Digital Storytelling

After reading the articles about digital storytelling, I got a much clearer picture about what it was all about. I loved the teacher's idea about having her students write about a special place to them. This was a topic that all students could relate to because it did not have to be a physical place, it could have been a state of mind or an inner place in their heart that was special to them. Transferring their ideas of this place into an iMovie is so cool because the students could add text, images, music, and so much more to really personalize their story and make it their own.
By doing something like this, your students are able to work with multimedia in the classroom and the learning and "work" becomes fun and creative. It is a great alternative to a traditional paper.
I think this is also a great opportunity for the teacher to get to know his/her students in a different light. You learn a lot about your students when they are allowed to be creative and they feel comfortable enough to open up their writing and really share their hearts.
I am interested in the different programs used for digital storytelling and hope to be able to incorporate it in my future classroom.

If I Teach This Way...

"When one integrates student experiences with technology into the curriculum, the role of the teacher changes. The teacher no longer has to be in charge every minute, but can give some of the control over to the students and the technology."
This passage straight out of the reading really stood out to me. As someone who considers myself to have a behaviorist style of teaching, I must say that this is also something that makes me step out of my box. It really talks about letting go of some control and allow the students to do some of the teaching, and also allowing the integration of technology to really take control of the classroom.
It is sometimes hard for teachers to step down a little bit and allow the students to feel like they have some control over conversation and learning in the classroom. I think that it is important to incorporate this style of teaching into all classroom at some point. It may not be used all the time, but I think that students have a lot to offer to each other from their point of view and allowing them to work things out having the teacher monitor the learning. The article also goes on to say, that "for this type of teaching to be successful, teachers need to give students time to explore the material and construct meaning from the experience."

There are so many different styles of teaching and it is important that educators find what works for them. It is also possible that you may incorporate a couple different styles of teaching. It is crucial that whatever style you choose, you still remain in control of the classroom and that your students have no doubt about who is in charge. Forming that respect between teacher and student will make every classroom function better and more successfully.

I Read It On The Computer...

The article "I Read it on the Computer" talks about ways to make students aware of what they are reading on the internet. It is so easy to access information on the web, but finding valid information the web is not always easy. Sometimes it is hard to decipher what is creditable information and what is not. Using lesson plans such as the one in this article will help students be able to weed out the bad information from the good information. While it is still possible that we may be fooled by false information on the web, having the tools to be able to eliminate through most of it will really help you when you are doing research projects.
As teachers, we need to guide our students in using the web. We need to make them aware of what is on the internet, and we also need to teach them how to locate and pick out the critical information.

"Not on the Web" talks about the main sources that the internet lacks. While the internet is a great tool to use when we are doing research, we should not just rely on what is available in the free internet. Most high quality reference books are not available on the web, as well as full text nonfiction books that have a lot of valuable information that the students will be missing out on if they rely solely on the web. It is good for teachers to encourage their students to research beyond the web and to explore the library for reference books to expand their research options.

Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere is a really cool way of getting your class to interact. It is a tool that teachers can use in the classroom to have students respond to polls, or text or twitter in their questions. The teacher can set up a free account for up to 30 people, after 30 there is a fee depending on how many people you have involved in your poll.
Teachers are able to get instant feedback from their students by just having them send in a text message. It keeps everyone involved and is a fun up to date way of collecting information.

Poll Everywhere can be found at: http://www.polleverywhere.com/

Integrating Technology Knowledge

Technology knowledge has become a very important part of our learning. In schools, we used to rely on content knowledge (knowledge about the actual content being taught or learned) and also pedagogical knowledge (knowledge of the practices and processes of the methods of teaching and learning, and how you can incorporate that with other things). The need to be technologically knowledgable has added another circle to our learning circle. They all begin to go hand-in-hand as we look at the big picture of things. We learn the content, learn how we can apply it to other areas of life and our learning, and then we use what we know about technology and we carry it out. Technology knowledge can be as basic as paper and pencil, all the way to logging onto the internet and searching the web for available web tools that can advance our learning. When we combine these three knowledge fields, we are equipping our students with all the necessary tools to be successful in the classroom, and outside the classroom. This way of thinking also prepares them for their more advanced education.

Evaluating Info Found on the Internet

With so much out there on the web, it is hard to decipher sometimes what is true and what is not. As current students, and future educators it is very important to know if what we are looking at is worth our time and if it is valid.
Some ways of checking for the validity of a source is to:
-See if it has a creditable author
-Does the work have a publisher? If it does, it is likely that it has been screened and more likely than not, the info that you are reading is valid
-Be aware of a biased point of view- Just because it is someone's view, does not make it fact, even if it is coming from a creditable author
-Check for knowledge of the literature... Is there a bibliography? Is the author using creditable sources to back his/her knowledge?
-Accuracy... Make sure that the source of the information is valid.
-Is the information Current? If this is going to alter your research, make sure you are finding up to date sources to research from.

Making sure we are educating our students on how to evaluate information that they find on the web is very important so that they have valid, up to date sources when they are looking for research. We are very fortunate to have so many sources available to us through the internet and other technological means, but it is our job to know how to use them and to be able to decipher between the good and the bad.

Literacy...

Literacy used to just pertain to just the ability to read and write. Today, it means so much more than that and is especially important when it comes to technology. Being literate in technology is very important and requires you to keep up with the times. Technology has become a primary way to communicate. It has taken over in the classroom as well as everything has been transferred from paper and pencil or marker and dry erase board to fancy power points or blogs on the web.
It is important as educator that we are aware of how much our students know about this advanced for of literacy and are able to sufficiently communicate with them through this. Literacy is a changing ad advancing at a very rapid pace and although the current generation is very "up on the times" a vast majority of the older generation is behind and I think that they should make an effort to understand the basics of the new generation literacy in order to be up to date because things are only going to become more advanced.