Final Reflection- Emerging Instructional Technlogies

I truly enjoyed Emerging Instructional Technologies. Since the start at the end of May, I have enjoyed the readings, podcasts, and videos we were assigned. I found much of the information "new", but very interesting, and was able to see how it applies in my classroom. As far as the week actually at class, it was very busy and at times overwhelming , but I can say I have been exposed to an array of technologies I can integrate into my classroom. Though, I am not an expert, I feel I can implement the technologies successfully and would enjoy learning more about each of those I choose to use.

The technologies I see myself using in my classroom with the students the most will be Skype, Google Docs, Webpage/Blog development, wikis, Voicethread, podcasts, and videos. I am looking forward to going through my curriculum and finding areas where this technology would be appropriate. I do believe that the students want to use technology in a meaningful way and I need to be able to provide them that opportunity in a way that will enhance the curriculum and their learning.

The technologies I see myself using in my professional life, but not necessarily with the children, are nings. Nings are a great way to establish contacts and throw ideas out there with others who want to collaborate. I am going to make an effort to find time to actively participate with several of the nings introduced to us in class. Having this social network of people with similar visions could be an amazing resource for myself and other teachers participating.

Our group's final project was on digital citizenship. I thought it turned out very well. I really enjoyed working with my creative group members and appreciated their help with many of the technologies. What I enjoyed the most was actually getting to use the technologies to put together something worthwhile because it is useful. The content of our product itself will be useful to students. The overall finished product, or framework, of our unit will be a great example to recreate for other curricular areas and/or model to other teachers about the possibilities with the emerging technologies I was exposed to this week.

When all the technology I learned this week is outdated and I am yet still trying to stay "up-to-date", I plan on remembering Dr. Zeitz's quote: "Live with Courage, Teach with Vision".

Today was the last day of class for Emerging Instructional Technologies. We were able to finish our video editing and prepare for our presentation.

The afternoon consisted of presentations from each of the three groups. Our groups presentation was on digital citizenship. We had made a podcast about copyright and pirating. Overall, I feel like the presentation went well. You can listen to our podcasts or watch our videos by going to digitalcitizenship.wetpaint.com, the digital citizenship wiki we set up for this project, or the website, http://bluegroupproject.googlepages.com/ we made with the teacher resources for this unit.

The second group presented using digital tools with authentic writing. This was very informative to me because the majority of it would be beneficial in a elementary setting. Some of the tools they presented were blogs, wikis, VoiceThread, Google Docs, podcasts, and videos. Their presentation was geared for a teacher inservice. It reminded me a lot of a inservice I attended at Keystone AEA this spring. These types of inservices are so valuable for teachers. In many cases, teachers don't get other opportunities to learn what is available and the idea sharing that happens is priceless. The wiki for this presentation is authenticwriting.wetpaint.com.

The third did a presentation on using social networking. Ning would be a great start because it can be controlled and private. In my classroom, Ning could eventually take the place of a classroom website because of the privacy. Then I could actually post discussions, show student work, post homework discussions, and upload video, podcasts, and pictures. I think a social networking site would be an excellent idea for buildings. Teachers could use this site to post questions, ideas, or use just as a way to communicate when you don't see each other.

As I think about everything we learned this week, I completely agree with Kevin's blog posting and others who have commented on how important it will be for us to go back to our buildings and try to convince others how beneficial this technology is. Yes, one way it might work is to convince them it is not another project, but instead enhancing what they already have.

One use of Voicethread

This post is in response to a group presentation today on Authentic Writing with Digital Tools.
Their wiki is http://authenticwriting.wetpaint.com/

One way I could use Voicethread in my classroom is a way to present oral reports. The students do a Native American Research report each year. They could find pictures to go along with each paragraph in their report. This would be a great visual to keep the interest of the listeners and also enhance the content
This is a great tool. The students are already writing the research report and spending a lot of time on paragraph writing. Having pictures represent each paragraph would help focus. It would be an outstanding way to share their work with family, friends, and our class!

Making Videos

Today was another busy day in Emerging Technologies. The day was basically spent on video making and editing using IMovie HD. I had only used IMovie HD previously to make slideshow DVD's from pictures. This program is easy to use, but does require some "play time" before actually making a video. Creating a quality video also takes a lot of planning time in addition to actually making the video and editing. I know now I, as the teacher, must be willing to devote the time needed for the entire process if I expect a quality video the students will be proud of.

From reflecting on some of today's experiences, I would try to pair students who are more knowledgeable with IMovie HD, or any technology, with the students who have never used it in a classroom. There were many times today where having the help of students who have used this was greatly appreciated! As a teacher, I would also make it very clear to the students what is expected when they are creating a video. I think having clear expectations and rubrics makes planning and production a much smoother process.

Jingproject.com was the second technology we learned about today that educators can benefit from. This program takes pictures and video of your computer screen - and it's free! I can see this being very beneficial for helping other staff members with projects or even helping students by putting links of video on the website. This would let them go home without you and have your help on the common problems that arise or just have your directions to follow. I also think it would be awesome to use if a student was absent from class. The teacher can just video what s/he is showing the class and then the absent student would be able to work a bit more independently when s/he returns. There were limitations with this technology, such as not being able to edit and only being able to video 5 minutes or less. All in all, I do see myself using it.

Voicethread and Podcasting

I really enjoyed today in Emerging Technologies. The main reason was because we got plenty of time to work with our groups and also implement what we learned about podcasting for our project. It was FUN!

We used garageband to make our podcast. I had only worked with garageband once before and felt like I was comfortable again after a few tips from Dr. Z. This program is very simple to use. Teachng the staff in my building how to use this program would be a beneficial inservice. Almost all the teachers I know, even the ones hesitant about technology, would find some way they could incorporate podcasts. It is so simple to use. The students would definitely learn quickly and take off with the opportunities. We used Podbean to upload our podcast to the web. Podbean uses wordpress, which allows the creator to make show notes and use RSS to subscribe to your podcast. As Seth D. states on his blog, I am now considering buying a Mac because of some of the outstanding programs, such as garageband, I have been exposed to this week.

In my own classroom, I would like to see podcasts used in a variety of ways. First, I can see test review podcasts created by me being very helpful to students if they were posted on my class website. Book reviews, news reports, and oral reports in science are just a few of the ways I could begin to use podcasts with my students being the creators. A wonderful resource for making podcasts is at Radio WillowWeb. It would be well worth the time to listen to a few of their podcasts and look at their helpful guides!

Podcasting is something as a professional I should make more time to listen to. I appreciate Dr. Z giving us a list of podcasts he recommends about educational technology. I hope to find a few I like and will be able to recommend them to others.

The other half of our day dealt with using voicethread. Theressa and Seth gave an excellent demonstration to use and we also contacted Vinnie Vtrotny through Skype. He was able to tell us about some of the projects his school has done with Voicethread and gave us some helpful hints for using in our own classrooms. It will be important to remember that a teacher can set up a set of students with their gmail account and then create individual accounts in Voicethread or have a “throw away” gmail account for students to all use to get into Voicethread. I can see myself using this technology for digital storytelling and recording memories with fieldtrip pictures. We will be using this technology for our group project assignment, which will give us all a better understanding of Voicethread and probably spark additional ways to use it in the classroom.

Feeling more confident about Second Life

The majority of today was spent learning about Second Life and working on our final group project. Before today, I had figured out how to walk, fly, and change my appearance. I now have friends, know how to communicate, know how to find other places, and teleport myself or others to name a few. I even have found new outfits and even know how to change my clothes. We had the opportunity to have Dan Powers tell us a bit about his company and show us his the Iowa Island he has developed in Second Life.

I agree completely with Karen C's blog posting about Second Life. Using Second Life does make you consider the possibilities available for education and business. Second Life, along with many other "new" technologies has opened my eyes this week and I am looking forward to using them in my classroom and/or personal life.

Our final group project is going to be about digital citizenship. Some of the concepts we will cover are copyright, plagiarism, fair use, cyberbulling, creative comments. I think this is very important for students to be aware of and also something many adults need to be aware of.

This morning we did spend some time discussing nings. We used Skype to have an interview with Steve Hargadon, the creator of the classroom2.0 and the ning in education. I liked how he explained how social networking differs from other web 2.0 tools, such as wikis. He described a ning being more about conversation than web production. He gave ways to use nings in classrooms and also explained that there are settings to set up whether the ning will be private or public and whether postings need to be approved. I look forward to becoming more involved in the classroom 2.0 ning and the ning in education.

What a busy Monday!

Today was the first day meeting at UNI for Emerging Technologies. I really enjoyed meeting everyone taking this class. I feel like a beginner to all of this, so it was even helpful to be sitting next to other classmates who are feeling similar or able to help when needed.
A lot of what we covered in class was new information for me. I had been signed up in Twitter, but hadn't been connected to other classmates. I now have actually used it a couple of times. I had heard of Google Docs and Google Page Creator, but I had never used them. I will have to spend more time with the Google Docs to really feel comfortable. I hope to make a classroom web page for my fifth grade class. I wish our school would pay for iowapages, but since they won't, this will be better than nothing. I am looking forward to Tuesday. I am definitely new to Second Life, so I should learn a lot!

http://northofthehotzone.com/

This blog http://northofthehotzone.com/ is aimed at providing information about the state of Washington's potential using geothermal energy. It explains that Washington State sits on the edge of the hot zone. There are 34 geothermal hot springs which would just begin to provide their geothermal potential. Even though Washington State has excellent potential, nothing had been planned or proposed when this blog was first created.

This blog could be beneficial because of its quantity of information on geothermal energy in general, not just specific to Washington State. It has wonderful maps, charts, and even a brochure explaining geothermal energy.

This blog has a plenitude of information available to those interested. It includes news articles, editorials, presentations, and even the Geothermal Study Bill from the Washington State Legislature. I enjoyed skimming the presentation given to the United States by the President of Iceland. It gave several benefits to geothermal energy. The United States is only using 12% of their total potential. This presentation also had wonderful maps and charts.

This blog had way more information that I ever wanted to know about geothermal energy. However, there is a great abundance of information if you are willing to search through and find it. I recommend starting with the "Start Here" links.

Emerging Technology Experiences

Last Thursday evening I had the opportunity to chat with my class while sitting on the floor in Charlotte’s airport. This truly was an accomplishment since I was having nothing but problems with my internet the rest of the week while on vacation. Thankfully, remembering what tech support had done on my computer and from the help of the digital native sitting on the floor next to me in the airport and my little brother over my phone, I was finally able to reset my LAN settings so I could connect to the internet.

I really enjoyed the numerous conversations regarding both the excitement and challenges of being in a chat room, conferencing over MeBeam, and also exploring Second Life. I am looking forward to these experiences also. The conversations I heard and from the blogs of fellow students got me thinking about digital natives and immigrants. I think eventually most of us will become immigrants, even if we are natives today. Technology changes so quickly and it is hard to keep up. I think we can postpone our change into an immigrant by attempting to stay current and by actively trying the new technologies in our life and our career. Ultimately, we will all need to help of natives, whether they are today’s natives or the natives of the future, to help us keep current.

I did a small amount of researching on Second Life today before I downloaded it and created my aviator. The wiki, http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/, gave me a quick way to look at some of the places you can go in Second Life, the educational uses, and resources for starting Second Life. One fact that I found very interesting was that $5 million USD are transacted each month in Second Life – Wow, I had no idea the uses of this virtual world.

The technical requirements of Second Life are going to be an issue when wanting to implement this in any classroom in my district. After downloading Second Life on my district laptop, I received the message that my system did not meet the minimum requirements of memory or the graphic card. I also got the message for my home computer about the memory, although it should be fine. I am hoping anyway. I know my district laptop is much better than any of the student computers in my building. I will continue to look for the educational opportunities available with Second Life, but unfortunately, my district would need to update their technology before I could use this in my classroom.

Geothermal Heat Pumps

Did you know that the earth's temperature is relatively constant everywhere in the world? Even though the air temperature is dramatically different in different parts of the world, the temperature about 10 feet under the earth is about 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit all over the world. This means geothermal heat pumps can be used almost anywhere in the world. In Iowa it means the earth's temperature is cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

Geothermal heat pumps use pipes with liquid in them to transfer heat from the earth to the building or from the building to the earth. The pipes are buried under the ground in a loop next to the building.

To heat a building, the liquid in the pipes is heated by the earth's temperature. Remember that the air temperature in the winter is cold but the earth's temperature remains around 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit. Then the heated liquid is transferred through the building providing use heat in the winter months.

To cool a building, the liquid in the pipes takes the heat from the building back to the earth. This makes or building cooler in the summer. This is much like how a refrigerator works.

Geothermal heat pumps are environmentally clean, cost effective, and energy-efficient according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

We are getting ready for Geothermal!

Today my class and I packed up our room and moved down the hall to a new classroom. Having 26 5th graders really makes things go much quicker:) They were a great help and did enjoy the process.

Part of the reason we moved classrooms is because we are getting geothermal installed in our school this summer. From what I have been told, installing geothermal is a very messy process inside and out of a building. Everything in our building needed to be moved away from interior walls and will be covered in plastic to be protected.

The word Geothermal comes from the Greek words "geo" and "therme". Geo means earth and therme means heat. Therefore, geothermal energy is using heat from within our earth. That heat from the earth is what is going to heat and cool our school next fall!