In the Time of Preparation For Final Things

I reviewed the videos of
Tori
Seph
Jeff

Thanks for a great semester.

The Seed Growing Secretly

And enter the photosynthesis video. I had a lot of fun making this . . . actually let me rephrase that. It was super fun until I watched for the millionth time. 

 Videos are so much fun! In biology there are a lot of things that either are too costly to do in the classroom or you can't see. I think that videos make science so much easier for people to understand. Well done videos take a really long time to make though. I think I would use it to do photosynthesis, respiration, and probably biospheres. It'd be cool to put together a video showing all the different climates. It would a be a great project to have students pick their own topic and make videos. One of the reasons students get disinterested in science is because they don't get to have a lot of autonomy (the way the system is organized right now) and videos would allow a little more of that.

Safety Is of the Lord

1. What were the most important things I learned from the readings?
1. I didn't really realize how many adolescents were so invested in their social personas. I grew up without any of that, not because it didn't exist, but because my parents had us so involved in other extracurricular activities we didn't have time to even want to do it. It wasn't until my Senior year when I realized I was being excluded from cast parties because people only sent invites through Facebook that I finally got on Facebook and began social networking. What I've learned is that the generation below me is growing up totally connected to the internet. A few have separate identities online but many use it as a complete extension of their life. It's a way for them to grow up. Teachers need to use this extension of their lives to their benefit. We want students to relate to the material outside of the classroom so use the very media that they do when outside the classroom.
2. How will what I have read influence my actions as a parent and/or teacher of children and youth?
1. As a parent, I think that the best way to keep children in healthy online relationships is to teach them good social skills. If children are taught to be completely kind then they won't cyberbully. If they have a full life outside the internet, they won't need to create one online. If we let them use the technology instead of wanting passwords and needing to look over their shoulder they'll trust us. 
2. As a teacher, I think that it would be worth a part of the first day to introduce the technology I want to use in my classroom AND discuss internet safety. They need to know what they should and should not post and they need to know some of the dangers. The thing is, most of them know it already, so I wouldn't exaggerate or spend too much time on it. Then as I use the technology I can monitor habits of my students at perhaps see if any of them are using habits that wouldn't be safe outside of the classroom.
3. How can I use what I have learned from the reading to have a positive influence on family and friends?
1. I think my family already has pretty good safety habits but I think that since my brother is younger my parents need to realize that he eliminating his online life is a stupid idea BUT that he does need time limited and needs to have a fun outside of gaming.
4. Am I aware of the benefits and dangers children face when online with cyber bullying and online predators? Do I know how to prevent cyberbullying?
1. Yes, I am aware. More aware now than I was. I knew that it happened and I vaguely had heard of the problems but I didn't realize all the trouble adolescents can get into online.
2. Cyberbullying can be partially prevented by monitoring what children can post and do online. It CANNOT be prevented with hostility. The best thing to do is to teach children to not respond, close the window, and tell people then report the bullying to authorities with proper documentation.
5. Where can I go for information and resources that can be used to teach internet safety?
1. Well I went to your resources but even if you just google internet safety you'll find things. For instance: http://safekids.com/quiz/ and http://us.mcafee.com/en-us/landingpages/quiz_kids.asp.
6. What internet safety issues am I likely to face as a teacher and how will I address them?
1. Posting information that can lead people that they don't want 
1. Have a set of rules of what they can and cannot post
2. Make sure I don't require them to post things that aren't safe
2. Students searching for things and coming across an inappropriate website.
1. I can double check all my of resources and links 
2. I can make sure that the school has a blocking system
3. I can teach students what to do to get out of inappropriate or otherwise bad website
3. Having student report cyberbullying to me
1. Teach them what to do 
2. Report it to a higher authority and perhaps parents
7. How can I leverage the power of the Internet so students can learn, but in a safe way?
1. Like we've discussed in this class, there are all kinds of opportunities to utilize technology. Assignments can include things like videos, podcasts, blogs, and polls. Also in class we can use things like class websites, iPads, and science probes to apply to the skills they're developing and relate our material to what the love to be involved in. 

Who did I talk to? 

          My father

What was it like?

           It was a good conversation! He knew things and had ideas I hadn't thought of. He's always been really easy to talk to and I'm pretty sure I learned more than he did. It was a very positive and experience but I don't know how valuable it was because he already knew most of the stuff and anyone else I would have taught it to would have known it as well. The truth is most people are pretty informed about this stuff already. I feel like it's a bigger worry that teachers and parents in an exaggerated effort to protect their children they'll try to alienate their children from the internet which would only leave them unprepared for the world they live in.

Sought To Lay A Cunning Plan

The photos below are my storyboard. I had a fun time getting them on here since I used Pages to create them (which worked great!) and then had to export to PDF and then convert to JPG. Blech. Anyway. You should be able to click on them to make them bigger in order to read the text. Most everything I plan to use in this video has been created by me.

To Exercise Control or Dominion or Compulsion

So Join.me was interesting but not my favorite technology. It's cool because it's free but there are better screen sharing options. This one was difficult to use once you downloaded the actual application but the free temporary use found on the website is fun. I think this would be a really good technology for a technology teacher but I'm struggling to see how a biology teacher would use it unless it was just to give directions for a class technology (thus the reason he didn't list it under Science . . . now I understand.)

• What did you learn about Join.me?
• Join.me is an easy way to do a demonstration on several computers at the same time. By having multiple people type in the code given, they can view your computer at the same time and email, call, or chat with the person controlling the computer at the same time. 
• What are some activities you could use this technology for in your own teaching?
• The best way to use this would be to demonstrate how to use some technology for your class. For a short period of time you can share your computer to all the students in the classroom and they can ask you questions if they don't understand.
• Perhaps this could be used for some online classes as well. 
• What are some problems you foresee in using this technology?
• I'm afraid that some students would try to abuse the chat, call, and email functions and there is no way to limit their access. This could really cause problems if classroom management isn't established really well.

The photo below shows how I controlled my own computer from a friend's. The message in the center is Join.me's notice that my computer was being remote controlled.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

So, Polls Everywhere initially gave me some trouble because several things on the site don't work the way they should. It's ok though because I found work arounds and I still think that Polls Everywhere is a useful classroom feature. I learned that there is no free software to put the polls in a Keynote or Powerpoint for Mac. What they have is a floating app that works in tandem with Keynote and Powerpoint. However, because it's not actually attached to the Powerpoint or Keynote you can't just embed the presentation into the website and have the polls show up too. However, they do have software that works with Prezi. I figured that this was the cleanest (and actually the only) way to embed the polls and the presentation. I think it still fulfills the assignment because all of the polls are technically embedded into the website and so is the presentation. (Plus it was cool to integrate two technologies I learned.)

• What instructional problems could you use this technology for? How would you use this in your classroom?
• This could be used instead of iClickers in class to assess student understanding
• Teachers could use it to get students thinking about their subject outside of the classroom by assigning polls that relate to their everyday life that they can just answer on their cell phones. I recommend the open answer polls for things like this and this can help students relate things?
• It can also be used for class evaluations - like I did - so teachers can see what their students actually think about their class.
• What kind of obstacles might prevent you from using this technology?
• Some students may not have cell phones or unlimited texting. This makes it hard to assign polls outside of class.
• Many features that are useful for teachers are not included in the free version. Like sending back feedback after someone takes the polls or creating correct/incorrect answers.

You can find the page on my website with my Prezi of polls here. If you want to vote on my poll text (or enter on PollEv.com) 251329 and the answer's number/letter. It's fun because you can watch the embedded Prezi, vote, and watch the graphs change. 

By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

Alright, so this is the first of my final projects. I did a prezi presentation on the different types of fruit. I'm so glad I learned how to use this because I think I'll start using it even for my TA job now. 

• What did I learn about Prezi? 
• Oh, I'm convinced I learned just about everything possible! I watched all their tutorials and experimented with a ton of features. I learned how to insert pictures, make groups, create paths, change themes, publish, and embed. 
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• What instructional problems could you use this technology for?
• Instructional problems? Like keeping students motivated? Or engaging multiple learning styles. A prezi can engage visual, musical, linguistic, and logical learners all at the same time. (Maybe even kinesthetic learners since it moves around.)
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• What are 2-3 activities you could use this technology for in your own teaching? List the instructional standards if you can identify them.
• I feel like I could use Prezi when teaching in my classroom because although it's a presentation the moving format will be easier for students to follow and more engaging to watch. I also could use it for review and quizzes because I can ask a question and then zoom in very close to reveal the answer. Also it's super easy to embed and it's iPad friendly so each of the students could learn the stuff on their own time in class. I think it'd be fun to create a bunch of Prezi on different topics and let the students pick a topic that they want to learn about and watch it's associated prezi on their own time on the iPad.

I really encourage everyone to make a Prezi account and learn how to use it! It's a great teaching tool and wonderful for student projects!

You can view my Prezi on my class website or on the Prezi website here.