Blogging!

 

Through constantly adding to this blog for the past semester I’ve learned a lot.  I learned how wide spread blogging is and how much I can learn from other blogs of my interest.  I enjoy finding new information and being able to post it somewhere that other people can find it and use it as well. In a professional sense I think blogging is a great way for co-workers to stay connected and post ideas outside of work.  It is a great way to stay connected and to learn from your peers, friends, colleagues, and possibly even your students. In a classroom setting, blogging  allows students to share information they find with their classmates and allows them to interact as a class. As the semester comes to an end, my blogging will not. I love being able to share what I find with others. To blog, or not to blog…that is never a question!

Kikutext: Making Parent/Teacher Communication Easier!

“Kikutext” is a smartphone app that will allow teachers and parents to stay connected without giving out any personal information! Teachers simply go to the Kikutext Website and create a code for their class. Parents then simply text the code to your kikutext number and will receive all updates! This app allows parents to be more engaged in their childrens’ education, which is critical to a student’s success in school. Kikutext takes away all the time and inconvenience of meeting with parents. With this app teachers can easily send a text to individual parents, a group of parents or the whole class, without any personal information being revealed from either party. Some reviews from teachers say they cannot imagine teaching without this app! Staying in touch with parents is very important to a child’s education, so why should it be difficult? All teachers should consider using Kikutext to help parents support their child’s education.

Top 5 Tech Advancements Changing the Face of Education

In this article by Alex Summers, posted on Edudemic, there is a list of the top 5 technological advancements that can help teachers reach their students. Technology has become a huge part of our everyday lives and it is almost becoming the only way to engage students. The top 5 tech advancements changing the face of education are as follows:

5. Social Media

Since social networks are such a big part of students’ lives, they are an easy thing to integrate into learning in order to engage students. Teachers say using social networks such as twitter and facebook in their classroom has resulted in an increase of class participation and higher grades.

4.Online Classrooms

Online classrooms have been able to allow thousands of people to earn the college degree they desire on their own time, making their learning experience far less stressful.

3.Tablets

Tablets offer students the ability to search for information quickly and to collaborate on projects easily. They are a fundamental tool to have in all classrooms.

2.Smartphones

Cell phoones in the classroom was a strict no-no for me in highschool, but now cell phones are “smart”. They allow access to social media platforms, allowing students to interact, and provide easy access to information. They also have numerous apps that can help students manage their time and complete more efficient schedules to manage their work.

1.Free Online Resources

Being able to access educational information easily online has been one of the biggest advancements in education. Students can access any subject matter on any subject they choose very easily, bettering a students learning experience and allowing students to supplement their own educations.

Teachers Tech PLN APP for iphone and ipad!

PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) or PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) are becoming very popular and useful for teachers today. PLCs allow teachers to collaborate ideas, lessons, and techniques through social networks and media. This app “Teachers Tech PLN” for iphone and ipad demonstrates how to build a professional learning community. This app furthers the technological advances in education. It was created by award winning educators and Apple’s distinguished educators whose job it is to assist teachers in the use of technology in the classroom. This app will help teachers bring more technology to their classroom in order to captivate their students.

It offers features such as:
Resources and news for teachers, students and parents.
Instructional videos demonstrating how to build a PLC
The Teachers Tech news channel that offers hundreds of articles on technology in education
and an “in-app” twitter box allows tweeting right from the app!

I think this app would be an awesome tool for teachers to help them begin using a PLC! For more information on this great app check it out HERE!

E.N.G 30.7 Radio Show!

Today my group members and I put our finishing touches on our “radio show” project! Our radio show, E.N.G. 30.7, is a futuristic, fun, morning show held on the moon! We had a lot of fun putting this show together! Using GarageBand as our tool for recording we learned many different ways to record our voices, add effects, add music, and then switch everything around when it didn’t come out the way we though it would. Creating this radio show started off as no easy task.  

When my group members and I met for the first time we had no idea what to do for this project. Fortunately, we all got along really well and were able to bounce ideas off one another until something stuck, that something being: THE FUTURE.  We wanted to make a futuristic radio show so that we could use our imaginations and create a whole new world that doesn’t exist yet. We had so much fun creating this world that takes place in the year 2113. 

In our show, E.N.G 30.7, we talk about the grand opening of a new hotel on the moon! The hotel features: moon crater pools, anti-gravity rec rooms, a jet pack racetrack, restaurants and bars and much much more! We hosted interviews with anxiously awaiting guests of the hotel and even the robot servants! During our show we also hosting trivia and contests. However, as weird as it may be, my favorite part of our show is the commercials! Although they are super corny we had a blast making them!

 Fortunately for my group we hardly had any struggles! Although, at first we were slow with coming up with ideas and piecing everything together we eventually got the hang of it and were able to make it really fun! We were all able to make time in our busy college lives to meet up and work hard on our project, making it as perfect and fun as possible. Molly took care of a lot of the technology aspect, while Margaret and I stuck to making up small scripts and brainstorming segment ideas. We all worked together on everything and really made it a fun time. It almost makes me wanna go into broadcasting! Overall, our radio show, E.N.G. 30.7, is AWESOME! Everyone should take a listen and enjoy our futuristic fun! (Click any “E.N.G 30.7” to listen!!!)

Implementing Technology in the Classroom: Problems and Solutions

In This Article on EmergingEdTech there are a list of 12 main problems in implementing technology in the classroom and some possible solutions, and preventions.

Progress of Technology in the Classroom

I found this picture on Pinterest (click photo to see original post) and thought it was really interesting. It has charts of how often social media is used by professionals in the classroom and which social media sites were found most useful. It also shows how the positive opinions of the importance of online education has increased while the negative opinions have decreased. This picture shows charts of how students use technology for education and how technology in the education profession has increased throughout history. I think this is a great, easy to understand, visual for how important technology has become to the learning environment.

Professor Joe Martin’s Tip to Teachers!

Professor, writer, award winning national speaker and education consultant, Joe Martin, wrote this article, “Be A Pro-Change Teacher” to help teachers open their minds. (Click picture for full article). His advice to all teachers is to not have “change-phobia”. The fear of change limits a child’s learning abilities. He suggests a writing project with your students called “Teacher for a Day”. With this project students start off their paper with “If I were a teacher for the day this is what I would do to make our classroom more fun and educational”, then the child can write in paragraph form, list form, or how every they are most comfortable expressing their ideas. Being open minded to these ideas may help increase the effectiveness of your children’s learning!

365 Teacher Tips!

This site has some great tips for teachers for every day of the year! Helpful tips to help organize your classroom, or engage your students better. Check it out! 

Learning in the Digital Age

Check out my power point presentation on Learning in the Digital Age!