DIGITAL BLOG POST #I

Chapter 4, which was titled “Designing and Developing Curriculum with Technology” was an informative and interesting chapter.

The first thing I want to talk about is test assessments. Two types of test assessments are Norm-referenced tests and Criterion-referenced tests. Norm-referenced tests compare a student’s performance to other students of the same grade or age. Criterion-referenced tests compare a student’s performance to specific objectives or standards, not to other students. Many of the tests given in school are mostly norm-referenced tests. There are also standards based assessments or standard referenced testing which is a recent variation of standardized testing. These tests start with national, state, or district curriculum frameworks that specify what students are expected to know and be able to do at each grade level. With these tests there is a lot of controversy, a lot of people see problems with this kind of testing. For me and my experience with tests like fcat I can understand. I feel like there is a lot of pressure for students to do well on these tests because if you do badly then you get put in a class that goes at a certain pace, even if you’re actually smart enough to not take the class. Which to me is not a good idea because some students are just bad test takers, they get nervous and mess up. I feel like something like that should not solely  just be based on a test.

The second thing I want to touch on is web resources and apps for lesson planning. The book says that the internet provides vast electronic resources for supporting lesson developments. The book even gives websites and apps for lesson planning some of those being: websites- Annenberg learner (www.learner.org) or PBS Teachers (www.pbs.org/teachers)  Apps- My Lesson Plan, Today in History, and Math Ref Free. Like I have said before, I think the resources that teachers have today are geat and so helpful. To become a teacher in a time where there is so much technology and websites that teachers can utilize is great. For new teachers it can be challenging to put together lessons and its helpful for them to have so many resources that they can use.

The third thing I would like to discuss is using electronic grading software. Many teachers today use electronic grading software as a virtual recordkeeping system. Electronic grading software is a computer program enabling teachers to quickly calculate and record student grades on a computer. There are both pros and cons to using this, pros are that it can efficiently calculate and store multiple forms of student performance data and give students immediate access to their grades. Cons can be not all school activities, particularly at the elementary level, translate into a numerical score equaling a grade of A, B, C, D. Personally I feel the pros outweigh the con. I think that electronic grading software is yet another thing that can make things a lot easier for teachers. Things like this are great for teachers.

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Work Cited

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. lead to bad things.

DIGITAL BLOG POST #H

Chapter nine in our book titled, “Expressing Creativity  with Multimedia Technologies” was an interesting and informative chapter.

The first topic I would like to discuss from chapter nine would be PowerPoint and next-generation presentation tools. PowerPoint is a multimedia presentation software, which is a standard feature on many of today’s computers. PowerPoint is used a lot in schools. Both teachers and students use PowerPoint regularly for presentation matters.  I myself have used PowerPoint countless number of times in a school setting. Students in school now should be masters at using it by the time they are in high school just for the fact that with mostly any presentation they will be using it. Another well-known presentation tool is Prezi, I have seen a few people use it but mostly I only see PowerPoint. I think that power point is a really useful tool for students, it makes presenting material easier and there is so much you can add to you presentation like pictures, video clips and music.

The second thing I would like to talk about is streaming video resources for teachers. The books says that streaming video is an important instructional resource at every grade level. With that being said it gives you different places you can find useful videos. Different video resources for teachers would be: PBS Learning Media, YouTube for schools, TeacherTube, and snag learning. All of these places allow teachers to find videos that are grade/age appropriate for their students. I think it is nice to have options so teachers do not have to sit and search for an hour through YouTube. But it is also cool that if they want to use YouTube there is a section for school related videos.

The third thing I would like to touch on podcasts as a learning technology. For those of you who do not know, a Podcast is a term that comes from the words iPod and broadcast. A Podcast is an audio recording distributed online and accessed on computers or portable media players using free software such as iTunes. The book says that by using Podcasts teachers and students can access a wealth of audio and video educational resources and listen to them whenever they chose. I personally think that it would be a beneficial thing to use Podcasts as a learning technology, they are easy to access and they can help students gain some knowledge from anywhere. Teachers can even record their own podcasts that students can listen to so they can review and remember what they learned in class.

Created by Ashlynn Barnes on Piktochart.com

All in all I found chapter 9 to be very informative and even a little eye opening on a few topics.

Work Cited

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. lead to bad things.

DIGITAL BLOG POST #G

Chapter 10 titled “promoting success for all students through technology” contains a lot of relevant and interesting information.

This first thing I want to talk about in this chapter is Interactive white boards. The text book has a whole section on interactive white boards and rightly so, because these things have transformed what you can do in the classroom. I myself refer to them as smart boards. I started seeing these in about middle school and they are just the coolest things. Interactive smart boards are touchscreen boards that are mounted on the wall and connected to the internet. These white boards create engaging instructional opportunities for the entire class. I just find these whiteboards to be really helpful for teachers. You can use them to show students certain things on the web and you can show them a PowerPoint and even write little side notes on them. Teachers can use these things in so many different ways. They also just make things easier for the teacher.

The second thing I would like to discuss is online translation services. These are things like google translate. Google Translate offers a two way translation between more than 50 languages. Google Translate is good for when a student speaks more than one language and English isn't their native one. Students can write out their notes and assignments in class and then go home and translate their work so they can understand it better. I think Google Translate is a really good resource for both students and teachers. Teachers never know where their students are coming from and what languages they are going to speak so this translation service could be helpful in those types of situations.

                                                                        Photo courtesy of  jess3.com

The third thing I would like to touch on is hand held calculators.  As a lot of people know, a calculator is a handheld device that performs mathematical operations and computations. In school settings you can find mostly three different types of calculators: The basic calculator, the scientific calculator, and the graphing calculator. The basic is more geared towards elementary, the scientific for middle and the graphing for high school. Calculators enable students to visualize mathematical operations.  Calculators are useful devices inside and outside of the school setting.  For school students use them to help them to complete both schoolwork and homework. I find calculators to be useful and sometimes necessary to be implemented in the classroom.

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 Photo retrieved from www.calculatoredge.com                                                                                  photo retrieved from debate.org

  

Work Cited

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

" Kindergarten Interactive White Board Use." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2015.