Computer Not Saving

Well I have to write this all again, the computer did not save the very long reflection I just tried to post.  The last sentence was, "When it comes to blogging, I did not realize that many people.... blogged.  I always thought that celebrities, companies and organizations blogged, not everyday people.  Well was I wrong, I now have my own blog page. I am not much on writing down my thoughts but  I guess that is going to have to change.  I could not believe how easy it was to set up a blog, Dr. Smirnova sent us to some great sites to view other people's blogs and the tutorial on blogging helped. I am a hands on type of learner that needs to see things done before I usually will attempt them.  So this is very hard for me to be taking a class that I do not get to see the Professor in really life at each class.  I really enjoyed making my blog page, not enjoying doing my posts, yet.

I really liked doing the WDYDWYD page.  I am not a very artistic person, so it was hard for me at first to come up with a way to express to others "Why I Do What I Do...".  I do what I do because I want to help children succeed in education and in life.  I do not only what help my own children but I want to help as many children as I can.  Teaching is the best way to help children you are teaching them the basic skills, besides the ones their parents taught them.  You are teaching them about reading, writing, math, history, science, manners, communication, and a lot more skills that will help them be prepared for their future.  So I decided to do a slide show using my own children, these pictures express how we have guided/teached them skills in life that will help them in education and in their life.  If you get a chance check out my slide show of "Why I Do What I Do...".

I was introduced to LoTI for the first time.  All the videos, PPT, forms, and discussions with classmates has really helped me understand how it is implemented.  By using the framework sheet you can see if and how to set up your classroom to have great use of technology.  The best thing is that it promotes higher order thinking (Bloom's Taxonomy) and after talking to Kim about it she put the two together and made it a lot clearer for me (Thank You Kim).  I do believe that it will be harder in a computer sense to implement, than in regular subjects.  Schools, most do not have enough computers for every students to use.  Students only get to use computers two to three times a week, and that does not seem like enough time to set the students up at a level 6: Refinement.  At this level the students are taking charge, using higher order thinking skills, multiple technologies are used, problem solving outside class,and they have no constraints on technology.  This will not happen in many schools because they do not have the resources.  I believe that most schools are at a level 3 or 4.  Maybe one day all students will have access to computers in schools whenever they need them.

After reading about LoTI and having the different level of technology in the classroom, I read about Twitter in the classroom.  I believe that students need to learn about computer and the different types of technology available to them.  I do not believe that having Twitter in the classroom is right.  After watching several videos on Twitter in the classroom, I realize that I would not want my students or children doing this.  I do realize that the majority of the classrooms were high school and college classrooms, but the concept is wrong to me.  Many people say that since the students are communicating to each other this way outside class why not allow them to do it in class so they feel more comfortable.  This will allow them to participate in class discussion, be more open, and want to participate.  By having the students communicating via Twitter they are losing their social skill and communication skills.  Today people are communicating by Twitter, face book, e-mail, IM, or texting.  The voice is becoming a thing of the past.  When I sat down and thought about what it would be like in a classroom or in general, people Twittering to communicate with eachother I thought about the movie Wall-e.  The people in this movie are stuck in chairs and communicate through a computer.  I do not want our world to come to this, people need to still have human contact by talking to eachother.  I will keep an open mind as I go on in my studies of incorporating new technology into my future classroom. 

I still cannot believe that the first week of classes is over.  I have learned a lot of new and exciting tools and sites to use.  I now have a framework of how to set up my classroom with/using technology, I can also use the framework in any area of teaching.  I realize that I need to be open minded as I go forward in this class.  As a person I do not have face book, MySpace page, I do not IM, and I just started texting (Lauren).  As a parent my children do not have video games, cellphones, and their computer time is monitored.  I will have to be more open to technology for me and my children, and my future students so that we will be able to keep up with the world in the future.