A Product of the Before Generation

Am I really that old? I didn't grow up with horse and buggy or had to walk to a pump to get fresh water. I think about the onset of the technology age and realize how far and fast things have developed. I grew up playing ball in the street and riding my bike around the neighborhood for fun. My family would sit down and watch the three channels on the television set focused by the aluminum foiled rabbit ear antenna. We had one T.V. that sat in our living room.

I remember the day when the cable company rolled their trucks into my neighborhood. The men were stringing the cable lines along side the power lines. We were getting cable! The few cable channels were fascinating! I could watch Australian Rules Football on ESPN. Then, there was this music channel that played our favorite songs all day long.

Next up! My family got our very own Radio Shack Tandy computer. I think we had to type in more codes and characters than a five-page essay. I think back to how basic those games were but yet so riveting. Funny, how we had no idea that the cable line and the personal computer would unite in our homes. How did we ever exist without checking our email or posting on Facebook?

We actually picked up the rotary phone and dialed our friend's number and let the phone ring, and ring, and ring. I remember trying to reason to myself that maybe he was just getting home and walking in the door. I can think back to the times that I would race over to my buddy's house on my 10-speed bike to shoot hoops in his driveway. Now, I would text message him to see where he was and see what his status was.

How many of us remember hearing our parents calling out our names to come in for dinner? I would even push the issue and wait for my dad to bellow out my full name. Which meant that I better get home fast! Fast forward to a neighborhood near you, a parent simply places a cell phone call to his or her child telling them that it's time to come home. Parents can even locate the exact spot where their child is by using the big brother technology. How lucky were we that our parents couldn't do that back then?

It's amazing how long it took for us to get cable, our first family computer, a video game system, a VCR, an answering machine, a microwave oven, a cordless phone, and a remote control. Now, you look at the last six months, or the last year, or even the last three years. Technology seems to be on warped speed. How much memory does your flash drive hold? Are you a 4G yet? Nook or Kindle?

Being a product of the before generation, I can see where technology has come from and am excited about what lies ahead in the future.

Roller Coaster Ride

Have you ever felt like a little kid standing in line for your first roller coaster ride? You are a little unsure, nervous, and not quite aware of what you are in for. Your dad stands next to you and reassures you that you need to trust him. You let the bar come down into your lap. There is no turning back. As the car slowly rattles up the incline. Higher and higher! You are filled with so many emotions and thoughts. It's too late! You can't go back. Then, there you are at the top ready to descend at a high rate of speed with twists and turns in your future. You scream and yell and yell and scream! As the car pulls into the station, you feel like a different person and have experienced something that changes your future outlook on many things.

Now you know how I felt embarking on a graduate class in Fundamentals of Technology for Educators. I wasn't sure what I was getting into having to do a blog, create a spreadsheet, develop my own Prezi, embed links, and discover what Diigo means. At first, I was nervous and felt a bit overwhelmed at all of the requirements. Then, I realized that just like the little kid trusting his dad that I needed to do the same with Dr. Thompson.

Oh, there were twists and turns as I tried to find the right words to create a unique blog and get a column to look right on a spreadsheet. Then, there was creating my Prezi presentation online. If riding a speeding coaster makes you scream, try creating a Prezi. Frustration is a key element to learning and growing with technology. You need to take one step at a time and surprisingly enough it works. In the end, I took a step back and was proud of my Prezi about a penguin. It was like the rush of wind on that roller coaster ride. Next, I needed to embed links into a curriculum page. So, I did the next best thing, asked for assistance. Amazing how a helping hand eases the pain. Finally, I did discover what Diigo meant. It's a great place to share links and gain a number of resources to use in your classroom.

So, the next time that you are afraid to try your hand at new technology just think of a roller coaster ride. Take a sit, strap yourself in, and hold on tight for a ride into the future!  

Teacher-Created Digital Storytelling Example - Emperor Penguins

I have created a digital storytelling example for my culmulating project for my EME 5050 Fundamentals of Technology for Educators class.

I teach first grade so the project would be used in conjunction with a science unit on animals and their habitats. My students will be given a specific penguin and have to research specific information on the penguin through a curriculum page of resources. Once they have found necessary information, each student will create a Prezi presentation like the example provided, including a self-drawn picture of the penguin.

I invite you to check out my Prezi presentation and tell me what you think of it (did you like it, what do I need to tweak on it, etc.).

http://prezi.com/xhvx-tqtnrpr/digital-storytelling-example-emperor-penguin/

I really appreciate hearing from you!

First Graders Can Too

My first grade students might be small but they enter my classroom with a collection of experiences with technology. Whether or not I like it, they have expectations to use and learn from different digital technologies. Does it have to be complex lessons or in-depth opportunities? Not necessarily, the boys and girls want the chance to dabble in something that will keep their interest and allow them to gain valuable experiences.

My challenge is to integrate digital technology in my classroom that supports the national core standards and county curriculum. Fortunately, I am taking graduate level courses which are opening my eyes to new technology ventures that are benefitting me greatly. Last spring, I was enrolled in a literature course. One of the class projects was a digital storytelling presentation. I used Microsoft PowerPoint to create a clip art presentation of Hooway for Wodney Wat, a children's picture book about a rat who wins the approval of his classmates, by Helen Lester. My first grade students were so excited to see this interactive presentation. They wanted to re-read the story over and over on the classroom Activboard. I was able to see how important this new form of media is to my future and my students as well.

I am currently taking a graduate class about the Fundamentals of Technology for Educators. The professor has introduced me to effectively using a blog on the internet, locating helpful web sites geared towards my grade level or the teaching profession, and even experimenting with digital storytelling by using a Prezi program. By creating the Prezi, I can see how this new technology can be integrated in my classroom.

I could use Prezi to create a class story with ideas provided by the students. The class would have input in choosing the background and the sequence of events in the story. Another idea is to use the program to create interactive thinking maps about different concepts (Martin Luther King, Jr., George Washington, types of matter, living and nonliving things, etc.). The more comfortable that I become with creating digital storytelling and integrating it in my instruction then the more opportunities that I will discover in order to allow my students to do so as well.

The Activboard is hanging in my classroom, I'm acquiring more and more technology knowledge and experiences, and I have tech-savy students. It's time to step up and make digital integration adjustments to my teaching. I know that it's not going to be an easy process but something tells me that 18 little first graders will hold my hand on this exciting, interactive journey into the future of education.

Digital Storytelling Prezi

http://prezi.com/py5y5jjjcm6o/how-will-digital-storytelling-benefit-my-class/

Learning The Hard Way

As a teacher, you always have that little voice that reminds you to do certain things. Don't forget to make copies of the math worksheet. You have a staff meeting on Wednesday. Sam needs to take his time when writing out his spelling words. Be sure to backup your files!

Wait a minute! I've heard that voice before. Oh, yeah! It's telling me to backup my files because you never know what can happen to your hard drive. Six months ago, the little voice reminded me. I sit here six months later regretting tuning out that voice and paying the ultimate price. The two scariest words in computer lingo "fatal error." I went from having a fully functional hard drive to having two Trojan viruses that stormed all over my files. If I had only listened, then I wouldn't be recalling that fateful night.

I lost school lesson plans, class newsletters, personal files and photos. Each week, I re-type my lesson plans for the week and think of how much easier it would be to simply update my plans from last year's. Then, I re-create my newsletter and remember how easy it was to copy and paste from the previous school year. Be sure to backup your files!

I learned my lesson the hard way and have a collection of flash drives. I make sure to save anything that I do in two places. I have a flash drive for my master's degree documents, one for my personal files, and one for my teaching files. Like a good teacher instructs his or her students to learn from their mistakes, I have learned from my big one. When the little voice speaks to me, I make sure to listen!

Better Safe Than Sorry

After reading the chapter, "Security, Issues, Ethics, and Emerging Technologies in Education", from Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom (Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter, 2010), I realize the role of the teacher has changed as fast as the onset of new technologies.

A teacher likes to feel comfortable in his or her own setting (classroom). If something new comes along, then it is the teacher's role to investigate it, research it, and then implement it. Students are entering classrooms with various experiences with the Internet and exploring web sites.

As an educator, you are the one responsible for the sites that the students surf to in your classroom. I have caught some of my students straying from the selected site to see what else is out there. They are young students so you can imagine that they accidently made a few clicks and end up on a tangent site. It is a major role for a teacher to be sure that the necessary measures are made for computers in the classroom. I have even gone to the extreme of hiding different icons on the desktop so that an unnecessary one is not clicked on by accident. It has made it easier for my students to navigate to the educational sites geared for their learning practice.

With the introduction of display boards in our classrooms, you need to be sure that the initial web page is one that is appropriate for your students to see. If you want to do a class search on a topic, then you need to be sure that you don't end up on a site that is not suitable. For example, clicking on the Internet Explorer icon on my Activboard desktop opens up to msn.com. Depending on what is happening in the world, the site will display images and headlines on the various events. Since I teach a group of primary students, I did not feel comfortable being engaged in a conversation about some of those topics. Especially since I did not know what events would be featured on the page.

Therefore, I contacted my school's technology expert and requested that the school's web site be the default page instead. After discussing the subject with some other teachers at lunch, it lead to an interesting conversation about having a site such as msn.com as the default page. A few teachers joined my side and wanted to be safe than sorry. While, a few other teachers felt that the site would only be viewed for a few seconds while you navigated to a search engine site.  I raised the question about a student being on a stand alone computer in the room, clicking on the Internet Explorer icon, and going deeper into one of the stories posted. Therefore, the child might view images which are not appropriate for their age.

I know that teaching in a primary grade has led me to become a safety zone kind of a teacher. I just know that parents hold teachers in a regard that we will make the best decisions on behalf of their children. Not to say that parents might not filter their own child's Internet surfing at home. Our responsibility as educators is to make sure that we check programs and web sites for ourselves before we launch them in our classrooms. It's better to be safe than sorry! 

Shelly, G., Gunter, G., & Gunter, R. (2010).  Teachers Discovering Computers: Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom (6^th ed.).  Boston, MA: Course Technology.