"Doing" Part of Internet Safety

I talked to my mom about internet safety. When I asked her about what she knew about internet safety, she talked about how important is to not give out personal information and to have computers in a room that is used often. I shared with my mom the importance of talking about internet safety openly so that in the future it does not feel like a taboo subject. I also talked about how important it is to focus on the positive uses of technology and to give children opportunities to use technology, but in a positive, productive way. Overall, I would say that the conversation went well. I shared Elder Ballard's talk with her and I hope she reads it in its full form because it is such a strong statement about technology and media and how it relates to the family.

New Ideas from Presentations

I learned new ideas of how to incorporate technology from the presentations today. One thing was about how recording the students' work (whether auditory recording or visual recording) allows the students to see their work presented through technology helps to motivate the students to learn. It also helps them be proud of their work and have a good sense of ownership. Another thing I learned was that allowing students to have more involvement with the technology helps the lesson and the engagement of the students.

Reading about Internet Safety

For the reading assignment, I chose to read "An Ensign to the Nations, a Light to the World" by President Gordon B. Hinckley. After reading this article and the other articles assigned, I decided that one of the most important things I learned was the need to be open and address the dangers of internet. If children are aware, then they will be better prepared with how to deal with it if it crosses their path. Also, by talking about it openly, it dissipates curiosity about what it actually is and it lessens the shame if they accidentally come across it. Another thing I thought was important was to address the positive, uplifting factors of technology. By replacing bad things with good things, children will be able to be tech savvy without having to feel the negative consequences of degrading media.

One thing that I will do as a teacher and/or parent is talk about internet safety with my children so that they are aware of the dangers. Also, I will have them talk about what rules they think it is important to follow. If children come up with the rules themselves, then they are more likely to follow them. By having this discussion, they will see why it is important to make these decisions before a dangerous situation presents itself.

One way that I can have a positive influence on family and friends is to let them know about the things I've learned from my reading. I think the 7 things that Elder Ballard mentioned in his article were especially helpful, and I am going to share them with my mom. Also, when talking about the influence of technology, I can give positive alternatives about how to use technology in fun, productive ways that others may not have thought of before.

Learning from other presentations

As I looked at how my classmates used technology in the classroom, I realized that there are so many different ways that technology is easily incorporated into lessons. Some make life easier for both students, like projecting words on a screen. Other uses of technology help the students explore their knowledge farther Another presentation showed a useful way to find out what the students already know, like in the presentation that used kidsperation to have the students sort their background knowledge. I have received many new ideas for various ways that it can be helpful to use technology in the classroom

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Shared Reading With Technology!

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Shared Reading with Technology!

On Thursday I am doing my technology lesson. I will be incorporating technology into my shared reading lesson. The students are going to be doing a choral reading of a poem from You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together. I will have the words on a PowerPoint and project the words and some of the images from the book onto the screen. I am going to have a pointer so that the students read altogether and stay reading at the same rate. Although it is helpful for all the students to be able to see the words at the same time, I felt like this was not using technology to the greatest advantage. I have linked some of the words in the poems to outside articles or images. After we read the poems, we are going to discuss them and I will have students click on the links that interest them. I've started creating the PowerPoint, and I am pretty excited about this lesson. My mentor teacher also is excited for me to teach this, and I hope the students will be engaged in the lesson and learn from it as well!

Shared Reading Idea

One idea for a technology-enhanced lesson that I might be able to do involves technology and a shared reading. I would like to create a powerpoint with slides for each page of a book. In order to incorporate the students using the technology, I would like to create a link from some of the words to either an activity or some kind of image that would help reinforce the text. This would make technology essential for the lesson and would add value to the lesson by extending the understanding of the students. I will first need my mentor teacher to give me text that she would like me to use for a shared reading, but I think that this activity would benefit the students.

Classroom Technology Inventory

The classroom technology inventory was quite informative. I found that the school has two computer labs that we can schedule and that my mentor teacher has used it before for special lessons so she could help me figure out what kind of technology would be good to use for lessons. Also, the grade has a laptop and projector that is shared between the classrooms, so I could easily use that for in my lessons. I also thought that it was interesting that the school has software that helps the students publish their writing. That will help them feel more like authors, which is really important. After seeing the technology available, I am excited about the possibilities for my lessons.

Virtual Tour Link

Here is a link to my Lincoln virtual tour!

TPACK for Virtual Tour

The content that I am using for this virtual tour is found under the 5th grade social studies core. It is standard 4, objective 3 indicator a which states that students will identify the key ideas, events, and leaders of the Civil War using primary sources (e.g. Gettysburg Address, Emancipation Proclamation, news accounts, photographic records, diaries). This activity focuses on a key leader of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln. Students will use primary sources when they read or listen to the text of Lincoln's first inaugural address and the Gettysburg address. In addition, they will learn more about Lincoln's life and how much the American people mourned his death. This content will help the students understand the background of the Civil War.

The pedagogy for this activity is to teach the students about Lincoln and his life in a way that makes him real, not just some old President. By going to places that he lived, students will learn more about the things that he did and how he impacted history. A tour of a person's life gives insight into that person and establishes a connection between the learner and the person being studied. This is why teaching about Abraham Lincoln through a tour of main events of his life fits well with the content. The boring facts on a textbook page come to life when using this method to teach about Abraham Lincoln and his role in the Civil War.

For this activity I am using Google Earth to create a virtual tour. This technology fits well with the content and pedagogy. By creating a virtual tour, students can personalize the content more than if they were reading the text by themselves. Google Earth has Wikipedia articles that are helpful for students to do their own research. This helps them become owners of the information, because they discovered it for themselves. Also, by creating a path, students will see the connection of events through Abraham Lincoln's life. The content of the Civil War comes to life when it is learned through the technology medium of Google Earth.

Virtual Tour Plan

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1. Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site	Read Wikipedia article- What was the Lincoln's farm called?	Wikipedia research
2. Washington, D.C.	Look at pictures of Lincoln's first inaugrual address- What is one thing he said in his speech?	Outside link to pictures and address
3. Gettysburg National Military Park	Listen to Gettysburg address	Link to Gettysburg address
4. Ford's Theatre National Historic Site 5. Lincoln's Tomb State Historic Site	View pictures of interior and read wikipedia article- What play was Lincoln watching when he was assassinated? Read article and measure distance that the funeral train traveled to bring Lincoln to his grave	Wikipedia research Measure pathway
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:	Pathway between Ford's Theatre and Lincoln's tomb, overlay of pictures of Lincoln's tomb

"Tryin' On Clothes" Digital Storybook

This is our digital storybook. We did a poem interpretation of the Shel Silverstein poem Tryin' on Clothes.

Digital Storytelling with TPACK

The content we are addressing in this activity is from the Utah State Core. Specifically, we want students to develop language through viewing media and presenting and to help students write daily to communicate effectively for a variety of purposes and audiences. The students will use their language skills to write for the purpose of creating a digital storybook for their peers. This process of writing and creating is the content that we are focusing on through this activity.

This activity has a hands-on approach for the content. By having the students arrange or create the language for their storybooks, it allows them to understand how the language works together to form the whole. By having students also create images to go along with their text, it helps reinforce comprehension. This is why this activity is a good way to teach the content.

To complete the TPACK formula, we need to look at how we use technology in our activity. The technology we use in this activity is a digital camera and a program to put the images together in a storybook form. The technology helps support both the content because they are the medium through which the students are expressing their ideas. The technology also supports our pedagogy for teaching because it allows the students to take control of their learning. Students can record the images they create with the digital camera and then arrange the images to correspond with the text to create the digital storybook. This project allows the students to make decisions on what will be best for their text and to implement those decisions. This is how all the components come together for TPACK in this activity.

Storyboard!

TPACK and Science Activity

For our science activity, we concentrated on the Utah State Standard 2 for 5th grade science, which is that students will understand that volcanoes, earthquakes, uplift, weathering, and erosion reshape Earth's surface. For our activity, we focused on exploring a volcano and also the Grand Canyon, which was shaped through the process of erosion. This is the content section of TPACK.

We chose to teach our activity the way we did because it gives the students an opportunity to visualize how the surface of the Earth is changed. Instead of trying to picture this image in their heads, they can actually see what it looks like. They also can explore the terrain for themselves and come up with their own conclusions. This is a type of discovery learning, which is a good way to teach science. Using this method to teach our content demonstrates the PK part of TPACK.

The technology we used for activity was Google Earth. This fit well with both the content and our pedagogy for teaching it. Google Earth shows the content in a real-life way, showing the topography as well as actual photographs. This enables students to visualize how volcanoes and erosion actually affect the Earth's surface. This technology also allows the students to explore the locations themselves, which helps support our view on effective teaching. Incorporating all these components into our activity demonstrates how TPACK can be used to teach science.

Tech Savvy Teachers

Written by Jennifer Ray and RaeLene Hamblin

As Tech Savvy teachers, we want to give our students the opportunity to use content-specific technology tools. We know that these technologies allow our students to explore science in ways that are engaging and enjoyable.

We used technology to teach about the reshaping of the Earth's surface, which is standard 2 in Utah's core curriculum for the 5th grade. Specifically, we wanted students to explore volcanoes, canyons, and mountain ranges after we had discussed the forces that create these landforms. Students were also given the task of describing the terrain of a new location, such as Nevada in our example. Google Earth is the technology tool students used to accomplish these tasks. The image to the right is an example of how students are able to see the topography of various landforms, in this case a volcano.

Google Earth enables students to view geographic locations throughout the world. We began by looking at the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii. Google Earth allows the students view the terrain of the actual volcano by using the 3D feature and by zooming in to the volcano. Students can move the focus around the terrain so they can explore the volcano in depth. As seen in the picture below, Google Earth also offers informational articles when this specific box is clicked. In this example, a Wikipedia article shows information about Mauna Loa.

Next, students explored the geological features of the Grand Canyon. Students were able to see real photographs of the Grand Canyon alongside the topographical view. As the students explored the Google Earth images, we discussed the forces that created these landforms. Finally, students were instructed to explore a nonresidential area of Nevada and describe the terrain they see. Students also explained what forces shaped that terrain. An example of a student's view of Nevada is provided below.
This technology of Google Earth allowed students to observe and analyze data in the form images. Because the images were three-dimensional, students were able to gain a deeper understanding of the content than they would have through a lecture with pictures. The following image of the Grand Canyon exemplifies the kind of images that students are able to manipulate to explore geological landforms. Investigating these landforms engages students in meaningful learning. This is one example of how tech savvy teachers use technology to enhance learning.

Science Technology Explored

During class, we explored temperature probes. I was excited to experiment with this science technology. We could change the measurements from degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Celsius and we could even have two probes plugged into the same computer and have the two temperatures be graphed on the same graph. I liked the challenges that we were given because they gave us a chance to problem solve with the knowledge we had about how this technology worked. I think that this technology would be great to use in a classroom, especially when we are talking about graphs and how to read them.

TPACK

TPACK combines technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge together to be an effective way to incorporate technology in classroom learning. A teacher who teaches the material from the state core uses content knowledge. Knowing how to use technology, such as a thermometer, is called technological knowledge. Understanding the best way to teach people is known as pedagogical knowledge. The best kinds of teaching include all of these knowledges together, also known as TPACK. Using technology in the classroom to teach the content can enhance the student's learning. As a teacher, it may be hard to include TPACK in every lesson, but taking the time to explore techonolgy tools gives teachers more options when they plan their lessons. The students will benefit from the teacher's use of TPACK.

RSS and Web 2.0 tools

This week I learned about what RSS is and how it could be helpful to use it as an educator. RSS takes information that you can get from various sources and puts them all in one place so you don't have to go look for them. This could be used in many different ways. As a teacher, I could use RSS to get updates from lots of educational resources. I could have an RSS feed for educational research so I could be updated about the best ways to teach. I also could have an RSS feed that has lesson plan ideas and different activities that can be used for teaching. Web 2.0 tools will also be helpful to use as a teacher. Resource sharing, like Goodreads and Delicious, will be helpful so I can get other teacher's ideas and resources. I can share mine with them and get theirs in return. When you collaborate with others, you can have a better range of information. I think that these resources will be very beneficial to me as an educator.

My technology background

My technology background is pretty typical. I had a computer in my house, which I used to play some computer games and more for homework as I got older. I have an email and facebook account and I use the internet to research all the time. I passed the technology tests required for admittance in the Elementary Education program pretty easily. I don't have much experience with anything more complicated than that.