What I Have Experienced from Comic Life...

     What a great tool! I have learned an abundant amount of information while working with Comic Life. When I first started putting together my comic, I was thinking how in the world it this going to be beneficial in the classroom. Now, I can see that it would be an outlet for the students to be able to create something of their own, where they can add their own expression and personality into the project. Also, this is a fun and colorful way for the teacher to get an activity/lesson plan started because I think the students would enjoy reading the comics instead of just listening to the teacher talk the whole time. Comic Life would be beneficial for all student levels, and could be adapted to all student levels. This could also be adapted to fit almost any academic subject. It really allows for personal creativity and individualization, which I think students crave.

     I am so excited to have been introduced to the fun world of Comic Life. I cannot even begin to describe what I learned while experiencing Comic Life and creating a lesson/activity to go along with it. I learned and discovered how much fun and useful comic life would be in a classroom. This was my first time experiencing Comic Life, and I loved it. Comic Life helps bring in more classroom/student skills than just creating something fun. The students are able to learn/work on technical skills, writing skills, and language skills. If the teacher were able to find some way to incorporate Comic Life into each lesson/activity, or at the beginning of each unit, I think the teacher would find more of a learning connection with the students rather than just learning information from the book. Students want to learn and think “outside of the box” and I think Comic Life helps do just that.

 

Web 2.0 Applications - What in the world are they and how do I use them in a classroom?

Web 2.0 tools offer teachers great outlets for students. These tools are changing the way we teach, the way students learn, and the way we can impact student's lives. They have seemed to become more and more popular because classrooms are becoming more technology savvy. They offer great ways to incorporate group work, classroom and home projects, student/teacher/parent communication, and most importantly, they are helping students to become more individualized. The Web 2.0 tools help students be able to create their own personalized work that represents them. The teachers are able to let the students have free reign over the project, whenever before, it was so structured that all the projects wound up looking the same. These tools help break up the monotonous projects that bore students. With the tools, the students are able to add in their own style and still get the point of what they are learning about. Also, most of the time the Web 2.0 tools are FREE!! In times like these, and education funding being cut, teachers need free tools that their students will enjoy. I think these reasons are why teachers are finding the Web 2.0 tools to be so popular amongst their students. Some examples of Web 2.0 tools that are available to teachers are:

• Blogger
• Wordpress
• Myspace
• Youtube
• Metacafe
• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Furl
• Twitter
• Flickr

These just barely scrap the surface on what's out there for teachers to use. Search Web 2.0 tools for education, and you will be amazed at what you find!

Using the Correct Time Zone:

I just realized after my recent post, that it was not 7:29 in the morning. I didn't know that the blog defaults to Pacific Time Zone. I went in and had to change it to Eastern Time Zone. Now at least I can be on track time wise. :)

What Do I Think About Blogging So Far:

So far, I have found this experience to be an interesting and sometimes frustrating one. Coming into this project, I thought I knew how to use blogger. I quickly realized I was mistaken. The things that are required of me are challenging and require much thought. I have enjoyed getting to know how to use some of the gadgets that blogger has to offer, where before I didn't even know that gadgets existed! Deciding how I want my blog to look has been my biggest challenge yet. I had to review three of my peers blogs and I really took the time to examine their backgrounds, color themes, and what their design consisted of. I am still working on getting my blog to look the way I want it to. There are so many options that it makes it hard to just stick with one. I finally get my blog the way I think I want it to be, go visit someone else's blog, and then come back wanting to change something again. This will be a great learning experience and I feel that I will learn a lot about blogs and how to use them effectively throughout this course. I hope that I can take away most of what I have learned and be able to implement it into my future classroom as well.

Not Having Technology Period at School:

I realized today that I can't stand not having computers at school. I'm currently long term substituting at a Pre-K center, that is supposed to be technology geared for the 2010-2011 school year, and we have no technology in the classroom other than a CD player. We are supposed to be getting two computers this year, but I feel that the students would really benefit from being able to access a computer at school and play educational games. I think starting children at an early age would be successful for when they move into a school system they would already know how to use technology to some degree. This would also help stimulate the students that aren't able to access a computer from home, or use technological toys due to low income. If we had the computers like we are supposed to, it would make for a great learning center. I don't understand the fact that the GA Pre-K Standards say that each classroom must have two computers, and we have none, and no progress seems to be underway to match that standard. It really makes me frustrated as a teacher.

Technology Integration Article:

The article I found that focused on technology integration was based on technology relating to business students during their practicum classes in college and how integrated technology affected them as a whole. I found this article to be quite interesting because it was still relating to how technology is being integrated in today’s society, but how their findings were so closely related to how students and teachers feel when they are able to integrate technology in an educational setting. The article discussed how the technology enhanced the effectiveness of the instruction in their college courses and how the professors and other students proficiently integrated the technology. With this integration the students were had increased comfort levels on using technology more in their everyday lives other than what they were using it for previously, as well as helping the students to be able to positively relate to technology because we are impacted by it every day. The article went on to say that the students knew that technology was used every day, but they were able to see benefits from using it effectively when it was integrated in a positive manner into their lessons. They were able to learn about software that was available to them for free that they were unaware of that would later help them teach future business courses in a school setting. In the authors’ conclusion, they stated that the success of using technology lies with the students feeling comfortable with using it throughout their lifetime. 

My peers could find this valuable because we are all struggling to include technology into the curricula. I thought my peers would find this valuable because we are always thinking from the teacher side of the spectrum. I found this article to be from the student side of the spectrum and it informs the teacher that having technology helps them to succeed in their class assignments once they were able to use it properly and overcome the fear of incorporating technology into their lives. 

Citation: Cauley, F., Aiken, K., & Whitney, L.. (2010). Technologies Across Our Curriculum: A Study of Technology Integration in the Classroom. Journal of Education for Business, 85(2), 114-118. Retrieved August 24, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2074244681).

Discussion 1: Defining Technology Integration

For our first discussion we were required to summarize a chapter from our book, an article about eTIPS, and an article that we chose that focused on technology integration. I found this discussion to be quite challenging. I focused on mentioning the main points in the chapter and what educational technology means to me as an educator. The discussion as a whole turned out to be for informative. Lots of discussing went on relating to technology integration and how we as individuals felt about it. I learned a lot from my peers seeing as we come from all different walks of life. We are all not the same type of teachers, but we all offer vast knowledge in our areas and apply our knowledge when taking part in these discussions. I found the discussion to be a success. I was able to distinguish how I may have impacted my peers with my thoughts on the matter by their feedback on my article and summarizations.