Reflective Blog #2

Halverson, R. and Smith, A. (2009). How New Technologies Have (and Have Not) Changed Teaching and Learning in Schools. Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 26(2), (49-54). Retrieved February 15, 2010 from EBSCO Host Academic Search Complete.



The author states, "First, massive investment of public resources attempted to create universal access to technology in schools. Second, public research investments created high-profile examples of how to use the technologies for progressive instructional practices. Together these conditions were supposed to spark revolutionary changes in classroom practices." But where is the money coming from, how can we fund the expense of these new technologies in the classrooms? Once the funding has been taken care of it is up to the learners to succeed. The author states, "Learning goals are determined by the learner, and the learner decides when goals are satisfied and when new goals are in order. Technologies for learners emphasize information resources, such as search engines, wikis, and blogs, that allow for information retrieval, browsing, incidental learning, and participation.



Silk, E. Higashi, R. Shoop, R. and Schunn, C. (2010). Designing Technology Activities that Teach Mathematics. The Technology Teacher. Retrieved February 15, 2010 from EBSCO Host Academic Search Complete.

The author states, "Mathematics taught within well-designed technology education lessons provides students opportunities to learn math in contexts that they understand and that can lead to cross-discipline connections. Contributing to math instruction helps convince school and district administration that technology education should continue to be supported." Math is a difficult subject for many students to grasp, and the more ways to teach the subject and attempt to connect with the child the better the chance they will understand it. The author also states, "even when we were successful at getting students to develop general mathematical solutions, it continued to be challenging to get them to communicate their ideas explicitly. Students can learn a lot by simply explaining their ideas to themselves and to others."

Wilson, J. Notar, C. and Yunker, B. (2003). Elementary In-Service Teacher's Use of Computers in the Elementary Classroom. Journal of Instructional Psychology. 30(4). (256-264). Retrieved February 24, 2010 from EBSCO Host Academic Search Complete.

The author states, "the lack of preparation and training, and inconsistent levels of success achieved by students and teachers as reasons not to use technology. However, Guba (2000) suggested elementary teachers want to be competent in the use of computers and see them as valuable in enhancing students learning but class load and time management were varies to implementing computer-assisted instruction in the classroom." This article shows the results and computes data about the use of the computers in the classroom to show it's effectiveness. The author concludes, "faculty should be encouraged to model and integrate computer technology."

Simonsson, M. (2004). Technology Use of Hispanic Bilingual Teachers: A Function of their Beliefs, Attitudes and Perceptions on Peer Technology Use in the Classroom. Journal of Instructional Psychology. 31(3). (257-266). Retrived on February 20, 2010 from EBSCO Host Academic Search Complete.

The author begins, "studies have been conducted to describe teacher technology use, attitudes, and self-efficacy without including a multicultural component in their framework. Studies on bilingual teachers and technology practices regarding incorporating cultural aspects in the curricula using technology are scarce. Therefore, bilingual teachers, were surveyed." It is very important that the teachers are well educated and familiar with the technology that they will be incorporating in the classrooms. If the teacher isn't able to present the learning material properly using the technology the students won't get the same learning results. This article displays the results from twenty-five elementary school campuses that did participate in the study; the results varied greatly. The author concludes, "Bilingual teacher technology use has been described as a function between the teachers' believes, attitudes and the school culture. The teachers' beliefs and attitudes are interrelated. Attitudes may be improved by giving teachers more exposure to technology."

Chang, C. (2008). Development and validation of the Computer Technology literacy Self-Assessment scale for Taiwanese Elementary School Students. Adolescence. 43(171). (623-634). Retrieved on February 26, 2010 from EBSCO Host Academic Search Complete.

The author begins, "because of the increasing importance and pervasiveness of technology, educators have recognized that its integration into education is one of the important issues for educational reform and innovation." It is important to prepare elementary students for the future and not only teach them subject-specific knowledge, but also teach them about technology. This article presents results of a study for different grade levels. "In order to determine possible differences based on grade level, fifth and sixth graders' scores were compared on the subscales of the CTLS." The article concludes, "the first expected relationship between Internet experience/behavior and computer technology literacy. Overall, students who used the technology for their learning tasks, were more competent."

Reflective Blog #1

Classroom Blogs

How to Learn English - http://how2learnenglish.blogspot.com/

This blog seemed to be very confusing and the layout didn't help much either. The colors were very plain and nothing stood out as to what information would be most helpful. I did however like in the heading different languages saying what I would think is "English" or "How to learn English". When you watch some of the videos they don't translate from one language to another, they just demonstrate how to pronounce certain words and gives a definition of the word and may further use it in a sentence. I do not believe the title to this blog fits properly. I wouldn't recommend this blog to other educators.

Writing, Reflecting, Sharing, Producing and Questioning - http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=84725

This blog immediately grabbed my attention. The colors weren't too drastic and it was very easy to navigate. I think that the sections were labeled accordingly which made browsing much easier. This blog is very interactive and evens has examples of student work and participation. Going forward, it also has the listed assignments for the students right online (I think this is great - some students have poor organization and may have forgotten to write down the homework). I would most definitely recommend this blog to other educators.

Educational Blogs

Free Technology for Teachers - http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

I am on the fence with this blog. It seems to capture the right idea about connecting with the students; they are glued to their cell phones and facebook, but does that mean we should encourage more online learning? All students don't learn the same way, and some may have a more difficult time than others. The links that are used on this website seem to be very helpful and a great way to find out different ways to make your classroom more interesting. I may change the layout of the page so all of the links aren't on the same side. I would most certainly suggest this blog to other educators mostly to get their input and their recommendation.

Yes Tech! - http://shoemap.edublogs.org/

I think this blog is organized perfectly. I really like the calendar days displayed for each day's post, and more importantly I like the video. It is much easier to stay focused on an animation in my opinion than reading some boring paragraphed text. The colors are very calming and easy to look at. The font size and style aren't obnoxious and highlight what is important in the paragraphs. I would recommend this to other educators.

Teacher Blogs

Math Videos Online - http://www.math-videos-online.com/free-math-videos-online-blog.html

Since I am in a math concentration I immediately wanted to view this blog. Math is a very difficult concept for many students and the more variety I have to present the material the better chance they have of understanding. The tool bar along the left hand side of the page is very convenient and helps navigate through the site. If I can understand this website I am sure that my students would pick up on it quickly as well. It isn't too busy and seems to be very user friendly. I really like the layout and the fact that it's simple. I would most certainly recommend this to other educators and may even possibly keep this link and hope it's still like this in a few years from now for my own use.

So You Want to Teach - http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/

I don't like this blog. It is too busy and there is too much to look at, I don't know where to begin. There seems to be too many links that will lead you to other sites and you may not know how to get back to where you started. One thing that I do like however, is the color scheme. I most likely wouldn't recommend this blog to other educators, I may ask them to view it and see if they could better assist me in navigating through the site. Once you look into the site a little further and spend some time viewing the different links it does give some good advice. Ex) How do I keep my students quite? Once you view this page however, it does give advice but it also gives a numerous amount of other links, which I think is just too much.