Post 8

     When we  went to the Sports Psych Lab we saw many different types of technologies I could use the Thought Technology’s biofeedback in my classroom to measure student's physiological functions. For example, I will be able to measure and analyze my students' physiological variables such as: Skin Conductance Response, Heart Rate Variability, Electroencephalogram, and Electromyography to understand what is going on within the students. Especially for students who can't talk or express their emotions and feelings, this could really help me and other teachers understand their children better.
     According to 
http://www.bloomstaxonomy.org/Blooms%20Taxonomy%20questions.pdf, Bloom’s Taxonomy provides an important framework for teachers to use to focus on higher order thinking. By providing a hierarchy of levels, this taxonomy can assist teachers in designing performance tasks, crafting questions for conferring with students, and providing feedback on student work. A teacher needs to plan a lesson, including a variety of activities and questions, making each student think & function at each level of the taxonomy. This allows teachers to be creative. When discussing the topic of animals: 

• Level I: Knowledge: Create a slide that reviews the information that the students have learned about animals.
• Level II: Comprehension: On the next slide create a chart that compares and contrasts the animals (eg. venn diagram: one circle for dogs and another for cats). Relate the similarities and differences of the animals in the venn diagrams to larger animals. For example, talk about the differences between domesticated cats and tigers, cheetas, and lions. 
• Level III: Application: Have students interview class guests who own pets. On the next slide help the students create a survey about what pets people in the class and the class guests and record it on the slide. Have the students construct a collage all about animals.
• Level IV: Analysis: Compare and contrast the number of different kinds of pets from the survey with the students. On a new slide make a chart comparing the different number of two types of the animals such as the number of cat and dog owners.
• Level V: Synthesis: Develop a list based on the relationship between the type of animal that gets the highest number (ex: dog) and a child.
• Level VI: Evaluation: Lead a discussion on the different number of each type pet. Ask the students how they would evaluate the data.

     This is a website that has outlined 10 technology trends that will shape higher education in the coming years. These trends are adaptive learning, predictive analytics, CRM, exostructure, open microcredentials, digital assessment, smart machines, OER Ecosystem, listening and sensing technology, and collaboration technology.

#7 Haha!!! I Know How to Use This Blog in my Class!!!!

• According to the Adaptive Tech  podcast, adaptive or assistive technologies are those that help people with disabilities more effectively use computing equipment. It goes on to list out ways that people with physical disabilities and learning disabilities can use adaptive technologies such as voice recognition software instead of typing, use text-to-speech software that will read the text to them, talking spelling checkers, speech recognition software, and computer based organizers that help keep students's assignments organized. According to the book, word prediction software can be used to assist students who are phisically impaired by reducing the number of keystrokes it takes to express a thought. Students can use alternative keyboards such as expanded keyboards, one-handed keyboards, and on-screen keyboards. The students can use these to make it easier to type. I personally have used a voice recognition software called Dragon Dictation to write out my papers because it took hours to type out my paper whereas I could say it in about 5 minutes. As a future special needs teacher, I assume that I will be using many different types of adaptive technology in my classroom to help my students learn the best that they can. I think that, as our society becomes more digitalized, there will need to be more assistive technologies that will help those with special needs so that they can learn too.
• Doing the Web Page Design assignment, I learned how to make a properly functioning website that other people can see. I liked the design aspect of the project but I did not like the fact that I couldn't make that website perfect in how I wanted it to look. I think that the forum of Weebly is great, once you truly learn how to use it. I can definately cleanliness as to how everything comes together and is overall presented. In my future career, I could see myself using a similar if not the same program to make a class website.

• In using Diigo these past few weeks, I have learned that we can annotate websites, create a list of resources, obtain a professional network where I can get new resources from other instructors, and how to organize my websites so that I know where things are when I need them. In my classroom, I can annotate websites on the board as we are going over the article. I will also be able to share new documents/websites with my collegues and other professionals.

Post #6

     Many school websites do not have class pages for each class. Most have the home page, about us, the mission, faculty & staff, calendar, resources and contact information tabs. As a public member, I can see all of the cool things that the school has done this year including honoring 9/11 with local heroes and a butterfly garden. St. Lucie is an elementary school grades K-5 in Fort Pierce, FL. I can see the teacher names for each grade but they aren't linked to class website.

     I believe that I will definately use technology in my classroom. As a hopeful Special Education teacher, I have to be careful what I use so that I don't overstimulate my students. Teachers are always attending educational classes and workshops. I plan on using a class website in order to help parents stay up to date on what we are doing. I also plan on using Kahoot and Edmodo in my classroom.

     I loved the Tech Sandbox. It was definately cool seeing a 3D pen and printer in action becasue I plan on using them in my classroom so that the students can feel the objects not just hear about them. It will also help with any of my students who are visually impaired. The material used with both the 3D pen and printer can be built up making it tall enough so that the students can describe what exaclty it is.

ILP Participation – Lynda: Office for Educators

     When I first logged into Lynda to find a course to use, I got really excited when I saw Aaron Quigley's "Office for Educators" course. I love using Office when doing my projects because there are so many different things that you can do with them. I learned how to thoroughly use OneNote. I also learned about what SharePoint and Office Mix are. There are many different things that you can do when it comes to Microsoft Office programs. For example, SharePoint is a program that allows people to collaborate on websites. It can allow a teacher to creat a class website, and administrator to create a school website, and students to create websites. It's kind of like BlackBoard. Teachers can add a library for class information, add a photo library,  set up calendars to help the students stay on task,  share resource links,  post announcements on the students’ websites, and  restrict access to certain things.

     Notes:


Screenshots:

https://www.lynda.com/Office-tutorials/Office-Educators/141464-2.html

#5-Let's Teach!!

• Although Web 2.0 tools are not available to every class/school, they are not option in the classoom. The advanced technologies in Web 2.0 tools allow us to communicate with each another. Examples of Web 2.0 tehnologies that I think are useful include social media, YouTube, Diigo, and blogs. The podcast refers to YouTube, blogs, and social media as more "passive" in the classroom because of the students' roles in them. YouTube can be used to show students different videos that help explain the lesson that a student is working on. Blogs can be used to keep a class page that has things such as upcoming assignments, homework updates, and other announcements. According to the podcast, Twitter can be used in the class by providing a networking opportunity for students to follow authors, public figures and to be able to talk to a direct source. Diigo can be used to support teacher professional developments. Twitter also can be used for teacher professional development because it allows teachers to connect with other and exchange ideas.
• I plan on teaching Special Education. In my class I might use scribd which is found at https://www.scribd.com/ and is a tool that will allow me to find interesting books to read to my students that we may not have access to in the school library. If I end up working at a school in an impoverished area, this might come in handy because I can download these ebooks/audio books to my computer. I can also use it to get sheet music so that I can play music to my kids on either the trumpet of piano. Scribd has endless possibilities to the number of books (both ebooks and audiobooks), comics, sheet music, and documents.
• I believe that 3D Printing technology holds the greatest promise for education. This is because the students will be allowed to physically analyze an object and hold the object in their hands. This allows students to examine and explore these items. I believe that the 3D printing technologies can be used to create models that they can later turn into prototypes and develop.

#4 Technology and the Internet

• Twitter.... My experiences with Twitter before this class were very limited. Once in this class, I learned several things about Twitter. I believe that the coolest thing in Twitter that I have found so far is that many teachers and educational programs use Twitter. I figure that many educators use Twitter in order to connect with other educators. I assume that they switch techniques and styles online. On twitter, I've been following techlearning, U.S. News Education, Presentation Panda, EME2040, On Special Education, EdWeek Teacher, Active Minds, Inc. and many of the students in my class. I have interacted with Active Minds, Inc and EME2040. I have retweeted some tweets and replyed to some tweets too. Twitter might be helpful in my future career because it will allow me to connect with other teachers not at my school. It will also help me get different tips and techniques to use in my own classroom. I can also get ideas for classroom management and classroom layout/design.

• There are many different types of active learning software in the world today. These include academic software, productivity software, presentation software, and academic software applications. Academic software includes desktop publishing, graphics, reference, tutorials and drill-and practice, educational games, simulations, authoring systems, special needs, application software and integrated learning systems. Academic software applications include academic databases, authoring software, concept-mapping software, content-specific software, drill-and-practice software, educational games, and problem-solving software, simulations, and tutorials. There are several separate softwares within each type off academic software. Several students don't have access to many of these softwares. The digital divide is a term used to discuss those who do and do not have access to to technology. The students who don't have much access to technology often fall behind in class because many classes are implementing technologies. The homework assigned in such classes can be difficult for these students. 

• According to the Evaluating Internet Resources podcast, in evaluating websites, you should follow these points:
• Use ABCDT:

• Author: Is the author credible?
• Bias: Is the author biased or neutral on the subject matter?
• Content: Is the content accurate (spelling and grammer)? Is it current? Is it appropriate for the students using the website?
• Design: Is the website visually pleasing? Are all the pictures clear?
• Technical: Is it easy to navigate? Do all parts of the website function? Does the website load quickly?
• Site stability/ URL:
• Is it likely to change content or move links around?
• Who owns the domain name?
• What is the root of the domain?
• Is it the right type of domain for the website?
• Outlinks:
• Check links before allowing students to use the website.
• Advertising:
• Ads pay for many of the free websites.
• In evaluating websites, I check to see if the website in general is credible, not just the author. I also make sure that the website is appropriate for the age group and the individuals that I am working with. I use these criteria because each age group is different, but each individual person within that age group is different too.