Final Comments

I commented on Tori's video here

McKenzie's video here

and Jeff's video here


Merry Christmas!

Final Reflection

I found all of the technologies we have learned or discussed in class to be useful. I know for my class, I will be more likely to use logger pro since it is a more inquiry based technology. It allows students to be more interactive with their research and data collection. I was also grateful that we learned about the smart board. For my future student teaching classroom, there is a smart board that my cooperating teacher uses. Instead of feeling overwhelmed and not knowing how to use it, I am comfortable using it and having my students be interactive with the lectures and assignments since they can participate as well. These technologies allow for the students to be interactive with the lessons rather than sitting and listening. They can participate and be involved as well as responsible for their learning because they are being included.

I have really appreciated this class this semester. It has truly opened my eyes to new ways of teaching boring concepts to make them more interactive and fun. And I actually feel more technology literate than I have before. This class has also helped me be a better student as well!

Thanks!

Internet Safety Discussion

For this part of the assignment, I talked with my manager at work. She is a parent of 4 kids (17, 15, 13, and 5 year old). I felt like it was important to talk to her about protecting her kids from the internet because they are at the age where internet is rather prominent in their lives. I talked about the Frontline video that I had seen and discussed things I had learned from the video as well as in class. She had previously heard about cyber bullying but hadn't researched it much since she is always at work. Since my manager is always at work it is hard for her to monitor what her children do or see online. I think the discussion we had was a sobering yet possibly scary discussion. She had mentioned that she was going to change the computer and put it in a more public place so that when she is home, she can see what her children are doing. She said she also planned on putting up more strict parental controls on the computer so her kids were only allowed a specific time limit and can only access certain websites. After our discussion, she planned on trying to open the lines of communication with her children and discuss cyberbullying and how to prevent it. I think the discussion went well. Again, I think I might have scared her a little, but she told me she planned on making changes at home to protect her children.

Internet Safety

For this assignment I watched the Frontline video "Growing Up Online." Here is a link to the video Frontline Video

There were many things I learned from this video. I learned that adolescents spend SO much time online and adults are not as involved as they should be. As a parent, I am going to be more involved in my child's life and what my child sees and does online. As a teacher, I will include necessary technologies as they are pertinent to assignments and lessons, but I will not provide the students access to sites that are potentially dangerous and inappropriate. I will help my brothers and sisters-in-law make the internet a safe place for my nieces and nephews; I will also discuss with my friends ways in which we can protect ourselves and our future children from the harmful affects of the internet. I think that when it comes to cyberbullying, it is a little difficult to try and regulate what happens especially if the youth does not want to talk about their lives. I still believe if you begin with open lines of communication from the start then the youth will be more likely to discuss things with adults; we also must keep an open mind and try not to be judgmental when students and adolescents come to talk to us. I think the most helpful way of preventing cyberbullying is educating the youth on how to protect themselves. They are ultimately the ones that can completely have control over the situation. I know there are some resources online to help prevent cyberbullying; the church has articles and helpful tools in addressing them. There are also seminars and classes that parents and teachers can attend to be better informed on how to help; some of these classes can be for students as well since they are the ones that come in contact with bullying online more often. As a teacher, if I want to show a youtube video, sometimes there can be advertisements or inappropriate related videos that show up on the sides; I can use the quiettube website to help protect my students. I can also have a strict control set up on the computers so they can only access specific educational websites. I can monitor their computer access to make sure that the usage of the computers are strictly for assignments. I think I can make the internet a safer place for my students by showing them websites that are interesting and entertaining yet educational and useful. They will be broadening their website library and may be less likely to get bored and search or access websites that are unsafe.

Multimedia Project

Mitosis Video:
If you want to watch from Youtube please go to this link:
IPT Project

I had a lot of fun filming and editing videos. I learned that I can use videos to enhance my classroom. I would use videos like these as assignments for my students, where they have to create a video to demonstrate an objective. I can also use videos to do demonstrations that would take too long or that I would not be able to do in the classroom. I can use them to engage my students because it can break up mundane lectures. Everyone loves videos! :)

Beginning Multimedia Project

Here is my storyboard for my video. The reason why it is posted late is because I was sick and missed class the days we were discussing the video.

Here it is!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BHNa3sg4mfkBDjnSFR_XDQ4uYcinsSRSB7WdP-tN048/edit

Personal Technology Project 2

For the second half of my project I chose to learn:   Polls Everywhere!!!

here is a link to my webpage:
https://sites.google.com/site/mrsjonesbiologyi/

1. I can use this technology to have students let me know what they feel like they are lacking in or what they need more help in. It's totally anonymous so the student does not have to feel like they are singled out. I can also use this technology as a sort of formative assessment, just to see where the kids are at in our instruction.

2. I can use the polls as formative assessments, like quizzes to see where the students need help and what they are strong in. I can also use them to see students' interests or opinions on topics or classroom practices.

3. Since the answers to the polls are sent by cell phones, the administration's rules of cell phones in the classrooms could hinder this idea. However, you could still use these polls while students are at home instead of always being in the classroom.  Also, if students don't own or have access to a cell phone or texting capability, they wouldn't be able to participate.

To view the polls on my webpage, it is under the new page "Classroom Polls."