Applying Technology to Learning

This class has certainly given me a lot to think about, and there are many take aways that I can use in the future.  However for me I think it really came down to 4 key lessons:

1. Use what is available - There are so many great free programs out there.  Teachers do not need to spend a lot of money to add technology to their lesson plans.  From free documents to free graphics to readily available search engines, teachers can do a lot not very little cost.
2. Allow time for planning - Because there are so many options, teachers will need time to figure out the best way to add them to a lesson plan.  This includes on thinking about how the technology might distract students instead of helping them.
3. Don't do it all at once - There are so many options, and technology changes so fast, that teachers might feel overwhelmed and not be able to keep up.  Instead they should just add one new technology based activity to each class.  As they get more experience and learn more, then they can add more in the future.
4. Be flexible - Just as technology is constantly changing, teachers need to be ready to always re-think their plans to better use that technology.  It doesn't have to be a big change, but even small additions can help students and improve the overall learning environment.

Above all NEVER STOP LEARNING.  We live interesting times, and we will need to change with them.

Putting It All Together

I found the title for this week's lesson very interesting, as it has helped me to collect my thoughts about both this class and this program.  We have covered a lot of material in this class, and have been exposed to many new technology tools.  We have looked at graphics and presentations, spreadsheets, word processors, and online calendars.  We have also read a very interesting book called Supporting Learning with Technology  which has talked about the ways technology can both help and inspire students, or limit them if it is used the wrong way.  One of the key points of the book is that educators must plan in advance to truly take advantage of technology.  It can not just be an activity that is added to an existing plan.  Teachers must think about the goals for a lesson, and then incorporate technology that truly supports those goals.  It should allow the students an opportunity for creativity, and if possible allow them to choose their output, rather than forcing them into a one size fits all solution.

For me personally one of the big lessons for this class has been the power of Google Sites to summarize, collect, and present a number of different types of information.  Documents, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars, and many other types of information can all be collected and displayed in a related hierarchy.  More importantly students and learners could use this type of technology to create original responses to homework assignments.  I will be using this technology myself to collect and summarize all of the work that I do for the rest of the Masters program, so that I will have easy access to it at the end of the session.  Here is my personal site that will contain most of this information:  https://sites.google.com/a/wolfmail.stritch.edu/cedo515-site-lyons/home.  I hope that in the future having all of this information in one place will help me come up with more creative and unique ways of teaching students.

In Time Video and Teaching with Technology

As part of our lessons on production this week, we were asked to look at the In Time video site.  Production implies asking students to produce a project based on a problem or activity.  The students must design their output, learn the technology tools that can create it, then actually create the output using the tool.

In Time Video has a very good search tool that will allow teachers to search for videos based on content area, teaching level, and several other criteria.  Then they can look at videos that match their interests and get ideas of how to incorporate technology tools into their classroom experience.

Although I found the site very interesting, at this point I encountered a problem.  Not being a teacher, I had a hard time finding a video lesson that was specifically related to my job.  I hope to apply my experiences in this program to adult learning opportunities surrounding my career.  However I was able to find a video lesson that was related to a specific interest of mine, namely cycling.

The lesson that I reviewed was called Le Tour de France.  This lesson showed students in a high school French class using the internet to research the cities and towns that the the Tour de France would be visiting that year.  They then had to research these areas using the internet, and prepare a PowerPoint presentation and a brochure as if they were a travel agent selling a trip to that town.  In the last step, the students were asked to present their projects to the class, and the winning presentation was also presented over the internet to another class in a different school. This gave me several ideas of how to apply this technique to the technology classes that I am likely to teach in my job.  Although the classes that I teach are more likely to be about networking and computers, I could still have my classes create presentation explaining their specific subject.  They could also then present these to the group to demonstrate their mastery of the subject.  I also like the idea of having them produce a brochure as if they were trying to sell the component or tool that they are learning about.  This would require them to have a strong mastery of the features or benefits of the item, and would still allow them the ability to use creativity in their expression.  This will help improve overall retention of the material, in addition to being a lot of fun.

Spreadsheets and Education

This week's assignment has been around spreadsheets and how they might be used in an educational setting.  I have been using spreadsheets for many years.  Although I can't claim to have used VisiCalc, the first PC spreadsheet, I did use the early versions of Lotus 123.  Lotus was the IBM PC version of VisiCalc, and as the PC took off Lotus 123 replaced VisiCalc as the most common spreadsheet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_123

Since then I have continued to use spreadsheets for all parts of my job.  Although we don't often think about it in this manner, a well crafted spreadsheet can actually be a very insightful tool.  It can help you organize your thoughts, compare pieces of data that might otherwise not be viewed together, and can help you reach conclusions.  Spreadsheets are a very common tool in scientific work, and the most interesting times are the ones where the numbers on the spreadsheet lead you to a totally different conclusion that what you were expecting.

The Google Docs spreadsheet also brings another aspect to this traditional data tool, namely collaboration.  Suddenly you can share your spreadsheet in real time with many other people, and compare the data together.    This would be a great tool for classroom discussions about what the data from a particular science experiment might mean, or how a family might be able to trim their budget to fit into their available income.  It also has the added functionality of Forms.  This allows you to create a survey, distribute it via email or a webpage, and then collect the results automatically in a spreadsheet.  I can think of many uses for this, including providing foundational information for a class discussion, or to compare information from classrooms around the country.

Spreadsheets can be a very powerful tool, and one that all educators should keep in mind as they develop their lesson plans.