10 things that make you go Hmmm....

10.  What I can't understand about people sometimes is when they can't access the internet they come to me to fix it.  Well, for starters you internet light isn't on.  All you need to do is push it. 

9.  Please don't ask me to fix your computer while I am teaching.  It is very distracting to my other students.  I do have other responsibilities besides trying to fix a simple problem with your computer.

8.  Remember to save after a few minutes.  You could lose all your work.  (Too many of my students want me to find their work after their computer crashed or shut down due to low battery.  I ask them if they saved it every few minutes and they say no.  So I can't replace it.)

7.  Save on your FLASH DRIVE!!!  Especially if you are having problems with your computer.  (I am always telling my students and colleagues to save onto a flash drive or back up their files)

6.  Type the URL in the address bar not the search bar. (my students always type the web address in the search bar and it gets annoying when they say they can't get onto the website)

5.  Can't understand why schools have to block so many websites that could be useful to students.  How can they expect our students to use technology safely if we can't access sites that could help them.  Hello, kids are already using these sites.

4.  Hey students sometimes you have to read the content on the webpage to find the answer.

3.  Parents please monitor your child on the computer.  A 10 year should not have a Facebook account or a Twitter account.  If you are allowing this then you are showing your child that it is okay to lie about their age online.  You should really put the computer in a central location in your house so you can monitor them better.

2.  Texting, and publishing online is great but be careful what you say it could haunt you later.

1.  Finally, remember that you too can become a viral hit so be careful of what you publish online and youtube.  

Instructional Design.... Education missed the boat.

"Education has missed the boat, with respect to instructional design. Teachers come up with lesson plans on the fly, with little thought to why they are presenting information or even who their audience is. Teacher training, at the university level and during Professional development, needs to focus on helping teachers become comfortable with instructional design principles."

Lesson plans, lesson plans, lesson plans.  These can be a teacher's headache at times.  I remember learning about the Madeline Hunter Model in college.  I can honestly say that I really didn't like writing out everything for all my lesson plans.  However, I do understand why we needed to learn how to do it.  It was used to teach us how lesson are formed and what we need to do within our lesson to attain the goals or objectives that we set.  I would say that Dick and Carey's model is like Madeline Hunter's.  It is very structured and follows a specific order.  We had to follow the structure and emphasize Bloom's Taxonomy as well.  Some other things that we had to do was to work on different learning styles.  

I did have trouble with this model.  I am NOT linear.  It is hard for me to follow all the steps without changing it all the time.  I like to be flexible and change things if it isn't working.  That is why I think that I like the Morrison, Kemp and Ross model more.  I like the idea that I can skip steps and come back later on.  Or I can even leave a step out if it isn't necessary.  I wish that my professors would have introduced this model to me in college.  I think it fits my personality better.  

As to my own plans, I have moved away from the linear model now.  I have to teach K-8 Music and Computers.  That adds up to 18 different classes that I have to develop plans for.  Granted some lessons can be spread through the different classes, but they need to be adjusted according to the grade level.  That is why I prefer the MKR model.  

I would hope that my colleagues aren't slacking in their lessons.  I am not sure if some of them just follow the plans in their books or if they adjust them to fit the needs of their students.  Considering all of them have come from different colleges and have been taught different forms of planning.  It is easy to see that they might be slacking.  Some may have been teaching the same format for years and have not thought about developing a different one.  I feel that it would be essential to our teachers if more professional development was directed toward instructional design and formatting lessons.  

I just hope that teachers can see it as a benefit to their teaching.  It would help them evaluate the end result better and allow them to figure out the next step in problem-solving.  My hope is that all teachers realize that instructional design can only enhance their teaching. 

Week Two- Online Communities

I have chosen to use Facebook for my social networking.  I have used others like Ning, wikis, and twitter.  I like Facebook because I can talk to friends that I wouldn't normally talk to.  I have reconnected with some great friends that I had in the past.  I see how their lives have changed over the years and I enjoy getting to know them again.  I also see how others communicate with each other.  For instance, a friend of a friend was injured in a car accident recently and their friends started a Prayer chain for him on Facebook.  So many people started sending thoughts and prayers for him and his family.  Every day more and more people like the page and send prayers even if they don't know him.  That is a wonderful, powerful way of communicating for prayer. 

I have also done this when my mom was sick with cancer.  We asked for prayer and received it by the tons.  I really appreciate all the people who prayed for my mom.  They comforted me, knowing that many others were being affected by my mom's illness.  They also comforted me when she died last March.  It was so good to know that many people were with me on that day.

I can see a school library using Facebook as a means to give notices to people about what is going on in the school library and upcoming events at the school.  They can connect with the students that they serve by sending messages about overdue books and any fines.  However, I see this mostly in high schools and colleges.  I am not sure if elementary levels would really need to use it all that much. 

I Believe Educational Technology is...

These articles have me thinking more about what educational technology really is.  I really like how the articles break it down into different categories.  I found the history rather interesting.  I didn't realize how much technology played a role in our military back during World War II.  As I look at what educational technology involves through these articles, I see a teacher.  How are we suppose to learn about technology if no one is there to teach it to us.  The tools that we use in our classroom help our students to explore, analysis, evaluate, manage, and create.  Technology is there to enhance the learning process, to create life-long learners.  Our students use technology all the time.  We as teachers, need to include in our teaching a way for students to use technology for enhancing their learning.  They use it anyway so why fight it.