Integrated Tech plan

Speaking (Discourse): S.DS.01.01 engage in substantive conversations, remaining focused on subject matter, with interchanges building on prior responses in literature discussions, paired conversations, or other interactions.

Writing (Comprehension): R.CM.01.01 make text-to-self and text-to-text connections and comparisons by activating prior knowledge and connecting personal knowledge and experience to ideas in text through oral and written responses.

These are the GLCE's that I plan on using because I am taking them from another lesson that I have recently done. I want to see how challenging it would be to take a previous lesson and "kick it up to speed" with incorporating technology. I want to incorporate blogging in to my lesson plan because it is something that still challenges me so I think that if I can "force" myself to use it in lessons, I in turn will become more familiar with it and get better at using it more often. I think that some people misinterpret this technology as just a place to throw thoughts around, but I don't view that as a bad thing. I think it is important for students to hear others ideas and see if people agree or disagree with some of their thoughts, as well.

Digital Storytelling Prezi

Copy of CEP Digital Storytelling - ABC's on Prezi

I think this was a good "story" for me to use as a way to get to know the prezi technology because I could work on it as if I was planning a lesson plan for the classroom that I am in. Word problems are a bit tricky for students sometimes and I think this would be a fun way for them to be exposed to word problems instead of just seeing it on a sheet of paper. This method could be useful because for the classroom because it could keep the students attention and is a baby step towards bringing new technology methods in the classroom. I think that my students could benefit from this because it is set up in a user friendly way and is easy to catch on to. The students can experiment with new ways to present their ideas with little stress. I liked that it was easy to use once you got the hang of it, but I didn't like that I couldn't incorporate sound to go with my pictures and words. I thought it was a step above a powerpoint, so it is easy to use and a step towards learning and experimenting with new upcoming technology.

TECH BLOG

I personally think that Google Earth would be really cool to use in the classroom because it can be used as an exploring tool. Obviously, it is not easy for students to see other places, especially if they could be things like other countries and I think having this resource in the classroom would be very beneficial. The first thing that I thought of was using this more for social studies type lessons and presenting different areas to the class so they could actually see it instead of talking about it or only seeing it in books. I think that you could bring in a lot of other technology aspects with this, such as blogs, so students could observe and research some areas and then talk with other students about what they saw or thoughts they were having. Students could also research other sites or others blog posts about thoughts that were similar to theirs. I think this would be a good way to tie in a bunch of technology. The only drawback that I see from this resource is that it might only be appropriate after a certain age. I think that it is great to get younger students involved with technology as early as possible, but I also think that it might be hard for some younger students to handle because they might not have as much outside exposure to technology, especially depending on what type of area they come from. I know most schools have security and block on their internet systems, but I would also be a little worried about students finding information that was not relevant. I think this tool could also be beneficial for parents because the teacher could provide the site names for parents and they can keep track of what their child is doing from home.

TE 402 - CEP

I found it interesting as I was faced with two assignment that were somewhat similar in regards to dealing with technology. This class has done a fantastic job at broadening my resources for technology usage, but I found something interesting in my TE 402 class that I thought might be useful here. I was going to begin a project in digital story telling and I came across a site that said there was a way for ESL students to log on to their computer and view a program that would have a letter pop up and the student would hear how the letter sounded while seeing it and also see it in a sentence. I thought this was an awesome way for technology to be incorporated into ESL classrooms because it takes some of the pressure off of the teacher to make sure that each student is getting one-on-one attention. This allows the teacher to go around to students who might need help in certain areas instead of "wasting" the whole class's time.

Twitter

My friend was the first one to sign me up for a Twitter account, so needless to say, I was kind of struggling with how to use it. I have been trying to get the basics down about it and have been trying to constantly remind myself to update it or check it. I feel like once I get the hang of it, it will be more useful for me to use and I will constantly be updating. The biggest challenge for me is trying to figure out how to "retweet" or share things that I find interesting from other peoples tweets. I am so used to Facebook and being able to comment on things or tag people in things and this is kind of frustrating to me because I can't seem to do that as easily with Twitter. I know that if I keep playing around with it I should get the hang of it, I think I just need to do a little more exploring. I could see Twitter being most useful with communicating with others and updating others on new findings or experiences.

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Copyright Usage

I think that it is really important for teachers to be cautious when using images that are not their own and protecting the ones that are theirs. I think that teachers should talk about it with the students in their classrooms, especially before projects and things are due, to try to get students in a good habit of using proper sourcing and to remind them of the risk they take when they take others work. Along the same lines, I also think that teachers need to point out when they use other people's work in class and how they give proper acknowledgments just to show students the right way to do it so it is something that they are familiar with and should expect to do.

Creative Commons

I love this picture because I think it captures the idea of the world being made up of many different cultures. I think this would be an awesome lesson to teach and this picture sets the stage for the lesson. I think it would be really beneficial for a social studies lesson and I really think acknowledging the variety of cultures is something that needs to be taught from an early age and not ignored, as some teachers decide to do.

Original image: "The world is made up of different cultures"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweettradephotography/286423882/

By: Sweet Trade [Photography]

Released under Attribution Generic license

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

This is the photo that I licensed with Creative Commons. It is one of my favorite pics because it captures my favorite place to be.

Original Image: "beach pondering"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59480418@N06/5442180101/

By: Kristy Strouse

Released under an Attribution, Non-commercial licence (Creative Commons)

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/