5364 - Week 1 Reflection

WEEK 1 Part 1

During week one we had many readings to sort through.

• "Using Technology with Classroom Instruction That Works"
• "Learning as a Personal Event: A Brief Introduction to Constructivism"
• "How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School"
• "Social Networking Technologies in Education"
• "If I Teach This Way, Am I Doing My Job: Constructivism in the Classroom"
• "Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools"

One of the best reading was the one titled "Learning as a Personal Event: A Brief Introduction to Constructivism". I liked this one because it allows students to be more involved with their learning. It shows how students in a Learner-Centered classroom benefit more and participate more in the learning. The students are going out and about to gather information instead of filling out worksheets and watching videos. the Learner-Centered classroom gives students the chance to get their hands on real situations instead of simply listening and watching.

 Another article, "How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, pp. 194-218" continues to discuss the way students learn suing technology. this article is different and helpful because it not only talks about the good of technology, but also points out things that need to be considered when adding technology to a classroom, namely how people can use technology to learn by doing. Technology provides receive feedback, and helps students sharpen their skills while helping them learn.

Citation: Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school(Expanded edition). Ch. 9, pp. 194-218. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9853&page=206

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, (1999). Learning as a personal event: A brief introduction to constructivism. Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tec26/intro2c.html

5364 - Web Conference #1

When the web conference began Dr. Borel thanked the class for being patient as we all transfer from EPIC to BlackBoard. She mentioned that the discussion board has been a little messed up and that everyone will get credit for the discussion this week.
Next she went through some areas of Blackboard and how to find information about submitting assignment. She let us know that there are videos to help us out, and talked to us about making sure we check that the assignment actually gets sent. She then went on to explain how the announcements will go to our email and that we could change the email in order to have announcements sent to an email of our choice. This way we are guaranteed to get the announcements as she puts them up.
Next she reminded us that all assignments are due on Sundays and made sure all students have information on how to go to the educational leadership google site that is set up for each course.
Next she went thorough the field supervisor requirements and who to contact if we have not heard from our FS. She also went through forms that we are required to have in order to graduate and that information is in the handbook.
Next she went through the week's assignment and what is expected from us, mainly the expectations from our group project. We have a lot of work to do, but together we can get it all accomplished.

5366 - Web Conference #3

I was not able to attend the web conference this evening but I watched the video. Dr. Cummings again asked us if there were any questions pertaining to the week 3 assignment. One student asked if we needed to add music to our animation and Dr. Cummings stated that we didn't have to, but we could if we wanted.
Next she asked us if we wanted to add something about where we are on the animation. No one added anything but a question about the tutorial for the website came up and she clarified who the audience would be. The answer is to just make it pertain to who we want to teach it to, mainly teachers and students. She also wants us to learn the software so we can use it in our classrooms.She also made sure we had the movement of the animation be at least 10 movements. Some students shared what other software they were using and Dr. Cummings asked if it was something that should be added to the course in the future, she will add it to the next course. 
Next she asked if there were any questions about the website. She clarified that the website would be for a school setting because it addresses teachers, Parents, students and community. As questions were asked, they were answered and she made things a lot clearer for students that were uncertain.
Next she discussed the course embedded documents and is going to send them as an announcement for those of us that do not have them or are unclear about them. She also discussed the EdTech wiki and clarified that the forms must say ET for EdTech.
Also, we need to show our collaboration for this project on a google doc. We have not actually done this so I will cut/paste our collaboration so they can see what we have done.

5366 - Web Conference #2

7-24-12 - 5:30 pm
Dr. Cummings began the discussion asking for any questions pertaining to week 1 which we just finished. There were no questions so she moved forward.


Week two is logo design and week four website group formation. She stated that is students do not have a group to contact our IA and try to get 5-6 people in the group. She discussed "Self-Branding and how everything students put online is a "brand" and how the logo represents who we are. She opened the floor to questions. She answered yes to the question about using wordl and introduced "tuxedo". She also made sure we knew that we were going to need a logo for the website. She answered other questions about the logo and helped people understand what they are needed for. She suggested making our logo into either a .jpeg or .pdf to help with scalability and how to avoid distortion by using the shift key while making changes.


With the website the ultimate goal is to be a resource to use with other teachers in our schools as a technology facilitator. She described the uses for each of the six pages and how they can help the different departments in the schools. Dr. Cummings is going to send us resources that we can use on our websites to help us in the development of the websites. She reminded us to document the course embedded internship hours as well as the campus supervise hours for our internships and let us know she is a co-coordinator for the internship. She also gathered information from us about our field supervisors, whether or not we have had contact with them. I have not only had contact but I have finished my three required meetings with him. 
One student asked about a newsletter, but there is not to be a newsletter in this course.


She clarified other questions that people had about the website and internship, and our action research projects.She gave us the website to the EdTech wiki so we have access to our correct forms for our documentation hours.


She ended by making sure we know to get in touch with her for anything we may need. Meeting ended at 6:01

5366 - Reflection

EDLD 5366 was a lot of fun. When I started the class I was dreading it a little because I have taken Microsoft classes ranging from all of Office in one semester to one semester of each of them (PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Access) and Cisco I and II for networking. I have also taken Microcomputer Application I, II and Advanced so I was thinking it was going to be like those classes. BUT as I started my assignments I realized that they would be more fun and I was going to be learning some newer things, which excited me. The readings provided were very informative and easy to understand.

I had worked with animations on my daughter's LeapPad so this was not that new, but the website STYKZ made it so easy and I kept finding myself playing with it and making more animations. I know I have so much more to learn and I can see that my students will also have a lot of fun making little animations. 

To complete the assignments I found that all the information provided by the professor kept me on track. I could easily read the articles and then go back to the assignment and try out what I had learned. I also liked that there were tutorials that I could find on YouTube to also assist me in what I was learning. Learning about the new Digital version of Bloom's Taxonomy was interesting and helped me see a fresher look at something I have seen all through my education and career. 

Learning about personal branding was also helpful I was not aware that this was even a term used when looking at and thinking about online activities As stated in the article “Authentic Personal Branding”, Marshall Goldsmith points out that having a brand that is strong and relevant helps people associate this brand with the person, remembering them when it is important. (Goldsmith, 2009). “The Art of Self-Branding: Part One” (Alcantara, 2012) is helpful for a person to define who they are. Gathering the information from others can clarify what a person thinks as well as introduce new thought and ideas about a person to explore further.

When building the website as a group we spent a lot of time sending emails back and forth trying to make sure we all had what we needed to make the website the best it could be. We worked well as a group and everyone was reliable. I have learned that working with a group is not as bad as I expected. My past groups in under grad courses gave me a bad taste of group work, but working with real professionals who also wanted to get the work done early if not on time was a dream. 

            Working in a K-12 classroom I would implement the use of websites with my students as learning tools. In our school each student is going to be issued an iPad in the Fall, and I look forward to using apps on them, but I also see how using websites like AAA Math or Spelling City to handle some of the activities and practice.

Alcantara, L. (2012). The Art of Self-Branding. Retrieved 7 18, 2012, from lealea's blog: http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/the-art-of-self-branding-part-one/

Churches, A. (2008, April 1). Bloom's Taxaonomy Blooms Digitally. Retrieved July 18, 2012, from Tech & Learning: http://www.techlearning.com/article/blooms-taxonomy-blooms-digitally/44988

Goldsmith, M. (2009). Authentic Personal Branding. Retrieved June 18, 2012, from Bloomberg Businessweek: http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/sep2009/ca20090929_228578.htm

5366 - Another Animation

I was having fun making animations with STYKZ and made this one. Although there is more to learn, I really thought this one was pretty funny.

5366 - My Animation

We had to create an animation and I chose to use the website Stykz.

It was fun to make the "styk" figure fall out of the sky.

Hope you enjoy!!!