INTASC for Ed Tech

Click here for a copy of my self-reflection for my INTASC requirements for Ed Tech.

iMovie Presentation

So here is my MultiMedia Presentation on iMovie and the uses of iMovie within the classroom. Although iMovie is a proprietary Mac-only software application, if a teacher or school has access to iMovie on Macs within their computer labs, this is a brilliantly easy, drag and drop movie editing software application that allows for some decently advanced techniques like voice-over, clip adjusting, video adjustments, titling. You can use still photos from iPhoto, movie clips from slides made in Powerpoint or Keynote, video captured on digital cameras, video cameras, or webcams (like i used).
In the class, this can be used to create more engaging presentations, video diaries, video journals, blogs, quick and easy assignment explanations that can be posted to classroom websites...the list goes on. And the ease of use makes this (like all the other iLife and Mac software packages) quickly adaptable to any level of user who is willing to give the software a shot and tinker around for a bit. There are great online tutorials available from apple.com to assist with any other questions that the user might have as well...Hope you enjoy my video!

OTEN Reflection

Digital Standards for Teachers and Students

I consider myself to pretty tech-savvy. I've had the luxury of being exposed to computers for the majority of my life. My father worked at Intel in the early 80s and we had a computer at home to punch away at and play games on. Through my middle school and high school years, there was usually a computer in my house that I could use to wordprocess and type my papers on. That was the extent though of the use of computers in my educational experience. Students today are saturated with technology. Cell phones, computers, laptops, social-networking, digital photography/videography are all mainstream parts of common society and knowledge and mastery of these mediums is becoming increasingly requisite. With the upcoming revisions to the Oregon Diploma, students will be required to have technical literacy in regards to their education.

This literacy doesn't stop with students though, teachers today are required to assist their students into the digital age by being model users and incorporating technology into the classroom. This is going to be a really interesting transition for many existing teachers because there are so many teachers out there who have thought about technology as something that "I don't need to know about."

Well, the law has taken that option out for teachers. NCLB is now requiring that all students "have access to, and be able to develop proficiency in utilizing technology to improve their academic achievement" and the new Oregon Diploma states that students have to be able to use technology to live, learn and work. This puts the education of technology firmly onto the shoulders of teachers. I think that is good though, the same way that I think that "all teachers need to be writing teachers" is a good thing.

Incorporating technology is so much more than just having students type their papers. Students today don't even really get classes on typing anymore (like when I was in school), they are almost expected to know how. Group projects used to involve cutting and pasting copies of pictures onto a poster board and standing in front of class explaining, now group projects can be multimedia masterpieces of video and photo and audio. Students have access to authoring tools on computers that didn't exist even two years ago; these tools allow them to create with technology. Making sure that students are given the opportunity to flourish in this new aspect of educational development is essential for all teachers.

In my class, I hope to be able to use technology to explore different mediums of literature (film, audio, web-based) and hope to be in a school that has adequate resources to allow all my students equal access to the tools necessary to put together technology based group work, to be able to podcast projects, record and post their poetry or performances.

This is the tricky side of these new standards though...not all schools are able to afford the technology necessary to give all students equal "opportunity" towards education. And, despite the popular belief that students have universal home access to tech, not all students have or can get access outside those poor schools. This is almost a new cycle of technological poverty. So, my job as a teacher is to pass along the knowledge that I have, to bring the technology that I use, to do everything in my power to get students using and interacting with technology on any level.

Student Test Results from Excel

Attached is my spreadsheet for Student Test Results. I'm a little frustrated from this assignment because it was really meant to do on Google Sheets and those of us who tried to use Pages or Excel seem to be put at a disadvantage. It seems that if the assignment was meant to be done on Google Docs, then it should have been explicitly stated to use only Google Sheets. The problem that I find with Google Sheets is that it is much slower than excel or Pages and doesn't allow for the basic functionality that those programs allow. Also, since spreadsheets are frustrating to most people to deal with anyhow, trying to introduce spreadsheet analysis with a new program accelerated some frustration. I understand the "neat-factor" involved with the widgets and gadgets, however, it seems like we shouldn't have been required to use Google Docs...that's all.

Click on the link to see my sheet: Student Data

tinyURL presentation using Google Presentation

Here is my presentation on tinyURL.com. I used Google Presentation to create this slide show about a useful site for shrinking large URLs.

Skype Experience

I have to say that using Skype is a lot like using other chat clients that I have used before with the features of a phone built in. I don't like the fact that some of those bonus features have additional costs added with it. I use a Mac and so most of my chatting online is through iChat which is a chat client that handles google's jabber, .mac accounts, and AIM...if I was going to use skype, it would be nice to have a major use for skype, but I guess for me, the biggest thing that I see as an advantage is that Skype is widely used around the world as a chat client. I enjoyed my Skype experience, however, the same function can be accomplished with other chat clients. Maybe I haven't played around enough with Skype, but in my limited experience, I am not sure there is anything there that will swing me there permanently over iChat.