Technology Philosophy

In my opinion, technology is only as capable as its user. To me, this is especially true in the classroom setting. It is imperative in today’s technologically centered society that teachers are able to incorporate technology in the classroom and take the time to show students its many uses. Even though Language Arts teachers have many responsibilities, technology should be included as a pivotal part of the classroom experience.
Technology can take many forms. It can be one of the many Microsoft Programs capable of organizing and displaying class subject matter, create websites, even design movies. The possibilities of incorporating Microsoft Programs into classroom curriculum are endless. Moreover, nontraditional uses of technology are appearing in classrooms, from iPod podcasts to teach Spanish, digital cameras that inspire free writing activities, to Blackberries that keep track of assignments. In my opinion, Language Arts teachers need to embrace new technology as its uses are multitudinous and exciting for students.
Also, Language Arts teachers need to embrace the Internet as an alternative to written assignments. On the Internet, free Blog sites can serve as journaling websites for reading content, electronic texts can save money for schools and expand teaching possibilities.
Teachers should not be frightened of the dramatic influx of technology that is inundating the teaching world. If anything, teachers should try to stay one step ahead of their students by investigating new websites, applications, and portable electronic devices. Approached correctly, any technology has the capability of being incorporating into the classroom.

Blog Reflection

This was my first online record of thoughts and I have to admit I was wary of the program at first. The idea of publishing my ideas online was daunting as it is available on the Internet for everyone to see. But, I feel much better about the idea now as I discovered there are so many Blogs on the Internet that the chances of my grammar being critiqued is very unlikely. Also, I feel that after viewing my entire blog reflections, it is a great way to record the work that I have done in class. It can serve as a portfolio that is accessible wherever there is an Internet connection. Also, blogger.com was easy to use and compatible with my little iBook. Another project that I used blogger.com for in my Teaching Writing class consisted of a peer-editing workshop wherein the student's paper was uploaded and then everyone in the class commented on the student's paper. Next, everyone had to post a comment to someone else's comment. We ended up with about 31 responses that were all thoughtful and interesting to read. I think blogger.com is a great tool to use in English classrooms.

Powerpoint Reflection

The greatest part of this project was embedding a Youtube video onto my powerpoint. We sat in class for several days confounded by the prospect of adding a video onto powerpoint, but one bright student thought to look on Youtube on how-to embed a Youtube video onto powerpoint. And there was a video! It is incredible what is available online! I decided to research more on colonialism in Mozambique to tie into my theme of my YA novel. I was able to find several videos on Youtube that demonstrated some neat aspects of culture in Mozambique. I think this small new skill would increase student interest in powerpoint tenfold.

Chapter 6 Reflection

After reading chapter six in The Tech-Savvy English Classroom, I was thoroughly impressed with the ideas for incorporating Technology in the classroom. In particular I enjoyed the idea of implementing technology as much as possible in order to avoid the typical lecture-note taking format of instruction. If students are able to turn in more assignments online during school time not only would teachers improve the environment, students would be less stressed as the homework load would be lightened. I think if the technology is more accessible and taught in small steps, students and teachers would be less stressed by stacks and stacks of loose leaf papers.
The activity we completed in class was splitting up the activities in the chapter, making examples of the activities and presenting them to the class. The activity my partner and I worked on was another project using Publisher. I really like this program! We created a newsletter for a pseudo classroom using a template on the program. I think newsletters are a great way to help students improve their writing by providing them with a larger audience. The paper could be done small scale, like a weekly installment for the students of the English department or on a large scale like a student showcase for the whole school. Also, newsletter are a great way to showcase the talent in school and provide students with a goal to get published.
Another interesting example that was presented in class was a way to split the screen on Microsoft Word. With a simple click of the button, the possibilities for assignments are endless. Students could have round robin-esqe creative story telling project were one student begins a story and every student gets a chance to type a part of the story. Then, afterward, each student can write comments on the other side of the screen as to whether the new addition works. That's what I enjoy about technology, it is so versatile!

Film Clip Project Reflection

The young adult novel that inspired me to complete all the tasks in our technology class is a brilliant novel by Nancy Farmer, entitled A Girl Named Disaster. The setting takes place in a rural village in Mozambique. The protagonist discovers her own strength as she leaves her village and family in order to avoid an unfairly arranged marriage. Before I began reading the novel, I knew little about Mozambique. Therefore, I went to http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/ and used by trial membership to watch a video about Mozambique. The video I found is titled “Africa’s Child: Street Wise: Mozambique.” The movie follows a young boy, Adolpho, through his day of leading tourists through the streets of his city. The video also displays his desire to become a teacher as in the most touching moment of the film, he arrives at class but the teacher does not. Instead of leaving the classroom Adolpho stays and studies his books. The short documentary was extremely informative and touching. Mozambique is definitely on my list of places to visit.
The project I completed after watching the video consisted of analyzing the video through film techniques that we briefly studied in Reading in the Dark: Using Film as a Tool in the English Classroom. It was fun to watch the video with an eye for camera angles, lighting techniques and pan shots. Although I do not expect to become an expert on analyzing film, I think there are many useful parallels that can be utilized to teach and analyze books in Language arts classes.

WebQuest Reflection

I just finished a simple WebQuest inspired by the novel A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer. It is a great coming of age story wherein the protagonist Nhamo flees her village in Mozambique and travels to Zimbabwe. Only, Nhamo journeys alone by canoe across a massive lake separating the two countries. For my WebQuest, I created three tasks that centered around the settings in the novel. The complete project is to create a travel guide blog with expressive writing describing a setting in the book. I choose to create the WebQuest on Microsoft Publisher and boy howdy, it was actually fun! I used a template to create my outlay, but it was easy to modify according to my own likes. Also, I was able to email my work to myself and edit it with no problems. I included three links for each task to give students an idea of the massive amount of resources available on the Internet
I definitely can foresee myself using this technology in my future classroom. Not only was it easy to do, it was not time consuming and it was enjoyable. Also, I feel this project provides students with enough structure to stay on task, but with enough leeway to not be boring. Thanks Microsoft for this lovely bit of technology!

A Reflection on Windows Movie Maker

Well, first off I am a longtime Mac user and venturing into the world of PC only software was thoroughly frightening. It took me several minutes in class to even find the program in the endless, small font-ed, confusing lists provided by the My Computer button. I hope when I am a teacher, I will be able to use my Mac for lessons, as the applications are just infinitely more user friendly.
Okay, enough of my soap boxing! Once I was able to open Windows Movie Maker I found the program fairly easy to use. The hyperlinks in the left-hand column allowed me to easily import my pictures and add sound. Once I got to the captions portion, I had to pester my fellow teacher education peer as to the location of the option. Also, once I maneuvered my way around the program, the skewed language threw me through a loop. Add to title page? The computer asked. No! I replied, I want it on this particular photograph, not the beginning one! Oye! It was a process debating with the computer my intentions for the movie.
Overall, once I wrestled my mind into submitting with the wiles of Windows, I was pleasantly surprised with the end result of my movie. I just hope next week when I demonstrate my skills to middle school students that they are sympathetic to my meanderings.