Module 5 Blog Post

Teaching and Learning with Technology in English and Language Arts Instruction

Advantages of Integrating Technology
There are numerous advantages to integrating technology into the classroom, specifically the English and Language Arts curriculum. This essay lists some of many to integrating technology. These include improved student achievement on tests, improved quality of work, the numerous benefits to students with special needs, the ability to reach at-risk students, improved attitudes toward learning, and many more. You can use technology to easily differentiate instruction. Saba, the author of this essay sums it up perfectly in his conclusion:
       "There is strong evidence pointing toward technology leading to better results on standardized   
        tests; however the real emphasis should not be on how it improves test scores, but on how it
        benefits student learning; how it enables those who are not able to perform at their peak in
        traditional classrooms to do better; how it motivates students to learn and gives them a more
        positive attitude towards education; how it can individualize learning by giving feedback; how
        it can act as a catalyst for change towards more student centered learning; and how it better
        prepares the youth of today with technical, communicative, interpersonal and creative skills."

Disadvantages of Integrating Technology
This site lists both advantages and disadvantages of technology use in the classroom, but for the purpose of this blog post, I'd like to use to look at some of the disadvantages. It points out how easy it is for students to access inappropriate content and share it with their peers, creating a big problem. then it discusses the issue of the effect that technology has already had on our society, creating more antisocial students and more people that experience social anxiety. Third, they bring up the important point of cyberbullying and its harmful effects. The last two disadvantages include making cheating much easier and prominent and of course, being a major distraction.

Specific Activities, Programs, Etc. 
Support for word fluency and vocabulary development:
- ReadWriteThink
- various apps
- Brainpop
- Wordle
- Wordsift
- Virtual Thesaurus

Support for comprehension and literacy development:
- engaging digital texts
- handheld devices such as Kindles
- Write:OutLoud
- Kurzweil 300
- Story Center: Center for Digital Storytelling

Support for writing instruction:
- Electronic outlining
- Kidspiration
- Blogging
- Word Processing

Support for literature learning:
- online copies of published works
- researching background information on authors
- projecting text
- eReaders 

Module 4 Blog Post

Place Value Resources 

I first discovered Promethean Planet over the summer while I was doing my Special Education internship at the Linda Nolen Learning Center. I'm grateful for that time I spent learning how to work this particular type of hardware and how to navigate the website. What I didn't learn until this class was that I could download the ActivInspire software on my laptop for free and do everything I needed to do there before moving it to the Promethean board in the classroom.

As we know from our AMSTI training, place value is something a lot of students struggle with. I'm in a fifth grade classroom and my students are struggling with this still. We're moving into adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals, so they need to solidify this skill.
Technology offers us a solution to many problems teachers face in the classroom. The first problem is trying to find a way to get the students motivated and engaged. Flipcharts do this easily. Anything with technology automatically grabs their attention and the interactive nature of Promethean boards allow students to be engaged and have a more hands-on approach to learning. The second problem is finding a way to support students' learning needs. In this section, it talks about helping students to visualize the underlying concepts in unfamiliar or abstract topics. That is one of the main reasons I chose this Flipchart.  It provides a visual representation for the concept of place value in three different ways. That means you have three different ways (at least) to teach the same concept and reach all your students. Problem three encompasses preparing students for the future. The need for technological, information, and visual literacy can all be met by integrating Promethean boards in your lessons.

In order to create an environment for successful technology integration, you need to assess the students. This will help you know what they already know (which will tell you where you need to start) and also help you determine your students learning styles so you can differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all your students. Determining when you use technology is important as well. You shouldn't use it for every single lesson and you shouldn't use it if it would be more of a distraction than asset. This flipchart is very efficient and versatile . It is not so much made to stand on its own, but to be integrated into other daily or weekly plans to meet the needs of the students when necessary. As with lessons without technology, objectives should be set and stated clearly so the lesson can be as smooth and efficient as possible and avoid wasting precious class time.

Flipcharts are categorized under interactive whiteboard activity software for software support tools (for obvious reasons...). These are basically a regular whiteboard that has been enhanced by technology.  This place value Flipchart can be used as a teacher-led or student-led whole group or small group lesson.

Module 3 Blog Post

Search Engines
Search engines have become a part of everyday life for many people these days. Something Anna Jones, our AMSTI Specialist, said last week has really stuck with me. She said, "We don't need to teach them everything about everything. They have resources readily available to find out whatever they need to know. We need to teach them how to find that information and how to determine if it's credible." This is connected to search engines because we have the ability to Google just about anything. In classrooms today, internet usage is unavoidable. Search engines allow us to filter out some of the irrelevant stuff in our search. We still need to know how to determine if our sources are reliable and interpret data, but search engines definitely help us to weed out unimportant information to find what we need. Both teachers and students need to know how to use keywords to find what they need and how to read the results page.


Website Evaluation Video

This short video would be excellent to use in my classroom to show my student how to determine if a website is reliable or not using the acronym R.E.A.L. This helps students remember the main things they need to check to decide whether or not this website should be used and whether or not it is a valid source. I chose this video because I felt like it talked about the important stuff without too much fluff, keeping it short, sweet, and to the point so the students don't get bored and it doesn't take up too much class time.

Favorite Web Site #1
Scholastic: Teachers

I know some people this scholastic is overrated, but I don't care because I love it! From a teacher's perspective, there are SO many resources here and I know I will be coming here quite a bit when I'm a first year teacher! There are teaching blogs, freebies, daily starters, lesson plans... and so much more! In my opinion, this website fits the bill for a good resource because it has excellent organization and structure. The first page has clear tabs to help you navigate the site. It also has clear texts and graphics and good visual design elements.


Favorite Web Site #2
Mrs. Anderson's Class Wiki

The next website I chose is a classroom wiki. I love this whole concept. We had one that my ninth grade teacher had used for a while, but while we spent a lot of time with it in the beginning, I feel like we never discussed it again after the start of the second quarter. I chose this particular classroom wiki because I feel like it has a lot of aspects I would like to include in my own wiki. I like that it includes information that is good for both parents and students. I really like that at the bottom, you can click on each name of a "contributor" and check out their individual stuff. Also, they have a slideshow of their owl pellet dissection, which we just talked about in AMSTI training on Friday!

Module 2 Blog Post

Interactive Storybooks: 
Stories that can be read from a computer screen, on mobile devices, or as print books with interactive buttons

Clifford's Emily Goes to School is an example of an interactive storybook. I LOVE these for literacy centers in the younger grades. I particularly like ones like this because because have a few options as far as reading: you can read the text yourself or you can click on the speaker next to the line and it will read the text to you, allowing the students to hear the text as they see it, building their phonics and fluency skills. This interactive storybook has incomplete sentences and a word bank for students to fill in the blank. Each answer is correct and it changes the story, so it's kind of like one of those choose-your-own-adventure, so the students can be involved and invested in their reading.

Virtual Reality: 
Computer generated environment designed to provide a lifelike simulation of actual settings, often uses data gloves and headgear to immerse user in simulated environment. representation of real or imaginary worlds in which the user interacts through multiple senses.

Google brings virtual reality to the classroom in a very cheap way as described in this article. I honestly think this is so cool! This is something we dreamed about when we were kids and watched on Sci-Fi shows, but now it's a tool we can use in our classroom to take our kids on exciting fields trips without ever even having to leave the classroom! This article talks about how the virtual reality only needs cardboard, mobile devices, and software. One example is through Expeditions with the Planetary Society and the American Museum of Natural History, and once you receive the kit, you can take your whole class on a virtual field trip together.

Interactive Storybooks on the iPad

Module 1 Blog Post

Word Processing Software
Benefits: Word processing is used in schools because it saves time, enhances the appearance of documents, allows for sharing of documents, and allows for collaboration on documents.
Issues: Not everyone is on board for the use of word processing in the classroom. There is debate over when students should begin using word processing and the time necessary to teach keyboarding skills would take away from other content areas. Word processing has had a negative effect on handwriting and on the scores of essay type questions versus handwritten assessments. Problems with inadvertent errors due to the autocorrect feature that can replace typed words with ones the software thinks is more correct can penalize the students unfairly.

Spreadsheet Software
Benefits: Spreadsheets are used to save time, organize displays of information, increase the motivation to work with mathematics, and support the asking of "what if" questions by encouraging problem solving.
Issues: The major issue with using spreadsheets is that there is a general fear of mathematics and processing numbers, which means no one wants to use them. There is also a need for time to get students used them, again, taking away from instructional time in content areas.

Presentation Software 
Benefits: Presentation software helps to organize thinking about a topic, enhances the impact of spoken information, and allows collaboration on presentations.
Issues: There is no research to prove consistent impact on education impact as it depends on how its used. Presentations often negatively impact teaching styles as teachers tend to read from the PowerPoint and student participation seems to be discouraged as they are generally lecture-style presentation.


Classroom Uses for Word Processing
After teaching a lesson on the Civil War, I could have my fourth graders write journal entries from the perspective of a Union or Confederate soldier. They would write these on a computer, either a PC or Mac, using word processing software. This allows the students to more easily work through the writing processes from drafting to editing to final products while also practicing their keyboarding skills.