First off technology can be very social in the classroom; it can bring a class together or help students connect online. I have learned this from my time working on my own lesson plans or from participating in others. Being social online or in the class is a great thing but with the use of the internet comes dangers for your students. I suggest that any teacher planning on having their students use the internet for any kind of classroom research or networking first discuss all the pros and cons of the internet. Also how the students themselves can stay safe while surfing.
There is also the question of is it ethical to use all this technology in the class? After a lot of discussion in class and just thoughts of my own I feel that the use of technology in our classrooms can be a very positive thing. It opens students up to so much more than there was before. I know a lot of people worry about kids being too into technology all the time but without it they wouldn’t have all the resources and options they do with technology.
7b) One collaborative online learning experience I remember was Ashley’s lesson plan on social networking. It was a great lesson which showed us how easy it was to set up a social networking site for your own class if you would like. This lesson showed me that it was possible to have a working network for one class instead of having to use one big one like Facebook. At first I didn’t think social networking was a good idea for classes but it can really come in handy for teachers who like to post assignments. That way they know students have access to it whenever they need a reminder of an objective or due date.
7c) I also now know how to create an online learning experience for students, because I had a lesson plan where I had made my own website and I had students do the same. I had them get into groups and create a web page for one species of endangered animal with general information about that specific animal. They seemed to enjoy the topic of the assignment but also it was interesting to them because most had never created their own web page. In the end I felt good about the way the lesson went, most of the students didn’t have trouble creating a web page and it was good to know that next time they needed to create one they would know how.
Some strategies I learned for teaching an online lesson are to be patient because not everyone is at the same level when it comes to using the internet. Also when teaching a lesson online you should be very familiar with the content so that way if students have questions you are easily able to answer them. For example when I taught my lesson on creating websites I went very slowly through the directions so students could understand. Also I familiarized myself with every aspect as to how to create and design a site incase students had questions. Then one strategy for learning an online lesson is to really pay attention because it may seem easy but depending on what you’re doing (like creating a website for the first time) there can be many steps and it will be easy to get confused.
7d) Throughout this semester I have learned how to plan, design and evaluate effective technology. By creating my own lesson plans and show and tells I had to set up a plan for my lesson and then design it, for example when I created a website for my lesson plan. Then I gained experience with evaluating technology because after each show and tell or lesson plan we would evaluate and give feed back to whoever was presenting. For example when Leann and Ashley did a show and tell on drop box I had to evaluate certain things about the show and tell. Like was it original? Would it be helpful? Is it a good idea for classroom use?
7e) Lastly throughout the semester I have definitely learned how to create curriculum plans that include effective technology. All the lesson plans or show and tells I have done were based around using technology in the classroom. For example my show and tell on the smart echo pen was to explain to students what it was and how it is helpful to them. Also all the lessons I participated in were again based around using technology in the classroom. I feel that from my time spent in this class over the semester I have definitely learned and showed that I have met the MELS standards.
7f) You can use technology to assess students by using websites like “Black Board create and evaluation”. This allows you to create your own rubrics on how to evaluate students. Which can be helpful instead of always having to write out your own evaluation.
