Step 11

1. What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox? Briefly describe a particular activity that you will plan for your students using at least one of these new tools.


I really like all the tools in Tool 5. I also like the resources in Atomic Learning. I want my students to use Google docs to access assignments in class and be able to discuss them outside of class with myself and their classmates. I also want to have my students use xtranormal to create videos, both fun and serious, covering math and social emotional learning topics.


2. How have you transformed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom? How has your vision for your classroom changed? Are you going to need to make any changes to your classroom to accommodate the 21st Century learner?


I think that the main transformation in my thinking is in how I will foster student centered learning. Now I am going to use more technology to promote self paced student centered activities. I think that the 11 tools have given me a lot of new tools to work with. I think that my vision has changed only in that I see myself and our students accessing the classroom anywhere. I feel that the internet and the 11 tools will tear down the "walls" of our classrooms and prepare our students for the future. The only changes I'll make will have to do with set up and planing. I will set up the classroom to facilitate the use of all classroom based devices. And I will plan more extensive use of technology as a means for students to demonstrate mastery of learning objectives. 


3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
Working on this training while traveling without a laptop was a real challenge. First of all the internet has been slow and in most cases hard to find in Peru and Brasil. It has been easier to find and slightly faster in Brasil. The biggest surprise is how "connected" we are in the United States. It's hard for people to understand just how much we use technology in a typical day. I try to explain it to people I meet and they just can't fathom how much we use computers. And not just in traditional ways but in the world of the internet, we can literally be anywhere and do anything as long as we can connect to the internet. We hear a lot about how poor our education system is in the U.S. However, I have to say that I am truly grateful for our education system and our educators. We are staying ahead of the world because our school districts provide us with classroom based devices, wireless internet, access to Google apps, and trainings to teach us how to utilize them in the classroom and beyond. By doing so we are able to keep our students competitive in the global economy. The learning curve for technology is exponential, at first it's steep and then it takes off to infinity, unbounded, without possibilities. For teachers and students this is wonderful and it provides us with unlimited access to content, growth, and learning. 

Step 10

The three things that I want my students to understand about digital citizenship are; respect and inquiry. As the internet becomes more and more available students are finding themselves bombarded with decisions that affect them and others. Cyber-bullying has become more and more an important topic that needs to be discussed in classrooms and homes. Respect for oneself and others is the foundation for preventing cyber-bullying and prevention begins with education. Respect has to be modeled and taught to our students. Respect is also at the base of teaching students that the internet can be used to spread good in the world. Inquiry to me is one of the most important aspects of internet education. Students have to learn that the first thing that comes their way when searching for a topic isn't always the best information. Teachers have to cultivate a culture of inquiry in the classroom to motivate students to question everything. There is so much information available on the internet that every single piece of information has to be questioned. As much as respect has to be taught to prevent cyber-bullying, inquiry has to be taught to promote life long learning.
To introduce digital citizenship I plan on using brain pop. I also want to have open discussions where we question and debate what constitutes respectful behavior on the internet. From our discussions I want our class to create digital word walls that contain key words that come up in our discussion. From there we will use a word cloud generator to display the digital word walls we create.
I plan to share the idea of digital citizenship with parents by sharing with them the resources their children, our students, create. I will then encourage our students to explain their work and talk about the discussions we had that inspired our word walls.

Step 9

1. Why do you think it is important to tie the technology to the objective?
I think that it is important to tie technology to the objective because the objective is the end and the technology is the means. In other words technology should be used to allow the student a variety of ways to show mastery of the objective.


2. Why should we hold students accountable for the stations/centers?
I feel that we should hold students accountable for stations/centers for two reasons. First and most obvious because we need to know that our students are working/learning in stations/centers. Accountability provides us with evidence that our students are engaging the stations/centers to learn the presented material. Second I feel that the accountability piece has to be an important part of stations/centers because it shows the importance of stations/centers to the teacher and student. If the teacher doesn't put emphasis on the results of students work in the stations/centers it provides the students with a disincentive to work hard. On the other hand when students work (accountability) product in stations/centers is valued it provides the students with a form of extrinsic motivation that adds value to the students work/learning in the station. In this way the accountability piece actually improves student participation and interest in stations/centers over time.


3. Visit 2 of the applicable links to interactive websites for your content/grade level. Which sites did you like. How could you use them as stations? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations?
I visited and liked tutpup, learning games for kids, thinkfinity, and manipula math. I could use the first three as stations where the students could pick from a list of games offered at one of the three websites. I would create a Google doc or have the links posted on our mathletics blog and allow the students to choose which game they play and leave a comment to a prompt that I leave on the doc or blog. For accountability I will have them record the site they go to, the game/activity they participated in, and a response to a prompt. They will record this either on a Google doc, a blog comment, or on a class station recording sheet. As for the manipula math site I would like to use it as a concrete example to introduce concepts and reinforce ideas learned in class. I will have the students use the applets to explore concepts and then write about what they learned or gained a better understanding of.


4. List two to three apps you found for the iPod Touch/iPad that you can use in your classroom. What do you see that station looking like? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations?
I don't have an iPod Touch/iPad at the moment. However I heard that there is an app for a site that I like called Khan Academy. The station can be a place where students can research and learn concepts that will be tested in class by watching videos. I can hold students accountable by giving them a list of different application questions covering different topics that will be tested in class. This will allow them to choose what topic they want to learn. I will then have them answer one of the application questions to show that they learned. Then after they finish they will answer some questions about their experience learning with apps.


5. What about other ways to use the iPod Touch/iPad? Share another way you can see your students using the device as a station.
I think another way that I would like to use the iPod Touch/iPad is to have the students record each other teaching/explaining a concept and then have their peers both in the same class and in other classes use the videos to learn. The students can work in groups to learn unit concepts. Then each group would be responsible for teaching/explaining the concept. They would use the iPad to research and record themselves. Then the groups would post their videos on our blog and in our Google docs account. There other classes and groups can access the learning videos, make comments and ask questions.

Step 8

Things I learned:
how to take photos and videos on Net Books
how to set up an itunes account
and how to synch an ipad/ipod touch to my district laptop

I plan on managing the devices by first talking to the students about what their understanding of expectations are. I then will number and assign each student a device. We will then talk about expectations for classroom use. I will model the expected behavior for using, getting, and returning the devices. I will also model expected  behavior and proving behavior during lessons. There will be procedures that we will practice for going to the area that the net books/ipads are. There will also be procedures that we will practice for getting, using, and replacing the net books/ipads each day. I expect to go over the procedures everyday for the first few weeks of school and after holidays or three day weekends.

Step 7

Asynchronous Learning Project
Objective: Given access to the internet and a Google docs document the learner will review, revise, and take a unit test as each learning objective is covered during
the unit. Each class period will have access to the test and will be able to work on the test, make comments, and provide feedback to both the instructor and most importantly other students. The idea is to have students in all classes collaborate in the learning process.
Implementation: During first unit of the semester and from then on for every unit test and review.
I plan to use Google docs.
The plan is to have students collaborate on successfully completing unit tests and reviews. The idea is to present the students with the test material for a unit at the beginning of a unit and allow them to try it. If difficulties arise the students will be able to collaborate with each other in class and in other classes by commenting on the Google doc and responding to comments/questions.
I hope to convince my math teammates to also use a similar set up so that our classrooms can also work together to meet our unit learning objectives.

Step 6

I created a diigo account. I started an edmodo account, I have a blog and skype. I don't have an example yet of how I am going to use each. I want to start a todaysmeet stream to explore backchanneling during instruction. With diigo I am going to collect websites and videos to share with my students. From there I am going to encourage them to comment on the websites and videos that are related to the lessons we cover in class. With the 11 tools blog, that I am working on now, I am going to create a virtual classroom where my students can access videos of class lessons, supporting videos, and practice work. My goal is to teach my students how to learn to access the web to learn and collaborate with their peers. With skype I want to work with high school and university/college students who are interested in providing in class support over the web. I think that with backchanneling I want to get feedback from my students during lessons. I also like the idea of using google docs to chat with my students about class work and tests that can be accessed online. I think that all the tools will increase participation because they provide another medium in which the students can access the curriculum. I also think that the individualized set up that the virtual medium provides will promote student participation in their own learning. I think that the new web tools will increase student interest in their own learning by providing a multitude of different settings where the student can learn, reflect on learning, participate in class work and discussions, and access learning materials.

Step 5

I really like all of the products. I created a word cloud but I wasn't able to figure out how to put it on the blog. I created a comic that you can check out. I also created a xtranormal video. I think that the word cloud can be used as a form of interactive word wall where the students can create a list of math words over time that they hear and use in class. Then they can take the list and create a word cloud. The cloud will highlight the high frequency words. Or we could take tests and word problems and create a word cloud.  Again the cloud will highlight the high frequency words. I think the comic can be used to create word problems that cam be embedded into flipchart or linked to blog posts that students can access. I really like the xtranormal video product. You can create an account for free, however you most likely will have to buy points to publish videos. I think it's worth it though because the videos can be a fun way to introduce a topic. I really like the fact that you can create dialogue which can be used as an interesting way to introduce academic talk to students. Then take them even further by allowing them to create videos/dialogue on their own to show their mastery of not only academic language but the actual content as well. You can see my xtranormal video here.

Or you can watch it below.

Step 4

I think that google docs will be a powerful tool to teacher because it will allow us to work on any kind of document any where we can access the internet. In this sense it truly breaks barriers and provides teachers a real time forum in which they can collaborate. If meetings are hard to make, google docs will allow us to work on things together and comment on our work in real time even if we are not face to face. As far as using it as a teaching tool, I see it as a great way for students and teachers to collaborate on assignments. It allows both teacher and student to access assignments or documents anywhere. In essence it expands the idea of classroom, making the experience virtual. I think that as of now I want to use google docs in the classroom as an interactive journal where students can write about topics covered in class and collaborate with each other in real time or when ever they have access to the internet. I am excited about using google docs and the form. The docs as a journal as described above and the form app as a way to allow students to give me feedback about their learning.

Videos From Khan Academy

Step 3

I liked teacher tube and Khan Academy. Khan Academy isn't on the list however I learned about it while traveling this summer. It has thousands of videos to, according to the site, learn almost anything for free. It has a large amount of videos teaching many different math concepts from developmental math to geometry and even calculus. For me it's the most helpful for my content because it provides videos that embedded on a blog, saved to a device, or hot linked to a flip chart can be used in many different ways to facilitate learning. The accessibility of the videos allows students to access topics and learn at their own pace. The videos are organized in order of increasing complexity. Once students understand the videos in one section they are ready to learn the information in the next section. I embedded two videos after I made this post. I think that I will have to save the video and use saveyoutube so that students can view the videos in class. Hopefully that the site can be utilized by my co-workers.
I learned that as long as the copyrighted material is used for face to face learning that you can pretty much use anything. I learned that you can use copyrighted material in a non-profit institution or during classroom instruction without breaking the law.
I used Picasa and searched for pictures related to algebra. I got a lot of different images. When I used the creative common filter I got even more images. Now I think that the most I might use Picasa for is uploading and organizing pictures of students work. I think that I will need to spend more time working with Picasa to figure out ways to integrate it in the classroom.

Step 2

I started commenting on my co-workers blogs. Most of them I made comments about their content of their Blogs. I really liked looking at their blogs because I learned about the different things that caught their attention. The commenting itself made me think about what they wrote. I think that building and participating in an online community gives you the opportunity to learn about people in a different context. I know my co-workers in one setting at school and the online community gives us yet another setting to express ourselves. I feel that blogging and commenting on others posts gives us an outlet to communicate that is different from our work setting. I feel that it is almost a more intimate world because for me writing is a direct window to my thoughts. The point that stood out the most to me about commenting was providing positive feedback about what people wrote. I think that it builds relationships that have no boundaries, just like the internet. I applied this advice the most in my comments. I have been blogging this summer writing my thoughts about traveling through Peru and Brasil. I have used it mostly as a journal or diary. So for me so far blogging has been a reflective tool. I write about my experiences. And sharing my thoughts in a personal learning network gives my co-workers insight to another side of me as a professional, an educator and colleague.
In the future I plan on following http://www.technologyintegrationineducation.com/ and http://kimcofino.com/blog/ the second site is a blog called always learning, I like it because its author gives many examples of how to integrate technology and blogging into the classroom.

Step 1

The first step was not difficult. I already planned the name for my blog, and I had an idea of what url I wanted to use. The biggest challenge was accessing the SBISD staff intranet page. I am traveliing outside the US right now and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to access the staff intranet page to get to google apps. Once I got that figured out the rest went by fairly easy. I'm in Brasil right now so my blogger account is in Portuguese. I chose an image of what looks like Jesus for my avatar because my students tell me I look like Jesus. It's my long hair and beard. I've been updating a blog since mid May. I'm posting about traveling this summer. That has helped me become familiar with Blogger. I look forward to learning about all the tools and how they will help me transform my classroom for the 21st century learner.