Technology

Educational Technology is a crucial aspect to all teachers curriculum's. After taking a class in Ed Tech, I have come to the conclusion that there are three areas of importance that really stood out to me. These areas include… Creativity and innovation, Communication and collaboration and Research and information fluency.

The first area…Creativity and Innovation is an extremely important aspect of education. This area allows students to apply existing knowledge to gain new ideas. This area relies on the connections the students are able to make. This could be a self to world connection, self to text connection or whatever the connection happens to be. This also follows a similar format that the students learn when studying literature. These connections could be implemented into new areas; especially technology. It is advantageous to allow students to expand their creativity. Technology gives students another outlet for this expansion. Students can use technology such as blogging, shared documents, video recording and conferencing to help inspire their creative side. A down side to this is that it may require some teaching as to how to use this technology. The upside is that none of these are very complicated and they are becoming ever easier to use as time goes on. The works created are all their original work and can be portrayed in many different forms.

The next area of interest and importance is Communication and Collaboration. This ties directly into creativity also but its focus is that of using technology to communicate. Thing like Facebook would also fall into this area. We need to realize that some of these tools can be misused but under the correct supervision they could be incredibly valuable teaching sources. Things like Facebook can be used in a classroom environment to communicate assignments and when it is tied into a document sharing service such as Google Docs it becomes even more convenient. To further more this, it can all be tied into a Skpye account to allow students to all work together on a project or projects. The downfall to all this would be having a limited technology at home or at school but the upside is that it really doesn’t take that much technology to accomplish any of these. The internet allows us to communicate in a variety of ways; we need to use this technology to help educate children.

The last area of interest to me is Research and information fluency. Using internet research tools and bookmarking sites, students can flawlessly visit websites and book mark those sites, making research projects quicker and more streamlined. Students can learn how to use specific trade journals in order to ascertain the accuracy of the information they obtained. Teachers can use the same technology to help evaluate students and track their improvements. There is a variety of research tools available to both students and teachers. A great place to start to find these applications is through Google. They offer a lot of free applications that work flawlessly with each other across the internet. Google Scholar is merely one example f such a source. This area may include some planning but the student will be able to plan him/herself the way they want to “approach” their research.

To conclude…The world is using technology everywhere, if we don’t use this technology in our classrooms, we will be doing the students and the future rulers of the world a grave injustice. Technology is not an option, it is what is running to world.

Analyzing Student Data in a Spreadsheet

Here is a link to the data sheet

There was a general upward trend but it was not as much as I would have like to see. The main problem I had was that there was a large number of students that did not "make the grade." If these were my students I would seriously consider changing something about my teaching stradegdy. It seems as though the needs of the lower level students have not been met.

Although this chart is useful to see the performance of students it is actually more importantly measuring the teachers effectiveness and could be used a a great self assessment tool for that purpose.

Helpful acronyms

School Alphabet Soup

The education system in the U.S. represents a large government system and like most government entities, schools have developed a long list of abbreviations and acronyms for our many programs. Following is a list of acronyms and abbreviations you will often hear in school settings.

A

• ABC — Antecedent Behavior Consequence
• ACT — American College Testing
• ADA — Americans with Disabilities Act
  (or) Average Daily Attendance
• AD(H)D — Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder
• ADM(w) — Average Daily Membership (weighted)
• AEP — Alternative Education Placement
• AP — Advanced Placement
• ASL — American Sign Language
• AMAO — Annual Measurable Academic Objectives
• AR — Administrative Rules
  (or) Accelerated Reader
• ASPIRE — Accessing Student Assistance Programs in Reach of Everyone
• ATOD — Alcohol, Tobacco & Other Drugs
• AVID — Advancement Via Individual Determination
• AYP — Adequate Yearly Progress

B

• BD — Behaviorally Disordered
• BICS — Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills
• BOE — Board of Education
• BSA — Boy Scouts of America
• BUZZ — Hartley Elementary's after school program
• BVAT — Bilingual Verbal Ability Test

C

• CAL — Center for Advanced Learning
• CALP — Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
• CIM — Certificate of Initial Mastery
• CIP — Continuous Improvement Plan
  (or) Consolidated Improvement Plan
• CLC — Community Learning Center
• CNP — Child Nutrition Programs
• COSA — Confederation of Oregon School Administrators

D

• DD — Developmentally Disabled
• DHS — Department of Human Services
• DIBELS — Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills
• DMC — District Media Center
• DMV — Department of Motor Vehicles
• DOE — Department of Education
• DRA — Developmental Reading Assessment

E

• EAP — Employee Assistance Program
• EBISS — Effective Behavioral and Instructional Support System
• ECCC — East County Caring Community
• ECE — Early Childhood Education
• E3 — Employers for Educational Excellence
• ED — Emotionally Disturbed
• EFB — Ending Fund Balance
• ELD — English Language Development
• ELL — English Language Learners
• ELPA — English Language Proficiency Assessments
• ESD — Education Service District
• ESIS — Electronic Student Information System
• ESL — English as a Second Language
• ESOL — English for Speakers of Other Languages
• ESY — Extended School Year

F

• FAFSA — Free Application for Federal Student Aid
• FAPE — Free and Appropriate Public Education
• FAST — Families and Students Together (RMS Program)
• FERPA — Federal Education Right to Privacy Act
• FMLA — Family Medical Leave Act
• FTE — Full-Time Equivalent
• FBA — Functional Behavior Assessment

G-H

• GLAD — Guided Language Acquisition Development
• GSA — Girl Scouts of America
• HIPAA — Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
• HQT — Highly Qualified Teacher
• HR — Human Resources

I-L

• IB — International Baccalaureate
• IDEA — Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
• IEP — Individualized Education Plan
• IMP — Integrated Math Program
• IPT — IDEA Proficiency Test
• ITP — Individualized Transition Plan
• LA — Language Arts
• LEP — Limited English Proficiency

M

• MECP — Multnomah Early Childhood Program
• MESD — Multnomah Education Service District
• MFS — Metropolitan Family Services
• MHCC — Mt. Hood Community College
• MIM — Mastery in Motion
• MLA — Multisensory Learning Academy
• MYC — Multnomah Youth Corps

N

• NAEP — National Assessment of Educational Progress
• NCLB — No Child Left Behind
• NRA — Natural Resources Academy
• NSBA — National School Boards Association
• NSF — National Science Foundation
  (or) Non-Sufficient Funds
• NSLP — National School Lunch Program
• NTSB — National Traffic Safety Board
• NWREL — Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

O

• OAR — Oregon Administrative Rules
• ODD — Oppositional Defiant Disorder
• ODE — Oregon Department of Education
• ODOT — Oregon Department of Transportation
• OHSPP — Oregon Head Start Pre-Kindergarten Program
• ORF — Oral Reading Fluency
• ORS — Oregon Revised Statutes
• OSAA — Oregon Student Activities Association
• OSAC — Oregon Student Assistance Commission
• OSBA — Oregon School Boards Association
• OSEA — Oregon School Employees Association
• OSHA — Occupational Safety and Health Administration
• OUS — Oregon University System
• OYA — Oregon Youth Authority

P-Q

• PAL — Police Activities League
• PBS — Positive Behavior Supports
• PERS — Public Employees Retirement System
• PLC — Professional Learning Community
• PSAT — Pre-Scholastic Assessment Test
• QEM — Quality Education Model

R

• RAA — Reynolds Arthur Academy
• RAMS — Reynolds Alternative Middle School
• RAP — Reynolds Athletic Program (afterschool grant program)
• REF — Reynolds Education Foundation
• RIF — Reading is Fundamental
• RIT — Rasch Unit
• RLA — Reynolds Learning Academy
• RLT — Reynolds Leadership Team
• RSD — Reynolds School District
• RTI — Response to Intervention

S

• SAT — Scholastic Assessment Test
• SBS — School-Wide Behavior Supports
• SDC — School Development Charges
• SES — Socio-Economic Status
  (or) Supplementary Education Services
• SHS — Student Health Services
• SIOP — Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol
• SIP — School Improvement Plan
• SLP — Speech/Language Pathologist
• SMART — Start Making a Reader Today
• SNP — School Nutrition Program
• SPED — Special Education
• SPIN — Students Preparing for Individualized Needs
• SSF(F) — State School Fund (Formula)
• SSID — State Student Identification
• STARS — Students Today Aren't Ready for Sex
• SUN — Schools Uniting Neighborhoods

T-Z

• TAG — Talented and Gifted
• TESA — Technology Enhanced State Assessment
• TOEFL — Test of English as a Foreign Language
• TOSA — Teacher on Special Assignment
• TSCC — Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission
• TSPC — Teacher Standards and Practices Commission
• USDA — United States Department of Agriculture
• USDE — United States Department of Education
• YTS — Youth Transition Services

Mulit-media Project

I used Screenr to record what I was doing on the screen. I had my daughter play around with it earlier and she understood how to use it. I let her show how she finds her favorite music video on the web. The one thing I noticed was that it works better if you shrink the entire screen and capture it in the "viewfinder."

The purpose of the tool is to record the movements one makes on the computer with a narrative along side the recordings, usually explaining what was going on.

A teacher could utilize this to teach a lesson and allow students to learn it at their own pace. The teacher would just need to record the screen along with the audio and the student would have the ability to watch it over and over as he/she deemed fit.

Here I am attempting to embed it...


Here is the link...
http://screenr.com/B6Os

Google Docs Group Project

Google Docs... Presentation
We took one of the items from the Google Apps Suite...Google Presentation and did out own presentation. In this we discuss some of the features of Google presentation. The top features seem to be it has a high level of security, It works seamlessly across the Google platform and it can be easily shared.

http://tinyurl.com/3dpom3t

One use for this tool in education is to allow students to complete a report combining the presentation aspect with the oral report aspect. Another benefit is that multiple students can work on this project at the same time and share the project across multiple platforms.

My learning curve was a little bit longer than most. I have only limited use with presentation software but after no more than an hour I had it figured out.

I contributed one slide and helped out on the final slide. Everyone in my group met the same criteria.

Other Notes

I would define/explain "web2.0" as programs that are used on other computers or servers and not downloaded on the individuals computer. The primary purpose is for sharing files or documents between computers and people. Web 2.0's primary objective seems to be to make things work together across all platforms.


This website had an interesting selection of web 2.0 "programs" that are available...
http://www.go2web20.net/

Another interesting website, which provides a lot of information about web 2.0 is...
http://www.web2summit.com/web2011

Notes on Dropbox

I am also commenting on "Dropbox" I really liked it. I installed it on my laptop and on my ipod touch. I was able to drop files into the dropbox icon and retrieve them on my ipod. The only thing I did not like about it was that it took my original document and moved it over to the drop box. I would have liked to have moved a copy of it instead. This really was not an issue but it causes me to have to open "dropbox" to get to my files. I understand this is the purpose of dropbox but I would like an easier way to get my documents. I wish it turned my entire computer into one giant "dropbox" so that I can access any of my files from the computer without having to move them around.

A few words about Yodio

Finally, I would also like to comment on Yodio. Here is the link to my Yodio on the OTEN conference.
http://www.yodio.com/Yo.aspx?CardId=2IeDADJUp36cO2lux0G610

I really struggled with getting this to work. I tried 3 cell phones and had nothing but problems. Finally I recorded into my computer, downloaded a translator to convert the file into an mp3 format and uploaded it to Yodio. I had to get online to get instructions to figure all this out. Sadly this experience had not made me a fan of Yodio, that is way to complicated for me.

Post 2 Blogging

Blogging can be used in the classroom for a lot of things. I think that treating the blog like a journal would be a great place to start. It could also be used as a venue to share information or ideas. I think it would be fun to allow the students to come up with their own uses for blogging.

Post 1 Biography

My name is Mark Waters. I am 40 years old and live in Scio Oregon. My wife is a fourth grade teacher in the Cascade School District and is going on her 12th year of teaching. I hope to teach first grade and that is why I am Willamette completing the MAT program.

I am originally from Long Island New York, I lived in Jersey and Pennsylvania until the age of 12. The reason we moved to Oregon was because, at the time, the school districts out here were rated much higher than the one I was attending. My parents are both retired educators. My mom a grade school Principal and my father a Principal and Superintendent.