CEDO 540 Week Two

This week's assignment were pretty interesting. The research that I did was fun and allowed me to access a couple new websites that I can add to my arsenal. The capterra website was really cool to look at because it provided me a new option to find software. I liked that the website involved tons of different software from a variety of different fields. I found a the website to be simple to navigate and I found a few new software programs that I am gonna try implementing in my classrooms.

Taking the time to research statistic terms was interesting and allowed me to build my knowledge on a subject that I don't have the most knowledge in. When looking at Census, I found that there was more information then I expected. I was shocked to see that the 2000 census totaled 6.5 billion, with a B, dollars. The marketing research I had a little inclination about, but after looking at it, I found that it was much more in-depth than I had expected. I did realize that there is business to business marketing research. The topic, after reviewing it, makes a lot of sense and is something that I am sure companies do all the time.

CEDO 540 Week One

Back at it again and it feels good. I am ready to hit the fast track to the end!!

Statistics is something that I have minimal knowledge about and have used very little in my classroom setting. The knowledge I have most associates with Microsoft Excel and all the equation functions that can be created on the program. Excel is a very powerful program and one that takes a lot of time to understand all of the inner workings surrounding its use.

It was good practice working with the worksheets giving me a refresher on the different concepts that are going to be covered throughout the course. The video was interesting and full of a variety of different concepts working with statistics. It is nice to see these examples so I can have ideas to base of how to use statistics in my course offerings.

CEDO 535 Week 5

This week was a fun one to work with one main thing, the Ning. I started dabbling with the Ning last week trying to get accustomed to the feel of the program and the layouts that are provided. After playing around with the program, I am witnessing that the program has a lot of power that I am using already through blackboard. The only difference being blackboard is costing my school district $$$ and is far less collaborative than the Ning is.

At first I thought that the Ning was going to be a mounting challenge because I didn't think that I had great web application creation ability. Thankfully the Ning is laid out is a simple way that allows me to create different pages with ease, link between those pages, and upload files that I use on the Internet. I am seriously considering going away from my Blackboard page next year and utilize the powers of the Ning.

Additionally this week, I looked at a variety of different Web 2.0 applications that can help change the landscape of the classroom. After looking more into sites like Diigo, Delicious, Photobucket, and Flickr, I am starting to create more ideas on how students could utilize these tools to achieve in my classroom.

CEDO 535 Week 3

This week had some interesting concepts that I really like and have starting implementing into my class. The first if the screencasting, or videocasting that I refer to it as. I had dabbled around using Jing before this assignment for projects in other classes, but had never really looked at all the intricacies of the program. Jing works great for me because I teach two courses heavily dependant on student tutorials, Introduction to Engineering Design and Digital Imaging. I constantly have students missing class so it makes it hard for them to get the material covered in class, as well as exhausting for me to re-explain what we do in-class again. I devised a way to start using videocasting to record tutorials that I can post on our school file server. This will save me time because I don't have to re-explain and will allow students who miss or forget points covered to go back and review the tutorials. I hope to continue using this program in the future and will create a detailed of files and tutorials that I will be able to share with colleagues!!

How I will share those files is pretty simple, using the next idea that I looked at, a Ning. I liked working with the Ning because it was user friendly and allows me to control the different users that are members. I plan to set up a Ning for my Digital Imaging and Introduction to Engineering that will allow members to log into the Ning and see the video tutorials that I have created for the course. I also like the Ning concept because I will provide an area where students can respond to questions that they have or other tutorials that they would like me to post on the Ning. This setup will be much easier for paperwork trails and will allow me to better monitor the works completed by students because I can have them post comments, links to websites, or links to projects that they have completed.

CEDO 535 Week Two

The information that I worked with this week was interesting, mostly from the stand point that I had knowledge of some of the materials that we were looking at. I have had an RSS Feed account set up for a couple of months. A teacher at our high school showed me and ever since I have loved it. The ease of use is simply undeniable. I did find some new information out through the assignment including the sharing portion. If I build up a contact of links, I will be able to share common interests and articles with my friends. In my class, I have shown students how to use RSS feeds for finding information on Engineering. Students are working on a Research paper right now and I am having them find RSS feeds incase information is updated about their career they can document it.

The other portion that I liked about the assignments was the Photo Sharing assignment. I set up a Flickr account for this assignment. I have had students use Flickr and Photobucket accounts in my Digital Imaging class to upload and access pictures. I had some knowledge of how the program worked but I have never used it. After working with it, I know I could utilize a program like Flickr for students to upload their assignments. Then I could comment and grade their pictures using the comment portion. The only concern that I have is other predators seeking out student pictures. I know that students have control over friends but with hacker abilities ever increasing, I feel like I don't want to subject my students to the possibility of this. The other concern that I have with Flickr if I was to use it for student grading is students uploading pictures that are deemed inappropriate. While I know I can explain to students what acceptable picture content is and the fact I will be able to see their pictures, I have an inclination that some students may post pictures that are not deemed school appropriate.

CEDO 535 Reflection

I really liked the challenge of looking at three different things that we think we are so called experts on through Wikipedia. I found it interesting to know that my things were spot on. In the future I think it would be a fun activity for my students if I could find a Wikipedia page that is false or slightly inaccurate and have them locate the information, through research, about why that information was inaccurate. Students could seek out professional who post blogs and challenge them on the topics that are covered on Wikipedia. This would provide my students with the concept that not everything on the Internet is true as well as challenging them to seek out and interact with professional who create blogs.

The second thing that I liked looking at was the use of Wiki's in Education. While it was hard to find blogs that talked specifically about the use of Technology Education Wiki's, I did find a couple. It was interesting to read that those postings described how much of a joy it was to bring the wiki into a Technology Education classroom. I could see my own teaching style utilize the Wiki concept in all of my class as a means of collaboration as well as providing tutorials for the students. Our principal just sent out a memo talking about the stress we put on the paper budget. I believe by hosting all of this information online, such as a fill in worksheet instead of a paper worksheet, we could really cut down on our education expenses. Now this possess the problem of computer access in the classroom and high school setting, but fortunately most students in my district have personal computers at home or have plenty of opportunity to utilize one of the available computer labs in the school.

CEDO 535 Week One

There are two important things that I picked out of this week's class activities. The first being the use of blogs for students and the second being E-Portfolio. Blogs for students will work great in my class because I already implement a system in which students have to submit answers to essential questions that I supply over the Internet. While students will be able to answer the essential question online, the more important part is that students can respond to other students pieces. I see this idea having the ability of taking my class more outside the walls because students will be interacting with each other when responding to their thoughts.

The second concept, E-Portfolio, is a great idea for my Digital Imaging classes. I can have students create a E-Portfolio that they upload their assignments and best work. This portfolio can follow them throughout the class and if they continue on with future Photography classes, the students can build on their portfolio. This is great for two reasons; students will have the ability to create a quality portfolio that they can take with them to future employers or college. The second reason I really like the concept is I would eliminate the amount of paper used for my class. I could simply log on to their E-Portfolio anywhere I have access and grade their papers. This is awesome because I can sit on my boat in the middle of the lake and grade assignments!!!

Week 5 CEDO 530

This weeks assignments were interesting and very helpful for the classes I teach. I was able to utilize the multimedia rubric assignment to analyze some of the rubrics I use in my digital imaging class. After reading the postings about what makes a rubric good, I realize that my initial attempts at creating them was sub par at best. When I was originally making them I was rushed for time and was more concerned about getting them done. Now with the use of Rubistar and the fact that I dedicated time to the process, I feel that I created a high quality rubric that I will be able to use in the near future.

The next portion, Pecha Kucha, was an interesting feat. It is really hard to narrow my time down to exactly twenty seconds. Is twenty seconds, twenty seconds on the dot? Or does 19.5 seconds count. I know that is going to be a point my students will continually bring up when I try and implement this concept in my class. When all was said and done, through multiple redo's, I feel that my design came out very clear and will be useful next year when I introduce the topic I chose.

Finally, I like the readings about digital camera's and software purchases. I feel like I have some knowledge about the topic as I am a digital imaging teacher, but I realized there is a lot more out there. I always laugh when I go to Best Buy or any other digital camera store and I hear these people try to sell cameras. Half of them have no idea what they are talking about but fortunately for them, they are being paired up with 100% unknowledgable consumers that thinks what ever they spit out is the most fascinating thing. Be careful is all I can say and do your research.

Week 4 CEDO530

This week I really enjoyed working with the Prezi website. While the website was very finicky to work with at the start, after playing around with it I somewhat became a pro. I know the easiest way to have learned it would have been reading tutorials, but that is never fun. I like the concepts on the page and I really think that I can utilize this in my Digital Imaging class because students can host their whole assignments on one page. Fun for students to work with and easy for me to grade.

The Pecha Kucha storyboard was fun because I haven't done it in a while. I reminded myself why I harp on my kids to fill out the storyboard very detailed because it makes the process a lot easier when you go to finish the whole presentation. It will be interesting to create the final Pecha Kucha to the exact time, but it will be something I will have to work with.

Finally, the last chapters of Presentation Zen were very interesting. Gar stressed the idea that you must be able to "present" to your audiences. I totally agree with that because a great powerpoint with a bad presenter is the exact same concept of a bad powerpoint with a great presenter.

Week Three 530

The first thing that I noticed when working on this week's assignments was the original presentation that I submitted for "Previous Presentation's" is going to make the job hard to make better. I did I good job using the Presentation Zen methods on the original presentation method. Although it is difficult, it is reviewing presentations that I think are from the "Zen" method and making changes where needed.

Working with Animoto has been very interesting. I am thinking about implementing a Video Production course into our Digital Imaging curriculum and I think that this program will help aid the class. I can also see students in my current Digital Imaging class enjoying being able to work with the program.

Finally, I enjoyed using the storyboard that we had to download. I utilize storyboards in my engineering and digital imaging classes to help lay out ideas for students. The storyboard that I use is not as user friendly as the one that we worked with so I am excited to see how my students will better incorporate the storyboard into their project creations.

530 Week 2

Well I don't know if it is because I'm a nerd, but the first thing that I noticed when looking at the Sticky ideas was the first letter of the six points leads to the word Success. It is my assumption that the author made it that way on purpose, but I really think that using these techniques will help save some of my presenations. I create a lot of presentations that focus on content, content, content. I rarely get the time to slip in images and phrases that spark emotion. I think by adding those into my presentations, the students will learn the course materials better. I also need to start incorporating life stories into my presentations. While I am still relatively young, I have a some personal stories that would fit alongside my presentations. I will be excited to see when I am ancient how profound some of these stories will have on my audience. Through experience, everything gets better.

Working with Voicethread was a good experience. The program was laid out very well and easy to register for. The program did exactly what I needed it to do without all the bells and whistles that kids expect. I can see me using this if I am going to be gone from a class and I could have them look at the link. The one thing that I didn't like about the program was when I put altering effects on the presentation slides, the program didn't expect them. I know it isn't about creating some cool visual, but I think sometimes this creativity will add to the presentations.

530 Week 1

The digital picture assignment is one that is interesting and I think that I will be using in my Digital Imaging class. It is a good way for students to take pictures and create a virtual portfolio that they can show others. I do not have a camera, but my Blackberry has the ability to shoot pictures and email them to Posterous. This ability makes the process very simple and convenient to work.

As for the readings, I really like the Presentation Zen text book. I am not a huge reader and thought that the work would be dull, at best. The author has some really good points and it has opened my eyes to the fact that I am just following the masses. I am working on summer training for an engineering course and I have started using the "Zen" method to create presentations for the class. The instructors are indifferent when I first show them the PowerPoint because they don't think I have enough material. After explaining my method about using my knowledge of the subject to explain the concept, they were less concerned about my presentations' success.

Final Week CEDO 525

Of all the strategies that we investigated, I found the most common that I will try and use in my classroom is the Cooperative Learning concepts and Providing Feedback. Cooperative Learning will work good because it will allow me to better monitor the group work that is being completed and provides an easy, accessible online environment for all students to work together.

Providing Feedback is something that I have to work on. Currently, I do not do a very good job of providing support for my students. I envision having students submit their homework in on an online blog or Wiki, allowing me to leave comments about their work on that type of format. By doing it in the online environment, I believe that I can provide a better response and I can access the students files from virtually anywhere.

Bubbl.us, Inspiration, Educational Oasis

I really like using all of these programs. Educational Oasis is great because it provides the educator hard copies of different organizers for students too use. This is important too me for my automotive courses where my student do not have the computer access needed to operate the other programs. I like that Educational Oasis provides all of these different varieties because educators need the opportunity to work with different formats.

As for the other two programs, computer based, I find them very comparable. Both are quality programs, providing great aesthetically pleasing organizers for students to brainstorm and document ideas. The two main reasons that I like bubbl.us over Inspiration is bubbl.us is a free program and allows the documents to be created virtually, allowing for student collaboration. The one bonus that I see with using Inspiration is the program provides the students to add more elements to the presentation and work with less headaches.

Electronic Student Response Tools

Providing electronic response to students is a much better form, in my opinion, then having to write out a bunch of feedback comments. In our school, we use Moodle and Blackboard to provide students comments, quizzes, and other feedback options, such as email. I really like these programs because they are convenient to use, provide a good support system for the teacher, and provides an easy format to allow for comments and quizzes. Our district is in the process of switching over to Moodle completely for one reason, cost consideration. Moodle is free where as Blackboard is fee based. What is really cool with Moodle is the ability to transfer Blackboard content right into Moodle. This allows instructors who have been using Blackboard for years to easily transfer over all information.

When looking at the Rubric programs, I really liked the Rubistar program. I found that it was much easier to use compared to the other programs provided. I need this ease of use because in my field of Technology Education, my rubrics look a lot different than the ones supplied from other sites. The rubrics that I have created through Microsoft Word are subpar to what this program provides for me. Instead of focusing on setting everything up, I can concentrate on the crticial comments that are provided in each box.

When looking at the quiz programs, I focused in on Quia. While the program would work great for a school setting, providing instant comments that teacher could help base student knowledge on, I do not like the fee portion. I can use Moodle to generate the same type of quiz and comments that this program provides. The other beneficial thing that Quia provides is the ability to keep grades. While that is an excellent feature, our school district uses Infinite Campus which is where I must enter my grades. I would be doing double duty transferring grades, something that doesn't sound entertaining too me.

Enhancing Learning Through Technology Week One

The articles that I read this week were very informational. I will start off with the Meta Analysis article on Teaching and Learning with Technology. This was a difficult article to read because I have never really read research articles before. After getting the major point of the article, a lot of the gibberish started to make sense.

The main underlying theme that I think the authors were getting at that even though technology is great for enhancing student learning, instructors must incorporate it in a way that challenges students and brings the students to use the technology to learn. In classroom settings that I have witnessed, teachers like to use program such as PowerPoint to "entertain" students. Instructors need to be trained in how to effectively use the programs to enhance learning.

Our school district is starting to use a variety of programs such as Sentios and Smartboards. While this are cool devices, and VERY expensive, I am not seeing the major applications that teachers are getting for students. Teachers I have seen use them as entertaining modes for their students. Is that what we are really trying to "Teach"?

The second major thing I pulled out of the article is the comments the authors made about lack of research into some of the technologies being used. There is not a lot of research into the use of technologies in our classrooms. While this article does a good job of shedding light on it, there is still not enough funds being distributed into the research of the programs. If we want to move further into the technology world, dedicated instructors, like ourselves, will need to spend restless nights to finding solutions to our technological classrooms.

The other article that I looked at this wek talked about Teaching Principles. When I read this, I tried relating it technological usage in our classroom. Teachers must identify the specifics as to why they are using certain programs in their classroom and the affect the said technologies are having on the students. Without clear objectives and assessments for Technological Usage, teachers are doing a disservice to the students because the underlying question of "Why are we doing this?" still lingers.

The final article that I read was about Learning Principles. When I read this article, the main theme that came to me was students need to know what they are doing and what purpose it has for their learning process. By implementing Technological devices that have clear and concise purposes, students learning will increase.

Finally, the textbook that we are reading is very interesting as I just finished a class where I read Classroom Instruction that Works. The materials in the first three chapters offered me a insight on how I could use technology to better the lessons that I have already integrated from my other course.

Final Submition for Internet Learning Resources

This week was another great experience for me. I really like our investigations and comments about ethics/privacy and internet children safety. Privacy is something that we will all fight the rest of our digital lives. While I know people that burn or shred every document they collect, I have different methods of disposing of these. I have a feeling the more sophisticated the criminals become, the harder it will be for our governmental agencies and agencies around the world to policy the issue.

As for child safety, this is one that I deal with a lot with in our digital imaging courses. A variety of my students have Flickr and PhotoBucket websites where they post their own personal picture. I feel that if I allow the students to do this during school time, they are exposing themselves to potential predators. While I don't allow the students to use these services in my computer class, studnets still use the services outside the classroom. I think we need knowledgable high school kids that understand the possibilities that are out there.

Internet Resources Week Three

Well a variety of different programs really spurred my desire to implement online courses into my teaching assets asap. Of all the programs that we looked at this week, two of them stood out over the others. The first one was 280 Slides. 280 Slides is an online presentation program that gets it right. I have used Empressr before, but sometimes it took me a lot of resistance from smashing my computer screen. When working with 280 Slides, it was a lot easier to bring in pictures, draw tables and diagrams, and impose PowerPoints. This ease of use has me hooked and I will continue perfecting my 280 Slide Skills.

The second program that I really like was Google Forms. Google Forms is an awesome feedback tool that all educators should use, because it is so easy. I can complete a survey in five minutes about a unit and have students tell me whether they understand the content, instead of nodding their heads. No more running down to the copy machine, wasting time, when I have all the access at my fingers tips. I am going to pass Google Forms onto my teaching staff because I think the shear ability will better the classroom environment.

Internet Resources: Wikipedia Conversation

I really liked the activities that we completed this week. The Google Alerts and Noodle Page provided me with a lot of personal and professional opportunities. I know my students have been using Noodle Tools for a while and I never quite figured out why, but now that I know the vast areas that the website covers I can see why.

The best part of the week I thought was reading the article about Wikipedia. I think that this conversation will be one that will continue for years to come. I believe the website does a good job providing oversight over the topics, so users should believe the information that is on there. I like to take the process one step farther and look at other websites for information. If the two or three websites align on the research, all will be legit, reputable sources.

Internet Learning Resources Week 1

Internet Resources is going to be a great class to have under my belt. I believe there are a variety of powerful resources that will be able to help my classroom including collaborative activities and a activities for students to complete.

One of the main points that I want to receive more information about is limiting access for our students. When I am in class, there are numerous students that are using the internet for things other than the intended purpose. Being able to monitor these websites and provide limited access to the students are very important to me. By limiting access to these game, movie, and music websites, I believe we can keep students more intrigued with learning instead of outside distractions that deter learning.

Blog #4: Connecting to Me

So far a lot of the information that we have covered has been a very good refresher for me. I started college as a telecommunications major, so a lot of the information that we are viewing is not foreign knowledge to me. It is really nice to see how much some of the technologies have changed, even over the past six years. A lot of the stuff that we are working with now is much more user friendly than the programs that I worked on in the past.

The information and programs that were are covering are very helpful for my educational future. As a technology education instructor, there are many classes taught in the high school that are toned down versions of this class. A lot of the content that we are covering is giving me really cool ideas that I could research and possibly implement into a new course at our school. Our district has had the same traditional programs for years and I believe a Web 2.0 based offering would spark the student imagination and provide them with a sense of what they will be facing in the very near future.

What would I lose?

Currently I am in the process of transferring all of my files onto an external hard drive. I pretty much my whole life story on my computers, yes computers, I have four of them. Now common sense would have me using one and storing all information in one location, but I am of the new generation and like doing things the hard way. Knock on wood, I don't have any files really backed up on my network drives at school. If the whole system was to go out, I would lose a lot of my information. Fortunately, two of my three classes I teach are directly off Blackboard so all of the information (files and presentations) are stored on the Internet. I have been delaying for a long time to get an external hard drive, but I finally have one sitting on my desk. Now I just need to get going on transferring all the data.

My life would go south very fast if I was to lose this information. I am not really scared about my personal life, because I don't store a lot of documents from my personal life on the computer. As for my professional life, hours upon hours would be spent on rehatching a lot of the curriculum that I have already put a lot of leg work into as well as numerous hours trying to rehatch proposals and grants that I have been in the process of writing. I think storage of informaiton is something that has not been preached to us enough because nobody thinks the inevitable will happen. Hopefully, if that inevitable happens to me, it will hold off until the summer so I can have everything backed up.

Even backing up on an external hard drive is not enough. When I was in High School, I burnt through two external hard drives. While technologies have improved greatly since then, there is still the possibility of the hard drives frying. I think individuals also need to back up burned DVD's with all the information on their desktop, possibly even a couple times.

The Future of Macintosh and Windows

Well first off I am not very good at predicting the future and I don't think that many of us are. How many of us saw the world going from the "Zac Morris" cellphone, to the touchscreen IPhone's and Blackberry's. I think the incredible gains that we have made over the past 10-20 years will go down as some of the most important in technological history.

With that said, my vague predicting abilities see companies like Apple and Windows beginning to change their course of directions. For years, these companies have been dominators in the industry and provided us with everything we need in simple packeted programs and packages. These days, the trend is starting to change because I believe that our world is demanding the technology industry to keep finding more innovations. Take Microsoft Office for instance; Google and other online programs have created word processing, excel format, and presentation programs that individuals can use for free. As costs continue to be more and more of an issue for districts and companies, I believe that organizations will have to switch over to these free based software programs. I don't see Microsoft being able to market their software programs to individuals when people can go out and use somewhat the same program on the Internet.

I also see Google becoming even more of a dominate force in all technology. I have heard rumblings of a program that Google is working on that is suppose to be the end all of be all for technology programs. I have not really done any research into this new program, but I have heard in technology magazines that it is going to change the way that everyone will do personal computing.

Well I thought that the MotorRazr phone was the greatest thing that could be created until Apple came out with the revolutionizing IPhone. I will make a bold prediction that in the very near future, individuals will not be owning computers, they will be using their IPhone's and Blackberry's to run our world. Scary INDEED.

Computer History for Nick Havlik

Well I do not honestly remember the exact beginning to my computer usage. I no that the first major technological device was an Atari, followed by Nintendo. I still own both systems and remember playing Super Techmo Bowl and Zelda after school everyday. Super Techmo Bowl is still the best game ever available in my opinion.

My first remembrance of computer usage was around my fifth grade year. We used an old school Apple, I don't know the specific model, to play games. I am guessing that the computer was an Apple 2E. The first game that I ever played on the computer was Oregon Trail and followed it up with a variety of other games I barely remember. I remember the computer being the greatest thing in the world and everyone felt privileged when they were able to use it.

As far as my computer usage, how it has evolved, I can say that I am very computer savy these days. As a technology education instructor, I need to know how computers work. When I started college, I was a telecommunications major that focused on the inner workings of computers. I progressed into this field from my high school days in which I was in charge of repairing computers for our Technology Education instructor.

I have been fortunate to see the evolution of the computer system and I have been touched all along the way. I remember the Oregon Trail as a print in my mind and I know the evolution of online learning will be another one of those markers that I will remember forever. While the computer started off as a gaming system that had minimal use, these days I stay connected with friends around the world and create solid modeled parts utilizing advance CAD techniques.

The end of Another, the Beginning of Something New!!!

This is the last blog for my Technology Tools class. I am going to take some time and ponder on the highlights of the course and what beneficial material that I received from it. The first thing that I want to describe is the online collaborations that we have had with our groups. Using Skype and online word processors, such as Google Docs, has been a great experience. The amount of knowledge I learned from the programs and the numerous teachable moments I encountered throughout the activities are endless. I truly believe that online collaboration is the way that our education system is moving and in five years when I reflect back upon the education system, I envision online collaboration being mainstreamed throughout all education.

The next thing that I really enjoyed with the program was the information from the text. That book was packed full with tons of information that has been useful now and will continue to be useful in the future. It will take some time, and I will probably have to reevaluate the text, to truly grasp the power of all the information in the book. I don't think a six week course does justice to the amount of material that can be found within the text. I hope to utilize numerous ideas out of the book, specifically examining the creativity and problem based learning portions of the text.

Another major thing that I found interesting within this class was the research we did into the presentation programs. So many of us are used to using PowerPoint to provide presentations. With programs such as Empressr, we as educators are able to create virtually the same documents, with the difference being Empressr is free and is held virtually on the Internet. I plan to implement Empressr into my classes because I think students need to be able to create online presentations to stay up to date with technologies that are available.

The last thing that I found interesting about the course was looking into software evaluation. As educators, we are going to face the decision, sometime in our career, on what types of software too choose. For many of us, being exposed to a software evaluation was uncovering another stone for us. I realized through the experience that there are a lot of different ideas and opinions that one must take into consideration when evaluating software. I also realized that the amount of work put in on the forefront will result in better experiences for the students.

So alas we are done with course two, onto three and beyond.

Week 5 Technology Tools Importance

The information that we have been covering over the past 5 weeks is very near and dear too my teaching philosophy. The types of technologies that we have been investigating and utilizing are all ones that I try too incorporate into my classroom. I teach problem based learning in all of my classrooms because I believe that is the way students learn the best. Students today need to be trained in problem solving because it is one of the number one tools that they can possess.

I really like the concept of e-learning in our classrooms. I teach two courses that are strictly using Blackboard. Our district is switching over to Moodle, but until that day I will fully utilize all the functions of this powerful programs. No longer do I have to worry about students losing papers or leaving their homework at school. I scan or pdf everything that I create into Blackboard. This way, even if students miss class for a day or week, they will have access to the information. Students are very receptive to this fact because they don't want to have to work on homework if they are not around. I am continually reminding them that in their future endeavors, they will be required to be connected to their professions at all times.

If I were to pick two things out of this text that I would use in my class they would be the portion on creative thinking and problem solving. Students in Technology Education classrooms must think outside the box. By allowing this too occur in my classroom, students will be better equipped with the application of creativity. I am currently working on a project that students are reverse engineering a product; culminating in them adding something to it to make it a better device. The culminating activity requires them to think and apply their knowledge of the subject to its real life application.

As for problem solving, as I eluded too before, it is important for all students to be challenged by problems. My automotive courses consistently face students with problems which they must work through to complete. The students have told me they get a lot more out of working through the problem than they would if we just talked about it.

Finally, I am going to continue to implement creativity and problem solving across the broad range of classes that I teach. Students in my digital imaging course will be able to express their creativity through a variety of different projects that we will complete throughout the year. Studnets in engineering and automotive courses will be faced with a variety of problems that they will have to struggle through, resulting in concrete knowledge occuring.

In Time Video Review: Week 4

The video that I watched was about a Photography class creating collages. The link to the video can be reached here. I found the video very interesting because it related completely to the course work that I am currently working on. In my Digital Imaging classes, students are working on creating collages utilizing layer masking and special effect techniques. Collages are a lot of fun for students because they allow the student to be creative and use pictures that they have shot.

The one aspect of the video I found most interesting is when the lady talked about the difficulty of assessing the collages. I have always had trouble doing this because I don't know for sure what I should grade on. Do I just focus on the fact that the student was able to create the task? Or should I focus on being able to create a quality collage? My students question the grading as well, but I believe that I am well trained in the field and know, through experience and review, what good collages look like. Assessing these activities will be something that I will continually deal with because I don't think there is one correct answer.

Tech Tools Week 3

This weeks activities been be very interesting to use. I have dabbled with using Excel programs and have seen a variety of people utilize their tools. I found it interesting when working on the assignment because I had some of my Calculus and Physics students help me fill out the formulas. It was shocking to me how much these students knew about the program. I have seen college students struggle in business finance classes trying to use these functions. Thankfully with there help and the knowledge that I possessed from the assignments, I was able to easily complete the tasks.

One way that I am going to utilize these formulas is for my fuel mixture in Small Engine Class. Students continually bring in engines that require different fuel mixtures. By creating a simple formula on Excel, we should have very little problems figuring out the correct mixture.

The readings have been very beneficial. I really like the ideas that the book is generating. Reading the problem solving techniques discussed in the chapter really helped me out because most of the coursework that I provide students is of the problem solving nature. I pulled a few good techniques out of the text, including the KWL charts, that I hope will benefit my curriculum.

Technology Tools Week 2

Well the time is passing by very fast. I am really enjoying the information that I am reading about in the textbook. I enjoy reading about how different school settings are faced with problems that we as educators will be or are facing. The chapters do a great job breaking down the topics and go into great detail about subjects that are difficult to comprehend.

I really liked working with some of the activities this week, including mostly the internet searching. I am a habitual user of Google. I know there is so much more out there, but I have my email linked through there and the access is so easy. This week I noticed that I started researching using a variety of different websites including ask.com and Yahoo. I even had my students complete an assignment in which they were not allowed to utilized Google at all. At first they really fought me and some of them still are, but in general most of them understand what I was trying to get across. Hopefully in the near future I can incorporate a variety of different assignments in which the students must meet these requirements.

The word processing programs have been fun to utilize. I have shown these different formats to students in my engineering classes because they are required to do a lot of collaborative work with each other. Being able to have students working on multiple documents allow individuals to all be active in the classroom setting, with nobody sitting idle.

I am happy overall so far with how things have been going. The work load is enough so that it balances my career. Students are interested in what I bring in for new ideas every Wednesday from my masters class. I hope that I continue to gain information from the text and the presentations that will affect all of the subjects that I teach.

Graphic and Presentation Programs

Presentation Program

Graphics Program Creation

Technology Tools Week One

Ah, the technology tools that we love to use. Presentations and graphics are programs that have evolutionized from the great "Oregon Trail" to programs such as Empressr. I tried out Empressr and a couple other presentation software programs, including SlideBoom and SlideShare. I really like the layout and usage of Empressr because it was very similar to PowerPoint programs that most instructors are used to. I showed my students some of the abilities that the program had and they really liked the concept of creating online presentations. The one thing that I did not like about the program was it's functionalities. There seemed to be a lot of presentation tools that were missing. I hope that Empressr is continuing to take feedback on their programs and making changes to help suit the users.

The graphics programs that I tried included applications such as Roxik, Queeky, and Toonlet. Honestly I have to say I do not really see the purpose of some of these applications. I could see the applications being fun for the kids to play around for a little while, but their usage in helping students further their education is very minimal in my opinion. As a technology teacher, I already have my students working with Dreamweaver Fireworks and Flash to create projects comparable to the ones viewed on these websites.

In the near future, I hope to implement online presentations for my Digital Imaging course. I can see my students creating online portfolios utilizing Empressr to show their parents the quality materials they are creating in my class. I will have to talk to my tech coordinator to unblock useful technology websites such as Empressr!!!!!!

Implementation of Learned Technologies in My Classroom

So far the technologies that we have used have been a great refresher for me. Since I am a technology education major, a lot of the technologies that we have started to implement I have used in one shape or other throughout my college and professional career. They are all very powerful tools, but a few of them I really like using.
Skype is a tool that I started using this past summer while I was at an engineering workshop. I really like the features of the product, specifically the ability to send files and have video conferences. The students in my Introduction to Engineering Design course utilize Skype to do a project in which they interact with different schools throughout the state and the country. It is exciting to see these students using this program and seeing all the powerful applications at simple tool like this possess. I have also used Skype in my personal life to communicate with my family which lives three hours away. Right now my dog is at home with them, but a quick connection and I am able to see her.
Google Documents is also very powerful and fun to use. I started using Google Documents this fall when I first noticed an article about the program on an internet article. Google Documents is something that I use in school to help other teachers complete grants and leadership documents. Unfortunately the classes that I teach do not utilize many online documents because I am teaching mostly automotive courses. Hopefully in the near future I will start to have students use online collaboration. Right now I am doing research into the different possibilities and I am open to any suggestions.

I really like the use of the online storage systems as a technological tool. I have files stored on four different computers, which is ridicolous. With the online storgae system, I am starting to assemble alll of my documents into one location so I can have access to all of my information from any of the four. Orginazation is one of the most important things for education and I see great benefits in utilizing this too.

Skype User Name

Hello All:

I have been implementing Skype now for about 6 months. It is a great technological tool and it is very powerful. My Skype username is nick.havlik. Add me as a contact and I look forward to getting in touch with you.

The Beginning of the Masters Process

I am really excited to start this process. I am 23 years old and a lot of technology that we are working on is technology that I am excited to demonstrate to my staff and help better my students education. I was joking with my students yesterday saying in a couple years if we have off of school for cold days, we will still be able to meet through the internet. Some of them were not very receptive to this, but it is technology that I am excited to start implementing.

Right now, I teach at Brookfield East High School. A link to their website is as followed, www.elmbrookschools.org. The school district is in Brookfield, WI and is a great setting for students and faculty. I excited to bring the knowledge that I learn from this course back to my school district and help all children succeed.

I am glad that this program is 100% online. It allows individuals with very busy lifestyles the ability to complete school work as well as complete masters work. I am not very receptive to sitting in class and learning and I believe that education is going down the road of being all online.

I think it will be interesting work with this group of colleagues. We have individuals from all different areas, all different backgrounds, and all different teaching styles. I am looking forward to seeing how others will implement these technologies in their classroom and I plan to pick up a lot of great ideas from the instructor, as well as my colleagues.

The first thing that I want to learn is how to successfully implement online learning classrooms in my school setting. With my career in Technology Education, I have been away from the classroom a decent amount sitting through meetings and other duties. I believe after completing this process, I will be able to utilize these meeting times to help me professionally as well as provide a classroom setting for my students to learn from even though I am missing from the classroom.

The second thing that I want to learn is what other districts are doing with these technologies. I have been through online courses through universities, but I have not seen first hand these technologies filtering down to the K-12 setting. I am interested in researching and studying what schools in the country use these technologies and how they went about implementing these strategies.

The last thing that I am interested in learning right now is how receptive students will be to using these programs. New technologies always provide bumps in the road for students. After navigating those bumps, I believe these technologies will benefit the students education and better prepare them for the world they will live in.

I am excited to start implementing these programs into my Engineering classes because I think that they will provide online forums for students to interact from other peers around the state and the country about challenges they are facing in the classroom. I also find this tool to be utilized as a means for having guest speakers from engineering firms. I hope that this program will teach me how to set up online virtual classrooms so I can have students interact with engineers from around the area as well as the country. My goal is to set up interactions with engineers around the world so students can experience technologies that they will be utilizing if they pursue a career in engineering.

I am really excited to start using Google Documents as a tool. I have had a brief run in with the program, but I really did not explore it much further. I found it really interesting when playing around with it how powerful the program is and I started generating ideas about how students will be able to collaborate with colleagues. Our school uses Blackboard for a means of collaborating, but the costs incurred are relatively large and I find it crucial in these economic times to switch to free programs such as Google Documents.

In closing, I am excited for this journey. I think it is one that this group of colleagues are on the cutting edge of. I am excited to take the knowledge gained and demonstrate it for my district. Together, all of our students will be able to prosper in the near technological future.