Week 1

May 9, 2013

13 years ago, I graduated with a BA in Environmental Science from Virginia Tech.  During a few internships, I realized that I did not want to do environmental permitting work or brownfield assessments or measure groundwater quality or monitor landfill seepage.  I wanted to teach children outside.  I worked full time for 12 years in Environmental Education.  I worked for state parks, wetland non-profits, environmental restoration projects and nature centers.  I've had some cool jobs: taking a boat to work, handling live raptors, mucking through wetlands, and hiking regularly.  I really enjoyed working with kids and being out and about...most days.  I did not enjoy the rain, cold, bug bites, poison ivy, or heat.  I also did not enjoy meeting the kids, teaching them and watching them leave 90 minutes later.  After a number of years, I realized that I wanted to have a longer connection with these children and I wanted to help them view the world around them as a place of awe and inspiration.  So now I am finally getting to pursue what I really want to do when I grow up....teach.  Hopefully in about 18 months, I'll be in a classroom.

My first class in my first course through University of the Cumberlands' Masters of Teaching program, I am tasked with creating this blog.  I frequently talk to myself, so writing as if I'm talking to myself should be no problem.

This week, I have learned a lot about things that I thought I already knew.  That's probably not a surprise for most people.  Educational Technology is using technology to further the learning experience while using modern technology.  It's not just bringing kids down to the computer lab to learn MSOffice, but it is having computers in the classrooms and using them regularly to present presentations and audio files, having students use the computers for their homework and searching for relevant and appropriate information, and using technology to communicate with school administration, other teachers, students and their parents.  Most of this I had taken for granted as I have seen it in use in schools for many years.  I had not thought about the intricacies and detailed use that it can have.  Teachers who put in the time to find appropriate materials and on-line methods can have a very engaging and exciting classroom not just for the students, but for themselves and the parents as well.

I was also surprised to learn about the National Educational Technology Standards.  I am very familiar with curriculum standards, but have never given one thought to technology standards for teachers.  I am glad that they have them.  I know that there is a debate between teaching 'to the tests' vs teaching 'to the student'.  Without set standards for students and teachers, there is no way to measure if the students are learning the appropriate materials and quantity to make certain that they will be competitive in the adult world.

Technology Exploration 1: PBWorks

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that PBWorks is the on-line host for hundreds of thousands of workspaces.  In the education workspace arena it allows teachers, parents and students to all interact with each other, share files, view common calendars and keep current without sending multiple mass e-mails that frequently get rejected as SPAM.  PBWorks is being used by educational institutions ranging from elementary schools to college level.  This is much more than a few simple webpages, it provides more of a give-and-take between school and home.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Using PBWorks, you can allow students to complete group projects from the comfort and safety of their individual homes.  Students can share files, create webpages and have on-line discussions. PBWorks can be set up by a classroom teacher to allow parents to see class schedules, their child’s attendance records and grades, and past/current/upcoming lesson plans.  Workspaces can be setup on the district level to notify faculty, parents and students of news, weather cancelation, extracurricular event schedules and other pertinent information.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would definitely recommend the use of a workspace resource to other educators.  PBWorks obviously wants their product used, so by only looking at one resource I cannot really weigh whether I would want to recommend PBWorks or another workspace resource (like Wikispaces).  Using some kind of on-line workspace makes a great deal of sense and makes sharing information much easier than sending papers home in backpacks.  The case study for Avon Grove School District is the only one that I could find and they seem to be very happy with PBWorks for their administration, faculty, parents and students.  Whatever workspace an educator chooses, I think that it should be free and easy to work with.  PBWorks has both of these covered.  The debate between using PBWorks and Wikispaces seems to be a very personal one based on postings at: http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/wikispaces-vs-pbworks   I think that PBWorks provides a good product for anyone willing to learn a new platform, and I would be a happy to use it myself.

Technology Exploration 2: Tumblebooks

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that Tumblebooks is an on-line collection of books set to narration and animation to help children learn to read and work on language development.  With a subscription, it can be accessed by many people for use in classrooms, libraries, homes and anywhere internet is available.  Students can have stories read to them online, and parents and teachers can use the lesson plan features to help reinforce the stories’ concepts. The animation, narration, games, puzzles and other interactive features make it an exciting and fun program for kids to use and learn through play.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Tumblebooks would be very useful in a school setting.  Teachers can setup computer stations to have Tumblebooks be read to students.  With the wide variety of titles, students of any reading level can have appropriately matched assignments.  Teachers can use Tumblebooks to help students learn to read, develop language skills (English, French, and Spanish), and quiz themselves using the games, puzzles and quizzes provided.  Teachers will enjoy using the Lesson Plan features to help them select skill appropriate titles, follow up activities and assessments. Since Tumblebooks can be accessed from anywhere with internet, they can be used as homework assignments and parents can be encouraged to use Tumblebooks with students in the evenings and on weekends.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would definitely recommend the use Tumblebooks to anyone.  I actually reviewed this product with my 4 year old son.  He enjoyed it very much and can’t wait read more Tumblebooks with me. The feature of highlighting the words as they are read is particularly helpful to inexperienced readers. The cost of this program is $499 per year for a school.  I find this to be affordable if the entire school or at least multiple classes are using the program.  Tumblebooks also provides discounts to districts when multiple schools will be using the program.  If a single classroom teacher was the only one desiring to use the program, the cost could be prohibitive. I found the program very easy to use.  The books are listed in alphabetical order and there is a search option.  I would love to see an area for a featured title or a way to search for grade or reading level specifications.

 Technology Exploration 2: Tumblebooks

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that Tumblebooks is an on-line collection of books set to narration and animation to help children learn to read and work on language development.  With a subscription, it can be accessed by many people for use in classrooms, libraries, homes and anywhere internet is available.  Students can have stories read to them online, and parents and teachers can use the lesson plan features to help reinforce the stories’ concepts. The animation, narration, games, puzzles and other interactive features make it an exciting and fun program for kids to use and learn through play.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Tumblebooks would be very useful in a school setting.  Teachers can setup computer stations to have Tumblebooks be read to students.  With the wide variety of titles, students of any reading level can have appropriately matched assignments.  Teachers can use Tumblebooks to help students learn to read, develop language skills (English, French, and Spanish), and quiz themselves using the games, puzzles and quizzes provided.  Teachers will enjoy using the Lesson Plan features to help them select skill appropriate titles, follow up activities and assessments. Since Tumblebooks can be accessed from anywhere with internet, they can be used as homework assignments and parents can be encouraged to use Tumblebooks with students in the evenings and on weekends.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would definitely recommend the use Tumblebooks to anyone.  I actually reviewed this product with my 4 year old son.  He enjoyed it very much and can’t wait read more Tumblebooks with me. The feature of highlighting the words as they are read is particularly helpful to inexperienced readers. The cost of this program is $499 per year for a school.  I find this to be affordable if the entire school or at least multiple classes are using the program.  Tumblebooks also provides discounts to districts when multiple schools will be using the program.  If a single classroom teacher was the only one desiring to use the program, the cost could be prohibitive. I found the program very easy to use.  The books are listed in alphabetical order and there is a search option.  I would love to see an area for a featured title or a way to search for grade or reading level specifications.

 Technology Exploration 2: Tumblebooks

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that Tumblebooks is an on-line collection of books set to narration and animation to help children learn to read and work on language development.  With a subscription, it can be accessed by many people for use in classrooms, libraries, homes and anywhere internet is available.  Students can have stories read to them online, and parents and teachers can use the lesson plan features to help reinforce the stories’ concepts. The animation, narration, games, puzzles and other interactive features make it an exciting and fun program for kids to use and learn through play.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Tumblebooks would be very useful in a school setting.  Teachers can setup computer stations to have Tumblebooks be read to students.  With the wide variety of titles, students of any reading level can have appropriately matched assignments.  Teachers can use Tumblebooks to help students learn to read, develop language skills (English, French, and Spanish), and quiz themselves using the games, puzzles and quizzes provided.  Teachers will enjoy using the Lesson Plan features to help them select skill appropriate titles, follow up activities and assessments. Since Tumblebooks can be accessed from anywhere with internet, they can be used as homework assignments and parents can be encouraged to use Tumblebooks with students in the evenings and on weekends.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would definitely recommend the use Tumblebooks to anyone.  I actually reviewed this product with my 4 year old son.  He enjoyed it very much and can’t wait read more Tumblebooks with me. The feature of highlighting the words as they are read is particularly helpful to inexperienced readers. The cost of this program is $499 per year for a school.  I find this to be affordable if the entire school or at least multiple classes are using the program.  Tumblebooks also provides discounts to districts when multiple schools will be using the program.  If a single classroom teacher was the only one desiring to use the program, the cost could be prohibitive. I found the program very easy to use.  The books are listed in alphabetical order and there is a search option.  I would love to see an area for a featured title or a way to search for grade or reading level specifications.

 Technology Exploration 2: Tumblebooks

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that Tumblebooks is an on-line collection of books set to narration and animation to help children learn to read and work on language development.  With a subscription, it can be accessed by many people for use in classrooms, libraries, homes and anywhere internet is available.  Students can have stories read to them online, and parents and teachers can use the lesson plan features to help reinforce the stories’ concepts. The animation, narration, games, puzzles and other interactive features make it an exciting and fun program for kids to use and learn through play.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Tumblebooks would be very useful in a school setting.  Teachers can setup computer stations to have Tumblebooks be read to students.  With the wide variety of titles, students of any reading level can have appropriately matched assignments.  Teachers can use Tumblebooks to help students learn to read, develop language skills (English, French, and Spanish), and quiz themselves using the games, puzzles and quizzes provided.  Teachers will enjoy using the Lesson Plan features to help them select skill appropriate titles, follow up activities and assessments. Since Tumblebooks can be accessed from anywhere with internet, they can be used as homework assignments and parents can be encouraged to use Tumblebooks with students in the evenings and on weekends.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would definitely recommend the use Tumblebooks to anyone.  I actually reviewed this product with my 4 year old son.  He enjoyed it very much and can’t wait read more Tumblebooks with me. The feature of highlighting the words as they are read is particularly helpful to inexperienced readers. The cost of this program is $499 per year for a school.  I find this to be affordable if the entire school or at least multiple classes are using the program.  Tumblebooks also provides discounts to districts when multiple schools will be using the program.  If a single classroom teacher was the only  one desiring to use the program, the cost could be prohibitive. I found the program very easy to use.  The books are listed in alphabetical order and there is a search option.  I would love to see an area for a featured title or a way to search for grade or reading level specifications.

Technology Exploration 3: Podcasts

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Pod Casts in general are audio recordings that can be listened to or downloaded from the internet.  I learned that you do not need to have an iPad or MP3 device to listen to pod casts.  The technology exploration sheet gave multiple avenues to explore podcasts and I found them to be very through in explaining what they are and how they can be used. Although I could not get the Education Pod Cast Network to open, I found multiple sources referring to it (http://www.teacherleaders.org/node/993, http://mtweb.mtsu.edu/podcast/, and http://podstock.ning.com/forum/topics/the-education-podcast-network).  From these sources, the Education Pod Cast Network is a collection of podcasts made from a wide variety of educators that will help other educators teach about and with educational technology.  The collection of educational podcasts will grow as more are created and uploaded by educators for educators. Mr. Langhorst’s Classroom Website is an engaging website for students and their parents to keep them informed of what is happening in the classroom and what units are being studied.  Although the website does not seem to be updated past 2007, the blog is relatively current with a detailed posting in February 2013, Mr. Langhorst also has podcasts on iTunes as recently as January 2013.  Mr. Langhorst seems to have used pod casts to help students review and study history units in his class and blog for educators on how to use technology in their own classes.  His website says that he is a classroom teacher and educational technology presenter, but I cannot find what school he may currently be working in. Lastly, ISTE had an excerpt from Educator’s Podcast Guide that explains what educators should look for in a good podcast and how to weed through the variety to find a few good podcasts to use in the classroom.  I knew that there were thousands (if not millions) of podcasts on the internet, but I had never really thought about the quality of some for educational use.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Podcasts can be used in a school setting to give students a diversity of presentation styles.  Some students can become bored with just one teacher standing in the front of the room talking.  By using podcasts, students get to hear another voice and another speaking cadence.  Podcasts can also be used by students at home as a followup or precursor to a unit.  Podcasts made by one group of students to teach a separate group of students would be fun and educational for both groups.  Podcasts could also be used on days where the teacher knows that he/she will be absent.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would recommend using podcasts to teachers for use in classrooms and at home.  They are usually free and easy to use.  It can be time consuming to find podcasts that fit the curriculum and have appropriate presentation styles.  Adding the use of technology in the classroom and offering diverse presentation styles can help students to remember information and relate it to their own lives.  If podcasts are to be pulled from the internet, the teacher would have to thoroughly vet them to make certain that the content and presentation match up with the unit of study and the schools code of conduct guidelines.