Google Documents

I just wanted to share my thoughts on google documents. Much like portaportal, I didn't think it would be a big deal. Initially, I did not see how google documents would be any better than just email documents to people. Boy was I wrong. Since doing a little experimenting with google documents, I have found a veritable cornucopia of options for google documents. I've saved notes from two of my campus classes and allowed access to two friends from those classes to be able to get the notes when they miss class. I have used google documents to access those same notes from my sister's computer to do a little studying while staying at her house one night. I have talked to my boss at work about using google documents for loading a few forms that our job foremen would be able to access from any job site (without needing access to our server or using services like pc anywhere). I'm still trying to think of different ways I can use google documents and some of the other features that igoogle offers. I'm thinking about introducing my older son to igoogle and google sites (if he's not aware of it already). I think he would really enjoy creating a website. I have so many new options available to me now that I didn't know existed and it's all very user friendly. I'm excited at the possibilities!

Smartboards in my son's classroom

I spoke to my cousin again about her opinion on the smart board she would be using in her classroom. She said that she was excited about the smart boards potential in her classroom. She knew that the software would allow her to monitor and record students responses and to track their progress (which she was excited about) and she felt this would help her to help the students. She also felt the students would find the smart board to be fun and entertaining (keeping them engaged in the lesson).

I asked my oldest son his opinion on the smart board. Had he ever used one? No. Did he think he would find it easier to learn if a teacher was using the smart board instead of something like a power point presentation or an overhead projector? He said it might make math or science easier to understand but didn't think it would really matter for anything else.

I showed a video about the smart board to my youngest son and asked him what he thought about using something like that in school. Did he think he would like it? Would he pay attention? Did he think it would be fun? His response to all was "Yes". While he was watching the youtube video about the smart board he made comments about how it was like playing a game on my iphone (because you could touch the screen and move things around) and how it was kind of like a video game. I think his responses help to show that if nothing else, students will associate smart boards with things they find fun and entertaining (video games, internet) and will serve to keep them entertained and interested and hopefully educate them along the way.

Smartboard in the classroom

The smart boards website offers links to several different research studies, at various education levels, to show that their products benefit students and teachers. The website offers testimonials and links to several schools that are currently using smart board technology in the classroom. One of the schools, The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, has the following statement on the smart board website:"Teachers are able to keep their hands free to use sign language, students with visual impairments can see computer images for the first time during lessons, and teachers say students are becoming more focused and motivated to learn."
One study, done on students with emotional behavior disorders (E/BD), found that use of the smart board greatly improved the students acquisition of appropriate social behavior. Using the smart board allowed the students to see where their choices in different situations would lead them. It also allowed them to "watch peer leaders prompt and perform the appropriate behaviors, which made the ownership of those behaviors much more enticing."
Use of technology is so prevalent in the day to day lives of students (at home internet, ipods, cell phones, video games, etc.) that it seems natural and necessary for it to be included in students education as well and smart boards seem like an excellent tool for doing that. I have not seen a smart board in use so I went to youtube to see if I could find any videos of smart boards in action. I really liked this video and this video, I thought they showed some of the potential benefits of using smart boards in the class room. The videos demonstrate how smart boards can benefit students with a variety of learning styles and keep the students engaged and interested in the lesson.

Researching Technology and Education

Recently, the PTO at my son's elementary school announced plans to raise money to purchase "smart boards" or something like them. They did a brief demonstration at the PTO meeting to give the parents an idea of what the system did and what it looked like and then asked for a vote on the system. The vast majority of the parents (really, I don't think I heard anyone say "nay") agreed to the purchase of the system. I had only heard of smart boards once before, in one of my first FOED classes. I have a cousin that teaches 3rd grade at the school and asked her what she knew about the smart boards and how they would benefit her, as the teacher, and the students.

She explained that they were not getting true smart boards but something similar. A projector would be installed in the ceiling, a pull down screen would be installed above the white board, and the students would use hand held devices to respond to questions displayed (on the screen) or asked by the teacher. The software would monitor the students response time, how often they got the correct answer, how often they responded quickly and got the right answer vs. how often they responded quickly but got the wrong answer, and how often they didn't answer at all. This information is supposed to allow the teachers to monitor the students progress, participation, look for areas of strength and weakness, and have documentation when talking to other educators or to parents about a child's progress.

I find the idea of a smart board in the class room interesting and have decided to research the use of this tool in the class room. Does it benefit the students? Does it benefit the teachers? Is it really worth the investment?

Class Websites

I absolutely LOVED the class website project. As I have mentioned before, I have an 8 year old and a 15 year old. The high school teachers don't really use websites (which I find disappointing) but the elementary teachers do. As a parent I love being able to go to the teacher's website to get information about lunch time, spelling words, home work, class activities and events, and contact information for the teacher. As a future teacher, I can see many benefits to having a website for parents to access for information about the class. A class website would benefit the students as well. Details about class projects could be listed as well as links to suggested (or required) reference websites. Documents can be made available for parents and students (like field trip permission slips) through google docs. I can't tell you how many times I have lost notes about field trips or school events and had to go the teacher to ask for another sheet. Having the information available for parents and students to download could save the teacher and parents a lot of time (and perhaps embarrassment at having to ask for the field trip permission slip for the 4th time).

Blogging for Education

I have a cousin that is in the Peace Corps and currently living in Jamaica. She has a blog and posts frequently with updates about how and what she's doing. Her blog is the only blog I've ever really read prior to this class. This blog assignment has encouraged me to explore the blogging universe, look at some of the blogs out there and consider how I might use a blog in an educational setting. I found a couple of really great blogs (http://clive-shepherd.blogspot.com/ and http://www.thisweekineducation.com/ ) and have begun to compile a list of ways I might be able to use a blog in a classroom setting. A blog can be a great way to communicate with other educators and share ideas, experiences & lesson plans. A blog can be a great tool for communicating with students and parents, sharing classroom activities and events as well as links to sites that may benefit parents and students. A blog could be used as a modern day newspaper for the classroom. Students could be given article assignments and allowed to post on the classroom blog (in the class or computer lab and under teacher supervision of course). I'm excited about exploring this idea further and talking to teachers about their thoughts on blogging in the classroom.

Technology's influence on the everyday

I called home to ask my 15 year old son if a package had arrived in the mail. He paused for a couple of seconds and said no. Confused, I asked him if he had gone outside to check the mail box. He said no that he had looked out the window and the flag wasn't up on the mailbox. I was silent for a second or two and then told him that you put the flag up on the mailbox to notify the mailman that you are mailing something and want to be sure that he stops to pick it up. It occurred to me then that he was more familiar with AOL and the image of the mailbox with the flag up followed by the "You've got mail" line. I don't think he's ever mailed a physical letter and I don't think I've ever actually discussed how to mail a letter with him. I don't mail many letters either, I use email and social networking sites. My youngest son thinks postage stamps are stickers and meant to be played with and used to decorate his drawings. (I have several pictures that could be mailed across the country).
When I was in elementary school, part of my English class was how to write a letter and address an envelope. Neither of my children have had this in their classes. I also remember learning the "safe" way to answer a phone when you were home alone. Now students learn how to be safe when surfing the internet. Technology is changing the day to day in more ways than I realized.

Portaportal

Ok, I really didn't think I would use portaportal that much. I thought it was a neat idea but just didn't think I would use it that often. I couldn't have been more wrong! I've used the portaportal that I created for this class many times. Some for projects relating to this class, like the website. My oldest son used some of the links from my portaportal for homework help. I used portaportal to store links for a project from another class. I even started a portaportal for work. I store links to various websites relating to clients and vendors and shared the portaportal with the estimators in the office. Now they don't have to ask me to look the information up for them, they can just follow the links on portaportal. (of course they still ask me from time to time anyway). I have used portaportal more than I ever expected. I can see portaportal being a great benefit to teaching in a classroom. I can share links with parents and students for projects, homework help, and general information regarding education. I can also store links to sites that I find useful for lesson plans and ideas for classroom activities, projects, and articles about education.

The First Week

I realized technology was becoming more integrated into schools a few years ago when my oldest son came home from middle school with a web site that he had to sign into and complete assignments on for class. I realized how much I appreciated the use of technology for today's classrooms when I could sign on to my 7 year olds first grade teacher's website to get the spelling words for the week, check the class calendar, and get the student names (first only) for Valentine's Day cards (we lost the list the teacher sent home).

I have a friend that took this class last semester and told me that I would love it. She tried tell me about the many uses for google and portaportal. I listened but didn't really understand. Now I am beginning to understand. I started my portaportal account and google account this week and was so excited I had to post a message somewhere. The discussion board for this class was not open so I went to my facebook account and posted my excitement. I can see so many possibilities for these applications in my everyday life and in a classroom environment. I am so excited to learn more about these applications (and others) and their use in the classroom and my daily life.