New Tech Standards & Requirements

Oregon Educational Technology Standards

 click here to go to Oregon Department of Education page where you can view the full OETS.


The 3 OETS student standards that stood out me the most as being the most significant were (1) creativity and innovation, (2) communication and collaboration, and (3) critical thinking, problem solving and decision making. Below are some ways that I could incorporate these standards in my classroom as well as how these standards can positively augment my classroom.

Creativity and Innovation 
Using technology in the classroom can enhance the creativity that the teacher brings to the classroom. For example on a lesson on penguins in an elementary classroom, the teacher can use Internet videos to show students the penguin’s natural habitat, the students can hear the sound they make and see the way they move. Students can also use technology to breathe innovation into their own work. In the same penguin lesson students can create presentations on the new knowledge they have learned about penguins and post them on their class blog.

Communication and Collaboration
Blogs and other applications such as google docs create new windows into classroom communication and collaboration. Blogs enable teachers to collaborate with each other, share lesson ideas and resources. Having a class blog will also open school to home communication enabling parents to take a specific and active role in their child’s education.

Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making 
I think one of the current hurdles to the mass amounts of information that is available to students via the web is their ability to filter credible sources and non-credible sources. As a way to incorporate critical thinking and decision making on the web I would create and assignment where students find Internet sources for a project. They would need to find credible sources and one that is a non-credible source. The students would then present their project via another technological tool such as google presenter and defend why their sources were credible or not credible. They would need to think critically about the virtual author and decide for themselves if this author is indeed a trusted source.


 Technology is expensive. It develops rapidly and quickly old models become outdated. School funding is usually slim and doesn’t allow for the newest up to date technology. It is also expensive to maintain. In short I would suggest that finances are technology’s largest hurdles in the classroom. Because technology has become a frequent part of most our everyday lives, it has a permanent and an important place in the classroom. So how can we overcome this challenge? There are a few options; there are technology grants out there that can help equip a classroom or school with up to date technology, convincing administration of the importance of technology in the classroom is another avenue so budget allocation can shift to allow for more funding.

Analyzing Student Data in a Spreadsheet

I didn't have a lot of experience with spreadsheets and needless to say that I was a bit intimidated when this task was presented. The tutorials were very helpful. I admit that I had to walk away from my computer a couple of times and come back later with a less frustrated attitude.  My frustrations mainly came from the computer not cooperating.  I had some browser issues on one computer, as I was working on this task from 3 different computers; one mac and two windows based PC's.  I do feel comfortable working on google spreadsheets and creating charts/graphs now.

Overall considering the data from the pre and post test, each student increased their scores except for 1; Joel.  Joel experienced a lower score in his post test.  Considering the other data available Joel also has the least attendance with 8 days compared to all the other students whose attendance were at 9 and 10 days.  Joel is also the oldest student.  He is the only student in 12th grade in this class.  Joel aloso had the highest pretest score.  Considering Joel's attendance, he would have the least exposure to the teachers lessons and class experience, this could be the reason for the lower score, being the only senior in the class could also negatively impact Joel's attitude and possibly his test scores.  Perhaps he feels he should not be in this class.
Considering the formative assessments (1,2 and 3) each student did better on assessment 2 and 3, with the exception of Rut and Lauren.  They did better on assessment 1.
As the classroom instructor I would take Joel aside and see if there were perhaps some other things going on that are impacting his attendance and possibly his feelings about the class and the other students.

SreenR - Dropbox

Click play below to view my screencast on how to use the free application Dropbox.

Personal Productivity Tools

 The function of TinyURL is to "shrink" a long url to a very short manageable size that is easy to deal with.

The benefits of using a TinyURL as opposed to a long one for both teachers and students are ease and clarity.  Long URL's can get transposed incorrectly or when copied sometimes the long link does not work due to formatting issues.  TinyURL takes care of these issues easily and quickly allowing students to get to the websites their teacher wants them to go to.

 The function of DropBox is to create a virtual folder that will house all your files (there are space constraints) and allow you to access them from any computer.
                                                     
                                                       The benefits of using this tool as a student is really accessibility.  Often times students are working in multiple locations; school computer, home computer, library computer and this allows the student to save their work and have access to it with out having to email files or use a flash drive.  It makes working on papers and projects seamless as you will always have access to your work.  It is also beneficial for teachers as dropboxes can be shared.  Every student can share their work with their teacher through dropbox.

The function of Teamviewer is to enable another person access to your computer with out actually being there.  

                                                       The benefits for students here are that the teacher can help you even if you aren't in the same room.  If the student needs help this allows the teacher to really see what they see so they can diagnose problems or help the student understand better even if they are not in the same classroom.

What is Cloud Computing and Web 2.0

Cloud computing is a system of services that is offered via the internet.  The only thing needed from the consumer is internet and a computer.  The consumer can use/purchase as little or as much of the service as they choose.
The apps are stored and managed via a shared data center.  Apps are available for consumer and business professionals alike.

Web 2.0 reated and used by our social society, it enables us to stay completely connected from anywhere!
Web 2.0 apps include many that we use everyday! There is everything from socail networking like facebook and twitter to photo and video sharing like Flicker and You Tube and so much more!  Since all these applications are "web-based" I can access them from any internet computer.  I can check my facebook at home, on my friends ipad or even at the library computer.

Cloud computing and Web 2.0 enable people to work, share, socialize etc... from anywhere with out being tied down to a single PC.

Google Reader Project

The purpose of this project is to learn about Google Reader and it's usefulness in the field of education as well as in daily life.

Google Reader Project

 Since Google Reader enables one to basically personalize their own newspaper allowing them the choice of information that comes to them, it can be a great tool to use in the classroom. For example if the class was learning about government and elections the class could subscribe to various blogs and those blog posts would come in directly to the account allowing the students to track articles that are relevant to their learning. Teachers can use Reader as well to follow blogs that they use to find teaching resources, blogs on education trends etc...
My personal learning curve was not too bad. I liked watching the videos to get an idea of what Reader was all about and how to use it.
 In my group I added a video I found interesting that gives a general view of what Reader is as well an informative site on how to use Google Reader.

Post 3, video reflection

These two videos demonstrated how much our society has changed in a very short amount of time.  It has changed the way we communicate, the way we share content and the way that we educate and learn (vision 2011). Because it is changing how we learn, as an educator I need to be able to change and grow too.  I need to teach with methods that are relatable to students, not necessarily to me or my generation.  The Social Media Revolution video stated that a "Google book search scanner can digitize 1,000 pages every hour". To me this means that current students turn to digital resources for information.  The manner in which they receive and give information has changed and as an educator I need to change with them. We go to school and learn to better ourselves for our future, we are constantly building on what we have learned and adding new content all the time.  The students we teach are preparing for their futures, it seems natural to teach them for their present and future. 

Post 2: Blogging in education

It seems to me that blogging is best used for information sharing.  I share great stuff with you and you share great stuff with me and we are all the better, smarter and more informed.  I go to the Internet a lot for lesson planning, always on the look out for great ideas for in class projects, good videos to show (I recently brought my class to the school library to show them YouTube videos of polar animals, they loved it!).  A teacher friend of mine just recently launched a teaching blog and honestly that was the first time I had given any thought to a classroom or educational blog.  Here is the link to her blog if you are interested http://snippetsbysarah.blogspot.com/


The grade level I want to teach is early elementary, so strictly speaking for this age group some possible activities through blogging could be:


- Blogging about book reviews, taking a pen and paper task and create an online discussion amongst students.
- Create photo slide shows demonstrating their learned knowledge in an earth science activity; for example students could take pictures of plants on the campus as part of a living/nonliving earth science unit, then publish their photo's to their blog labeling and blogging about each item in the photo.
- Students could blog about the weather in their present environment and compare it with another environment on weekly or daily basis.  Each student could have the same or a different geographic area to compare.




As a resource blogging would be useful for:


- Sharing with parents what their children are learning about in the classroom though subject by subject description and photo sharing.


- Provide parents with specific online resources to encourage or help their students at home by providing links to educational sites.


- Enable other teachers to share ideas with each other.


- Share homework assignment with students and parents.
   

My Bio

I am a born and raised Oregonian, which makes me water proof.  However I do not have webbed feet, I do have a beaver tail though!  I am an Oregon State Graduate, with my undergraduate degree in Liberal Studies.  My focus was on education and Language Arts.  Prior to deciding to enter the realm of education I was a fine arts major.  One of my life's passions has been photography. It began in High school with an elective class in darkroom photography.  That art form fueled my artistic cravings and even lead to me purchasing a house with two kitchens, so that I could use one as a dark room of my own.  The smell of developer and film are still some of my favorite smells.  Photography has also served as an income for myself.  I have been doing portrait photography for the last 10 + years and I most enjoy wedding photography.  If you want to check out some of my work please visit my photography blog...intrigue images. 

Aside from my passion in photography, the classroom is where I really love to spend my time.  I have been working/teaching in a Pre-K classroom for the last 7 years.  After I finish graduate school my dream job would be teaching 1st grade.  I would also welcome K-3 too though!  I really love this age group, the enthusiasm and excitement that they have for learning and life in general. My favorite subjects to teach are reading, writing, and science.  I love the discovery of science.  I especially love earth science.  I love being outdoors and have a strong desire to keep in touch with my natural surroundings.  

My biggest love of all is my family!  I have two extraordinary daughters.  The oldest is 12 and the youngest is 9.  I am married to the love of my life, he is an engineer with great ideas and designs.  We also have two dogs, a Shepard and a black lab.  It doesn't end there though, we have two chickens too.  A Rhode Island Red and an Americana.  We have them mainly for eggs, every once and a while they hang out with us in the yard.