EDT5410- Podcasts

 Early Childhood Education: Balancing Expectations and What Young Learners Really Need

http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/1/3/3/133b85fcfdda94d1/wcpodcast-101013.mp3?c_id=6254509&expiration=1392950697&hwt=e082f355ade410f776641a52c8715bb6

This podcast is about early childhood education and explores weather we are asking too much of our young learners. There are so many tests and such a focus on academics. But what do early learners really need? More time to play and explore? This podcast has multiple experts weigh in on this topic.

Adding a You Tube Video to Blog

 My 1st graders used to love doing this video for a "Brain Break".

 I added this video just by  clicking the "inset video" Icon. It seems to have worked very similar to how I embedded the first one I did.

Embedding Google Maps- Location of Michigan Virtual Charter Academy

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Embedding Video- This is a cute introduction video I showed my Kindergarteners this week.

EDT 5410- Embedding Pictures

Here are some pictures of my 2 year old son, Dexter.

 Chapter 3 Reflection Questions and Photo Sharing

A. Describe at least three possible reasons why the project had very little effect on the instructional practices employed by the teachers. Each of the factors you identify should be related to the factors mentioned in this chapter as to why earlier forms of instructional media (i.e films, radio, television) had very limited effects on instructional practices.

First, I think one of the possible reasons why the project had very little effect is that the teachers didn't know what do with the technology and how to implement using it in the classroom. It's wonderful that they gave them the technology and resources, but if  there is no training or someone there to tell them how to enhance their lessons and implement it into their teaching, how are they supposed to know what to do? There should be some formal training on how to use the technology to enhance the lessons and someone or a "go to" person that can answer any questions they have and even hold them accountable to using the technology.
Another reason why the project may have had very little effect is that the teachers might have resisted change. Sometimes when you have been teaching for a long time and you know what works for you and your students it can be hard to adapt your teaching. So, when the teacher doesn't want to change how they teach, of course, this project will have little effect on the teacher's practices. I feel like sometimes, things, ideas, technology is thrown at you and you are expected to use it somehow. But, that can be very overwhelming when teachers already have so much on their plate.
Finally, a reason why the project had little effect could have been because the teacher may have not had access to supplemental technology, programs and resources. It did mention that curriculum and text books, etc. was installed onto their computers, but that does not mean they were given resources on how to present the material differently. I just see it as great, now they can read it off their computer rather than from the book. How does that change instruction? It did not mention if they had any other technology to use in the classroom, like projectors, access to instructional websites etc. So, I think this could  have been a big factor.


 B. Describe at least two strategies that could have been employed to help mitigate the factors that you think contributed to the minimal effect this project had on instructional practices. Indicate why you think each of these strategies might have been helpful. 

As I stated above I think one big strategy would have been to provide comprehensive training on how to use the technology and then trained on how to use it and implement it in the classroom. In addition, I think providing support and trainings as they went through the school year would be helpful too. This way they can learn one or two ways to use the laptops to enhance their lessons at the beginning of the school year, but as they go along they could learn new ways. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, so this way it would feel less overwhelming.
Also, another strategy would to provide supplemental resources and technology. If they had technology like projectors that could connect to their laptops then I could see the teachers using the technology more in their instruction. Also, it mentioned they had wireless internet access 24/7, but did not say if they had access to other programs on the internet to help supplement their teaching. This could have been helpful as well. I think of programs I use as a virtual teacher like Study Island, Reading a-z, and Discovery Education that you need subscriptions to in order to use them. Those can be great teaching tools that could have helped as well.

Photo Sharing

I have been using Instagram for a while now. It's an app that I use on my phone and I think it is really easy to use. I love the different filters you can use on them, and it's easy to share the photos on Facebook too.

http://instagram.com/gparsons05 

Week 4 Reflection

Social Bookmarking and Defining Instructional Technology

      When I briefly looked over the plan for this week and saw social bookmarking I was completely pessimistic. I had very little prior knowledge to go on besides what I knew of bookmarking on my personal computer, and I thought it was going to be a pointless tool. As I watched the videos and learned more I quickly became more optimistic about this tool. I played around with it for a long time, it was a little addicting for me. I kept thinking of websites to pin. I love Pinterest, so this has a similar feel in the sense that it is all in one place and easy to access. I think the biggest value I see in this tool is sharing this with my colleagues. There are so many wonderful websites out there and parents are always asking me for good websites to use. It's like my personal storehouse of websites, but the best part is that I can share them with other teachers and they can add  websites as well.

     I mention this a lot, but I teach virtually. This means that communication with my families and also my colleagues is very important. You have to remember that I can't just pop my head into the Kindergarten room next to me and talk to the teacher and we only get so many opportunities to be all together at one time to collaborate. So, I see where this can be very useful. I already started talking to one of the other Kindergarten teachers about using this.  I really focused on websites that I could use for my students and tie into our curriculum. 

     I could also use this to share with parents, but I could use it more effectively with colleagues. I can post some of these websites to my Wiki and add the most relevant ones to our curriculum and what we are learning and remove them as we go throughout the year. This way it won't feel overwhelming for parents. You can check out what I have been working on and pinning here: https://delicious.com/kiparsons

     For the Trends & Issues reading, I was pretty intrigued to see where the definitions of Instructional Technology started and how far it has come. I had never put much thought into the definition of it, or thought of it separate from just teaching. I thought of it more of an extension of what we already do as teachers. The early definition that talked about instructional technology as the production of "visual aids" aligns more with what I used to think it was. As I read through more of the definitions I gained a better understanding of what instructional technology is. It is so much more! It's the process and systematic design of instruction. This aligns more with what I do now as a virtual teacher. The way my lessons are created and technology that is involved in it is very different from my lesson planning and preparation when I worked in a brick and mortar school. I think that's why I was so intrigued with these definitions. Most of this information was pretty new to me just because I never really knew a lot about this career. Like I previously stated I thought of it more as just an extension of what most of us do as teachers. I can't say that I feel like something is missing, only because I have such an early understanding of what instructional technology is.