The Interactive Classroom

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Survey Monkey

I have decided to do my final blog on a website called SurveyMonkey. This website allows you to create survey and track the results online. With the SurveyMonkey you can select from 20 types of questions, use their survey templates, create custom themes, add your logo, and validate your results. They also allow you to set up cutoff dates, set passwords, and manage your lists. On the collection side, they allow you to view results in real time, browse for individual results, share the results, and filter & cross tab the report. In order to use the SurveyMonkey you need to set up a free account. It was a very easy process to get it set up. They have a whole list of video tutorials to help you through the survey process. Then you click on create a survey. It will then take you to a page to name your survey.

Next you will design the template for the survey and add your questions. This was very easy to do, and they gave you multiple ways of collecting your answers, multiple choice, write in, etc.

Finally you go in and set your parameters and finish the survey. To distribute the survey all you have to do is email the link to the participants, and start collecting their responses.

As you can see the process is not lengthy and fairly simple. In the end you will have a professional looking survey, and an easy way to compile the data. I think that teachers can use this tool to get the opinions of their students and the parents. You could even administer quizes on here. I could also see a teacher making up practice quizes and questions, and using a interactive whiteboard during class. The possibilities are endless, which makes this technology invaluable. It is an especially nice tool for people who have never made a survey before, and they have a hard time with data analysis. I have used this tool in the past when I was employed with a corporation, and I can see myself using it again and again.

Web Resource Library

This was a fun assignment to create. It allowed you to be creative and organize the information.

Resources	Descriptions
Research Database	Eric: This is a great database that provides a wide variety of ways to search it. It also has a separate database full of journals that you can access. EBSCO Host: You can use this database to search newspaper, journals, books, and reports. It also includes cited references. I really like the layout, because it is easy to navigate. Gale: You can search through a variety of subjects that can be helpful for both students and teachers. It also gives you resources for lessons plans, and allows you to create a place to host online resources for your school.
Technology Journals	THE Journal: This journal is geared towards helping teachers integrate technology into their classroom. The journal has a newsletter that you can subscribe, podcasts that you can listen to, and a blog that you can read. Tech and Learning: I like this journal because it has a section called best practices. It tells you how to best implement a particular topic. This journal also has a blog and a newsletter that you can subscribe to. EdTech Classroom: This site helps you set up technology in your classroom in a podcast format. You can listen to a variety of topics that will guide you in the right direction.
Subject-Area Resource	Lesson Planning Center: You can search for lesson plan ideas by subject area or by theme. I also like the section for special needs children. It provides you with different and innovative ideas for your lesson plans. Ignite: You can choose any subject you want information about, and it will provide you with a multimedia curriculum. It is designed to encourage interaction between the students and the lessons your teaching. Very innovative, creative, and exciting. The OWL: This resource is provided by Purdue University. It gives you the guidelines for APA Formatting.
College Resources	Classroom Blogs and Wikis: This website gives you examples of how to use blogs and wikis in an educational setting. It also provides resources for teachers on how to blog, and where to find other educational blogs. Assertive Technology: This website helps you to find resources and information on assertive technology. CDC: This website helps you understand how children development. It also talks about ADD/ADHD, and how to recognize the signs. It is a great place to go for general questions you may have, especially for elementary teachers.

 

 

Emerging Technology: E-Books

An e-book (short for electronic book, also written eBook or ebook) is an e-text that forms the digital media equivalent of a conventional printed book, often protected with a digital rights management system. E-books are usually read on personal computers or smart phones, or on dedicated hardware devices known as e-book readers or e-book devices. Many mobile phones can also be used to read e-books. (Wikipedia, July 2009)

I love to read, and I'm always in the middle of reading two or three books. Currently I'm reading "The Host" by Stephanie Meyers and "Playing for Pizza" by John Grisham. I hate to take them with me everywhere I go; because I have no where to put them both. Using an e-reader would allow me to put multiple books on the device, and it is very compact. Below you can see what the e-readers look like.

Early e-books were written for very specific area and hit a narrow audience. Most of them were owners manuals or technical journals. Adobe was the first major company to back this movement of books to a digital formats. E-books started as an underground movement, where people would put the e-books on the internet. Most of the main stream authers were not supportive of this technology. Even today their are authers such as JK Rowling (Harry Potter series auther) who have stated that she will never release any of her books in a digital format. In 1993 there was a site created, Bibliobytes, that offered the first library of e-books. Today there are two major manufactors of e-readers, Sony and Amazon. (Wikipedia, July 2009)

First let's start with Sony. Their product is simply called the Reader Digital Book. You can purchase it from a variety of places including Target, Fry's, and Sony. They advertise to have 50,000 free public domain books. While searching thru the e-books that you could purchase and download, I found books as expensive as $50.00 and as cheap as $1.99. It seemed though the average was around $14.50. Sony e-reader tour: They give you the basics on how to work the device, and a visual on what it looks like.

The second company we are going to look at is Amazon. Their product is called Kindle, and Oprah featured this product on her "Favorite Things" show. This is when you really started to hear about e-books and e-readers. With Amazon you can download books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs to your Kindle. You can purchase books from Amazon from $200.00 to free. They advertise the adverage price is $9.99. I thought that the amazon site was a lot harder to navigate compared to the Sony site. I found the books I was looking for quicker on the Sony site. Here is a tour of the Kindle from the Amazon site: The Kindle tour.

I hope you have learned a little more about e-books as a new technology. I'm looking forward to getting one from Santa Clause this year. I also can't wait for my daughter to start to developing her love of reading. How knows, we just might be using the e-readers to read our textbooks one day.

(2009, July 23). Wikopedia: E-book. Retrieved July 24, 2009, from Wikopedia: the free encyclopedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book

Delicious

This was quite an undertaking creating this social bookmarking site. There were lots of pages to explore, and lots of things to consider. It especially made me think about what kind of teacher I wanted to be. I enjoyed looking through my classmates pages to see how they directed their searches. I have included my link here for you: http://delicious.com/Regan77. I hope you enjoy looking through my links.

Podcasting

A podcast is a series of digital computer files, usually either digital audio or video, that is released periodically and made available for download by means of web syndication. (Wikipedia, July 2009) It allows anyone to create a file, and allow the world to hear what they have to say. On face value, this is a powerful and useful tool. You can listen to your favorite talk show, hear a training seminar that you were unable to attend, or listen to a lecture on American History from another university. The great thing about this technology is that you can download the file you want to listen to onto your iPod and take it with you.

I have never podcasted before, but I enjoyed learning about it. I started my journey with a YouTube video. I found this to be a great resource. It gave you several websites to try, and listed the advantages of them. You can find the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hrBbczS9I0. I would highly suggest watching the video as a great place to get started.

I choose to use iTunes as a way to see different podcasts that are available. iTunes has such a rich assortment of podcasts available. I found a podcast called "The Low Budget Radio Show", sports casts, National Geography, and medical podcasts. I think if you are interested in it, you can find a podcast about it. I found iTunes to be very userfriendly, and easy to follow. You can download the software for free, which is a nice feature and makes it available to more people.

Before starting this project I had a very narrow view of what a podcast was, and how that is could be used. I primarily viewed it as a tool for entertainment. After sifting through the information on podcasting, I can see where this would be a great tool to use in an educational setting. How wonderful would it be to get a podcast from your principle with all the information you need for the upcoming week? Teachers could podcast their lession plans for the students that needed extra help when it came time for the homework.

I recorded a podcast on my own. I wanted to try and record something to see how hard it was. I spoke on my favorite subject...books. I reviewed the Twilight series. It was fun to do and not very hard.

(2009, July 14). Wikopedia: Podcasts. Retrieved July 17, 2009, from Wikopedia: the free encyclopedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

Assistive Technology

Assertive Technology
“Moving technology use to a world of reality for students, especially those with varying abilities and disabilities, is our ultimate goal.” (Puckett, 2005) I had never considered the ramifications of not having technology available to students with disabilities. This article opened my mind up to the world of possibilities for students with mild disabilities.
Why would we not want to rise to the challenge of creating a curriculum that would suit the needs of all of our students? As a teacher, I would strive to see that all of my students thrived in my classroom. I think that not only should this apply to students that are disabled, but to the students in the advance classes as well. I would want to seek new ways to keep them engaged as well. I think that having an interactive lesson plan, would help students of all abilities maximize their education. Right now the objective in the class room is stay in the middle.
The article by Kathleen Puckett also points out that getting the technology into the hands of the teachers is difficult task. I believe that it is important to train the teachers on the emerging technologies. When I was in the business world, there was a constant focus on training, or improving our skills in different ways. Sometimes I think that administrators forget that teachers need additional training as well, especially in the field of technology. This left me wondering, how do we implement assertive technology in our classrooms? And how would the school pay for all of this?
I really hope that when I enter the classroom, that some of the assertive technologies are available for my use. I really like the idea of the tool kits that were presented in the second article. This would give you a variety of technologies to use.
The other article focused on the benefits that the students gained from the assertive technology. Joey is a great example of how everyone adapted to the technology and made it work. “They quickly learned that using the right combination of adaptations could impact his education and his interaction with his peers.” (Sax, Pumpian, Fisher, 1995) Students like Joey can often enhance the educational experiences of the other students. They can learn a great deal from Joey.
This article made me really think about how valuable this technology can be. It made me questioned how teachers can gain the skills necessary to meet the needs of kids like Joey? And where can teachers get the assertive technology? I’m sure that there are teachers out there that have never heard of this. So, how do we communicate the benefits of this technology?


Puckett, Kathleen. (2005). “An Assistive Technology Toolkit: Type II Applications for Students with Mild Disabilities.” Retrieved June 30, 2009 from https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/user/pamagee/W531%20Su08/Assistive%20Technologies.pdfSax, Karen, Pumpian Ian, Fisher, Doug. (1995). “Assistive Technology and Inclusion.” Retrieved June 30, 2009 from http://www.newhorizons.org/spneeds/inclusion/teaching/sax.htm

A little about me...

I'm a 32 year old single mom of a 3 1/2 year old little girl. Karaline Elizabeth Montague was born on October 5th and was a 50th birthday present to her grandfather. She has brought me joy that I never thought existed. I have posted some photos of her and I goofing around.

I graduated from Indiana University in 1999 with a bachelor's in Marketing. After graduation, I worked in the business field doing different aspects of Marketing. In March, I got laid off from the company I had worked at for 5 years. Once I was able to come to grips with that, I decided to go back to school and get my teacher's license. Once upon a time, when I graduated high school, I had aspirations of being a teacher and a coach. I now am getting the opportunity to full fill those dreams. I had forgotten how much work it was to go to school. Besides going to school right now, I am the assistant coach for the Westfield High School Girls basketball team. It is a lot of fun and a huge challenge for me. I'm hoping this experience will help me when I go to search for my job.

This is my first experience with creating a blog. It has been a lot of fun trying out different ways to view your blog. Blogging seemed like a very intimidating concept, but using Blogger has made it a very simple task. I would recommend others to try and create a blog as well. The tour that was given eased all my worries. I'm ready to try adding other things like video and audio clips. It will be a great experience.