Journal Post # 6

Chapter 6: Technology with Educational Websites and Other Online Resources

Focus Question 1: What is information management and digital content?

     Undoubtedly we are living in the age of technology and information. Formerly to be informed we read the newspaper, listened to the news or simply watched these on TV. Today with just a CLICK we have access to an enormous amount of information that is updated every second. As educators, how can we find, organize and use the needed, useful and appropriate information for a teaching process that actively involve and engage the students, as well as help them develop their critical thinking and skills such as information and Internet literacy? The answer is Information Management.

     Information management is the process of finding, organizing and using information. This requires skills to find valuable information, organize it efficiently, so that we can easily access it when we need it, and use it to make it available to our students through interactive, creative and meaningful sessions within and outside the school.

      As a source of information, the Internet has no comparison. Such online information is known as digital content. Obviously this is a must if we want to fulfill our responsibility to teach and educate students in line with the demands of the present time. However, despite how valuable is this digital content, without the skills to properly manage this considerable information, it would be useless.

Tech Tool Link: Discovery Education

     The first thing I can say about this website is: Too bad I did not know it before making our collaborative lesson plan! How many useful and innovative ideas to make a lesson plan! In their own words: “Discovery Education offers a breadth and depth of digital media content that is immersive, engaging and brings the world into the classroom to give every student a chance to experience fascinating people, places, and events. All content is aligned to state standards, can be aligned to custom curriculum, and supports classroom instruction regardless of the technology platform.” In my opinion this is a high-quality website that allows interactivity, exploration, and engagement.

    One can have access to: Interactive digital textbooks, engaging standards-aligned content, lesson plans, comprehensive professional development, assessment services, virtual experiences, learning communities, and much, much more. If you go to this webpage, you can try some remarkable curricular resources to teach science.

Summary and Connection: I think that for us, the teachers, this is one of the most important chapters. I've learned a lot about organizing electronic resources to address curriculum frameworks and learning standards, Web Quests, educational websites available to us on the Internet and how to use these to provide interactive and engaging learning experiences for students. Indeed, the information in this chapter has helped me have a more complete picture of how I can use technology in my future classes, and if in case someday I feel lost in the sea of electronic information, I know I can always turn to this chapter to find the right course.

You can always find the right direction!
Photo credit to Thomas Howden on Google

                                                                

Chapter 5: Researching and Evaluating Internet Information

Chapter 5: Researching and Evaluating Internet Information

Cheating? Photo credit to Howard Dickins on Flickr

Focus Question 5: How teachers respond to problems of plagiarism when students use online sources?

     For me, the plagiarism in general reveals students’ moral deficiency when it is intentional, or ethical ignorance of how to use information provided by any source when it is unintentional. In both cases, the educator role is extremely important to prevent it and teach students strong ethical values that will help them become citizens honest, responsible and socially valuable. Unfortunately our schools are not free of this scourge. Let's look at this data coming from plagiarismdotorg: “A national survey published in Education Week found that 54% of students admitted to plagiarizing from the internet; 74% of students admitted that at least once during the past school year they had engaged in "serious" cheating; and 47% of students believe their teachers sometimes choose to ignore students who are cheating.”

     When you want to end up with an evil, one has to go to the roots of this. The plagiarism can have many causes. Students may lack the necessary skills to research, evaluate information critically, selecting the right one, organize it, present it and cite it correctly. They also may not know the exact meaning of intellectual property, copyright, public domain, paraphrasing, attribution, etc. Then, there is the pressure of having good grades on tests, the large amount of homework, and the demand that each individual teacher makes them regardless the overall burden of the entire program of study.

     So, as educators we must educate students in the correct use of information by explaining to them clearly before they submit their work, how to use the Internet responsibly and ethically. Also, I think that as teachers we must avoid the easy way out in teaching. We must prepare ourselves and delve into the information to make assignments that require students to think critically and creatively, to become himself a researcher, an inventor and a scientist, not just a consumer-ripper of information.

Tech Tool Link: KidsClick!

     Indeed, browsing through this website was easy, entertaining, interesting, safe and instructive. I believe it contains quality information that can be very helpful both teachers and students. This is beautifully designed and organized so that students can find the information leading them to other valuable websites that they can investigate. In this way, it contributes to the development of a critical thinking because far from pigeonhole and limit them, it leaves them open to other possibilities so they can select the best. Besides, this makes possible for them to learn how to do a responsible and ethical use of information. But what I liked most is that this site is quite instructive so, ZERO COMMERCIALS! NO PROPAGANDA!  As they say: “Since one of our beliefs is that providing an objective information service for children is not compatible with simultaneously targeting them with marketing, we do not accept advertising on the KidsClick! pages.”

This is an example of what kids can do on this website. They can create cartoons; send them to friends, post, etc. I titled mine: “Sleeping in class”

Summary and Connection:

     This chapter has been very important for me because it has helped me know how I can help my future students to develop the necessary skills to investigate and evaluate online information. It has been especially useful to me everything related to the Internet tools for students. As an educator I have always worried about being able to provide students valuable and safe sources of information, but I did not know exactly which one could be. Now I have significant information to integrate these to the teaching-learning process.  Although I do not have much time, I tried to navigate through some of these websites and I could experience for myself the potential these have if, as educators, we make a proper use them.

Whenever you can, visit the dwelling of your imagination.

 About me:

Photo credit to Vicky & Chuck Rogers on flickr

   Hello everyone. Here you have my small Bio. My name is Zobeida Fernandez and I came from Cuba just a few years ago, so I can tell you from personal experience what it means “culture shock.” To give you an idea, I changed from a bicycle, a telephone from the 70s, the horse-drawn carriages, the daily blackouts, lack of information and the shortages of almost everything you need, to a high-tech society with access to an overwhelming amount of information that changes and updates per second. For me it was like to have shifted from the era of the primitive community to this tech-society without even having passed through the medieval stage. Besides all this, it is the challenge of trying to digest all these in English. So if it comes to technology, I can say that I am in kindergarten. Still I do not complain and look with hope to the future.

     In Cuba I was a teacher for many years. I taught physics, mathematics and psychology at the university; I really enjoy teaching very much. I also love to read and write, but to be honest, it is still hard for me express myself in English. However, I enjoy the challenges as well as the pleasure that gives me to learn new things. I do not like giving up and I think that be persistent and be willing to admit our mistakes, listen to an advice and rectify them are qualities needed to get where we want. Something that also occupies an important part of my life is to study the Bible; to me it contains a unique practical wisdom. For example: “In the abundance of words there does not fail to be transgression, but the one keeping his lips in check is acting discreetly”(Proverbs 10:19). How many problems we would avoid if we learned to control that organ so small, but so powerful? It can unite or separate, hurt or heal, bring peace or start a war, sow love or hate, create a problem or solve it.

Photo credit to Mara on Flickr

     Besides all this, I like to create things and use imagination. It is fun to put wings to our mind and let it free for a while. When she returns from her trip, she can come loaded with new and good ideas. Do you want to try it?

Chapter 4: Integrating Technology and Creating Change

     “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is most important.”- Bill Gates

     Focus Question 2: What are the key stages and pressing issues of technology integration?

    Neither the integration of technology in learning is something that can be accomplished in the day to the next, nor can the formation of a technology-using educator be achieved by magic. This, like all processes, requires patience, willingness, knowledge, as well as skills and expertise, which is only achieved with regular practice and vast gained experience using technology in education. Only then educators are able to use balanced and creative technological tools and new practices to make possible for every student to reach his/her full learning potential. Therefore, this passes through the following stages:

  However, this complex process can be affected by several external and internal factors. For example:

•  Administrative Support and Teaching Style: It requires professional training, systematic support from school administrators, sufficient resources, and moving from a teacher-centered to student-center approach to teaching.
• Unwillingness to Change Favorite Lesson Plan to Include Technology: Some teachers are not motivated to invest time figuring out how to integrate technological resources into their teaching.
• Reluctance to Use Technology When Teaching New Lesson Plan: Infusing technology when teachers are asked to teach material they have not taught before requires time and energy, so this may seem like a burden that is best avoided.
• Using Technology as a Reward or Punishment: Students who behave and perform well get to use technology as a reward. On the other hand, students who misbehave or fail to get work done are denied computer time. This completely distorts the purpose of using technological resources in teaching and reduces its positive effect on learning process.
• Using Technology as an Add-On to Other Activities: To respond to school system requirements, some teachers use technology whether it enhances or detracts from learning. In this case, the classes are saturated with technology without resulting in an improvement of the teaching- learning process.
• Using Technology to Separate Students by Ability Groups: Children with higher test scores are given one kind of program while others with lower scores get another kind. Although at first glance this may seem logical and beneficial, actually establishes a gap between both groups of students and does not promote the integration of all them in activities that promote the exchange and cooperation among all.

        Tech Tool Link: edutopia

    This time I decided to venture through this web-site and really become fascinated. One thing is theoretically learn about the technology applied to the teaching-learning process by reading the book, and quite another to see with my own eyes practical examples of how this works. It contains articles, interviews, videos, blogs, on important, practical and innovative issues regarding the use of technology in education, written by professionals and specialists who are not sitting behind a desk dictating resolutions and policies, but by true educators who from their classrooms, struggle each day to find new and better ways of developing students’ creative potential. I was impacted by the interview with the Professor at Harvard University Howard Gardner on Multiple Intelligences. I fully agree with him, we all think and learn differently. So, not taking this into consideration when we educate students is very unfair. As educators we should differentiate the instruction for everyone to enjoy while learning. I also enjoyed very much watching the video on "Project-Based Learning." It's really inspiring to see what can be accomplished when we put students at the center of the educational process and work to and for them. I leave this here for you to enjoy it.

       Summary and Personal Connection: In general, this chapter offers practical approaches to help us infuse technology into both classroom and professional work. It also makes a realistic analysis about possible external and internal barriers we might need to overcome to integrate technology into our work as educators. Something that touched my heart was the existing differences in students’ possibilities to get access to technology within the context of their family, social, economic and cultural realities (“digital inequality” and “participation gap”). However, something that is very clear to me is that it cannot become an excuse to stop looking strategies to promote successful learning using the technology we already have. Instead of seeing those issues as a difficulty or limitation we must see it as a chance to create. Sometimes local circumstances are not what have to change, but our attitude and thinking. Former senator Nancy Kassebaum said: “There can be infinite uses of the computer and of new age technology, but if teachers themselves are not able to bring it into the classroom and make it work, then it fails.”

Closing the gap. Accredited to fotosearch

Chapter 3: Developing Lessons with Technology

Focus question 1: What is meant by “lesson development using technology”?

     Given the fact that technology is a means very useful, as teachers we must always bear in mind its potential and the ways in which this can contribute to how teachers develop lessons. Therefore, it involves a teacher’s responsible and creative decision about these aspects: What to teach (academic content), how to teach (teaching goals, methods, and procedures), and how to know what students have learned (learning assessments), as well as how teacher can use electronic resources to facilitate these three processes.

     For example, educators can use digital content available on the Internet to select what will be explored or explained to students each day. On the other hand, technology can support in a variety ways, the selection, organization, and implementation of how this content is going to be taught and assessed. Some of these are: Presentation software, teacher-developed websites, interactive software, assistive technologies, electronic tests and quizzes, digital portfolios, personal response systems, online evaluation rubrics and many others technology tools.  Attempting to show the complexity, dynamism, and interaction of and in this process, it occurred to me represents it in this way:

  

     Tech Tool Link: FairTest

     Since finding a fair, realistic, objective, respectful and educational way to assess students’ and teachers’ performance is a real challenge, I found this online resource very practical. It provides information, technical assistance and advocacy on a broad range of testing concerns. It also facilitates the exchange of information and ideas among teachers, parents, education reform and civil rights organizations seeking to improve student assessment practices. I enjoyed reading a variety of articles about misusing tests, teachers’ and researchers’ created assessment tools (like performance assessments), creative practices that are being used in schools across the nation, and proposals for resolutions to transform the current evaluation system. I turned out really interesting reading the articles “Student Test Scores: An Inaccurate Way to Judge Teachers” by Monty Neill and “Resistance to High Stakes Testing Spreads” by Bob Shaeffer. Both articles have helped me see these issues from a completely different and more realistic perspective.  Because it is a powerful tool to make us aware of the need to seek better ways of assessment and to keep us up to date with the latest research and expert opinions on the matter, I believe that all teachers should regularly consult this website.

                                           

This is not the future that we want for our students. Isn’t it?

     Summary and personal Connection:  How complex it is the process of planning a lesson! How many factors to take it into account! How many electronic resources the Internet provides for supporting lesson development! Besides, it is the first time I heard about “understanding by design”! I wonder if one day I could feel like a fish in the water among so many technologies.  And, what about assessing and evaluating the students?  How much responsibility it entails! I do not want to be unfair to my future students  assessing their performance mechanically, grouping and classifying them according to their results when these tests do not take into account their personal qualifications, socioeconomic status, creative potential,  effort, intellectual  skills and spiritual development. I really want to know what is in the students’ mind and heart to get them to enjoy learning, to come to love knowledge and to motivate them to become better every day.

Chapter 2: Transforming Learning with Unique, Powerful Technology.

     Focus Question 4: How do students use technology to access and assess information?

     Nobody can deny that current technology, as never before, allows both teachers and students the access to a large amount of diverse and changing information. Using WebQuests, classroom websites, digital dictionaries, web materials, time lines and others, teachers can make students participate creatively in the search and assessment of the required information for their projects, investigations, homework, etc. However, for this to be successful, the students must develop skills to recognize and find, among all the amount of information available, that they really need, as well as to assess its quality, currency, accuracy, and usefulness. Once the information has been selected and evaluated, they must know how to organize and present it in a logical and attractive way. These abilities are known as Information and Internet Literacy. Without them, students would be lost in a sea of ​​information without being able to recognize which one is the best according to their purposes. They also would be exposed to the risk of contamination with misleading information, which sometimes is difficult to remedy. There is nothing more dangerous to the students’ intellectual and spiritual health that feeding their minds and hearts with junk information.

      Tech Tool Link:Fact Check

      In my opinion this website can be a good educational resource, especially for high school teachers and students. The publishers describe it as “a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer advocate for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.” It contains several articles based on results of statistical studies, information from official sources, speeches, debates among political figures, interviews, and news releases, designed to reveal inaccuracies or outright lies from mayor U.S. political players.

     Well used, this can be a powerful tool to educate students on the proper analysis of information to separate the lies from the truth and the objective from the subjective. They can come to understand how information can be manipulated improperly to influence the audience’s mind and heart to get them to think and act according to specific politicians’ interests.

     I also liked the webpage Factchecked.org as a classroom tool for teachers and students. Through short videos, with adequate use of music and information, they can gain access to over 80 FlackCheck.org digests of assessments of the accuracy of statements by and about presidential candidates. However, something that in my opinion should be taken into account is that because the amount and depth of its information, teachers must be well-prepared to make a correct selection of the topics and get the most out during activities with students.

     This is a video from this website. It is a proof of the veracity of this statement: "A text out of its context is just a pretext,"

     Summary and personal connection: This chapter makes a summary of the different theories about the learning process and its relation to teaching methods. It also provides an objective analysis about the advantages and benefits of applying technology to the educational process to achieve a “unique, powerful and transforming” teaching and learning experience.

       In a personal sense, this chapter has impacted me because it has helped me realize how much I need to learn about the use of technology in teaching combined with the constructivist approach to learning, and how urgent it is for me to do so. As an educator I have no right to deprive the students of the benefits of these educational tools or to limit their creativity and development possibilities. At the same time, it is my responsibility to teach them to be selective and objective information processors. In one phrase: Go ahead and overcomes your fears to become an e-teacher!