IT 365 - Looking Back

It is hard for me to believe that I am already writing a reflection on this class; I feel as though I just walked in the door for the first just a few days ago.  However, I am glad I have made it through and that I am going to be moving on to other new things.  I started this class with an open mind and was very excited to learn new things about technology.  I did, however, have a misconception about what this class was going to teach.  I had the idea that this class was going to focus on educational programs like electronic grade books and such.  Needless to say, I was quite surprised to find the true teachings of this class.  While I feel as though I knew about and how to use most of the programs we focused on before coming into this class, I feel like I did gain valuable teaching experience by helping my classmates that are not as technologically advanced as I am.  I have been lucky enough to have a computer in my possession for over 20 years, so I had a bit of an unfair advantage over many of my classmates when I walked into this classroom for the first time.  One resource that I learned about for the first time though was rubistar.com; I had never been introduced to this website before this class and I am very glad I know of it now.  It really makes rubric-making exceptionally simplified, and I do not foresee that being one of my strong suits when it comes to teaching.  I know that this resource will help me to create a solid and complete rubric without any holes that I might overlook if I were making it completely on my own. 

I do not think I have any more technology classes ahead of me in the foreseeable future; however, I hope if I do that I can find one that will challenge my thoughts, skills, and experience the way this one did to many of my classmates.  I would certainly consider teaching some type of technology class in the future; I guess I would just need to figure out how to begin on that path.  I do thoroughly enjoy computers and modern technology.  I have considered pursuing a computer science degree many times, but I know my limits when it comes to all of the calculous classes I would have to complete in order to achieve that degree, so maybe one day I can just turn my love for technology into a teaching opportunity.  I do, however, think this is an ideal class for the novice computer user going into the education field.  

Assistive technology

This week's assignment consisted of exploring assistive technology.  We explored and discovered technologies used to assist all types of disabled students:  visually impaired, hearing impaired, etc.  We began with a tool designed to assist a user with a visual impairment: high contrast.  This changed the colors of the display to contrast more than the usual display colors so that they are more easily seen by the user.  Next, we moved onto another tool for the visually impaired call “the magnifier,” which does just that, it magnifies the screen as much as needed.  I tested out the feature with magnification of 200%.  After magnification, we went onto look at toggle keys which is a setting used for someone that may have some type of physical impairment that might cause them to engage certain computer settings unintentionally.  Toggle keys setting creates a sound whenever certain keys are pushed as a notification.  Following the toggle keys setting, we explored the visual alert setting, which allows the computer to flash whenever the computer sounds an alert.  This would be used for someone that may have a hearing impairment.  The final assistive tool we explored was the on-screen keyboard which allows a student that can only use the mouse to input information into the computer as well as any other user. 

After exploring all of these assistive tools, we created slides that had both sound and pictures that could be used for any student regardless of their disabilities.  We also made a slide with the information for online resources for sound clip and images for free.

I knew of most of these tools; however, I’ve never had a reason to use any of them before this assignment.  

Click here to check out my powerpoint on assistive technology.  

ISTE standards: to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity; to design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments; to model digital age work and learning; to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility; to engage in professional growth and leadership. 

Common core standard: integration of knowledge and ideas, production and distribution of writing, research to build and present knowledge, comprehension and collaboration, and presentation of knowledge and ideas.

Google Sites

This week's assignment was to create a website using Google Sites, another awesome web tool provided by Google.  This is a website used for our fictional classroom.  

This is my home page of my fictional classroom website. 

Included on my website is a homepage with a brief overview of the entire site contents, a teacher bio, course information, course calendar, and a web resources page.  

I enjoyed using this incredibly user-friendly web-based program.  It was not terribly time-consuming and was very self-explanatory. I have actually already come up with a few ideas of how to use this program for my personal use.  I also feel as though this could be an invaluable tool once I have my own real classroom in the future.  It would be a great way for parents and students to stay up-to-date on the on goings within the classroom.

Check out the full website here 

 ISTE Standard: to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity; to design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments; to model digital age work and learning; to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility; to engage in professional growth and leadership.

Common core standard: integration of knowledge and ideas, production and distribution of writing, research to build and present knowledge, comprehension and collaboration, and presentation of knowledge and ideas.

Google Drive

Google Drive, oh Google Drive.  Where do I begin?  This is such an awesome online resource.  I have been using Google Drive for quite some time, and I have not found anything I do not like about this.  Our assignment was to create a group story using Google Docs, this allowed us to collaborate on the same story from any location by simply logging into our Google accounts.  The second part of the assignment was to individually create powerpoint, also known as Google Slides. 

Our group story was called The Scarecrow that Stole Halloween.  It was a Halloween based story that centered on a child’s fear of a scarecrow.  

The Scarecrow that Stole Halloween

Next, I did my Slides presentation on compound sentences geared toward a 3^rd grade class.  

Compound Sentences

ISTE standard: to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity;to design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments; to model digital age work and learning; to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility; to engage in professional growth and leadership. 

Common core standards of integration of knowledge and ideas, production and distribution of writing, research to build and present knowledge, comprehension and collaboration, and presentation of knowledge and ideas.

Movie Maker Project

Our class was given the assignment of creating a video/movie with Windows Movie Maker.  This is a versatile program used to create everything from family slideshow videos to educational tutorials.  This is actually a program I have been using for many years for different things.  I have, personally, used this program in the past for advertising for my job, as well as for family functions.

For this assignment, I decided create a drunk driving awareness video in honor of my brother who passed away in 2009.  So, I used this as an opportunity for a combination of technology "learning" as well as community awareness project.  I also created this video to be shown at a local high school during homecoming week so that the students would realize the consequences of their actions and choice to call someone if they did decide to have a drink before going home.  My hope was to make this video as touching as possible.   

ISTE standard: to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity; to design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments; to model digital age work and learning; to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility.
Common core standards: integration of knowledge and ideas, production and distribution of writing, research to build and present knowledge, comprehension and collaboration, and presentation of knowledge and ideas.

Web Tools

 Web tools was the title of this assignment.  We got to explore various websites catered to educators.  The first was abcteach.com, which is a website designed to provide worksheets for various ages, grade levels, and topics.  This is the worksheet I chose.  I, of course, chose a Thanksgiving themed worksheet as this is my favorite holiday. 

The second part of the assignment was to explore the website eclipsecrossword.com which is a free downloadable program that creates crosswords puzzles.  The crossword puzzle I created is geography themed with 20 different clues.  This is meant for 5^th grade students.  

I've included both the crossword puzzle and the clues

The last part of the assignment was to use the website rubistar.com which is used to create rubrics.  There are pre-made templates as well as having the option to fill in your own sections.  I created mine for letter-writing, which would be used for a 3rd grade classroom.  

ISTE Standard:  to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity; to design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments; to model digital age work and learning; to engage in professional growth and leadership.

Common core standards: integration of knowledge and ideas, production and distribution of writing, comprehension and collaboration, and presentation of knowledge and ideas.

TurnItIn

This week consisted of a 2-part assignment focused around the web-based program, TurnItIn.  In order to better learn about the program, Turnitin, which is an online "dropbox" style program that allows a student to turn work into a professor as well as have statistical information processed electronically, we were given two parts of the assignment.  The first part of the assignment was to copy and paste information from designated websites verbatim; this was to show the plagiarism feature, which, of course, showed 100% plagiarism.  The second part of the assignment was to submit an original piece of work related to the same information.  This, of course, did not return the same plagiarism results.  The main use of Turnitin, is the plagiarism feature, which helps the student and professor analyze what, if any, part of the paper has been copied from an online source or another student(s)' paper.  

The assignment we used was to write about gender gaps and biases in the computer science field.  

ISTE standard: to facilitate and inspire student learning, where teachers engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources by having students explore turnitin and learning about plagiarism; to promote and model digital citizenship where students learn respect for copyright laws and use the appropriate documentation of resources. 

Common core standards: research to build and present knowledge, production and distribution of writing, integration of knowledge and ideas.