Final Assignment-YIPEE!

This will be a great opportunity to collect my thoughts on what we have covered this semester. I am amazed when I think of how my students interact with technology compared with my experiences as a teenager 30 years ago(that is hard to admit), or to the technology we use in school now compared to when I started working here 7 years ago. My computer lab was the exclusive exposure to technology for elementary students. Now with every teacher having a SmartBoard, I have had some of my lessons "stolen" and have had to look for new things. This is not a bad problem of course.

I think the greatest impact of technology will require us to evolve the way we process information. How much time should we spend teaching cursive handwriting instead of keyboarding? How much time should we spend requiring the memorization of states and capitals instead of using accurate data bases to look things up?

The second worry I have is for people to want technology in the classroom without providing the training to use it to it's full potential. I also see little benefit in forcing technology on teachers who are not comfortable with it. Expensive gadgets are not worth it if they are only going to be used for simple word processing, or games.

Newsletter Assignment

Articles for my newsletter will focus on the k-6 book club, Study Island (take off from my PowerPoint presentation), and acessing online databases (take off from my brochure). This is my intent, unless of course I become inspired by another topic over the weekend.

Brochure

I am torn, but the due date for the post is almost gone. Two ideas are rolling through my head.

#1, At the end of this month we will be doing a book club for k-6 that will meet 4 times through the winter. Each child needs an adult partner and there are books for every level. Games, snacks and prizes go along with book discussions.

#2 Create a brochure for library patrons on how to use aquabrowser, our SELCO online card catalog. The brochure would also include how to navigate our online data bases as well as Accelerated Reader and it's AR Bookfinder. A folded instruction sheet would be handy for students.

I guess I will start playing and see where I end up over the weekend. Wish me luck!

The Powers of PowerPoint

Timing for this assignment is perfect. My school recently subscribed to Study Island, a program to help students study for the MCA II tests. I told my principal I would be happy to help get students set up in the program, which turned into being asked to be the administrator. Oh, well, I love technology and have a room full of computers.

Now that the students are using the program, teachers are asking for help on using it too. So I just completed a PowerPoint presentation on Study Island that I will be giving in the next couple of weeks.

Website Project Completed!

The Media Specialist at my school completely revised the media center website last year, so I created my own imaginary library site using Google Sites. Check out the link:
https://sites.google.com/site/mshansonsimaginarylibrary/

Blog Assignment Questions

Blogs in the k-12 classroom could be a useful tool if managed properly. Writing is often thought of as a painful task that many students avoid. Blogging uses a format similar to the social networking and texting environment teenagers live in making the sharing of ideas seem less daunting. In the article "That's online writing, not boring school writing" author Shelbie Witte tells about her 8th grade language arts students who were spending hours each night writing to each other on Xanga, while putting forth very little effort to write for school. It appears that students view sharing ideas online differently than sharing them on paper.



I found the benefits of online discussions useful in my GTL classes this summer. I learned a lot by reading assignments and answering the questions that went with them, but I obtained higher order thinking when required to read my classmates' posts and comment. As noted in "Five Don'ts of Classroom Blogging", "students perform better when they know their peers will be reviewing their work as opposed to merely having to face the judgment of their teacher" (p26).



My main concern in the k-12 environment would be managing blogging. Clear guidelines and expectations would have to be set, and strict monitoring would have to occur. I am unsure if this would be more time consuming than traditional paper grading.



Like many other forms of technology that have entered our classrooms, blogs could be a useful tool in education. I think teachers and media specialists need to stay current with the tools available to provide a variety of educational stratagies. However, this is not an easy task. Often times, students seem more comfortable with technology than adults.