Wikki Contribution

My Wikki contribution can be found at: http://k12instructionaltechnology.wikispaces.com/GreatExpectations

I think wikkis can be great for collaborative work. It allows the students to help edit a group project without having to all meet at the same time. Wikkis also allow students to see how others do projects and can generate great ideas for their own projects.

accomplishment for the semester

I think for me, that my best accomplishment this semester was my teaching video that was put on youtube. That project probably took me the longest and I think it turned out the best. Something like that could make a very interesting project for students and can be just as rewarding for them as it was for me.

Discussing Internet Safety

I shared my internet safety information with my mom; who still has a teenager at home. She was aware of a lot of internet safety things. We were able to discuss how having something as simple as a screen name that tells your gender can be unsafe. Internet predators can access all sorts of information about a person just by finding your screen name. Our discussion was positive. My parents know a lot about internet safety and follow a lot of the tips that are basic internet safety tips. Like have the computer in an open area where everyone can see what is on the screen; and making sure they have parental controls to block bad sites and see where their child has been.

Internet Safety

For me I think the most shocking thing I learned from the readings and videos was about cyberbullying. Now students aren't just bullied at school any more; the bullying can follow them home and invade their whole life. I was not aware how prevalent this type of bullying was. As a teacher I will do my best to be aware of this problem and address it as soon as I find out. I think getting the parents more involved with what's going on in the child's life is also something that needs to happen. Teachers and parents should be aware of what students are saying to each other both in person and thru text messages and online.

I think the government does a good job of trying to give teachers and parents information about internet safety. They have websites specifically dedicated to helping adults understand the importance of internet safety.

I think as teacher we need to be involved in our student's lives; not just teaching them our assigned subject, but really willing to get to know them. Letting our students know that internet safety is a big problem is something that teachers should make a priority.

competition groups

My favorite group that presented was the first group. I thought that their class wikki was a really great idea. And using primary sources to do interviews from the past was a really great way to get students excited about learning about history. Having their students used their classmates videos to help them learn about the Revolution sounds like a great way to get everyone involved and excited. I felt like all of their lessson ideas helped contribute to their students learning. Their project probably wasn't the most "put together" for lake of better words, but I thought it was a fun way to involve the whole class. I think the group that had their full 2 weeks of lesson plans was the most pepared for the competiton, but I felt like their projects might be a little compecated for students. I think I would have to hear more about thier project to be more excited about it.

iMovie project

An instructional video like this can be very helpful in a classroom setting. Especially when working with a difficult poem. By making a video like this a teacher can present the poem to their students in a more visual way. Students seem to becoming more visual learners; especally with all of the technology that is avaliable for them. By presenting a difficult concept in a visual way can help them undersand new concepts. I think using videos like this will be particuallry helpful when working with poetry.

new technology

Finishing up my imovie project was a little more time consuming than I had originally thought it would take. imovie is a great tool that can be used for creative projects, but I felt like it would have worked a little better if I had actual videos as opposed to just still photos. Once I figured out all of the little tricks to imovie it wasn't very hard to put everything together. My problem was that I felt like the program wasn't as user friendly as it advertised itself as. But at the same time, once I figured out the little tricks for imovie everything went smoothly. I would consider using imovie is a classroom setting for creative projects. It takes a little while to get the hang of, but once I figured that out I didn't have any major problems.