Computer Software

While reading chapter 3 I found myself thinking about alot of software that we have for our home computer and what was instructional and what type of instructional functions it served. I know that the Mavis Beacon Typing Skills software is clearly drill and practice and I think that Sims is probably a simulation type. But what about "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" Would that be considered problem solving? I can see tremendous benefits to all types if integrated into the correct lessons. One thing that I feel is extremely important is adequate and correct feedback when using tutorial software.

Light the Night Walk

I know, you are all poor college students but this Sunday evening is the annual "Light the Night" walk to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I have participated in this walk for the majority of the walks over the past 10 years. I'm blogging for donations. I will be walking with my daughter and the Starbucks team that was formed. If you would like more information on the walk and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society go to www.lls.org. Please bring any contributions to me in JPII 317 at the front desk by Friday afternoon. If you know my daughter you can give them to her as well. If I am not there feel free to leave it on my desk or with Trina Harkenrider in JPII 317A. Thank you so much for your generosity. O.K. now I probably should mention something about the course work we have been doing. I am glad that the first Learning Block project is complete. It was fun doing the YouTube video but preparing a lesson plan was pretty difficult. It is something that is totally foreign to me. Hopefully we will get feedback so that the next one might be a little easiery.

YouTube Video

How is everyone doing with their YouTube Video. I finished mine but it is in two segments. I have been using the remix option on YouTube to try and put the two together but am having difficulties. Bob is helping me get this accomplished, hopefully. There are some really neat options using the remix if some of you haven't looked at it. You can add borders and captions - some really neat things.

Good Morning America

I am home today from work to take care of some personal matters and was just watching Good Morning America. They had a entire segment on technology in the classroom and how it is very much widening the digital divide. With the smart boards being used there are hand held tools that allow the students to take quizzes and tests without paper and pencil and the teacher can track performance as they are doing the quiz or test. There are several schools that distribute laptops to every student with their textbooks downloaded onto them. But for the classrooms who are not given laptops, teachers must remember that, though they are high tech in the classroom and utilize alot of these tools, their students may very well go home to little or no technology, so they cannot rely on those means to communicate with the students away from class. In talking to the teachers and the students it was discussed how much more motivated and involved everyone is in the high tech classroom. They also talked about the many high tech tools being used in the schools outside of the classroom. In the lunchrooms, children do not need money anymore but their parents can put money into an account online for their lunches to be paid for out of. Sounds alot like our one card system. But it goes even farther than that in providing to the parents a list online of what types of food their child is purchasing and allows the parents to block certain foods so that their child can not buy them. 1500 schools in 13 states are using Dance, Dance Revolution as part of the physical education program. It made me wonder if any schools are using a Wii for some of the sports activities - bowling, tennis, or baseball for example. They also talked about the interactive robot being tested right now that can even sense the emotions of the child playing with it. These kind of advancements are still very mind boggling to me but I also know that I have become like everyone else in taking for granted the everyday technology in our lives.

Web page development

Web page development seems pretty complicated. It sounds like there is a lot software or programs available to help though. After the initial setup it would be a great tool to have in the classroom. I have Microsoft Frontpage available which I believe St. Francis uses for their webpage updating. In reading chapter 8 I did look up a couple really neat websites, teach-nology.com and Hotchalks on LessonPlansPage.com. Has some good suggestions on creating lesson plans and integrating technology into them.

Cellphone YouTube

I have a question that I am hoping someone can help me with. I followed the instructions on how to download a video from my cellphone to YouTube but I would like to be able to download to my computer so I can use Windows Movie Maker to edit and add things. Does anyone know how to do this? Thanks for any help you can offer. How is everyone doing with this YouTube project?

Technology advances

Well, it is my lunch hour so I am taking this opportunity to post another blog. When I think back to when I was first introduced to a computer and where we are today technologically, it is kind of scary how rapidly things advance. I never used to be a person who accepted change very well, but in today's world things are always changing, especially technology. I can remember when I worked at Tokheim Corporation doing the payroll manually. There were no barcoded IDs to track attendance, only the old punch time timecards that had to be figured with a calculator. I also remember typing on a typewriter bill of ladings for outgoing shipments. In the 14 years I spent working in the shipping department I did see the introduction and advancement of computer generated bill of ladings and UPS tracking on the internet. If we don't learn to adapt to the ever changing world of technology we will be left behind and in a short period of time we will be way behind. As educators (or parents) we have a responsiblity to our students to familiarize ourselves with the new technology that presents itself almost daily and develop ways to integrate it into our classrooms. Children today will need this technology to succeed in the world tomorrow.

Why an education major?

We've been asked to give a brief reflection on why we chose education. As stated in my introduction in class last week, I am not an education major but a liberal studies major. However, many years ago when I entered college out of high school, I was an elementary education major at IPFW. I completed 2 years and thought that I just couldn't wait any longer to marry my high school sweetheart! I took a full time job in manufacturing, married, and continued to work towards my degree part time. As time went on though, I felt that I had lost my enthusiasm for teaching and was also earning a very good living. I left school, continued to work, had a family, and life was good, for a while. Then life threw me some curve balls and everything changed. My first child died at the age of 5 years old from leukemia and my first daughter was born immediately after his death. My husband and I divorced within the year and I became a working single parent. I did eventually remarry and have another daughter but my job of 25 years came to an end when the company I worked for went bankrupt. I was faced with finding a new job without a bachelor's degree which is much more difficult today than many years ago. I began working here and decided to complete my degree in liberal studies with concentrations in social sciences and education since so many of my credits that transfered from IPFW were education classes. I am enjoying this new opportunity and look forward to learning new technology that I can hopefully use in assisting the faculty members that I work with in the School of Arts and Sciences and also my junior high age daughter.