Week 4 Testing

Week 4: Testing

Digital Natives

I thought the digital natives argument was extremely interesting. I would have to say that I definitely agree with the authors definition of digital natives verses. immigrants. I see it all the time at home with my parents, they are amazed at how I can text on a cell phone or the billion things I can do with a computer. Granted, my parents know how to work cell phones and computers also but I've been using this technology since i was like ten or even younger and possess more knowledge on how to work them then they do. It takes my dad like 5 mins to type out a text message while I can send one in just seconds. I also noticed the divide between digital natives and immigrants during my last few years in highschool when our school was receiving new technology. A lot of the teacher were aquiring this technology in their classrooms but had no idea how to use them. Many days we would be stuck trying to learn a lesson but the teacher didn't know how to work the smart board or the overhead projector and we had to wait for the technology guys to come help. I am very fortunate to be bale to take a class such as CEP 416 so I will be able to not just have new technology in my classroom but also be able to use and benefit from them. As far as myself is concerned, I would consider myself both an immigrant and a native. While I have been around new technology for a while, the generation below me has practically grown up with it from birth. When I was in highschool the children I babysat for, who were 3 and 5 when I started already knew how to use a computer, which blew my mind because they were so young. I walk down the street and see elementary school kids with cell phones. My brother who is in highschool now is more up to date on new technology then I am. So while I am def. not a full blown immigrant I would have to say that I am not quite a native either.

Tech Review Two

For creating my website I used the tool Google sites. Out of the two web page making tools we could have used I found this to be the easiest. I liked that there was a structure to where everything was and you could just click on the box to edit it, as opposed to Weebly where you had to drag and drop boxes onto your page. Pre-made templets are the way to go for me which is why I liked using Google sites. The only thing I didn't like was that it was hard to go back and correct mistakes if you created a sub-page. Instead of putting my resume page under the home page in the tab bar I accidentally made it its own page and could not find out how to delete it and start over, but oh well. I think using a website would be great for the classroom. I probably would not have the students make one, instead I would probably make a website for the entire class that the parents would have access to and make it in a newsletter type format. The website could contain pictures of things we have done in class as well as weekly homework assignments and upcoming important classroom and school-wide dates in addition to a newsletter section that I would have the children assist me in writing. Whatever they felt was important for their parents to know, or their favorite activities for the week would go into the newsletter for the parents to see.

Educational Technology

I would absolutely love to use blogs in my classroom when I become a teacher. I think blogs are a useful tool to help the entire class communicate with one an other using technology. Blogs give the students a forum to share their ideas with the teacher and each other and can help stimulate discussions online. If I were to use blogs in my teaching I would probably have students create their own blog for our class and require students to post one entry a week based on something we talked about in class, and then maybe have them post a comment to another students post to see if we can get a discussion going. I think that would be the most useful way to make use of a blog in the classroom. I want my students to view their classroom blog as a safe place where they can post their opinions, and one advantage of a blog would be if you had a student in class who is maybe afraid of speaking up in front of the class then the blog would be another place they could go to voice their opinion. There are however disadvantages of using a blog. Since blogs are online and you need access to a computer in order to have access to one, all your students will need to have access to a computer, which depending on where you teach is not always going to be possible for every student. Also, as teachers we hope that all our students can be respectful toward one and other but when it comes to things written in a blog or online, some students may write something that is offensive toward someone else or use the blog to write things not appropriate for the classroom.

Tech Review

The wiki creator I used to create my wiki and the creator I am reviewing is the Google Doc creator. I had never used a wiki before up until this year and just so happen to be using it for this class along with my TE 448 class. The wikis are alright I guess, if it were up to me and I were to use a tool like this for a class I was teaching I would prefer to use a blogger instead. The wiki seemed kind of confusing to set up and if I wasn't getting step by step help during CEP I would have had no idea how to set it up on my own, I felt like setting up and creating a blog was much easier. I do however, think the wiki is good because it gives the class another tool to comment on and view our peers "profiles" so to speak which helps the class get to know everyone a little better and have thought provoking discussions. A question I had was if there was any way to view our housemates wikis straight from the wiki page or Google instead of having to go back to the links in our emails or the links on the CEP gallery page. I had never used a wiki or heard about it until this year, and as technology advances I know I will be hearing a lot more about wikis and will probably have to use them at some point in my career. I'm glad I was able to acquire the knowledge of how to set one up and use one now instead of when it comes time to use one in my own classroom.