Putting "IT" Into Practice ("E" Posting)

Over the course of the past 3 months enlisted in the Intro to Computers to Education course, I have indeed learned alot in the sense that technology is very important and almost key to teaching in today's society. We look left and right and see our children playing with video games here, computer games there and have finally realized, what a better way to get through to a child by teaching them through similar technologies such as interactive learning games, lessons and such! I think it is genius! By observing several classrooms environments through this class, as well as others that I am currently taking, I have come to learn that every child learns and retains knowledge differently, and this is something I think every teacher should come to understand before jumping into a classroom of their own. When shadowing the different schools and by taking to many different teacher's and faculty members, I came to learn ( and view) the different techniques they use and take their advice, turn around, and add my own spin!

HOW Has Technology Impacted K-12 Classrooms? ("C" Posting)

Based on my reflections as a current college student, and future teacher, I believe that technology has definitely had an important impact in our schools, primarily in grades K-12. In finding this newspaper article (link), it explains how technology is changing our children's classrooms, for the better, and in the most efficient ways. It talks about a specific school in the Sioux City school district, and how over the years they have adapted to such technologies such as quizzes on the computer after reading a book, for points accumulated over the year.It is said that teacher Linda Waugh has gone from using an "opaque projector" using rolls of 16 mm film, to now not believing what she sees in the schools with computers here and there, with children knowing exactly what to do on them. It talks about the Sioux City school district and how new teachers have been hired to further the technology education in classrooms for their younger generation to taste what will be expected of them later on down the road.

I appreciate articles such as these because it gives me perspective, as a current student (Sophmore to be exact) to what times were like only 20 years ago with technology, adn where they are today and how they have advanced. I dont know where I would be today if I didnt have E-mail, or online assignments for school (those take up most of my life!) Not to mention that tehcnology has made everything so much faster in the sense, for myself, that I can type way faster than I can write on paper!

HOW Technology is Changing the Teaching and Learning Practices ("B" Posting)

Being fortunate enough to shadow a wonderful teacher at Poinciana Elementary School in Naples, Florida, I had the chance to show an "Ebook" to a class of third grade students. The teacher I shadowed, Mrs. Faramo, is a very intelligent woman who knows her stuff! She is a reading specialist and conducts "reading labs" for children from grades K-4. For my Introduction to Computers class, we were assigned five Ebooks to choose from, and present one to a child of the specific grade level assigned for that Ebook. Aside from doing so, I had the opportunity to present two Ebooks to an entire class of eager third graders, whom had never seen an Ebook before! I had such a great time in doing so, and loved watching their faces when I put "Jack and the Beanstalk" on the projector screen. Even Mrs. Faramo had no idea what an Ebook was. All the teachers from the school that stopped in the room to take a look were very impressed with my technological skills by introducing such a fun form of reading to their children. Aside from having fun watching the children laugh and read along on the screen, I learned that children of this age (after taking a poll after the Ebook) are more prone to watch something, than read something on paper. The way with the Ebook, is that they are still following along with the words on the screen, but are also watching moving pictures and hearing a voice at the same time. The class was very responsive to this method, and when watching other readers that day read a book to the same students, they were more inclined to fidget and not pay attention.

Challenges that I faced with the Ebook were minor, but affected one little girl, by the name of Sydney. I interviewed Sydney, a bright third grader, after the showing of the Ebook, for class assignment purposes. She exclaimed that she preferred reading a traditional book better, because she could "imagine the pictures in her head" when reading. That is the only downfall with Ebooks, that I can see as an educator. Children's imaginations are more prone to take off when reading alone with a non-picture book, being able to fabricate scenarios and faces in their own mind, as opposed to an Ebook where the picture is already given to you, as well as the different character voices. Overall though, Sydney told me that she "loved the Ebook" and thought it was "very cool". Children at this age will like anything that doesnt seem like work, an Ebook is an all around fun way to get your students to read alone or in a group, and can learn how words or phrases sound by listening to the recored voice of the Ebook.

I adore Ebooks and their presentation to student's. I am currently working on my own entiled "Getting in the Game" and look forward to finally having the finsihed product in a week!

What are the impacts on children in Elementary Education today pertaining to programs such as PowerPoint and other multimedia software? ("A" Posting)

As concerned parents and guardians these days we like to know what our children are learning in the classroom, and rightly so! In my future classroom, interactive computer learning will definitely be a must amongst my students. I feel as an upcoming teacher that I have the duty to expose children, even at such a young age, to forms of technology that will benefit them further on in their educational career. Within the article attached to my question posted, digital asset management is a technology made to manage the flow, instruction, and retrieval of digital assets, such as electronic text documents (email), images (pictures), videos, newspapers, lectures, PowerPoint presentations, and abstracts (other). The agreement calls for On stream Media's digital media services platform to instruct different video programs in long or short formats into both Quicktime and Windows Media players. In English, I will be using various forms of presentation material to help further lessons such as PowerPoint's, interactive storybook telling (otherwise known as Ebooks), and video lessons. I believe that Kindergarten is a strong age for building all sorts of educational foundations, in this day-in-age, I also believe that technology should be inserted in the lives of our children to prepare for the future.

In selecting this article, I gave strong thought to what the impacts actually are on our children in the classroom using interactive programs such as PowerPoint. In remembering back to my elementary school days, traditional learning took the cake in the sense that the Blackboard "ruled" the learning curriculum. Seeing new, interesting and captivating forms of technology, such as PowerPoint, and Quicktime used for playing videos for learning purposes, makes me jealous in a way that I didn't have the luxuries of such exciting learning, but in a way excites me to know that I can now turn around as a teacher and use these methods in the classroom for my future classes to come. Thank goodness for improvements in our technological society!

Greetings to You! Welcome to My Blog!

Greetings Viewer!Welcome to the wonderful creative mind of Allison Marie Wickman! Many posts will be submitted on updates and referneces relating to assignements in a class, currently taking, entitled: Inroduction to Computers for Teachers, at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida. I promise you will be highly entertained by the content read and links to be added! Thank you for taking the time to take a peak, and GO AHEAD--let your imagination take off with mine! ....Here we go....