Skype

When first using Skype, I couldn't really figure out the phone call/video cost situation. I looked on the website for information and it didn't say anything about video chat or IM being free. I heard of people using it all the time with no cost so I knew it wouldn't charge, but it was surprising to me that this information was not on the website. A strength that Skype had was that it was very easy to search for people. If you know the name or username, all you have to do is type it into the search box and it will pull up all the possible people. A weakness of Skype would definitely be loss of connection. While Skyping with Roxana, we lost connection about 3 times. Not only the loss of connection was a weakness, but the video chat was also delayed. The video of her would freeze for a few seconds but I could hear her voice. Sometimes, even her voice would be cutting in and out. It was fairly easy to figure out, although I still had some confusion about the phone call charges. Roxana and I were discussing this and concluded that the charges must only be for when you actually call someone's phone number and there is no charge for video messaging/IM. I think that students could use Skype if they were learning about another classroom across the country or even another part of the world. As long as both schools have internet access with a webcam/mic, they should be able to download Skype and video chat with other students. They could have a list of questions they both wanted to ask each other to learn about this part of the world and even the other's personalities by seeing them face to face.

Roxana and I texted each other to get our usernames. We found each other and attempted to start the video chat. At first, I could just hear her voice and figured out that I have to click the video icon. We didn't need much assistance in working with Skype. We just talked with each other about it and played with the different buttons. Something I found interesting is that when we were video chatting and IMing at the same time, she was telling me that there were games on her IM screen. My screen didn't have games. She then explained that Skype was built into her computer when she got it and all she had to do was set it up. I have a Mac, so I had to download it from the website. The application that is similar to Skype for Macs is called iChat. I think iChat is 10 times easier to use and figure out. There are two options on iChat: you can either video chat or IM a friend. The difference with Skype is that it has the option to make a phone call (but it will cost). Since this was our first time using Skype, we did not know any other usernames so we could only chat with each other. Roxana said she found out that you can have up to 24 people at once chatting. I couldn't find that out on mine, probably because her computer already had Skype and mine had to be a download version. We were discussing the fact of 24 people chatting and couldn't decide if that would be a good idea or not, especially with the frequent loss of connection that happens. People would be trying to talk at the same time and because of the delay, probably wouldn't realize that they were talking over someone else.

I think that students should collaborate as much as possible. Collaboration is essential to help students with social skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. A situation where I could see them not needing to collaborate (but could) is independent reading time. Obviously if it's independent reading, students will be reading a book of their choice alone and analyzing the material for themselves. After they're done reading, they could possibly discuss in groups with peers what is happening in their specific book, or they could write a personal reflection that would not require collaboration. When using Skype, it is hard not to call it collaboration when that's exactly what it is! You are talking to another person in some way, whether it be IMing or video chatting.

Open-Source Software

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-131923.html

http://www.techlearning.com/article/13976

These are articles that talk about the South Korean government. They want to switch over to open-source software. This was supposed to happen in 2007 but these articles were published before this time so I'm not sure if they ended up switching or not. The South Koreans want to switch to programs like Linux and have the Mozilla web browser. There was some controversy over the issue of switching because although it might be cheaper at first (saving about $300 million dollars/year), it would cost more in the long run for "maintenance and management costs". It sounds like there would be a lot to accomplish in organizing this switch. Major agencies in South Korea, like the banks and government, only support Windows and Internet Explorer (as of 2006).

The second article says that there are 3 reasons for the switch: "(a) open source software is free of licensing expenses, (b) it tends to have fewer security flaws, and (c) as its components are free of restrictive licensing, the code may be inspected and modified by anyone, opening the possibility for local development and support." South Korea is on its way to show the world how open-source software will be beneficial for education. It is a very competitive world with technology and education. It would be interesting to know how well or not well creating an open-source software for everyone would work out.

Who am I as an Educator?

My educational philosophy seems to change every year (in a good way). I can take my beliefs as a freshman and add onto them as I learn more and more about educating young children. Above all, I think that teachers should be passionate about teaching the children of our future. Teachers should know that students can definitely tell when a teacher is passionate about his or her job. I feel that this passion and drive will rub off on students and hopefully help them to want to learn more about what they themselves are passionate about. Inquiry-based learning is also an important aspect of any classroom from kindergarten all the way to twelfth grade (and beyond!). Students should have the chance to ask questions, collaborate, and reflect on their thoughts. I believe that talking about and asking questions about any subject will further a student's education. I'm not saying that direct instruction is totally out of the picture, but I definitely think that inquiry-based learning will help students in their futures. They will become confident and unafraid to answer questions, and ready to really think about and analyze what others are saying.

The role of technology in the classroom should continue to become a priority to teachers. Kids are exposed to lots and lots of technology in their everyday lives and I feel that teachers should use this as an advantage. Finding ways to use technology to teach will not only be rewarding, but also interesting and fun. I think there are two problems with the using of technology in the classroom: teachers and funding. Some teachers want nothing to do with using technology when they teach. Some don't understand how much of a learning opportunity it is. Funding for technology is also a problem. It would be ideal to have a class set of computers (like a laptop cart) or other technology such as iPods but more often then not, schools can't afford it. This might also be the challenge and important issue as an educator. If there isn't any technology resources available to you as a teacher, it will obviously make it a little more difficult to teach using technology. School districts need to realize how important and useful teaching with technology can be, therefore they should want to fund the resources.

SearchMe.com

I was immediately attracted to this website because of the visuals. I first looked through each of the "stacks" that the website provided on the home page: Top News Stories, Entertainment News, Technology News, and Blog News. When thinking about my own classroom, I thought that I could use something like this for "current events" day on Fridays. I did "current events" in high school, but instead of looking for news stories online, we would use newspapers. We had to cut out the article and staple it onto our reflection paper. I think that if students went to this site to look for current events, they would have a much bigger range of news articles to pick from and can also choose the specific category that they're interested in-like technology, entertainment, blogs, etc. I think that I would limit their choices to Top News Stories and Technology News because these two are more educational than Entertainment News. I would encourage students to use the site for other purposes, but for their current events on Fridays, I would like them to share with the class something educational that they learned. I think that students would find this site a lot more useful than Google would be for current events. With Google, you have to actually have something in mind to search for. With SearchMe, there are already lots of news stories to choose from when you first open the page. There are also categories at the top that students can filter out their search such as video, images, music, etc. I was really impressed with this website overall and will continue to think of ways that it could be useful in the classroom (and to myself!). 

Podcasting

My podcast is all about professional development. I would use this idea as a teacher by asking other teachers or administration to subscribe to my episodes and give me feedback/advice on classroom management. My scenario was in my actual podcast, so I will place the script below: 

Hello my name is Alyssa. This is my first podcasting experience. I am a preservice teacher. I would love to work with kindergarten or first grade students. I want to get some practice with podcasting, so my episodes will be about Professional Development in the classroom. Par one will be a scenario about a group assignment in the classroom. I will pretend that something like this actually happened so that I can develop good classroom management. Ideally, this would be for other preservice teachers to listen to and give advice of what I can do better. Parents of my students could also listen to this to see what strategies I use and how I manage the classroom on a day-to-day basis. 

Here is a possible scenario: 

The students are working on a group assignment. I have them start out in groups of 4, thinking that they should be able to bounce a lot of ideas off of each other. I found that the students were too distracted and easily got off task. From here, I decided the next time to pari students in groups of 2. When I did this, I found that their ideas and creativity for a particular topic were limited because there were only 2 students working together. They would get done too soon also. When we had our last groups activity, I tried 3 students per group. This seemed to be the perfect number. Three people collaborated well together and bounced off different ideas. They also worked as a whole-not as individuals as the four-person group seemed to do earlier. So, at the end of the day, I found that first graders word best in groups of 3!

My podcast is on the following website:  http://www.podOmatic.com/media/details/1656934

David Galenson & Daniel Pink

I thought that both of these pieces made me carefully consider different aspects of intelligence. I personally thought that Daniel Pink was kind of boring, but he did make a few interesting points. His three A's: Asia, Automation & Abundance really grabbed my attention and made me think a little deeper than usual. The different sides of the brain theory was also interesting and a good analogy, although I'm not quite sure if I totally agree with that. I think this is a good video to watch if you're a businessman, but I want to know how it can relate more to me as an educator. 

The article about Galenson was a little more attention grabbing than the video. Although it was mostly about his findings in age related to artwork, I did see how it could relate to "science, technology, and business". I especially thought about the technology side of it since that is what I will be working with as a teacher. His ideas about what it means to be a "genius" varies in his studies. He says that learners can be swift, deductive, and certain, and also approach learning more quietly, more inductively, and step-by-careful-step. I think that both of these ways of learning would apply to technology. Working with new technology or trying to come up with something new takes time and you have to be certain it works. I like how he says that you can make a difference at any age in life. I think this is especially true for teachers and I believe teachers make a difference in lives everyday, although they aren't always recognized for it like the artists in the article. 

Imagination Cubed

This week for my classroom scenario, I am choosing Imagination Cubed. I liked this site because it doesn't require you to sign up and use an email address. When you first go to this website, it's all ready for you to get started on your creation. Both of these factors are especially good things to think about for kindergarten-first grade. For some of my other scenarios, I had to log in to a website using my email before the kids could use it. With this site, it just makes it easier to get started right away. I also liked how simple & basic it is, which is also a good thing for the younger children. If we were doing a food unit and the lesson was focusing on reading/writing, I would have the kids draw with the mouse the words "I" and "like". Following these words would be a food of their choice. So, for example, I would write "I like  corn" using the pen for my writing tool. Doing this activity using this website simply makes it more interesting and fun for the kids to write a sentence other than the paper and pencil method. After they wrote their sentence, they could draw their own picture that illustrates their sentence using the pen, shapes, or stamper. After they have finished, I would print them off so that everyone could read their sentence in front of the class and share their creation. 

Photoshop

I have had Photoshop for awhile now and I really like it. I was first introduced to it in another technology class and we got to play around with it in there also. In the classroom, I would use this photo editing program to make an "ABC book". I would have my students partner up and would give each pair a digital camera. They would each be assigned a letter and would be asked to take a picture in the classroom of anything they wanted that started with this letter. When everyone was done with this, I would have them upload it onto computers in the media center. I would already have a Photoshop account on the screen so that we didn't have to deal with setting up each student with an account. I would demonstrate all of the different options for editing their photos and then let them explore and edit their own photos. All of this would probably take a few days to complete. I would then compile all of their final edited photos into one album and show it in front of the class on a slideshow. Everyone would have a chance to talk about their picture and what options they used for editing. This type of activity could also be shared with parents by making the slideshow public. 

Orkut

The wiki I found was through Google. It's called Orkut & it allows you to create "communities" aka wikis. I actually used this wiki my freshman year in college for a class. I thought it was useful in helping the class communicate with each other about assignments. The community that I chose to create to show to 302 was titled "Family Vacation". I can choose whether or not this is a private community. I could invite my family members to start discussions about our annual family vacation without the public Orkut members seeing it. In the classroom, I think that I could use this wiki for a "pen pals" type of activity. I could invite members of another classroom in the country into my classroom wiki and the children could communicate back and forth about what they're doing. Maybe myself and another teacher could collaborate on a lesson and then have the kids talk with each other about what they think of that specific lesson or unit as it progresses. I remember when I was a kid, I really enjoyed communicating with students in other places that were far away from Iowa. It was interesting to get information from other parts of the country or world. As far as online documents go, I would use Google Docs. I've used it numerous times and have not had any problems with it. It's another awesome way to work on assignments without having to be physically present with a group. You can also use Orkut at the same time to start a discussion forum about the Google Doc. 

First Grade Blog

I chose to follow the blog "How Beautiful You Are". It is managed by a first grade teacher in California named Mrs. Puglisi. One of the main reasons that I chose to follow this particular blog is because I'm interested in becoming a first grade teacher. I love that she posts pictures and actually quotes what the students say. It seems to be updated frequently so that I will be able to follow what the students are doing week by week and what progress they're making. 

I think what she has been doing with the children is wonderful. The most recent activity that the students did was making a portrait of the new president, learning what a "president" actually is, and having the students communicate what they thought a president's job was. For MLK day, the students got to journal about why they thought MLK was important and why they get a day off from school. These two things helped me realize how important it is to keep children connected with what's going on in the world around them. They need to know about important historical moments and what exactly it means for them and their country. I would love to do activities like these in my classroom. Many of the responses from students I read were fabulous. Children know a lot more than we think, but we still need to use activities like this to help enrich their education.