Project 3

Identify an Instructional Challenge

In my experience as a teacher, one of the greatest challenges in the educational system today is that students do not feel that they are participating in the learning process. Many teachers lecture information regardless of students’ desires and concerns regarding the content area. Additionally, many teachers repeat lesson plans every semester with no regard for each student or individual class’s need. This is contrary to what research advises teachers to do. In a book published in 2004, John MacBeth and Lejf Moos argue that students would perform better if their voice was heard in a democratic learning environment (“Democratic Learning: A Challenge to School Effectiveness”, 2004). This enables students to voice their opinions and share with educators how they see the world. If this cannot be done, students are likely to mentally “check out” of the learning process.

Technology Solution

To give students the opportunity to voice their opinions, a teacher may utilize an on-line survey system. For this project, I will be using Survey Monkey. This will not only allow students the opportunity to express their desires and concerns but it will help the educator see trends as the semester progresses. It will also show them how classes differ from one another.

This is a link to my video on youtube.com regarding SurveyMonkey

Reflection

To begin, I searched for different survey resources on-line. Survey Monkey came highly recommended by its users so I decided to use it. I learned about the website by trial and error. The more a tried, the more I learned. As a result, I learned all about the different options that are available in types of questions, how the survey is retrieved from its users, how information is reported, and so one. While the trial version was really beneficial, there were other options that seemed more advanced in the Pro option. This option requires payment for the service but offered tools such as reporting data via Microsoft excel, printing surveys, and unlimited amounts of questions per survey. All in all, both the pro product and the basic (free) version seemed to meet the needs of this educational challenge.

Project 2

Following is a link to my video project and a sample assignment sheet for students to complete.

Link to YouTube Sample Project Video

Link to the Written Assignment

Lesson 10

• How have you used technology to increase your knowledge in your content area?

I have used technology as a resource for finding information. By using simply things like Google search, you can begin heading in the right direction as far as learning new things. While not all information on the internet is reliable, I feel that I have the skills to decide the usefulness of the information provided by the search engine.

• How have you used technology to collaborate with classmates?

I have used google documents to work on study guides with groups whose schedules conflict. Additionally, I have used basic Microsoft office tools to present information with class members.

• How might you use technology in your classroom?

I think that communication is the most important reason to use technology in the classroom. To communicate assignments, communicate with parents, communicate grades, communicate class calendars...Each of these are extremely important. For this reason, I will utilize on-line grading websites and class websites to keep the lines of communication open between myself and my students.

• What did you learn in this class?

I learned a ton in this class! I learned how to's of creating websites, blogs, networking resources, etc. However, the most important thing I learned was that the things I did were not as hard as I had anticipated.

• What will you use that you have learned in this class?

I am much more apt to try new technologies because of the skills I learned and the experiences I had. Rather than use the typical resources, I will begin to seek out new technologies. I am less scared of trying new technologies and am confident in my ability to learn on my own.

Project 3

For project #3 I will be working solo. While I would like to submit something for the competition, I really don't have the extra time to get together with other people to create something.

My focus area for the project is on parent teacher communication regarding grades and assignments. There are many sites that enable parents to see their student's work firsthand and also access their grades regularly. While some schools use particular programs, I'm going to investigate free sites that I can be using at any school I work in. I hope to become familiar with posting assignments, creating a gradebook, and communicating simply with parents.

Internet Safety For Students

I think one of the best things we can be doing to ensure that the internet is safe for our students is to do a little detective work before sending students out to do projects using the internet. We can find sites that are reputable and safe and suggests those sites to students to use on homework and projects. Additionally, this will prevent them from looking elsewhere to find information.

I also think it's important to talk about internet safety. With your school, present guidelines to your students regarding information they send over the internet and avoiding harmful viruses. In the health major, we discuss improving communication. This would be a great place to discuss internet language and what things we share over chat rooms and elsewhere over the internet.

Video Chatting

For this week's assignment, I did a video chat with my sister in NYC. It was a little confusing to get started but using skype, it went pretty smoothly. The delay was a little frustrating and sometimes I could hear her voice before I saw the picture but overall, it was a good experience. I think I could use this in the classroom by having conference calls with busy parents who aren't able to come into the school. The visual affect adds a lot more to the experience and I think the parents would enjoy seeing their student's teacher rather than just speak with them. This may also be a good way to keep in touch with other teachers who teach in my same field of education. They could show me the things they're doing rather than just tell me. This may also be helpful if you wanted to have a guest speaker who is far away.

Youtube Movie Download

I downloaded my first movie on youtube! Although I am studying Health Education, I am currently teaching seminary at Timberline Junior High. As a result, I decided to download a MormonMessage to use in one of my classes. Elder Arnold of the seventy gave a great talk about using the Lord's name and I downloaded it and saved I didn't have any problems dowloading the video but I'm sure I'd have difficulty doing it with a DVD.

Due to fair use, I have the ability to use any video I want in an education setting as long as the true intent is expressed.