How has your understanding of personal learning environments evolved?
Looking back at the first week, I truly had no idea what my Personal Learning Environment would look like. I also had no idea what it really was. I think that my understanding has evolved into more of a learning experience that is still very active even in this last week. I am still learning, my understanding is still evolving. I have learned more about what to expect in my own learning environment and learned it is simply that: a learning environment. I have learned that we make our Personal Learning Environment our own. We learn in different ways and we show that with these PLEs. I think that I have learned that we can use this however we want to in the ways of learning. I think that I have learned that it is important to guide learning in this environment such as Wendy’s push for me to collaborate with people outside of our class. I think that these parts of the assignment are very important and should not be overlooked. I have seen the importance of collaborating with others and now see how I can do the same for my own students. I have also learned that it is important to find other tools that you are not familiar with and incorporate them into the PLE. When I first started I chose a topic that interested me (dog training) and I see now the importance of relevant and authentic topics for my own students.
What next steps could be taken to implement personal learning environments in the classroom?
I think that the first step to implement PLEs into the classroom would be the issue of safety. I think that as a teacher we are responsible for educating our students in the safety concerns of the internet. The next step would be to choose a topic. I chose something that is important to me and therefore I worked really hard on this project. I see the importance of loving your topic or at least having an interest in it. I think that this is also very important for students. I see just how much I truly learned about different technology and collaborating by doing something I love. The next step would be to guide their learning, and I think that this would be kind of difficult but it was done well in our class. Each week we had a guided discussion on different aspects and then each week I would go out and find relevant sources for my PLE. I think that the next step would be assessment and that is what I will talk about in the next question.
In what ways can we evaluate PLEs?
I believe that this is the most difficult part of the whole assignment. I mean we have to show growth and so I think that the best way to do this is a pass/fail kind of thing because I think that every student’s work will be very different. So we have to judge whether they truly put in an effort to learn about their topic. I think that we should evaluate their work according to the guidelines that we put forth throughout the project and see how they met each of these things. I think that the way they organize things is also important and so we can look at their organization and see how they progressed. I think that a blog is also a great way to see their progress because you can require or suggest that they do some kind of reflection once and a while and that is a great way to see progress.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Myths, Challenges and the Future
Some of the myths that I have believed before entering an actual classroom is that since we are in a “technology” time period the students will be “experts.” I believe that this is a misconception that many people fall into. I believe that part of these misconceptions come from our previous experience. I have been told many times that when I enter the classroom many of my students will know more about technology than I do. I am in a second grade classroom this semester and we are working on a different technology class. My group an I had many different plans for these students for the semester, such as blogging, podcasts, public service announcements etc. When we first started in the classroom we hit our first road block, which was that students were not experts in technology and we had to start from the very beginning. I just think that we believe students are much more advanced than they might actually be in the real classroom.
A challenge that I have experienced in this same classroom is the time it takes to execute a project using technology. We are using blogs in the same second grade classroom that I spoke of previously and there is a lot more that goes into the process than we saved time for. The students are having a lot of issues typing and spelling on the blog, they had to make their blog, decorate it and find creative titles for their posts. It took a lot longer than we anticipated which made it harder for us to teach our lesson. We also found that it was time consuming because of all the distractions online. I think this could be taken care of in our own classroom more effectively because the students would respect us more as their teachers. Another challenge in the classroom are the websites that are blocked. When we first started this project in the second grade classroom we had about three different blogging websites that we believed would work in the classroom. We did not have an opportunity to try out any of these websites first before going into the classroom so when we tried them for the first time none of them worked. I thought we would be fine because they are educational websites such as “Edublogs,” “Edmodo” and “KidBlog.” I think this is both a myth and a challenge that we will continue facing in the classroom because we will always hit these roadblocks and have to go to plan B or plan C or plan D and so on.
The future is always fun to look into especially for my own classroom. I am frightened to think about it but super excited at the same time. In the future, I will know not to go into a classroom unprepared, I will try out websites beforehand and make sure they are not blocked. I have also learned that in the future I will not just assume my students are technology experts, I will know that we can all learn more together. As part of this class I have also learned how time consuming these projects can be, so I have learned to be patient. I see how long it has taken me to develop my Personal learning Environment and how it may take a student longer to construct an authentic assignment.
Looking at the horizon report was interesting, before this class I did not even know it existed. It is very interesting to look at the technology that will be part of my future classroom. I really enjoyed listening to all the explanations and discussion in the live session because it is always better for me to hear and see examples. I think that it is also intimidating to see some of the technology tools that will be part of our classroom because it is a lot of new information to learn. Augmented reality has to be the most intimidating but a really awesome tool. I think that this is very interesting and to me seems to be something from the future. I really look forward to the technological advances that I will see during my teaching career and how it may impact my own teaching.
A challenge that I have experienced in this same classroom is the time it takes to execute a project using technology. We are using blogs in the same second grade classroom that I spoke of previously and there is a lot more that goes into the process than we saved time for. The students are having a lot of issues typing and spelling on the blog, they had to make their blog, decorate it and find creative titles for their posts. It took a lot longer than we anticipated which made it harder for us to teach our lesson. We also found that it was time consuming because of all the distractions online. I think this could be taken care of in our own classroom more effectively because the students would respect us more as their teachers. Another challenge in the classroom are the websites that are blocked. When we first started this project in the second grade classroom we had about three different blogging websites that we believed would work in the classroom. We did not have an opportunity to try out any of these websites first before going into the classroom so when we tried them for the first time none of them worked. I thought we would be fine because they are educational websites such as “Edublogs,” “Edmodo” and “KidBlog.” I think this is both a myth and a challenge that we will continue facing in the classroom because we will always hit these roadblocks and have to go to plan B or plan C or plan D and so on.
The future is always fun to look into especially for my own classroom. I am frightened to think about it but super excited at the same time. In the future, I will know not to go into a classroom unprepared, I will try out websites beforehand and make sure they are not blocked. I have also learned that in the future I will not just assume my students are technology experts, I will know that we can all learn more together. As part of this class I have also learned how time consuming these projects can be, so I have learned to be patient. I see how long it has taken me to develop my Personal learning Environment and how it may take a student longer to construct an authentic assignment.
Looking at the horizon report was interesting, before this class I did not even know it existed. It is very interesting to look at the technology that will be part of my future classroom. I really enjoyed listening to all the explanations and discussion in the live session because it is always better for me to hear and see examples. I think that it is also intimidating to see some of the technology tools that will be part of our classroom because it is a lot of new information to learn. Augmented reality has to be the most intimidating but a really awesome tool. I think that this is very interesting and to me seems to be something from the future. I really look forward to the technological advances that I will see during my teaching career and how it may impact my own teaching.
Collaborating Safely (Students)
For the purposes of this project I went out and tried to connect with others in my field of study. I looked for different forums and found a few that interested me. I think that this is somewhat different than what I will do in my own classroom because I am an adult and if I come across something that is not safe I know to get out of that website or forum but it is different when you have a classroom full of students. One obstacle that I may face are the school wide restrictions on different websites so I think that this will partly keep them safe but also keep them out of useful information that they might need for their project. I think that I will make sure to educate my students on the importance of safety on the internet and how to spot something suspicious. I created the lesson plan on teaching Kindergarteners the safety concerns and how to avoid those safety issues but I do not think that will prepare them for everything. I think that I will have an easier time finding educational forums that will be on topic and safe for students to use. I think in my own classroom I will make sure to screen the websites and forums before students are allowed to visit and participate. I will also educate the parents of my students in the safety concerns of the internet so they are aware of them as well.
Another concern that I may face in my own classroom is the fear of collaboration. I think that this was my main concern when I was starting out. It really took courage to reach out and talk on the forums. I think that it was interesting and so useful, once I faced my fear, but I think it might be even harder for some of my students. I have always been afraid to put myself out on the internet, on my blogs, wikis etc. So I will work even harder to help my students through this fear by showing them my own work on the internet and talking to them about facing my own fears. I think that it is important to show students my weaknesses so that they can see how I overcome and how they can as well.
Another concern that I may face in my own classroom is the fear of collaboration. I think that this was my main concern when I was starting out. It really took courage to reach out and talk on the forums. I think that it was interesting and so useful, once I faced my fear, but I think it might be even harder for some of my students. I have always been afraid to put myself out on the internet, on my blogs, wikis etc. So I will work even harder to help my students through this fear by showing them my own work on the internet and talking to them about facing my own fears. I think that it is important to show students my weaknesses so that they can see how I overcome and how they can as well.
Connecting to others
I posted this on my training blog a few weeks ago but I realized that I should post this on here as well because it connects to the rest of the reflections:
I have to say that this class has made me more bold. I am not usually one to try to connect with others. I am more of a passive learner and observer. I am now working on this fear of connection and working towards better understanding in my training techniques. After this week's session in class I was motivated to connect to many more people so I started with online forums.
I found a good one (it seems) and I am starting to participate and connect. The forum is called Dog training and Health Forum. I am just getting started and I will let you know what I think about this and what I can learn from others about training my silly dog. I hope that I can also give some advice from my experiences as well.
I have also started participating in message boards on Animals Planet's "It's Me or the Dog." I am very excited about this because I believe that a lot of these people have similar training ideals as I do. I like the idea of positive training techniques that Victoria Stillwell uses in her training techniques.
I am also using my Twitter account to connect to the outside world. I have started following several different training experts and people in my training world.
I have to say that this class has made me more bold. I am not usually one to try to connect with others. I am more of a passive learner and observer. I am now working on this fear of connection and working towards better understanding in my training techniques. After this week's session in class I was motivated to connect to many more people so I started with online forums.
I found a good one (it seems) and I am starting to participate and connect. The forum is called Dog training and Health Forum. I am just getting started and I will let you know what I think about this and what I can learn from others about training my silly dog. I hope that I can also give some advice from my experiences as well.
I have also started participating in message boards on Animals Planet's "It's Me or the Dog." I am very excited about this because I believe that a lot of these people have similar training ideals as I do. I like the idea of positive training techniques that Victoria Stillwell uses in her training techniques.
I am also using my Twitter account to connect to the outside world. I have started following several different training experts and people in my training world.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
What My Personal Learning Environment Means to Me!
So the assignment this week was to work on a concept map that pulled together the idea of a Personal Learning Environment. At the beginning of this project I had NO IDEA how a personal learning environment actually worked. Now I have learned more about the idea and my own PLE is taking shape. So speaking of shapes here is my concept map of a personal learning environment means to me.
Personal Learning Environment Concept Map
Personal Learning Environment Concept Map
Symbaloo
This is a great website that I learned about a year ago in my first technology class. I did not really delve into the possibilities that this tool could have in my classroom or in my own internet surfing. I chose this resource to organize my PLE because it is colorful and fun. i think that it could easily be incorporated into an elementary classroom. I started my own account a couple of weeks ago to start organizing and now I am hooked. I like how easy it is to use and work with. I have added a lot more content to this for myself besides the couple of things I have for my PLE. I am still getting used to it but I think it is working really well for my purposes. Here is a link to my Symbaloo webpage. Have fun exploring my links!
Copyright and Fair Use
This is a couple of weeks late because I was trying to better understand this concept of copy rights and fair use. I think that I have been taught in my many years in school to be afraid of copy rights. I think that I have copy right when writing papers down to an art. I know when to site the different sources but I am very confused about the copy right and fair use on the internet. I think even after the lecture a couple of weeks I am slightly confused. I am working on my understanding using the different resources provided from my fellow classmates as well on the Google Docs. I found a couple of sources myself so that I could understand this concept so I will include them at the end of my post. I often find myself needing concrete examples of these ideas, I like to know definitions, examples and ways I can visualize the ideas. I think that my research has helped me clarify what the idea of copyright means to a teacher. I hope my resources help you to better understand the ideas and concepts of copyright and fair use.
Something that was confusing to me was what was public domain and what needed to copyrighted. I think that my idea of copyrighting before this was that anything on the internet needed to be cited and should not be used for your own without giving the author acknowledgment. I learned from a couple of sources that things in public domain do not need to be copyrighted. This source really helped me understand what is in public domain and what the idea of fair use really means. Another source that I found that was geared specifically for teachers is this source.
Something that was confusing to me was what was public domain and what needed to copyrighted. I think that my idea of copyrighting before this was that anything on the internet needed to be cited and should not be used for your own without giving the author acknowledgment. I learned from a couple of sources that things in public domain do not need to be copyrighted. This source really helped me understand what is in public domain and what the idea of fair use really means. Another source that I found that was geared specifically for teachers is this source.
Digital Literacy
After participating in the lecture about digital literacy a week ago, I realized that I am far from digitally literate. I guess I was unaware of this fact because I am surrounded by people that are even less digitally literate than I am. My mom always calls me her technology savvy daughter and until now I have not corrected her. I think that this class is helping me work on my digital literacy because it is opening my eyes to new resources and possibilities of the internet. I have been trying to work on my twitter account and this is helping me to connect to others in many different worlds. Like other things (Facebook), I am trying not to become obsessed but it is not working too well. I just keep telling myself that it is helping me with my digital literacy.
When I sat down to work on my literacy lesson plan I did not really know where to start. I wanted to work on something that could be incorporated into a Kindergarten classroom because that is my interest and passion. I love this age and I believe we simply expose the students to digital aspects of their world they will become more literate when they are older. I think that one that is very important to digital literacy is safety on the internet. I think the first thing that children need to learn is safety in order to learn more about the digital world. I think that it was fun and exciting finding different resources for these young students to work on such an important subject.
Something that was very surprising to me was that the students in the second grade classroom that I am working in this semester for another technology class are very technology illiterate. I think that it was shocking to me because they could hardly type, much less find things online that could further their learning. I think that it is very important for teachers to work on digital literacy from an early age, hence working on a digital literacy lesson plan for Kindergarten for this project.
When I sat down to work on my literacy lesson plan I did not really know where to start. I wanted to work on something that could be incorporated into a Kindergarten classroom because that is my interest and passion. I love this age and I believe we simply expose the students to digital aspects of their world they will become more literate when they are older. I think that one that is very important to digital literacy is safety on the internet. I think the first thing that children need to learn is safety in order to learn more about the digital world. I think that it was fun and exciting finding different resources for these young students to work on such an important subject.
Something that was very surprising to me was that the students in the second grade classroom that I am working in this semester for another technology class are very technology illiterate. I think that it was shocking to me because they could hardly type, much less find things online that could further their learning. I think that it is very important for teachers to work on digital literacy from an early age, hence working on a digital literacy lesson plan for Kindergarten for this project.
Digital Literacy Lesson Plan
Grade Level: Kindergarten
Overview: I believe that part of being digitally literate is knowing the safety risks of internet. The students that I intend to teach are Kindergarten age so the students that this lesson will be geared towards are this age group. I intend to teach how to navigate the internet safely. This is the first lesson plan in a series of digital literacy plans that I would teach my students.
Objectives:
Students will be able to navigate the internet safely.
Students will be aware of the dangers on the internet.
Opening: (10 minutes)
First start out asking students questions about general safety rules such as:
What does safety mean to you?
Do we talk to people we do not know (strangers)?
What do you think it means to be safe on the internet?
Should we talk to strangers on the internet?
Should we go on websites without asking our parents or teachers?
After we have a pre-discussion about safety, the students will watch a video called “Fauw Paw the Techno Kitty.”
Main Activity: (40 minutes)- 10 minutes for each center rotation and 10 minutes for discussion and transition time
After watching the video on internet safety we will discuss the meaning of safety on the internet. This will be more of a post discussion about what they have learned. We are then going to break off into groups.
Center 1: This group will each have a computer. These students will have 10 minutes to play a game called “Internet Panic.” It is a game that includes the character Fauw Paw and they are going to navigate the “internet” in the game so that they can help the kitty get away from dangers. The game starts out by showing the children safe places on the internet such as parental approved websites, virus protection and secure websites and then it also gives examples of the dangers such as inappropriate content, unwanted emails and online predators.
Center 2: This will be a teacher led center where the students help set up a blogging website for the class. They will each have their own blogging username and password. They will be using www.kidblog.org. This is a great website for educators to use in their classroom because it is safe and secure. We will discuss the safety issues surrounding blogging and how we are keeping ourselves safe with the privacy settings on this website. This blog will be used throughout the year for the students to express themselves with different assignments.
Center 3: This is a group where students will discuss the safety rules that we should have in the classroom. They will work on a big poster with different rules. The students will have the option to draw and write the rules on this poster. Each rotation will just add on to the rules that the previous groups came up with.
Closing: (15 minutes)
Students will come back to the carpet and we are going to talk about internet safety as a group. We are going to review the “Internet Rules” Poster and add some more rules and clarify some of the students drawing and writing. We are going to post the rules at the computer center so that every time the students use the internet they have the rules in plain sight.
Evaluation: We are now going to have the students go to their desks and draw a picture of what internet safety means to them. I am going to go to each student and ask them to tell me what it means to be safe on the internet in one sentence. We are going to hang all their pictures on a bulletin board outside the classroom so that the whole school can see what it means to be safe. The following day we are going to have blogging as one of the center activities. We are going to record their sentences on their blog on how to be safe on the internet. I am going to evaluate the students throughout the lesson and see how they are understanding safety on the internet. I am also going to record their statements and use this as an evaluation tool to determine if they understand how to be safe on the internet.
Internet Safety Resources
Fauw Paw the Techno Kitty Video: http://ikeepsafe.org/assets/videos/?vid=fauxpaw_video
Kidblog: www.kidblog.org
Internet Safety game: http://ikeepsafe.org/iksc_kids/
McGruff Safety Games: http://www.mcgruff.org/Games/
One resource I found that students can play to learn about internet safety is this website. The website has several different games including a matching game about internet safety as well as a game about cyber bullies. I believe that this website could be played after the lesson when the students are done with the main part of the lesson. This website just reinforces some of the ideas of internet safety. http://www.mcgruff.org/Games/
Overview: I believe that part of being digitally literate is knowing the safety risks of internet. The students that I intend to teach are Kindergarten age so the students that this lesson will be geared towards are this age group. I intend to teach how to navigate the internet safely. This is the first lesson plan in a series of digital literacy plans that I would teach my students.
Objectives:
Students will be able to navigate the internet safely.
Students will be aware of the dangers on the internet.
Opening: (10 minutes)
First start out asking students questions about general safety rules such as:
What does safety mean to you?
Do we talk to people we do not know (strangers)?
What do you think it means to be safe on the internet?
Should we talk to strangers on the internet?
Should we go on websites without asking our parents or teachers?
After we have a pre-discussion about safety, the students will watch a video called “Fauw Paw the Techno Kitty.”
Main Activity: (40 minutes)- 10 minutes for each center rotation and 10 minutes for discussion and transition time
After watching the video on internet safety we will discuss the meaning of safety on the internet. This will be more of a post discussion about what they have learned. We are then going to break off into groups.
Center 1: This group will each have a computer. These students will have 10 minutes to play a game called “Internet Panic.” It is a game that includes the character Fauw Paw and they are going to navigate the “internet” in the game so that they can help the kitty get away from dangers. The game starts out by showing the children safe places on the internet such as parental approved websites, virus protection and secure websites and then it also gives examples of the dangers such as inappropriate content, unwanted emails and online predators.
Center 2: This will be a teacher led center where the students help set up a blogging website for the class. They will each have their own blogging username and password. They will be using www.kidblog.org. This is a great website for educators to use in their classroom because it is safe and secure. We will discuss the safety issues surrounding blogging and how we are keeping ourselves safe with the privacy settings on this website. This blog will be used throughout the year for the students to express themselves with different assignments.
Center 3: This is a group where students will discuss the safety rules that we should have in the classroom. They will work on a big poster with different rules. The students will have the option to draw and write the rules on this poster. Each rotation will just add on to the rules that the previous groups came up with.
Closing: (15 minutes)
Students will come back to the carpet and we are going to talk about internet safety as a group. We are going to review the “Internet Rules” Poster and add some more rules and clarify some of the students drawing and writing. We are going to post the rules at the computer center so that every time the students use the internet they have the rules in plain sight.
Evaluation: We are now going to have the students go to their desks and draw a picture of what internet safety means to them. I am going to go to each student and ask them to tell me what it means to be safe on the internet in one sentence. We are going to hang all their pictures on a bulletin board outside the classroom so that the whole school can see what it means to be safe. The following day we are going to have blogging as one of the center activities. We are going to record their sentences on their blog on how to be safe on the internet. I am going to evaluate the students throughout the lesson and see how they are understanding safety on the internet. I am also going to record their statements and use this as an evaluation tool to determine if they understand how to be safe on the internet.
Internet Safety Resources
Fauw Paw the Techno Kitty Video: http://ikeepsafe.org/assets/videos/?vid=fauxpaw_video
Kidblog: www.kidblog.org
Internet Safety game: http://ikeepsafe.org/iksc_kids/
McGruff Safety Games: http://www.mcgruff.org/Games/
One resource I found that students can play to learn about internet safety is this website. The website has several different games including a matching game about internet safety as well as a game about cyber bullies. I believe that this website could be played after the lesson when the students are done with the main part of the lesson. This website just reinforces some of the ideas of internet safety. http://www.mcgruff.org/Games/
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