needed.
The next section I would like to talk about is "building, inventing and creating software." The book talks about Google Earth. It is described as an interactive globe inside your computer. It is composed of photographs taken by satellites and aircrafts of virtually every location in the world over the past 3 years. It lets users explore landmarks, places, and points of interest. I like the examples that the book gives about how students in a classroom can use Google Earth. They could take virtual journeys throughout their community or across the country to visit places of current or historical interest. In English classes students can visit a place that they read about in a novel or short story. Reading all this reminds me of a day when we used Google Sky Map with our after school group.

We were talking about astrology that week. When the children had their outside time, we took our smartphones and a tablet outside with the App "Google Sky map." We let the children explore the App. It lets you see a map of the sky updated to the current real sky view for the area. Users can hold it up the sky and move it around to see the stars and planets described on the map. It has the option to search for planets and an arrow in the map will lead to the planets' position in the sky. We let the children explore the sky map and the sky and we let them find the sun and the moon while playing around with the options. They had fun with it and started looking up names and shapes of planets and the solar system.
The third section I would like to talk about is "debates about Games and Gaming." The books says when we mention games and gaming. many people will think of video games. These are pervasive elements of youth culture today. The book explains that according to 2009 and 2010 Data, computer and video gaming has grown to a $10.5 billion industry. Two of every three households play videogames and 25% of those players were 18 years and younger. I would consider our household as one of the video game playing ones, not including me so much. I remember when video game playing slowly started when I was around 10 years old. We had small Video game devices with one themed games on a small LED screen. Than I remember the beginning popularity of the old Game Boy. I was one of the first ones having a Game Boy when it was new and I still have it here.  Also, the book explains that despite the enormous popularity of video games, educators are still learning about  psychological and sociological impact of game play. Some parents and teachers think we should restrict computer use by students and others would not even let young children use computers at all. There are concerns that brain development and social skills are adversely affected by extensive game play. I remember reading articles at the beginning of the Game Boy popularity were children developed seizures after long periods of video game playing.
Some video games contain agressive story lines, violent images and sexual themes. The book describes that researchers have suggested that violent video games could make gamers become "physiologically numb" to cruel or aggressive behaviors also in real life situations.
According to the book, other educators see valuable educational impacts from video games. I found and article by Jordan Shapiro called "A Surprising New Study on how Video Games impact children. It describes a study done by Dr. Andrew K Pryzybylsky called "Electronic Gaming and Psychological Adjustment."

We use computers for our students and I think, video games are okay for children to play in a healthy amount of time. Mainly, we use computers for educational software and games. Our computers are used as media for showing small videos found on Youtube or to research for topics, pictures and themes. Children in Pre-K will use educational websites with reading and number games and our Afterschool group is allowed to use the computer to play on one day of the week. Every page they use is viewed and approved by a teacher and we watch carefully what content they find on youtube. I think, computers and games are helpful for children in learning and playing. Yes, I agree that there are violent games with inappropriate content but we, as teachers, should be able to control carefully what students use so that we will be on the safe side while our students can have fun and learn with new technology.

Citation

Freitag, Julia (2015), mindmap, Computer Games, retrieved from www.bubble.us

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Shapiro, Jordan (2014) A surprising new study on how Video Games impact Children., retrieved from www.forbes.com

Google (2009) Sky map - Astronomy App for Android, retrieved from www.youtube.com
 

Digital Blog Post #D

Chapter 5

The first section of Chapter 5, I am talking about is E-books and E-readers. First, I think E-books and E-readers are very nice and a good thing to have. They help to organize and save space. You can have a lot of reading material nicely organized on one device. This semester, I have downloaded both of my textbooks, that I need for my 2 classes, on my tablet. I have rented them from Amazon for a much cheaper prize as I would have to pay for a regular printed book. I think this is a good thing to buy or rent textbooks from an online source. The textbook tells me, I am not the only one who likes e-books. It states that a survey found out that 40 % of 1200 E-reader buyers were spending more time reading now than before with print books. I am still reading print books too because I think we should never stop the fun of having real paper books as reading material. They never loose battery performance and they are less sensitive to transport everywhere. Another study found out that students who used E-readers in a first-year reading and writing course at California Lutheran University showed increased academic success. I think, maybe E-readers are new and getting popular and the interest and excitement of using them makes students using them more and gain better academic success. The book asks on p. 102, "Does time spent reading online support student learning?" There are internet critics who believe reading printed books is the time-honored, proven path to intellectual growth. I also think, we shouldn't forget to show our children the excitement of real feel printed books. The textbook also states that historian David McCullogh states that learning is acquired mainly from books and mostly from good books. I think, it is important to introduce children at a young age to real printed books that they can open and explore. There are so many beautiful picture books for children that we can't compare with an electronic version. Books for children can be made intersting with with touch, feel and sense material to explore. I think, first children should have a rich printed book experience. When they get older and go to school, we could add E- books for them to get to know too.The Video tells about the adding of electronics in a catholic High School.
The second section of the book I would like to talk about is on p. 114 "Wikipedia: An online Encyclopedia. The book explains that Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia with a worldwide collection of Authors. It also says that Wikipedia constantly ranks among the most visited sites on the web. I noticed that, when I use google to reseacrh for a specific topic, one of the first results I see is content and definitions from Wikipedia. For the fact, like the book also says, that anyone can add listings and definitions to wikipedia, I agree that this is not the most reliable source to look for information. It should be carefully reviewed and compared with other more reliable websites. I understand that many people distrust Wikipedias content (P.114) because there is no editorial and expert control. I like the role-play Encyclopedia Development described by the book. It says students will choose topics that they are familiar with and work on them in small groups. They will create a definition about it with just the information they know. Different groups will work on same topics so the students can compare and contrast their finished work. That way, they will find out how similar or different their descriptions are. I think, this is a great project that teaches children how massive information from the internet is and that we can't trust every source we find.
The third section I would like to hang on to is the one about Cyberbullying. Bullying in real Life among children shocks and makes me sad. Unfortunately, children can be mean to each other and even lose their respect towards adults sometimes. I think this is something teachers need to work on every day to try to avoid most of it. Sometimes, bullying happens hidden away from teachers and parents' eyes which than have no idea aboutr that their children bullying or being bullied. Unfortunately, I see bullying starting at an early age of 5 years in opur school. At this young age it is easy to control. We try to teach that it is not a good choice to be a bully.
The book says that bullying and cyberbullying have a negative and lasting impact on academic perfomances. Between 1 in three and 1 in five students have been victims of cyberbullies. Between 10 and 20% of school age children admitted to engaging in some form of harmful technology use. According to the book, girls and boys alike are involved in cyberbullying. Girls tend to spread rumors online while boys post harmful pictures.
Consequences for victims can be depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, poor school performances and also suicidal tendencies. I agree with the book that teachers have to emphasize always that it is wrong to single out people just because they do not fit in their norms. I think, we should take the time to let children and adolescents express their feelings and talk about their well-being in school. It is important to talk about bullying often in class, maybe put it in the lesson plan to make it a theme. Students have to learn that hurting each others feelings doesn't help anybody. More information for parents, teens and teachers and definitions about cyberbullying can be found at the Cyberbullying Research Center.  Students should be reminded to respect everyone, even if they look or talk differently then they are. They are still classmates and people like everybody else.

Citation

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Ottawa citizen (2013), Catholic High school libraries use E-readers and laptops, tetrieved from www.Youtube.com

Cyberbullying Research Center (last updated 2015) www.cyberbullying.us 
                                                                                                                                        
 Freitag, Julia, We look different but..., www.canva.com

Digital Blog Post #C

Chapter 3

The first section of Chapter 3 “Transforming Learning with unique, powerful Technology” that I want to talk about is “The research on the science of learning.” Yes, I agree with the idea of constructivism. The book explains that the idea of constructivism is defined as constructing new knowledge and understandings based on what we already know and believe.

Some examples of constructivism can be seen in our preschool. The children have a large group session at the beginning of each day in a circle. They will learn new concepts of of naming letters and numbers. They also will learn the lettersounds and how to use numbers while counting objects. After that, they will have a small group session to strengthen the new ideas that they have learned. After this small group session and a little outside break, they will have their own individual learning time. They will get a chance to play games and work with learning lessons to match, trace and form letters and numbers. They use what they have learned before and combine it with these games and lessons. For example, they have capital and lower case matching games. They learn how those letters look like in their circle time and use their new learned information for those matching lessons. 

I really like the activity the book explains about finding out if the earth moves, or the objects around it. On p. 48, the book states that the teacher takes her students outside early in the morning to ask them to trace shadows of different sized objects. They will do that at different times of the day, document the time they ll do it and use different colors for tracing different sized shadows. After that, they created a question: What causes the shadow movements? To find solutions, they are using recourses like weather pages or dark/day maps to answer the question. Also, our children explore things through active learning. For example, when they play with blocks and create houses. They learn about buildings and how to construct them so they will stand straight. I taught children the purpose of a bridge with the help of blocks. I built a bridge from blocks and told them to imagine there is all water around the bridge and asked them what a bridge is for. I let a car go over the bridge and told them, the car will get safely over the water by passing the bridge. A teacher can sit with children at play time and guide them while creating houses. We can ask questions like; What type of house you are building? Who lives in it? Does your house have a roof? Why do we need a roof? What are windows for? With asking those questions, the children will train their thinking skills and learn while playing. 

The next section of the book I want to hang on to is “Lessons from Montessori.” The book states that immediate self correcting feedback, a fundamental element of Maria Montessori pedagogy in the early years of the 20^th century, remains in use today. The book also describes Montessori style learning material like cut out continent map puzzles that have correct sizes of land masses and are color coded to a globe to match shapes and sizes. It also mentions wooden blocks to build a staircase and beads that can be threaded on strings by tens to make a 100 which can be attached to a 1000 cube. All these learning materials sound familiar to me and I have seen them around our school and used them in our classroom. On Youtube I found a video that explains what Montessori Curriculum is. 

Our school uses parts of the Montessori curriculum and some of our learning lessons are Montessori style. We also had Montessori certified teachers until last year. I like the idea that children can work independently with the immediate self correcting feedback. The constant guidance of a teacher is mostly not necessary and the children have chances to explore and solve problems by themselves with the teacher as a support. 

The third topic of the book I would like to talk about is “Online problem-solving environments.” The book says that online learning games and interactive simulations develop students' talents as problem solvers and critical thinkers. In addition, it says that every online game or simulation features problems that must be solved through critical thinking about strategies and results. Yes, I agree that computer games and simulations enhance critical thinking and trains the brain in different areas. I also like to do little strategy games like combination puzzles and brain jogging games. They help train thinking skills.

For the children, I found an App on my tablet from “intellijoy education and fun”called “children learn to read.” They can tab and listen to letter names and sounds and they can blend, combine and listen to words read by the App. Like I said, I like the idea that children enhance their thinking and problem solving skills while playing different video games, but I also have to say that those games should be provided in a safe healthy manner and in an appropriate amount of time for their age group. This will keep the fun in learning with these games and the time for all other real life things the world has to offer for children to explore

 Citations


 Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Davidson Films Inc, Maria Montessori, Learn about her teachings, life and lasting Legacy (2010) retrieved from www.youtube.de

www.Intellijoy.com

Freitag, Julia, Computers, Fun, Lern, play, expolore (2015) from www.linoit.com