Technology Challenges

I think that technology can be used in the classroom but you shouldn’t have any huge expectations for students outside the classroom. I can see you requiring the students to type a paper or do a chart outside class because students are able, assuming that parents OK it, to stay after school a little bit and work in the computer lab, or library. This way students can write their papers and do their charts. But, personally, I don’t think that you should assign something like a PowerPoint presentation to students unless you are going to give them enough class time to get it done because there are those students that don’t have access to a computer outside of school (believe it or not).

I don’t think you would be doing them a disservice. It also depends on what you consider technology. Are you talking about just computers and things like that or are you referring to overhead projectors? Because I remember being in school and until I was in high school we never had technology other from overhead projectors in our classrooms. And, personally, I think that I learned a lot and turned out pretty good. I think that people are so focused on trying to make things cool and appealing to students that they forget that most kids don’t even know what an overhead projector is because they all have the projectors that hook up to their teacher’s computer. “Retro” things are cool to kids and by using them in the classroom the kids might just pay attention more.

Another good example is using record players in the classroom. If you are talking about the 70s and you want to play some of the Beetles music, you could bring in their records and play them on a record player. You could be authentic. I understand that those things are expensive if you don’t already have them but by doing that you could talk about the Beetles and the record player. You could talk about how it works and why it was the best thing they had back in those days…it would be exciting to kids.

To make sure that my disadvantaged students have access to computers I will make sure that they know how long the library and computer lab is open. Or, if the hours of those places are inconvenient for that child I will be willing to stay late, or come early, so that the student will be able to access the technology needed and for the proper amount of time to get their project done…everyone deserves an equal chance.

Cell Phones in the Classroom!?

My original opinion is to keep cell phones out of the classroom. And, even after reading these articles I still believe that it is the best way. I understand where people are coming from when they say that cell phones can be used in the classroom. For example like it said in the article Should cell phones be banned from classrooms? “[schools] are overlooking that many secondary students already own a technology tool that can be integral not only in school learning, but in the students’ future professional lives.” But at the same time there are so many other things that students could be doing on their cell phones when they are in class. They could be texting, surfing the web (if they have internet on their phone) or even listening to music. It’s like bringing a laptop to school, unless you are behind the student the whole time how do you know that they are typing notes the whole time and not surfing the web?
The cell phone policy in my classroom will be that there are no cell phones allowed in my room. Even if there is an emergency with the student’s family they should be calling the school to get a hold of their child, not the child’s cell phone. And chances are that the student will have their phone in their pocket anyway so if they get a call about an emergency they’ll leave and take the call. I know that students will still be bringing their phones into my classroom, just like we all did or do now and I’m sure that there will be texting and whatnot happening while I am teaching, but there will be consequences. The student will have to give me their phone and I will confiscate it for the rest of the day. If the problem becomes reoccurring then I will have to get in contact with their parents and discuss how to solve this problem. I might just have to have a “cell phone box” in my classroom. This box will be sitting in my room and when the students come in they will turn their phones off and put it in the box and then when they leave at the end of the day they can get their phone back. And if they happen to have the same phone as someone else they can either not bring their phone to school or find a way to tell them apart.
Like it stated in the article From Toy to Tool “…students in an English literature class conducting local author studies could just pull out their cell phones to conduct interviews when they meet the author. They can dial in to Gabcast, set their cell phone down and ask their questions. When they finish their interview they press a button and their interview is immediately posted to a blog site.” The only problem with this is that not everybody has the internet on their phone and therefore they cannot all do this. Another way that phones could be incorporated is like an article we read before stated, you could give points for students receiving texts from people outside school and bonus points for people outside the country. But other from that I really do not see a usage for cell phones in the classroom. Not to mention most of the things that you can do with cell phones in the classroom are for older students and I want to be teaching young students so I am hoping to not have to deal with this situation, but I’m sure that the day is drawing near.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is where someone is being bullied through the internet, or some form of internet, for example bullying through MySpace, facebook, email, or instant messenger. As far as I can remember I’ve never been a victim of cyberbullying nor have I been a perpetuator. I think I’ve been able to stay away from this because I make sure to really pick and choose who my friends are on Facebook (and MySpace when I had one) and I also make sure that only people that are my friends have my instant messenger screen name. That way I can avoid any issues. I have gotten in fights with people over the internet but I’ve never been bullied.
Schools cannot control cyberbullying once the students go home. As soon as the students are off the school property the school is no longer allowed to monitor the students on goings. You can tell the students who are being objected to cyberbullying because they have become anxious, depressed, they suffer from low self-esteem, and are more likely to contemplate suicide. As of May 2, 2007 The Oregon Legislature amended House Bill 2637 to include cyberbullying to the provisions relating to school district policies on harassment, intimidation or bullying. I believe that schools should do all they can to encourage students to stay away from cyberbullying when they are at home.
In my classroom, during the first few weeks of school, when we are going through the rules, I will make sure to mention that bullying happens in more than one form. I will explain all the different forms of bullying, including cyberbullying and make sure that the students understand that no forms of bullying are acceptable. I will address it to the class as a whole and then as individual problems occur I will be talking to the students individually. Along with talking to my class I will be trying to get the whole school to become involved in this positive environment.

Wikipedia

As a student, I don’t use Wikipedia for research because all my high school teachers and college professors have always told me that we aren’t allowed to use it as a source. Honestly, because of that facet I hardly use Wikipedia at all. In fact the only things I usually use Wikipedia for are to figure out song names for my songs that don’t have names on my iTunes. I usually start my research on Google. And after it finds its billions of answers for me I look at the first few pages and check out the websites that sound reliable.
I would totally let my students use Wikipedia. Because, like the article mentions, it is very accurate, and the things that aren’t accurate are small, maybe even insignificant things in the article. Not to mention, unlike the Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia is updated on an almost daily basis so it is current!
I would tell my students to look at Wikipedia but to also look at other places as well. They should go to Google, and to creditable websites but I’m not going to exclude Wikipedia just because some people don’t like it. Especially when people have researched Wikipedia and found out that it is really accurate and very current.

Social Networking

The internet can be such a great thing to use for homework, gaming, or just relaxing. But it also has it’s dark side…it can show people things about you that you may not want other people to know.
I’m glad that I didn’t find anything bad on google.com and pipl.com. Not that I expected to find anything bad since, as far as I know, I’ve never don’t anything illegal or bad. I mean, I’ve never even gotten a traffic/parking ticket! I did find out that the results of most races that I did as a little kid were posted on the internet. It’s really interesting to go back and look at the things I did as a kid…it’s something for me to be proud of and reminisce on. (http://www.coolrunning.com/results/02/fl/Dec29_LastGa_set1.shtml) There was information about the scholarship I got right out of high school for Concordia Chicago (http://m.kitsapsun.com/news/2007/Jun/21/central-kitsap-high-school-awards-and/). Other from things like that and links to my facebook, I didn’t find anything about me on the internet.
Before I even switched my major from music to education I had heard from my friends that you need to watch what you put on the internet because it can impact your ability to get a job in the future. So, between my common sense and my friends’ warnings I have always made sure to be careful about what I post to the internet. And I have always made sure to keep my myspace (which I no longer have) and my facebook on ultra private so that only my friends would be able to see my real page. And for places like facebook I am picky about who is on my friends list; to me it is not a popularity competition….if I don’t know who you are and we don’t communicate on a relatively regular basis then I’m not going to accept you as my friend.
I do think that teachers should be held to high standards like they are because we are supposed to be the example for the students. If we don’t live a good, law abiding and respectful life why should we expect our students to do that? But, along with teachers being held to these standards I believe that all adults that have an impact on students should be held accountable for keeping their lives and being responsible, good citizens.
I found the story about the student who planned on being a teacher but had the graphic myspace page very interesting. To me, I just don’t understand why someone would, a-have that posted on a very public site and b-why they would give the link to their teacher without thinking about what was on it first. It seems like some people just don’t think sometimes.
To protect myself and my job I will make sure to continue to watch what I put on the internet, especially since I will be turning twenty one in the next year there may be some random/interesting pictures taken of me and posted on the internet. Therefore, even when I’m not at work I need to make sure I am being responsible and I am willing to take credit for all my actions whether they are bad or good.

Digital Natives/Immigrants

These articles were really interesting to read. There were many good points made in them, things that I had never really thought about before. I also really enjoyed the video, it restated some statistics that that the articles had said and it also stated some new ones. It was great to be able to watch the video because I am more of a visual learner. Even though we did have to read, having the music in the background and the different colored words helped me remember what the video was saying.
I believe that I am in between the Native and Immigrant stage. I do understand how to use most technology and I can figure out what people are talking about when they reference technology. I do talk on my cell phone all the time and if I’m not talking on it I’m using it for texting. I personally didn’t get my first cell phone until I was sixteen, so unlike the eight year olds that have cell phones today, I did not grow up with this luxury. I also remember when my family first got the internet…it was so slow compared to today. According to the article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, “Today’s students – K through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.” I also did not grow up playing video games all the time, my parents made sure that I played outside and stayed an active kid. And as far as digital music players go, I did not get an iPod until I was almost done with high school. So, yes I do understand and use most technology in today’s world but, unlike the article says, I did not grow up with all this technology in my house.
As a learner I was expected to be able to use the internet to look up information and create projects. Also, just using the computer in general, ever since grade school I’ve been expected to write papers for classes. In class we watched videos and used overhead projectors. But in college, where there is a little more funding due to the height of tuition, we have been using a lot more technology. For example at Concordia we have smart boards in every classroom in the new library. Those have such potential for helping the class learn. Not only can you project information on them, but you can pull up the internet and then have the students come up and use their hands to move things around on the board and interact with the subject matter. I thought that Marc Prensky made a great point in his article Do they Really Think Differently? when he said, “Elementary school, when you strip out the recesses and the lunch and the in-between times, actually consists of about three hours of instruction time in a typical 9 to 3 day. 28 So assuming, for example, that learning games were only 50% educational, if you could get kids to play them for six hours over a weekend, you’d effectively add a day a week to their schooling! Six hours is far less than a Digital Native would typically spend over a weekend watching TV and playing videogames. The trick, though, is to make the learning games compelling enough to actually be used in their place. They must be real games, not just drill with eye-candy, combined creatively with real content.” The classes I remember best from high school, or even elementary school, are the ones that were engaging and exciting to me. They are the ones that caught my attention and were fun.
These articles made some great points. They helped explain how different the word is for kids today versus when I was a kid, not that I’m all that old right now. That alone changed my opinion because, even though I feel like I am pretty tech savvy, these articles and the video pointed out how little I knew how to use the technology of today. I also liked the idea “Maybe—and I think that this is the case—today’s kids are challenging us, their educators, to engage them at their level, even with the old stuff, the stuff we all claim is so important, that is, the ‘curriculum.’” that Marc Prensky made in the article Engage me or Enrage Me. I never thought that the students were challenging the teachers. They may not intentionally be doing it but because they grew up in such a technology centered world they are trying to make teachers use more technology to engage them and make them interested.
Overall I believe that these articles were very helpful to me and I’m sure that I am going to use them in the future.

Introduction

My name is Anna Huelle


I am hoping to teach preschool, or younger...i love the little kids a lot!


My Favorite animal is the Tiger. I don't really know why, they're orange-which is my favorite color and they just seem like a powerful animal...i'm just kind of drawn to them.