GEM 5 From Fear to Facebook

Chapter 5 Smart Parenting in a Facebook Age

            I really liked how the school from the book hosted a Parent Media Night.  During these meetings they would discuss strategies about how to talk to their kids about online safety and what to tell them.  The parents could share stories about things that have worked for them so that other parents might try them, and on the other side parents could bring up issues they have been having and look for some suggestions.  Parents can also try to agree on some of the norms of online behavior so there might be some consistency among the community as a whole.

            There is also a very interesting issue discussed in this chapter about appropriate teacher to student communication.  There have been quite a few controversies arisen out of teachers friending their students on Facebook and different events that might follow that.  Facebook can be a fun tool to use in the classroom but teachers need to be cautious and not put themselves in a situation where something might be misunderstood and an accusation is brought up.

GEM 4 From Fear to Facebook

Chapter 4 Kids Online: Lying as the New School Norm?

            There is an interesting debate going on in this between whether or not kids should be lying on the Internet.  On one hand, kids need to protect themselves from things like online predators.  But on the other hand, it seems that we might be encouraging kids to lie not only on the computer but it carries over to what they are telling their parents.   This is a tricky situation because first and for most you want to make the kids are safe when they are online, but if this is translated to kids lying about what is going on when they are online to their parents then is that worth it?

            One way to handle this is to have some classes that will teach and help reinforce ways to stay safe online and how to handle different situations.  The school in the book had something called Ethical Decision Making classes where they taught kids why and how to protect themselves online but they also gave so different scenarios so the kids could brainstorm together negative and positive ways to handle the situation.  These classes will hopefully teach kids the importance of protecting themselves when they are online and to know that part of protecting yourself involves telling your parents about the things going on when you are on the Internet.

GEM 3 From Fear to Facebook

Chapter 3 iTunes Schools: Customized Learning for the 21^st Century

            I liked that someone was concerned that schools were beginning to lose the face-to-face contact between students and teachers.  Technology is great and all and it’s nice to have to possibility to do more individualizing with online courses but we can’t neglect the power of the person to person contact.  Teachers have the possibility to make a positive impact on many kids but that possibility does not exist if there is no contact. 

            I’m not sure about this whole idea of kids being able to move at their own pace with a more individualized lesson plans.  It sounds like a great idea, especially since teachers would be able to make sure each child as the proper amount of understanding before moving on.  However, I don’t know how practical this would be.  Most schools have a state standardize test they need to administer to their students towards the end of the year.  It sounds bad, but there are some students that need to be pushed along so that they are at least exposed to all the material before the test otherwise there is just no hope for them.  Now some might argue that it is better to have a great understanding of some of the material rather than a vague understanding of all the material, but there is some much material covered on a standardized test like that because is tests over everything covered all year long.  These tests are starting to hold more and more weight to them as far as determining how much funding a school might get and sometimes it might even determine whether or not a teacher will keep their job.  There is too much riding on these tests to just let kids move along at their own pace throughout the year.

GEM 2 From Fear to Facebook

Chapter 2 Schools and Facebook: Moving Too Fast, or Not Fast Enough?

            I really like the idea of “sharing the reins” with the kids.  I know this is something that even some teachers at progressive schools do not really jump up on board with, but I have always been a fan of letting the kids have some control in the classroom.  Now this can vary greatly within age groups.  I’ve kind of gone with the saying that if you treat kids like kids, then that’s how they will act, but if you give them a little responsibility then they will rise up to the challenge and begin to act more responsible.  Plus, I also think that if kids have a little say in what they do for projects then they will get a little more excited about it and hopefully produce some quality work.

            There can be a real problem when it comes to communication.  There is the possibility of a large language barrier between technology natives and technology immigrants.  Granted some technology immigrants have educated themselves very well and can speak the language as good as any technology native, but that is not always the case.  Some of these baby boomers that are in the classrooms are going to have to take the initiative to learn about technology and the lingo that goes with it.

            I also liked the idea of “mirroring the online lives of the students.”   Using what they kids already know and use all the time can help create more interest in the lesson and therefore would hopefully result in the students getting less distracted with other apps on the computers. This could also create a 24/7 learning environment if the kids are so intrigued with the project or lesson they might spend some time outside of the classroom with it.  For example, if Facebook is incorporated into a lesson then the students might be inclined to continue looking at and thinking about the lesson at home since Facebook is already probably a part of their home life.

GEM 1 From Fear to Facebook

Chapter 1 Lessons Learned: Starting a 1-to-1 Laptop Program

            I was glad that I actually knew the 1983 movie he was referencing at the beginning of this chapter.  War Games is a great movie but I’ve never considered it in a way he used it.  I probably shouldn’t be surprised anymore but I am still taken aback when I see three year olds maneuver around an iPad better then most adults.  But the truth is, kids know technology and pick up on it so fast.  If schools move towards a laptop for every child then the adults are going to have to be on their toes or they will have some pretty tech savvy kids hacking into administrator’s accounts.

            It’s weird to think that schools are outgrowing their technology when they have something like a laptop cart.  That is something I never would have dreamed of my junior high or high school getting.  But it makes sense though.  I can see where it would be frustrating to have all those computers but they aren’t charged or kids can’t find their work because it’s all saved on different computers. 

            This school had some great stories of their first year with the laptops.  I loved they way one teacher was really into incorporating the technology.  As she put it, she was “meeting the kids where they are.”  She tried to use the technology the kids already used and liked into her lessons.  For example she used iTunes, Google images and other stuff to spruce up her PowerPoint.  She also had some projects where Facebook was used.

Chapter 8: Technology Planning (Friday, Oct. 28)

I visited the site Technology Planning.  This site was created by Doug Johnson. He is a consultant for school technology and for this particular write-up he did, he incorporates Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs into Mankato's Hierarchy of Educational Technology Needs.  For the technology hierarchy, he gives the following categories starting at the bottom: established infrastructure, effective administration, extensive resources, enhanced teaching, and empowered students.  The Johnson goes into detail about each one of those categories.  I like that under the Enhanced Teaching heading, he gives you tips and suggestions that teachers can use for incorporating technology into their classrooms to most benefit the students.  Then under the Empowered Students heading he gives another hierarchy.  Mankato's Hierarchy of Student Technology use looks like this starting with the bottom: simple use, basic skill use, non-applied use of productivity software, academic use of productivity software, and use as a tool for genuine problem-solving.
This site would be helpful to teachers because it goes beyond just telling teachers they need to incorporate technology or giving them strategies to incorporate.; not that those things are bad, because that is good information for teachers to have.  But this does a great job of explaining the importance of technology in the classroom and does a great job of displaying that visually through the different hierarchy need pyramids.  That also kind of shows the stages a student will go through with technology in the classroom, starting with the most basic and moving up to empowering them.  This site might help the reluctant teachers who might have been just going through the motions because their principal told them to incorporate technology, and after reading this they might put more effort after seeing the importance of technology.

Chapter 7: Grants and Funding (Thursday, Oct. 27)

For this chapter I went to the website Grants and Funding.  This is a great site to help teachers with grants.  This site primarily provides links about grants and funding for teachers to use.  One of the links is about the current news circulating about grants, non-profits, support, assistance, among other stuff.  Another link is a grant index where teachers can search by subject area, grade, or name of different grants.  The goal of this link is to help teachers find support.  One of the links it provides is for the Foundation Center.   The Foundation Center will collect requests and send out alerts when new funding becomes available.  GrantAlert.com is another link.  Through this site you can search for different opportunities for funding.  These links are only a few of the sites this one provides.
This site would be very helpful as a teacher.  Grants are a pretty important part of teaching, especially with the growing emphasis on incorporating technology in the classroom.  Technology doesn't come cheap, and money for that needs to come from somewhere and it more than likely won't be from the teacher's pockets.  Grants are a great way to help get more resources for the students.  This site is a great resource for teachers to find assistance with getting the funding.

Chapter 6: Cyberethics for Kids

I looked at the website Cyberethics for Kids.  This site is definitely geared towards kids, but it also has a link for teachers. In the section "Are You a Good Cybercitizen?", it talks to kids about a good cyber citizen looks like and then it gives the kids different scenarios to choose from and they can pick from different outcomes.  It is kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure in a way.  The next section is the "Rules in Cyberspace."  This gives kids the Do's and Don'ts  of Internet use.  I like that on some of the Do's it gives examples of them.  For example, of them is that kids can do visit museum websites.  Then it gives links to famous museums for kids to go visit their websites, like the Louvre.  The last section for kids is "You Can Get in Real Trouble for Hacking!"  This section teaches kids why they shouldn't hack onto sites or accounts.
The Cyberethics for Teachers site was overall pretty helpful.  It talks about strangers and hacking.  There is lots of information of computer crime, and it also includes a glossary of terms.  I could see this site be useful more from the kids section.  This would be a great site to use at the beginning of the year to kind of set up the rules for computer and Internet use in the classroom.  Of course there would be some discussion with the whole class to make sure everyone understands all the rules, but that site would be a great reteaching tool to make sure everyone not only understands the rules, but through the repetition of the website it would also help them to remember the rules.

Chapter 5: Blog-Technology and Learning

Just from simply skimming the title of the blogs, this seem like a great resource for teachers to use for ideas on how to incorporate technology into their classroom, most of which are in a cost effective manner.  The first blog that caught my eye was "20 Things Students Want the Nation to Know about Education."  A panelists of about 8 former and current students were on NBC sharing what they believe people need to know about education from their perspective.  They brought up points like skills that aren't being addressed that are needed in college, like critical thinking; teachers need to do more than us teach by the book; and incorporating technology can make learning more interesting and more meaningful to them.  I found this particular blog to be very insightful as a future teacher.
The next blog that caught my eye was "Make and Publish Books for Free Using a Cell Phone and Flickr." This is a great idea to help students publish their own works.  The only downfall would be that you need a phone capable of taking pictures and sending/emailing them.  This probably wouldn't be a problem at the high school level but will most definitely be problematic at the elementary level (or at least I hope it would be).  However you can still get around that by using the teacher's phone and sending them to Flickr that way.  I do love this idea, because students love when their works can be published and anytime you can do that for free is a great opportunity.
This would be a blog I actually wouldn't mind following.  It seems that it gets new posts fairly regularly, so the information would be pretty recent.  It has some great ideas on different things you can do with technology in the classroom.

Chapter 2 edutopia.org

This website can really help teachers shift their classroom to a student-centered classroom as well as incorporate technology into the classroom. The first thing that caught my eye was at the very top of the website. There is a link for a quiz about what your learning stle is. This is a great tool to use at the beginning of the year to inventory the preferred learning styles in your classroom.
There are a vast amount of videos for teachers to look at as well. Some of these include what differentiated instruction looks like, how to make time for every student, how to teach critical thinking, among many, many others. Simply based off these titles you can see how these videos would be beneficial for teachers to watch and how they would help teachers. Create a good learning environment for all of their students.
The last thing I want to talk about is the feature that allows you to look at schools that work. This lets you look at actual schools around the country and see what they are doing really well. Some of these include how schools have incorporated differentiated instruction, integrated arts and politics, merging career tech and college prep, as well as many others.
This site can be useful teachers. There are numerous resources and tools on there to help teachers set up an atmosphere or environment that would be most beneficial for students.

Adam's Presentation

My favorite thing that Adam mentioned today was that technology had to support what was going on in the classroom. It does not need to be the main focus or the driving point. But on the other hand,it cannot just sit in the room not being utilized. You need to have the happy medium in order to effectively implement technology in the classroom and make the most of each learning opportunity For the students.
I like that he addressed what classroom teachers can do to work with the technology director. This made his presentation a lot more meaningful to me. I have no desire to ever take on a role of the technology directed or anything like it. I do want to help out the technology director as much as possible and try to make their life a little easier since it seems they have a lot on their plate. I also liked that he brought in some examples of what he was talking about. That really puts i to perspective what all he has going on. That clearly takes some planning and a lot of time. Not mention all the other tasks he has to do, for example when he said that he had seven different screens up in his office. I definitely have a lot of respect for him and other people in his field.

Polly Brake's Presention

There were a couple of things I found to be quite useful from Molly Brake's presentation. The first is the thing she told us about getting the gift card from Walmart each month. I had no idea that it was available and it is so easy to get. As long as I can remember that, I definitely plan on taking advantage of that. Unfortunately I don't have the best memory, so hopefully this works out for me.
The second thing I found useful would be to see what the technology coordinator is offering that would qualify for CEU credit and to take advantage of it. It would very convenient to have those right at the school you are working at, and hopefully it would also be free of charge.
I guess I also kind of took away that I should maybe try to troubleshoot problems on my own first because it seems that technology coordinators have a lot on their plate. I don't reallythink that was a point she was trying to make, but I kind of felt sorry for her a little bit, especially when she put the work into planning those classes and then she had to cancel them. I would like to think that I would take advantage of technology classes that are offered even if I don't need the credit for it.

Chapter 4- Rubrics at Teach-nology

Assessment is a huge part of teacher's careers.  They are required to do some form of assessment all the time whether it's formative or summative.  Incorporating technology into these assessments can make a teachers' life so much easier.  One website that can help is Teach-nology. This site provides an efficient way to create rubrics for your classes.  As this site claims, rubrics are an easy way for teachers grade faster and let's the students know exactly what your expectations are for the specific project.  This site provides an extensive list of pre-made rubrics.  You can search this out by category to make it easier to find the one that suits your assignment.  It also provides templates so you can create a rubric if you do not find one that suits your needs.

I can see where this site will be very helpful as a teacher.  Teachers have so much on their plates and a lot of that stuff can be very time consuming.  I think teachers need to take advantage of any time savers because if they spend too much time in the classroom after school hours that it a recipe for getting burnt out quickly.  I love the idea of using rubrics to grade.  I like it because it helps the teacher stay consistent with their grading and I really like that you can give it to the students before hand and they know exactly what is expected of them.  I can definitely see myself using this site.

Chapter 3- "Engage Me or Enrage Me"

This article does a great job of explaining why kids are tuning teachers out in class.  When kids go home they have Internet, video games, television, and other forms of media.  They are very engaged in those activities and very interested in them.  It's no surprise that when kids come into the classroom they are shutting down.  Even some of the most engaging teachers cannot reach these kids if they are just sticking to the old curriculum.  The British government has actually given a large sum of money for the development of a digital curriculum.  I thought it was interesting when the article noted that kids don't have short attention spans when it comes to video games, music, television, or movies.  As educators, we need to do these kids better and teach them in a meaningful way.  I love the challenge this article concluded with: "I'm the tuned-out kid in the back row with the headphones. Are you going to engage me today or enrage me? The choice is yours."

I loved reading this article, and I think many other teachers (no offense, but especially some of the older teachers) would benefit greatly from this article.  When kids are playing these video games, they are actually displaying some great problem solving strategies.  We need to recognize their ability and relate those same ideas to what is going on in the classroom.  Incorporating technology is not a difficult task.  It might take more planning time and might even result in spending more time grading something, but would that be time well spent if it meant a more meaningful and learning experience for the students.  Wouldn't it be worth it to have a room full  of engaged students instead of having some of the enraged students?

ISTE Chapter 1

The technology facilitator can sometimes have a lot on their plate.  In the chapter, it says that technology skills and concepts cannot be neglected, instead they should be integrated into professional learning.  This gives an excellent opportunity for the technology faciliator to run an in-service day for the teachers to help them feel more comfortable using technology as a curriculum tool.  To help the facilitator plan their in-service, they can use a site called profilerpro.com.  This site gives a simple survey that looks at a person's knowledge, attitude and skill of technology.  This would help the facilitator get a feel for where the staff stands with technology, help them plan based on their needs, and let them know who can be some of the strong ones to be some other "go-to" people to help the rest of the staff get on board.  This site not only allows the facilitator to see the individual results but it also allows them to compare the group's results.

I completely agree with Williamson and Redish when they say that technology can help transfer knowledge in a meaning and authentic way.  Kids today are surrounded by technology.  Why not let them use it in the classroom too.  Incorporating technology can help increase interest in lessons and make learning a little more fun for the students.  There is a good chance that once these students are finished with school, they will be using technology is some form with whatever job they get.  We need to take advantage of the fact that these students are natives to the technology today and encourage them to use in many creative ways.

Chapter 9: Gaming

educationarcade.org

Education Arcade is a site that offers educational games is subject areas such as mathematics, science, history, literacy, and language learning.  It is geared toward a wide variety of ages.  This site really wants to get the educational circles talking about the positive effect that gaming could have in the classroom.  This site offers its games on computers, handheld devices, and you can have them delivered on-line.  They use some of the popular commercial games, because they do see some educational value from those games.  They also have games that were created by the some of the creators of the site that are more specific to the educational needs of today's students.

This site is perfect for chapter 9 since it is a gaming website.  In the chapter is briefly discusses some practical reason to use gaming in the classroom.  Two of the those reasons include giving the students a break and reviewing material learned in during the lessons.  This site offers things for both of those reasons.  Since it includes the popular games the kids already know and love they can play them without even realizing they are getting some educational value out of it.  It also offers games specifically for education so the students can brush up on their skills.

Chapter 6: Virtual Worlds (2)

whyville.net

Whyville is a virtual world that is aimed toward pre-teen and teen girls and boys.  In this site members can create their own avatar person, and then they can go places, see things, play games, chat with friends and much more.  Whyville really is like its own city.  It has its own senator, City Hall, town square, museum, beach, and even its own economy.  The members can play educational games and earn clams.  The educational games offer subjects such as art history, science, journalism, civics, economics, and a few more.  This site works directly with NASA, Getty, the School Nutrition Association, and others to help engage the students in educational content.  From what I could see, this site didn't offer much to say about security and safety.  That would be my biggest concern with this site.

This site goes right along with this chapter because it is a great example of a social and educational virtual world.  It didn't seem to address any safety concerns, but it is still a good website to have in the appendix of this chapter because it demonstrates both aspects, the social and the educational, side of how a virtual world can be helpful in the classroom.

Chapter 6: Virtual Worlds

clubpenguin.com

Disney's Club Penguin is a virtual world where kids are able to interact with one another using their very own penguin avatar.  With their friends, kids can do different kinds of activities, play games, and chat with each other.  Kids can submit the artwork they create and share it with other "penguins." This site really takes safety seriously.  They have people monitoring the online activity chat at all times.  They also strongly encourage parental involvement.  They even have their own little version of a neighborhood watch program where kids can apple to become Secret Agents and participate in keeping the site safe.  Parents can even limit the amount of time their child spends at Club Penguin.  They can either set a timer for that session or they can set a limit on the daily hours spent their.  One great thing about this site is that it is free from third-party advertisers, so no ads will pop up while the kids are playing.  For the most part the site is free, but there are some things you need to be a member for.  They have something new each week for the members to explore.

This site goes right along with the chapter for obvious reasons in that it is a virtual world.  The chapter briefly discusses this site under the heading Focus: Social; which is fitting because this site really holds no educational value to it.  The chapter goes a little into the safety concern and this site is a great example to have of what safety in the virtual worlds can look like.  This site also fits right in with what the chapter considers one of the most important reasons for virtual worlds: exploring creativity.  Club Penguin lets kids do just that; they get to be create in creating their avatar and while doing the various activities.

Chapter 3: MP3 Players

learnoutloud.com

When you sign up with learnoutloud.com it gives you access to thousands of audio books, podcasts, and videos.  The site does offer some free stuff, but for the most part you will have to pay for what you want.  You can search for what you want in a variety of ways: most popular, by author, by publisher, etc.  When you become a member you get credit each month you can use to buy things, and if you don't use the credits they will roll over to the next month.  Everything you download from this site is in MP3 format.  Members can also get some good discounts on the merchandise.  One cool feature about this site is you can publish your own stuff.  There is an extension of the site called Teach Out Loud.  This part of the site allows teachers to publish their own work.  I really liked the mission of the site.  They want to show teachers that it is easy to turn that "down time" into something special and educational for the kids using audio and visual tools to help fill that time.

This site fits right in with the chapter because the chapter is all about MP3 players and everything you download from this site is in MP3 format.  This site have many educational uses which again goes right on along with the chapter since it also discusses how to use MP3 players in the classroom.

Chapter 1: 21st Century Skills

21stcenturyskills.org

This website gives a nice overview of what 21st Century Skills are and how they are incorporated.  One of my favorite things about the site is that you can watch videos of actual classroom using 21st Century Skills and you can upload your own videos to add the community of classrooms using these skills.  On the Overview page, it gives a great figure to show what 21st Century Skills are all about.  This is a great visual because it shows that 21st Century Skills do not neglect core knowledge, but it incorporates everything together in a way that most benefit the students.  This site also lets you know what different states are doing to incorporate these skills into their schools.  You can also request to have a speaker come and address various topics pertaining to 21st Century Skills.  This could be a great resource for a professional development day.  This site also offers a guide book called a MILE Guide.  You can buy paperback copies or you can download a PDF for free.  The last aspect of the site I want to talk about it the Route21 feature.  This is an interactive tool that helps demonstrate how to integrate core knowledge with 21st Century Skills.

This site is basically an extension from the chapter in the book, which makes it a perfect site to have in the appendix.  The chapter talks briefly about what 21st Century Skills are and how to incorporate them, this site goes into great detail about everything that has to do with 21st Century Skills.

MY WEBSITE :)

 It was a long process, but I finally completed it!!!! It was slightly frustrating at times, especially after we created a website using Google Sites and it was so much easier.  But it was pretty cool to see a website come together from the ground up. Hope you enjoy :)


Click here to view my website!!!!!!

Digital Citizenship

The characteristics of digital citizenship can be summed up in three categories: respect yourself, respect others, and respect outside limits.

Respect Yourself:
Kids should understand that once something is one the internet, it is no longer a private matter.  Even if privacy settings are set-up, it is still possible for some people to access the information.  Kids should also be aware that even if they delete something off the Internet it can still be retrieved in archives.  With these things in mind, kids should think twice before posting something on the internet and make sure it is not degrading or misleading in some way.

Respect Others:
With the same ideas above in mind, kids need to be aware of their posts can affect others.  They need to respect the privacy of others and not post any information about someone else.  They also need to be kind with what they are putting on the internet.

Respect Outside Limits:
There are some sites that have you accept their terms before proceeding, kids need to take that seriously and abide by the terms.  Copyrighted material is another problem sometimes.  Kids should know that not everything on the internet is public domain.  And finally kids need to be aware of plagiarism.  They need to know how and when to give credit where credit is due.

I don't think it is a bad idea to charge sexting as a felony.  Kids need to know that it is not a permissible action and there will be consequences.  I would like to think that with being an elementary school teacher that it would not be an issue there, but I would definitely have a no tolerance policy with that one.

Creating Content---Images

I don't believe I have ever had any experience in downloading pictures.  I have, however, had plenty of experience viewing photos.  This is something I have been doing for many years.  I would say most of this experience comes from needing pictures for presentations.  Google Images is always the place I go for that.  Most recently I was retrieving images to put into my camp program.  Videos, on the other hand, I have had experience downloading and viewing those.  Youtube, of course, is the place I always go to for that.  Most of my Youtube trips come from someone telling me I need to watch this video, so I jump online and watch.  I have downloaded some videos to use with the kids at church.

I have lots of experience uploading pictures to the Internet.  For the most part, all of the pictures I have uplaoded have be done of Facebook.  There have been a few times where I'll post some pictures in other things like my teaching portfolio.  I suppose my purpose in posting pictures online is to share what's going on in my life with friends and family that aren't always there to share those memories with me.  I've never personally posted a video, but I am in some of the videos my friends have posted.

Definition of: Creative Commons:
An organization that has defined an alternative to copyrights by filling in the gap between full copyright, in which no use is permitted without permission, and public domain, where permission is not required at all. Creative Commons' licenses let people copy and distribute the work under specific conditions, and general descriptions, legal clauses and HTML tags for search engines are provided for several license options.
(Source for definition: PC Magazine)

The creation of Creative Commons allows teachers and students access to more photos and videos.  It gives a nice middle be complete access of the non-copyrighted stuff and the no access to the copyrighted stuff.

Creating Content---Writing

Blogs- entries appear in reverse chronological order, so the most recent one appears first; they can include words, pictures, or links; can be a sentence or two long or many paragraphs; can consist of one author or have many contributing authors; comments can be monitored before going public to help with censorship.

Wikis- allows visitors to add, remove, or edit the content of the page; some wiki sites come with templates for the user to get started, and some the of the templates still allow the creator to personalize them; even if the the templates do not allow for personalization, you can still personalize them by adding graphics; while any visitor can make changes to the wiki, the owner can limit the visitor's ability to view and edit the content.

Web-based Word Processors- allows the user the create, edit, and store files; eventually the files can be published to the Internet; the user can invite others to view the document and edit it; simultaneous editing is possible.

The only personal experiences I have with any of these three tools comes from my classes at Johnson both in in the undergraduate and graduate level.  I've never really had time to experiment with these tools on my own, so the only time I've played around with them came from required class assignments.

Gaming

For me personally, I loved having the option of playing educational games during school.  Looking back it was a good way for the teacher to reinforce concepts that we were going over, but it also taught general concepts such as problem solving.  But the genius of the whole thing was that I was not aware that those were the teacher's motivations.  For me it was something fun to do after I completed my work.  Of course I new they were educational, but it wasn't something I felt the teacher was making me do.  I really wanted to play the games and my only concern was getting as far along as I could in the time that I had.  So even though my motivations were not to continue to learn concepts or to help my problem solving skills, I was still getting that.  Plus, it was good motivation for me to stay on task so I could get my work done and be able to play.

Even though kids are more technologically advanced these days, I still think there is some value to having educational games in the classroom.  The challenge might be to find games that interest them or that are up to their gaming standards.  I don't know it Oregon Trail will hold their interest or not like it did mine, but something of the equivalent would be good to use with them.

I think having students make their own mini games would a great review tool.  It helps the students who makes the games, because the are reviewing all the material as they put it into the games.  Then it would also benefit the other students when they play to the game to review the material.  Having the students make their own games would be great for the class because it would not be some generic game, but it would be specific to the lesson or unit the class was talking about.

Virtual Worlds

I have never been apart of any virtual worlds.  They have never seemed that appealing to me.  Besides that, I've always had a pretty busy lifestyle.  If I'm on the Internet, I'm already spending too much time on Facebook, so the last thing I need is something else that I'm sure is very time consuming.

I'm kind of on the fence about virtual worlds having a place in education.  Reading some of the examples the books, they seem like they could be useful.  There seems to be a lot of educational ones that can reinforce what the students are learning.  Some also include ways for students to publish their work.  In the schools I like they could be a good tool to have.  I just wouldn't want it to become something that kids find themselves spending hours in outside of class.  I think there is already a lot of enticing games out there that consume a lot of their time.  Sometimes it seems like kids have lost the fun of going outside and running around or doing whatever.  Anymore, it seems like they just want to be in front of a television, a computer, or some kind of hand-held gaming device.  I don't know, is see valid pros and cons of both sides.  I'm not sure what I'll think about it when I have my own classroom.

Social Networks

I did not join a social networking site until I came to college and I joined Facebook.  Since a lot of my friends were going to different colleges we found this to be a great way to keep in contact with each other.  We enjoyed looking at each other's photo's so we could actually see what was going on in each other's lives and not just read about it.  Shortly after I got a facebook a lot of my family got one as well, and that was so nice to have another way to keep it touch while I was away at school. As much as I hate to admit it, I might have become addicted to Facebook. It is safe to say I check it more than I do my email.  One of my favorite features is that it tells me when it's my friend's birthdays.  Of course I know my close friend's birthdays, but this makes sure I don't forget antibody's birthday.  Facebook chat is another thing I love, most of the time.  It's great to catch-up with old friends or to just get a homework break from a friend down the hall.  Sometimes I wish I could block some people every now and then that want to chat all the time, but I guess there are pros and cons to everything.

Honestly, I don't think I have a vision for social networking in a 21st Century learning environment.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having the 21st Century skills taught right along with the core knowledge, but since I am going to be an elementary school teacher, I don't know how I feel about my students being on a social network.  21st Century skills are great and I think they are necessary for our students to learn, however, with the 21st Century skills comes living in the 21s century.  Now this might be coming from me watching too much Criminal Minds, but we live in a scary world.  We can't be naive about that when it is dealing with the safety of our kids.  As of right now, the only way I would be for social networking in the classroom is if there was a way to have more control over the kid's pages.  I would want to monitor who can be there friends, and that would only be the people involved in our classroom, maybe the other classes in the same grade, and maybe even the whole school.  But there would have to be some way to make sure no one outside of those involved in the school has access to their pages.  I might sound a little uptight about this, but the only benefit I see from having social networking in the schools is to create a learning community and there are other ways about going about that.  Google offers ways to set that up, and even with that there is an age issue as well.  But there are also sites like Engrade that can also create a learning community.  For me, when it comes to the kids, it's always better safe than sorry.  But I do keep an open mind about this, so if there is a safe way to go about it, I would be all for trying a social networking site in the classroom.

Netbooks

I am definitely a proponent of one-to-one computing in the classroom.  I'm not sure how realistic it is because of the cost, but if it is feasible I would recommend it for any classroom.  It would take some work on the teacher's part to revise lessons so that having the technology in the classroom is a meaningful experience to the students.  The computers is a great way to make sure students are learning some of the 21st century skills along with the core knowledge that comes with the state standards.  I like the ideas of having a student-centered classroom and using project-based learning and with every student having a laptop, these ideas are even easier to implement.  It can encourage students to become independent learners.  Given that our society is a becoming more and more technology driven, this is just another way we giving our students the necessary tools and information to be successful outside of the classroom.

Both netbooks and ipads are great ways to put technology in the hands of each individual student.  It seems that you could probably find netbooks cheaper than you can find an ipad, but with that comes to bulk of the netbook compared to the ipad.  Each of these could be considered a distraction in the classroom, but with proper classroom management strategies, that can be eliminated.  The size of the ipad definitely puts it ahead of the netbooks.  Another advantage of the ipad is the maintenance.  Some articles about the ipad claim they have less IT problems than computers do. Many teachers can be educated enough to troubleshoot problems on their own without needing to bring someone in the classroom to fix the problem.

MP3 Players

Some of the pros of MP3 players are: they can be used for mobile technology in the classroom, they can help ELL students improve their English and English speaking students to learn other languages, and the possibilities for using an MP3 player in the classroom are endless.

Some of the cons of MP3 players are: they are distracting, students can use them to cheat, some believe students isolate themselves when listening to them, and there is the temptation to illegally download or upload files.

The Wikimedia Commons website seems to be a great resource for teachers.  They have pretty much every content area in there, so you are bound to find something (whether it's a video, image, sound, etc.) that can be related to a lesson. Best of all everything available on the site is free.  The Radio Willow Web was interesting to see how a school was able to involve so many members of the school in creating podcasts about things going on in the school.  I think this would be fun to do, but it was also be somewhat time consuming with trying to keep posting things regularly.

I think the idea of teachers being able to post information in the podcasts.  If a student is sick and cannot make it school, then they do no have to worry about missing out on what the teacher was teaching that day.  It can also be a study aide for students to go back and listen to material that was taught during a unit.  I also like the idea of students being about to create podcast.  Publishing students work is a great way to boost self-esteem and also to encourage the students to put a lot of effort into each project.  Turning a story they wrote into podcast can make the students really proud of what they did, and they can share it with many people that way.

Cell Phones

I had never thought about the concept of cell phone ownership being related to families spending less time together.  It makes sense to me, why else would a teen need a phone unless the were going to be away from their family and need to call them. I was pleased read that this is not the case, and in some cases communication in the family increases when there are cell phones. I was really surprised to read that 46% of kids ages 9-11 have cell phones and 20% of kids ages 6-8 have cell phones.

Some of the cons of cell phones in schools are cheating on tests, disruptions in the classroom, prank calls, and sexual harassment. Some of the pros of cell phones in schools are kids have access to a watch, calculator, alarm clock, camera, and games (which can be a pro or a con).  Some teachers even think that when students see the phone as a tool, it can make learning engaging for the students.

I really liked the ideas given to use the camera in lessons, because this can be used for all grade levels. They can take pictures that show the letters of the alphabet, geometric shapes, concepts learned during a field trip, or create inspiration for creative writing.  There are many lessons that can involve the camera on the phone, and anymore it's hard to find a phone without a camera, so if a kid has a phone it will most likely have a camera.

I also agree with them about the etiquette lesson about using cell phones in and out of the classroom; something some adults should have a lesson in as well!

21st Century Skills

I was glad to read that one person has the right idea with this debate about whether schools should focus on core knowledge or 21st century skills.  These two concepts are not separate from each but should be placed on a continuum and schools need to find the right balance between the two, neither one can be left out.  I was pleased to read that when parents were surveyed the majority seemed to agree with Ken Kay in that both should be taught.  It is a little discomforting that most of the key people involved in the debate are advocating solely for one or the other.
This is slightly on a side note, but the chapter had a little write-up about it so I feel the need to say a little something about it as well.  The issue of summer break being too long seems to be making a bigger splash into the education talk.  Like it was mentioned in the book, many people are concerned with the length of the break causing students to forget what they learned and as a result there is too much time spent reviewing at the beginning of the year.  Don't get me wrong, it's a valid point and I can agree with it to a certain extent.  However there has to be a better answer than shortening summer vacation.  I feel that in the fast-paced society sometimes kids are growing up too fast.  Summer vacation is great time for them to just be kids again.  Things like summer camps, which many positive impacts on kids, are hurting from this idea to shorten their vacation time.
I hope this issue of chosing between core knowledge and 21st centery skills is headed in the right direction.  It seems pretty obvious to me that we need both in the classroom, so that our students are ready to succeed outside the classroom.