Strengths and Weaknesses

The field experience that my partner and I had with technology was great. I feel that I learned a lot from the experience. I have a Mac laptop, which I find as a strength to be able to use with technology today. That is the system that the school used as well as all of Provo School District. I have had my Mac for almost 3 years now and almost every day I am learning something new. There are endless possibilities with Macs whether it is iMovie, Garage Band, Photo Booth, and more. We did use Photo Story to create our digital story, but converted it so it could be shown on my Mac. In our classroom we had a smart board, which the board hooks up to your Mac. It was amazing to know to show the students information it was easy as 1,2,3. What I created on my Mac the students were able to see that information instantly as it was projected on the interactive board.

A weakness of mine from the UNI survey was demonstrating awareness of resources for adaptive assistive devices for students with special needs. The Apple website has a section called Apple in Education -Special Needs where it discusses the special features that Mac's have to help students with the following disabilities: Literacy and Learning Disabilities, Vision Disabilities, Hearing Disabilities and Physical and Motor Skill Disabilities. It is an online tutorial that explains things like the iChat where hearing impaired students can see others using sign language to speak to them. As a future teacher I could put my lessons into sign language so that child could engage and interact with the class. It would be important for that student to have access to a Mac computer. As a goal to help me in the future I need to be aware of assistive devices for students with special needs. Every child deserves an education regardless of their disability! For more information on the tutorial that I found: http://www.apple.com/education/special-education/

Another weakness of mine would be being able to learn how to use the technology that was available such as the smart board at the school that we were at. I have heard all about smart boards, but have not really been able to use them that much. The little that we did use them I was struggling with using the pen and when I would write on the board it would not write, as I wanted it to write. We used a graphic organizer overlay and had difficulties with that as well. In order to make my weakness a strength it will consist of me playing around with the interactive board. As a goal I need to practice more with the smart board. I am sure I will get better and be more comfortable with using this tech tool. I found a great tutorial that teaches you the basics with using the smart board such as using Math tools, communicate with others, SMART document camera, creating an assessment, and so much more. To find out more with the tutorial: http://www.smarttech.com/us/Resources/Training/Training+Search This tutorial will further my professional growth by being experienced and educated with smart boards. I will be able to know how they work and what I can be able to do with them in my classroom.

My Beliefs

I have a strong belief on the importance of integrating technology. I hope I can be educated in all the technology tools out there. Our technology is changing daily. In our society today students thrive off of technology. By being familiar with technology tools they will help me significantly in my future classroom. I know that it truly comes down to me wanting to learn and keep up to date with the new technology to incorporate it in my future classroom.

When integrating technology into my classroom I hope I will be able to have the opportunity to have an interactive board. There are several possibilities with interactive boards. It helps students on a whole other level. Interactive boards open many opportunities in the classroom. Interactive boards get the whole class engaged and involved. No more boring lectures or chalk all over you! Not only will the children enjoy the boards, but also parents, and faculty and staff. The boards can accomadate almost any age. I know with out a doubt that it will benefit students in several areas. I believe this is the future for learning!

I am excited to integrate several tech tools into my classroom. I hope that I can share with my students the endless possibilities technology has to offer. I want to teach my students how to create a podcast, vidcasts, convert YouTube videos, interactive power points, digital stories, blogs, their own website, newsletters, collages and so much more. I hope that I can create beneficial and meaningful lesson plans that will have my students engaged and interacting with technology in some way. I believe through technology my students will be better prepared for the future.

Lessons Learned

I have learned a great amount from the readings and videos. Something from the readings that I enjoyed was “Tools for Change,” by Kathy Schrock. In “Tools for Change” I learned the comparison of instructional practices for both the teacher and student. With the student instructional practices it said for the old way that they are the receiver and with the new they are the searcher. Students today are searching and exploring in the educational setting. Another thing I learned was that it talked about the new way for content and it said real-world problems. Tying real-world problems into the curriculum has increased immensely. I have seen this help students make connections on a whole other level with content.

In the “Did You Know” video it was full of powerful information. Some of the information made me speechless. This video was beyond interesting. As I watched this I learned that many things might be affected in the future. For example, it said that we are preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist. It not only discussed the United States, but also other countries such as China and India. Also using technologies that haven’t yet been invented. The video discussed that if MySpace was a country that it would be the 11^th largest in the world between Japan and Mexico. The amount of technical information is doubling every 2 years. After viewing this video I know without a doubt that technology is changing right before our eyes. Our society evolves around technology and we rely on it 24/7.

The other article that I really liked was titled "Study: Teens See Disconnect Between Personal and School Writing". I worry about our youth today because I feel that many of them are losing the ability to communicate with others. So many youth are online using Facebook or texting. Almost everything is abbreviated such as “lol” and teens say things like “U2” rather than writing you too. As teachers need to allow the students to be creative. The article stated that many of the students feel that they are not able to be creative in their school writing, but they can be creative when they are writing on Facebook, in texts or other non-school writing. We can and should allow students to be creative. We have been learning in this class how to do that by teaching students for example to blog their thoughts as a journal, create their own websites, and digital stories.