Assignment #6- School 2.0 Ecosystem

I really enjoyed learning about the "School 2.0". I have heard many things this year about 21st century skills and the HCSD. I have not had any formal instruction on this and it was great to learn more. I am impressed by how current our district is with technology and the community. Our teachers use blogging, websites, elmos, smart boards, wikis, podcasting, twitter accounts, cell phone polling, etc. for our students. We recently opened the parent portal for grades. This is another great example of how we are continuing to "move forward" with technology. I liked everything that was on the map. I would like to see the textbook dollars reallocated and given to technology. I would love to see every student have their own laptop. I think this would be amazing.

I would like to see a way to hold all parents accountable for learning the technology and getting involved. I know that we recently opened the parent portal at MW and some parents do not know that it exists and how to use it. Their children know that it is there, but the parents do not. I think that we need to educate all parents and community members. We need to hold them accountable for the education of tomorrows leaders.

Assignment #5 Podcast Review

After listening to Dr. Zhaos' podcat, a variety of things ran through my mind. I think that the most important thing that I took out of all of the podcasts was this- "Kids who can not use technology are now being viewed as the new illiterate"- similar to how our generation viewed people who could not read. This has honestly stuck with me. I can not stop thinking about how true that statement is and how realistically I see it everyday. I am so motivated to stay current with technology, and now realize that it is my professional responsibility to help my students learn as much as possible-using technology and being aware of all of the resources that are available to them.

I could really connect to his podcasts. He gave great examples of teachers being scared to try new things (like the art teacher who thought it was her job to teach art and not technology- but after learning more-she realized that even thought they were two different things, she could infuse the two together and make them connect- hence making in more meaningful for students.

He spoke of how kids are motivated by technology and how teachers are scared of it. I could relate to the teachers that stayed after school late, learning as much as possible, but still feeling scared and ignorant.

The community involvement was important in his work. I liked the movie project and how the community got involved. It was inspiring.

Assignment #4 (Google Docs, Skype and Nings)

I found this assignment to be useful. I could make connections to both Skype and google docs. I had never heard of "Nings"before. I viewed them to my like an individual social networking site, an almost private , invitation only version of Facebook. I noticed that "Ning"is also going to begin charging money to use their site. I did not find Ning to be especially useful to me at this point. However, next year at this time, Ning could be the "in" and "hot" social networking site.

I have heard about Skype for a few years now. I know that it is being used in the classroom and I also know that businesses use this tool. I was once in staff development and Patti Sullivan used skype to contact her daughter who was studying abroad. Very cool. My husband actually skypes into to daily sales meetings now and as a family we use skype to communicate with my brother-in-law and his family who live in Los Angeles. I also heard of a Hilton high school teacher using skype to connect with a classroom at Eastridge. I am not sure of the class, but I think that the two schools did a combined lesson of some sort.

Skype has really made it possible for people to connect. I think this is another great example of a networking tool, that can appeal to everyone. It is so amazing that we can connect with people from our homes or classrooms. I think this type of technology has been especially beneficial to people whose families live out of town or state. And of course...how about the military? How amazing this has been to military families??? I think this technology is great and I only hope that it becomes better.

In addition to completing the Google Docs lesson, I also took a mini-tutorial on google docs during our recent Superintendents Day conference. I never knew that so much existed on google. I loved learning about the calendars, and google alerts etc. I have a lot more to learn about google docs and need to devote some time to it. After this class, I am considering purchasing the apple itouch or ipad- as I want to be able to apply the things that I am learning to the technology.

In my opinion, the invention of google, google docs and skype have really made life less chaotic for many and really encouraged relationship building and collaboration with people in all parts of the world.

Assignment #2

For assignment number 2, I am choosing to use Facebook and Twitter. My goals are to increase communication with my friends and family. I actually have an interesting idea for using Twitter. I am going on the Washington DC trip this year with the eighth grade class. My friend and I am bus captains and we are thinking of using our twitter account to have the parents "follow" our bus.

This has not been decided yet and we have to talk to administration and also work with Patti S or Lori B- to see if this is even a possibility.

I am actually really enjoying learning about all of these new types of social networking and communication tools.

Quick Question- Would a LinkedIn account apply to this assignment. My husband and his company used his linkedin to create more business for his company.

Link to vociethread

I just finished the assignment. It was not as difficult as I thought that it would be.

Here is the link.....http://voicethread.com/share/1043875/

VoiceThread Assignment

At the most recent Superintendants Day, I took a class and the instructor used voicethread. It was great to see it in use. While I was creating my voicethread account, I viewed many of the examples. They were amazing. I love how you can use it for sharing pictures, or artwork with families. This is a great tool to use in the classroom. I really like the idea of using this with some of my students who have writing disabilities. They could download their work and then explain it. This is great. Now, I am off to finish my assignment.

Reflection Assignment #8

I am actually pleased that I took this class now because I am applying wikis and blogs to my current job. I use the Wiki at Merton Williams daily to post homework for parents to view. I also use the Wiki to inform parents and students of upcoming midterm exams, and important team events.

If I had to choose a tool to use I think that the Wiki would be my favorite. It is such a great way to share information and extremely efficient. I think that blogging is great for the classrooms and is also perfect for professional development. It has been great being able to share ideas and opinions on this blog and not have to "attend" an actual class.