Week 5 Reflection

I was not looking forward to the Information Literacy Quiz.  I really don’t feel that I’m all that tech savvy.  However, I was pleasantly surprised by my results.  I scored a respectable 8, meaning I am “somewhat savvy”.  I must admit, I don’t know that I would have scored that well had I not read the article first.  I am certain the article helped boost my score.   Still, this was a fun exercise that did boost my ego a bit.

In order to complete the week’s activities, I followed the link to “Victorian Robots” (www.bigredhair.com ).  The URL ends in .com which indicates that this is a company website.  Using the name “big red hair” in the URL also may help researchers to see that perhaps this is not the most scholarly of websites.  At this point I realize that I probably cannot take everything this site presents as complete truth or fact.  A company can present information however they choose.  Using the link command, I see that the links provided are all to sites that the “Victorian Robots” creators have created.  Some links lead to more information about each individual robot.  There are links to extend the information presented about each robot creation, but there are also more artistic websites linked.  Some of the sites are personal.  There are links to the creators’ Halloween party invitations and pictures, dog website.  These links lead me to believe that I cannot take this website too seriously.  I can see that the authors of the website are artistic and interesting but not historically accurate. 

I did conduct a search for the topic “Victorian robots” on Google, Yahoo, Bing and HotSpot.  I wanted to use HotSpot because I have never used this search engines before.  www.bigredhair.com was the first hit on each search engine.  This is perhaps due to the fact that there are no references to Victorian robots that truly existed.   As I used the different search engines, I noticed more advertisements on Yahoo than any other search engine.  I found them moderately distracting.  I believe this is due to the way the search engines earn money.  Some of these engines earn money when advertisements are placed on the page; some earn money when advertisements are clicked. 

The authors of the “Victorian Robots” websites are Paul Guinan and his wife Anina Bennett.  Both authors are artists and writers.  The artists are incredibly creative and have not formal publisher, other than themselves.  They are solely responsible for their many sites.

The website’s purpose was originally entertainment.  However, the website may seem to represent true, historic data about actual robots in the Victorian era.  Though the authors originally created this website as entertainment, it became something of an experiment once they realized that people believed in the Victorian-era robots they created.  As quoted on WikiPedia, Paul Guinan said 

“Certainly I felt happy about having achieved my goal," he said. "I put this thing across as trying to be real, and people bought into it. So, that's a success! But, as an amateur historian, I feel a responsibility to get the story right. So I felt bad about some of these people being hoaxed. It was a mixed bag." "But," he revealed, "I thought, if I was getting this reaction and I wasn't really trying, then what would happen if I really tried?" (Dooley 2002) .    

I conducted this process on a few websites I use regularly.  The sites I normally use are all academic, educational sites that I use for work.  Evaluating the sites really helped me see that the few sites I use frequently are great resources, created for educational purposes by knowledgeable educators.  I don’t really use the internet for any purpose other than work, so I didn’t find sites that were not reliable.  This process will help me evaluate the validity of websites I intend to use in the future.  I also shared this process with my husband, and he has already begun evaluating websites he uses.

Week 4 Reflection

I was a little surprised with my answers to the blog reflection questions this week.  Here are my answers:

• Are you more comfortable composing documents online than longhand?  I'm much more comfortable answering questions online, which I find very strange.  I always say I'm not really much of a technology person.  In fact, technology is a little intimidating to me when I think about it, yet I prefer answering questions online.
• Have you turned your "remembering" (phone numbers, meetings and so on) over to a technology device? All of my information is saved somewhere.  I have my phone numbers saved on my phone and computer.  I keep an alarm set on my phone calendar to remind me of any meetings or appointments.  I still keep a paper calendar that I write appointments in on occasion, but I don't really keep that calendar all that up to date.
• Do you go to meetings with your laptop, iPad or tablet? I take my laptop, Nook or a campus issued iPad to meetings.  Taking these electronics to meetings allows access to any tools and programs I might need at the touch of a button.
• Are you constantly connected? Is the internet always on whether you are at home or work? Is your cell phone always with you?  I am constantly connected.  I keep my phone with me almost 24 hours a day.  If I do not have the internet connected, someone else in my family does.  
• How many different activities can you effectively engage in at one time?  I'm a mom, so I have to be a multi-tasker anyway.  However, I do find myself checking my class, email, blog, wiki, cooking dinner, doing laundry, cleaning, answering phone calls, making sure kids are doing homework, helping with homework, and a million other things all at the same time.
• Do you play video games or computer games?  I do not play any games.  Let's face it, I am a full time librarian, mom and take classes. I don't have time to play games.  I don't really think I would play games if I did have time. 
• What generational category do you fall in or are you a mixture of a few? I think I'm a mixture of a few generations.  I am a GenXer, but I am slowly moving increasingly toward the NetGen.  This would never have happened if I had not returned to school and had to take a ton of Educational Technology courses. It does make me a better educator.

Finally, what and how do we need to change?  There are many changes that need to take place.  Educators get set in their ways and stubborn.  We don't want to change.  We think things are fine just the way they are.  If things have worked for years, why grow or change?  It is difficult for educators to explore new ideas and technologies when things seem fine just the way they are.  However, educators need to be open to learning new technologies and how to incorporate them into the classroom.  This will open new doors for all NetGen students who we teach daily.  We have to stop being stubborn and sticking with the teaching tools that worked decades ago because learners are not the same as they were decades ago. One of the goals of educators is the create lifelong learners of students.  Isn't it time educators decided to be lifelong learners too?

Week 3: Assessment for Learning

I enjoyed the article Electronic Stories for Digital Stories of Deep Learning.  Portfolios can be an important part of monitoring students' learning.  The ten research-based principles of Assessment for Learning describe a wonderful way to assess students through more than a snapshot test or quiz.  A portfolio gives so much more than a snapshot.  It shows the growth a student has obtained.  I most identified with the 9th principle: AFL should recognize the full range of achievements of all learners. 

To me, education should be learner-centered, allowing students to grow and develop.  Rather than measuring a student's annual success through a one day test, portfolios can measure the growth and progress of each individual by reviewing representative works the student has created throughout the year.  This would be so much more than just a snapshot of learning.  A portfolio will offer educators a panoramic mural of a child's learning. 

Teachers have relied on high-stakes test results to measure student learning and for their own accountability for a long time.  However, the No Child Left Behind act (NCLB) has made that focus on high-stakes testing even stronger. Students spend a few hours taking tests to represent their learning, but there are many factors that could negatively effect test scores. Students might be feeling ill, may have been in trouble prior to the test, might be cold/hot/uncomfortable, etc. Any number of issues might be taking student focus off the test. 

With portfolio assessment, all that changes.  Since student work is compiled throughout the year, one bad day or illness will not ruin a child's score. Instead, portfolios will allow students to show their growth and improvement.  Educators and parents will be able to track how much students have learned.  A true picture of learning can be formed from reviewing a portfolio. 

Creating a portfolio for my program will also be a reminder to me of the new knowledge I have acquired.  A portfolio of the many projects I have created will be a great way for me to build upon my knowledge and modify the assignments I have created for a class to meet the needs of the job I am completing now.  The work I have completed in the past can be built on to guide and direct my future.

Week 2 Reflection

Now that I have completed the Mapping activity, I am surprised by my findings.  I enjoyed the mapping activity and really loved Wordle.  Using the Wordle showed me that I need to reconfigure my thinking to get the desired results when using technology.  It can be incredibly difficult to search for information online when the focus is not there or if one does not know the right words to search.  The mapping exercise is one way to focus thoughts in order to get the proper results from an internet search.  I also felt that the different mapping sites offered made concept mapping very simple.  I have often used Kidspiration or Inspiration for creating concept maps with my students, but using this software is expensive and takes time for the kids to learn.  The Wordle and the “bubbl” site were both very easy to use and took almost no time to learn.  These sites are more user friendly for the students.

I realize that in the past, I was lazy and stubborn when searching for information.  I had an idea in mind and stuck with that idea.  I may have looked at many different sources, but in the end, I never really refocused or reworded what I was searching for.   Now I realize that searching for information requires more flexibility and open-mindedness.  I feel now that I have missed valuable information that could have made a huge impact in my studies and for my students.  I need to be more vigilant when searching for information in order to ensure that I am finding the most useful, effective information for my classes and my students.

If we fail to teach our digital native students to be 21^st century learners, students will not be prepared for their future educational and career pursuits. As the world moves more toward technology, education is increasingly turning toward technology as it should.  If students are not technologically prepared for the future, they will have trouble meeting their educational and career requirements.  Students need to explore, study and master the many facets of technology and available programs in order to be prepared for the future. Many valuable sites are blocked from school computers, but teachers can circumvent this problem in a few ways in order to prepare students.  Teachers can request valuable sites to be unblocked by district technology personnel.  Technology services employees will usually research a site to determine its usefulness and propriety.  They can then uphold the block on the site or remove it.  Teachers can prepare students to use a blocked site by creating a presentation and directions that model how to use the site.  Students can take this information home, use the site and send the finished product to the teacher. 

Social bookmarking is the process of organizing all valuable websites in one convenient site.  It differs from clicking the bookmark button to save sites.  Social bookmarking allows the user to access the saved sites from any computer and any location.  The bookmark button only allows the user to access the bookmarked sites from the computer they originally bookmarked on.  Social bookmarking makes the bookmarked sites easily accessed from any location. 

I have maintained a Delicious account for a few years now.  I learned Delicious through one of my Library Sciences courses.  It was so user friendly and has kept valuable information for me, so I have not thought to use a different social bookmarking site.  My Delicious account is very valuable to me because it does house all of the websites that I find essential.  I think I can use social bookmarking sites with the teachers and students at my campus.  The teachers on my campus are overworked and would greatly benefit from having all of their important websites in one place.  It would help the teachers be more effective in less time.  Students would also benefit from starting social bookmarking accounts.   Students would be able to begin building internet resource portfolios that would allow them easy access to important sites.  Social bookmarking sites would offer kids quick access to important information and technologies when they need them.

Educational Technology Wordle