Technology Assessment

There are many technology tools to use in today's world wide web. Today I will be assessing eight of them that include: Moodle, Google Apps, Google Chrome, Livebinders, Wiggio, Prezi, Garage Band, Emaze, and Dogpile.

First off, lets start with Moodle. I find Moodle REALLY convenient because it has the whole list of assignments, due dates, and just about anything that is needed for a class. In addition, posting discussions so that my fellow classmates can interact with me are a big bonus. This tool for school use is the best I have seen from my teachers

The next tool I want to talk about is Google Apps. The Google Apps are AWESOME in my opinion. Google blogger allowed me to create a school blog, which is this, and also a personal blog for my own thoughts and ideas. Also, I utilize Google Docs every single day. It made me save so much money considering Microsoft Word is so expensive for a college kid like me. Lastly, the fact that my colleagues and I can interact on a document makes Google Docs the best interactive document out there.

Livebinders is a tool that allowed me to make an electronic binder for all the content that suits me best. For example, I have a binder of tools that specifically relate to my major whereas I have a binder full of multimedia presentation tools. It really helps me keep my tools in check and organized

Was I the biggest fan of dogpile? First off dogpile is a web search tool that really breaks down the number of searches compared to Google. While doing research, I use DogPile so that I can get simple answers fast, but when I do extensive research I would have to resort to another tools for a larger quantity of searches.









What about Prezi? I found Prezi to be a bit confusing to learn and the presentations often gave me a headache. The slides too often moved around so fast that my head would be spinning. But I cant not give credit to it's professionalism and simplicity although I find it complex. For that, I give it a solid........... 7 :/


GarageBand on the other hand was awesome. It made me feel like a music producer because I could easily make music that sounded like it was made in a studio. To sum up this tool, it is a professional music studio all in your computer. I give it a solid 10 for it's awesomeness.

I do not want to flaunt about how Wiggio was just sooooooo good because my group did two presentations on it. In my opinion, it is the best group interacting tool out there. It allows a group to video chat, voice calls, set up meetings that are forwarded to your email for reminders, and lastly share files. I may be wrong but it does not get any better than that. It is a solid 10!!!


Lastly I want to talk about Emaze because it is A-mazes me. Haha. I really think it was a convenient tool to create presentations with. There are so many other tools like Prezi, Google Presentations, and Microsoft presentations so I would not really recommend this tool since there is so many out there. I do think it is way better than Prezi so with that I will give it a 9.

Enabling Dreams To Be Better

     A child's dream is filled with so much power and potential. Unfortunately, there are many setbacks for some children that suffer from disabilities and diseases. It is important as an educator to not make that child feel neglected or discouraged. They have the potential to be as a great as any child born healthy. It would be my responsibility to unlock those dreams to make them better.

     Do disabilities hit home for me? Fortunately, I do not have any close relative with a known disabilities. We all have grown up to be healthy enough to get our high school diploma and chase our dreams. I have been around people with disabilities when it comes to my schooling. I always had one classroom in every class with some sort of learning disabilities. This influenced me to understand and realise that disabilities are common among my life.

     Children with disabilities are everywhere. According to the World Report on Disability approximately one billion people in the world are living with a disability, with at least 1 in 10 being children and 80% living in developing countries (2015). That means that every classroom I will be teaching in will have a child with disabilities. That means that I would need to prepare and make strategies to accompany the children with the proper education to make them succeed.

     A child who suffers from learning disabilities have a hard time in the classroom. I need to educate myself on how to take those learning disabilities and turn them into advantages. The Great Schools Staff (2002) emphasises that teaching a child with learning disabilities requires patience and allowing them to make self goals. No matter how slow or fast they learn, it is progress made and should be appreciated. As a educator I will encourage to always move forward and learn something everyday in the classroom. If the child learns one thing in the day, it is a success to me.

     Another way to help the child is to reinforce what is learned. Whatever is taught that day should continue to be in their head after school is over. I've learned over the years that constant reminder of material will help me and that is the same with children with learning disabilities. As a teacher, I would assign homework everyday. It would not be strenuous or something that would make the child feel discouraged. The homework would be a fun activity to remind the child about what the class learned today.

REFERENCES

Great Schools Staff. 2012. Study and test-taking strategies for kids with learning difficulties. Great Kids. Retrieved from http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/study-and-test-taking-strategies-for-kids-with-learning-difficulties/

Global Partnership For Education. 2015. Children with disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.globalpartnership.org/focus-areas/children-with-disabilities

Looking Back At The Lesson Plan

     What are lesson plans and why do we need it in school? Ever since I was little, I was introduced to lesson planning and how essential it is moving forward. My mother was a teacher, but not for grade schools. She worked at a catholic school daycare for half of my life and she, too, had to do lesson plans every single day. A lesson plan can be defined, to me, as a guide to what is expected to be done in the classroom that day. According to Mohammed Rhalmi, "It provides, however, a guide to managing the environment and the learning process." It's importance is key so that the classroom and goals in the classroom do not get overlooked.
     This past assignment tasked us at making a lesson plan about the nutritional facts label on cereal boxes. We, as future educators, were to revolve the lesson plan around three main contents of the labels: sugar, salt, and fat. From there, we could do anything we desired. It turned out to be a successful one and I carried it out well. Now that I learned how to make a good lesson plan, I am now tasked at applying my knowledge. So I started thinking at what could have been done differently from the lesson plan I made. I realised that there is always room for improvements so I tried to think of a better way for my previous plan. One of the few things I saw that I would include is timing. I felt like I could have put more time on training the students about what they are going to do. The initial lesson plan rushed straight in. The last thing I would change is the difficulty of the lesson plan. It was very easily achievable. I gave no challenge to students dealing with their graphs. My standards felt like they just had to complete it and they would get a good grade. A way to challenge students would be to grade harder on their graphs. I would set a strict criteria on how the graph should all look and I would make them do more calculations with the statistics then input the data. That would challenge them to learn a new concept and apply it to a new lesson.
     Of course, technology would also have made this lesson plan better. As you can see, I avoided the use of technology on the student's side. I do not have a logical explanation on why I chose to do it but I decided to do it the old fashioned way and let students use only paper and pencils. The improvements of the lesson plan would see students be able to use a laptop in their group to guide them through and help them if they ever need to know more about what they are learning. They would be able to find resources that would build their bar graphs for them. The possibilities are endless as long as they use the resources correctly. That would be up to me as the teacher to enforce safety with them most definitely. Technology in education should not be one sided. Students should also be able to take advantage of it's perks and the updated lesson plan will include that.
     So what is next? Another day means another lesson plan to make. What is another activity that I would teach my students that relates to what they recently did? The next lesson I would teach is to learn about the types of containers food is used in and to determine if it is recyclable. The reason for this is because it is important for students to learn about how beneficial recycling is for the environment. Considering this is a science class, it falls right under the material. How could you tell if something is recyclable? According to Erika Sanders, "The universal recycling symbol of three arrows chasing one another in a triangle indicates that a product's packaging is both recyclable and made of recycled material." That is exactly what I would teach my students. With this valuable knowledge, they are influenced with the thought of recycling and in the future, lessons about topics like the greenhouse effect and global warming will all be familiar. 
     Learning about lesson plans was a great experience. It was a more beneficial experience creating them. This opportunity gave me time to feel like an educator while I was making it. I was working and thinking like a teacher who wants the best for their students. With the knowledge I have now, I am able to revise a previous lesson plan AND create even better ones that will open more doors to ideas in the future. It was an experience that I hold dear to me.

WORKS CITED

Rhalmi, M. (2010, February 20). The Main Reasons For Lesson Plans. My English Pages. Retrieved November 3rd, 2015, from http://www.myenglishpages.com/blog/the-main-reasons-for-lesson-plans/

Sanders, E. (n.d.) How To Know if Something Can Be Recycled. SF Gate. Retrieved November 3rd, 2015, from http://homeguides.sfgate.com/something-can-recycled-79291.html

Nutritional Facts Label 101

ASSURE Multimedia Lesson Plan: Nutrition Facts Label 101

ASSURE Model Instructional Plan

Lesson Title: Nutritional Facts Label 101

Grade Level: Grade 6

Lesson Length: 60-minute period

A: Analyze Learner Characteristics

Learners General Characteristics: The school that I am teaching this lesson would be Agueda I. Johnston Middle School. The grade level targeted is grade 6. According to the school's website, ethnicity in this school is dominated by pacific islanders. 89% Pacific Islanders. 8% Asian. 1% American Indian. 2% Other. Classes are filled with 15 students who range from 11-12 year old kids.

6th Grade Entry Characteristics: At this grade level, students should be able to recognize how a nutritional fact label looks like on a cereal bar and have decent internet skills. The familiarity of a bar graph might range from student to student. In the lesson, they will watch a video about bar graphs to make them learn the concept or refresh it for some who already know. 

Learning Styles

Auditory 21% 

Kinesthetic 45%

Visual 34%

OBJECTIVES:

1. Students will be able to create a bar graph on graphing paper.
2. Students will be able to read and understand the fat, sugar, and salt labels on the nutritional facts label.
3. Students will be able to compare which cereal is healthy and unhealthy by results from bar graph.

S: Select Methods, Media, and Materials 

Methods: Cooperative Learning Groups

Materials: 

1. Picture of Nutritional Fact Label of following cereals

•  Fruity Pebbles
• Captain Crunch
• Special K

     2. Pencil and Eraser

     3. Graphing paper for Bar Graph

     4. Bar Graph Picture

    

Media: 

1. Youtube video. How to Read a Nutritional Facts Label.
2. Understand and Create a Bar Graph.

U: Utilize Media, Materials, and Methods

Prepare the Materials: The two YouTube videos will be downloaded and ready for students to watch. The handouts on each cereals nutritional facts label will be separated for the groups of students. Lastly, students will have their pen, eraser, and graphing paper out for when it is needed later in the lesson.

Prepare the Environment: With the help of students, the classroom will be separated in desks of three with each desk facing the front of the classroom.

Methods: Cooperative Learning Methods. Students will be split into groups of three. All three will play an equal role in the groups success. One student will be the note taker, another will be the detective, and the last student will be the supervisor. The role of the detective will be inspect the nutritional facts label while the note taker will be taking notes. The supervisor will make sure everything is going smoothly.

Materials: 

1. Picture of Nutritional Fact Label of following cereals

•  Fruity Pebbles
• Captain Crunch
• Special K

     2. Pencil and Eraser: These two tools will be used for students to draw their bar graphs.

     3. Graphing paper for Bar Graph: Graphing is an easier alternative to regular paper. It gives students straight lines to draw out their bar graphs.

     4. Bar Graph Picture: After watching the video on bar graphs, this picture will help give students a real life image of how their bar graph should turn out.

Media: 

1. Youtube video. How to Read a Nutritional Facts Label. This video will introduce students to the nutritional facts label and what it is all about. It is kid friendly and long enough to educate students without boring them by the length, 
2. Understand and Create a Bar Graph. This video is a fun and entertaining way to get students to understand what is a bar graph and how to collect data for it. It also gives students an idea of how bar graphs will look when they have to create one later in the lesson.

R: Require Learner Participation

Introduction (5 minutes): Students will be aware of the objectives for the day's lesson plan. With that, the class room will be arranged already and students will be told what group they will be with for today. Lastly, students will be given their handouts of the three cereals nutritional facts label, bar graph picture.

Media Presentations (15 minutes): After each video, the class will be asked questions to ensure they gained the necessary knowledge to carry out the lesson plan. 

Class Activity (20 minutes): In the groups, students will now extract the data on fat, sugar, and salt from each nutritional facts labels. After that, they will create a bar graph with the help of a simple bar graph picture that was handed out in the beginning of class. Students will analyze the collected data on each bar graph and determine which cereal is healthy and unhealthy.

Closing Activity (20 minutes): Students will have this time for a class discussion on what they learned in today's lesson. It will be open to any questions and concerns from them. Three groups will have the opportunity to present their bar graph to the class for bonus points towards their grade.

E: Evaluate and Revise 

Student Performances: 

• Students will be graded on their team performance.
• Their bar graph will be graded by the correctness of their data and the neatness of their graph.
• Extra points will be given for those who participate in the closing class discussions.

Media Effectiveness: 

• Was the YouTube video informative?
• Did the video catch the student's attention?
• Did the video enhance the student's learning experience?

Instructor Performance:

• Was the instructor in control of the class during the lesson?
• Did the instructor thoroughly explain the objectives to the class and carry out each one?
• Did the instructor help students who might have been lost?
• Did all the students gain from the lesson plan?

Bar Graph Rubric:

The Journey to Argument Wars

      Technology in education can enhance learning in today's times. We are surrounded by so many tools that make learning fun. I was fortunate enough to have an assignment that gave light to that statement. My ED271 class was split up into groups and were assigned to find an online educational game that would best serve learning. At first, I thought this assignment would be useless. Why would a game help someone learn? I was always under the influence that learning should be from reading, writing, or applying material, but never from playing a game. I gave it a chance and consulted with my group. My group composed of two secondary education majors and one elementary major. That left us with a problem of finding a game that we all agreed on although our age groups were completely different. Despite that obstacle, we overlooked it and began the search.

     Meanwhile, every group was assigned to make a rubric for our game. Once again, I doubted the importance of a rubric, but with further research, I was proved wrong. According to Brookhart (2013), "Rubrics are important because they clarify for students the qualities their work should have" (chp. 1). I realized that rubrics can be considered cheat sheets for students. They have access to the guideline of what excellent work should be. From that, I was excited to create a rubric that represented the game we were about to find. My group used Google Docs to compose our rubric. It was really convenient to have an online tool where we could all work on it together at once. Google docs eliminates the need to meet face to face which is difficult considering everyone has other obligations to attend to. So we used this online tool and worked on the rubric together.

      Finally, after some time, my group found a game that we all agreed was the best online educational game ever. "Argument Wars" is a game which taught material mostly from social studies. The objective of the game is to debate in a courtroom on a well known case and try to win against your opponent. It is highly interactive with feedback from your opponent and the judge. My group found it so fun that we all played it in our free time. How often can you say that you were playing an educational game during your leisure time? This game made me say that to many people. It was awesome to use because it takes a boring subject and turns it into a competitive game that people would enjoy playing. It would apply perfectly for a middle school and high school social studies class. I would assign my students to play the game and beat your opponent. The proof would be the cool certificate you get at the end when you win the game. I know that this would be an assignment that all the students would love playing considering online gaming is a big hit today.

      Our online educational game was now official and we were all set to get started on the presentation. The hardest part about putting it together was finding a online presentation site to use. There are a huge list of them and we were baffled. At first, we chose Prezi because it was a group decision. After creating the material to apply on Prezi, we changed our mind and chose Emaze because we wanted to be different. I thought that was innovative that we can choose from a number of great websites. From there we applied the information onto Emaze and the presentation was set in stone. Meanwhile, another obstacle occurred. One of my group members was unable to make the presentation date due to the fact she had to be off island. My group responded perfectly. Since we are in a technology based class, let us use technology to fix this problem. We had the missing member record her part and applied it onto the presentation. This would be a huge problem ten years ago, but today's technology tools made it so easy to solve.

       Some people think technology should stay out of the classroom but I think it should stay inside and keep allowing students to utilize it for it's advantages.  Often times kids get tired of reading from a social studies textbook that can possibly make them sleep. According to Honeycutt (2013), " When technology is integrated into school lessons, learners are more likely to be interested in, focused on, and excited about the subjects they are studying." It is very crucial to figure out ways for my students to be engaged in the material I will be teaching. It's even more important that they have fun while they learn because I believe you cannot learn if you are not having fun in the process. Argument Wars is all about making learning fun from technology.

References

 Brookhart, S. (2013). How to Create and Use Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Grading. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/112001/chapters/What-Are-Rubrics-and-Why-Are-They-Important%C2%A2.aspx

Huneycutt, T. (2013). Technology in the Classroom: The Benefits of Blended Learning. Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://www.nms.org/Blog/TabId/58/PostId/188/technology-in-the-classroom-the-benefits-of-b