Blackboard

Blackboard is a web-based course management system that can be used to compliment a college course that meets face to face on campus or to structure a purely online course. Blackboard is wonderful tool for teachers to use to help educate their students through different mediums. Teachers can post tutorial podcasts to reiterate a textual reading. In addition video clips can be posted to demonstrate what has been taught. Teachers can keep children up to date with assignments and grades. Most importantly, this space can be used to incorporate collaboration among a class through the use of wikis, blogs and discussions. Helpful steps on how to apply these materials to a Blackboard are listed in James Lengel's article "Posting Materials Online with Blackboard: Hints and Tips." The inclusion of these great cooperative learning strategies is a simple and effective way to teach students through means that will adhere to their unique learning preferences. For teachers who are solely constructing a course online, Lengel offers several articles about how to develop engaging, highly educational courses one of these articles is, "Building and Online Course." I believe these key instructions are crucial to creating a good online course. It is important to not overwhelm the students with a long list of assignments in a unit but have the assignments broken up will make them seem more manageable. In addition, clear directions will eliminate confusion and increase the student's ability to complete the task. These and other techniques for teaching through online course management will help teachers as well as students cooperate, learn and grow.

My experience has been with a similar system called "Moodle." I have found it very helpful when professors provide links to articles that pertain to the chapter. These postings allow me to connect the themes from class with experiences outside of class. It is wonderful when podcasts are supplied that review for the up coming test. Hearing the material out loud really helps my auditory learning style. My teacher sometimes hosts "Virtual Sessions" on Moodle where we do not physically have to come to class and instead we can submit assignments through Moodle. The teacher is available online during that class period to explain or elaborate if there is any confusion on the assignment. I am lucky to have been given the opportunity to utilize the technological innovations in my education. I will surely note what worked and what did not work for me so that I can be the best teacher possible for my future students.

Assessing a Technology Education

According to Jim Lengel's Article "Assess It," children are being taught the technology in school but are not being tested to see their retention of the material and concepts. Just like anything that is taught in school, the retention of the material learned is based on the production. If students are not required to connect these concepts with an assignment then they may dismiss the information claiming that it "does not matter." This idea is reinforced by the lack of grades administered based on technology proficiency. Lengel describes a three pronged system that encompasses "day to day assessment in the classroom, a structured online portfolio for every student and comparable standardized tests." I believe this is key; first of all, a daily assessment will make the ideas and themes ingrained in the students memory and will prove how pertinent these themes are to the everyday learning of the students. A structured online portfolio will connect the concepts taught with a collection of the students individual accomplishments and goals. Most importantly, a standardize test will emphasize the significance of technology by forcing students to have a strong grasp of it before entering upper education. Students must take SATs and ACTs and Regents exams in English, math, science, and other subjects in order to get into college but there has not been a standardized test on Technology. This seems crazy because the majority of work done in college is done online. In many cases, classes are only offered online and the proficiency in technology makes many things simplified. The emphasis of Technology in the lives of school aged students will benefit their future individually as well as the future of the world as a whole.

Wiki

Wikis are another way to allow collaboration online among individuals. This is a wonderful tool in the classroom. It gives individuals a space of their own to jot down ideas. This space can be accessible to one individual or a group or the whole class. Individuals can have their own space to write down their thoughts and then go back at any time to change, revise or update it. A teacher can use a wiki to monitor the progress of students on a project or clear up any confusions. A teacher can make this space available to a group for a group assignment or even to the whole class to get any information form them ranging from email addresses to progress in the class. A wiki space can be made accessible to individuals all over the world as with the most common wiki known: Wikipedia. This free online encyclopedia is famous for the idea that anyone can edit it. People all over the world can use their knowledge and experiences to share with people in a completely different geographical location. To me this is an extraordinary idea and it is a shame that teachers frown upon the use of this tool and often even forbid its use. Wikipedia is written from the perspective of real people so it addresses concerns that are common on every topic imaginable. This wiki as well as other wikis are useful tools that encourage the collaboration of individuals which promotes the exchange of knowledge and idea across the world.

Google Docs

We had to sign up for Google Docs for my class "Technologies for Learning." Upon signing up for it, I did not realize how useful it would be. I was told it is a great way to have multiple collaborators on a document. The example I was given was that someone writing for a newspaper could submit their article to their editor and the editor could edit it and all the drafts could be saved. While this seemed like a nifty idea, I did not plan on writing any articles for a newspaper or conversing with an editor about my work. I then realized how useful this could be as a teacher. Instead of having students submit their paper in a hard copy and make corrections for them to later submit a final copy, it could all be done on Google Docs. In my "Forms of Literature" class the teacher was tech savvy and attempted to save paper by having us submit our paper through email and then she put her comments in using an online program and emailed them back to us. This was a great use of technology until she had us hand in our final copy in class on paper and attach our rough copy with her comments. Many students forgot the copy with her comments or had lost it. If the teacher had used Google Docs the paper could have been submitted on line initially, and then the teacher could have commented and the student then edit it. All the different revisions would have been saved and stored in the same place with no opportunity to be lost.

Often in my college experience, I have found that teachers love to assign group power point presentations. This poses a dilemma for students with conflicting schedules. It is often difficult to find times to meet that do not interfere with student's work schedules, classes, sports, and activities. I found that through Google Docs I can create a power point presentation and send it to all my group members to edit. We can each work on our own individual slides or collaborate on each slide together. We can easily catch each other's mistakes and offer suggestions. Anyone can edit it at any time and we can all edit it at the same time. I was working with a commuter on a power point presentation and she could not stay on campus when I was available. Google Docs allowed us each to work on the presentation, me from my dorm and her from her house. When it came time for the presentation we did not have to worry about saving it on a flash drive or emailing it to ourselves to open. We simply logged on to Google Docs where it was saved and went to "start my presentation."

This can be a key aspect of teaching in and outside of the class room. Teachers can use it for individual collaboration between them and one student or for the entire class to collaborate collectively. This sparks cooperation among students and guarantees constructive feedback from all individuals. Teachers should surely recommend this tool for power point presentations and group work out side of class.

Smartboard

The classroom that I am observing for field work has a smartboard. Although there was a smartboard in my high school library, I did not have the opportunity as a child to work with the smartboard in elementary school. Personally, I found the smartboard so intriguing when it was used in my high school that I found myself paying closer attention when it was used. The same still applies for the students today. The smartboard generates excitement among the children and it increases their involvement in the lesson. The teacher often utilizes the smartboard's ability to display the internet for the entire class to see. She can search for information online that applies to the lesson while the students watch. She can easily pull up videos and graphics on the internet to enhance her lesson. She can use software to have interactive activities and games for the students to use as a class. The use of the smartboard really promotes the class involvement in what is going on at the board. For them, the use of the smartboard is a special experience and they love interacting and collaborating while using it. The teacher feeds into this excitement and even uses the smart board for ordinary notes. As opposed to writing on the chalk board or dry erase board, the teacher uses the smartboard and although she might have written the same notes on the chalk board the students seem to be more interested if the notes are on the smartboard. The students love getting up out of their seats to work with the smartboard and the teacher loves the student's enthusiasm to participate. Technology is one of the greatest ways to connect with children because they are growing up in a very technology-centered world and the use of the tools that they can relate to allows teachers to better educate their students.

Podcast

We successfully completed our podcast on "surviving your first year of college." It was an exciting experience because personally, I have never made a podcast before. I was able to collaborate with my group members on the content and construction of the podcast. We used "garage band" on a mac to record and edit the podcast. We all needed a couple of practices to get the hang of what we were going to say. We recoded the introduction and each of our three parts and the conclusion straight through the first time and it was wonderful that we could record over the parts that had mistakes in speech, sound or quality. We ran into a few problems when we recorded over the mistakes and accidentally went into the next section cutting off the following segment. Another problem we had was with the music. We were able to use music off itunes but adjusting the volume so that it was softer than the volume of our voices was difficult. It was also difficult to figure out how to fade the music in at the beginning and fade out at the end. Thankfully, we finally got it under control and ended with a very informative episode for first year college students. This experience taught me how simple it is to make a podcast and how useful they can be in the classroom. Recording a podcast tutorial as a review for students before a test is a wonderful way to prepare them for exams. Podcasts can be very informative and interesting and a new perspective and approach to teaching can captivate the minds of students.

Educational Technolgy

Educational Technology is the way we will create more interactive learning experiences for our students. There is so much Web 2.0 has to offer our students today as well as in the future. The tools available on Web 2.0 will enhance the learning experience by making it fun and easy. Children will learn at a young age that they have ideas that can be contributed to the world in the same way as adults do. Engaging the students is made easy by allowing them to work collaboratively while contributing to the plethora of knowledge already existing on the Web. We teach our students that they can make a difference because what they have to say matters.