My MEIT Technology Top Ten

10. Digital story creation: This is a really great addition to both my teaching and personal life. My students loved creating digital math stories as well as iMovies about their heroes. For our class, I created a story about my husband's grandmother, and it has inspired other family history ideas.

9. Podcasts: These were a fun new addition to my classroom this past year. My class had a great time creating podcasts about novel characters and the stock market.

8. Internet Videos: Before this program, I had never spent much time on YouTube. I thought the videos were all junk, created by people with too much time on their hands. I now know how many great, educational videos are available on sites like YouTube, TeacherTube, The Futures' Channel, etc. They have become a regular part of my lesson planning.

7. Social Networking: I am currently addicted to Facebook, and I now understand the pull it has for kids (and adults!). While I have not used it in my classroom yet, I think it has been a great experience to learn about how it works.

6. Wikis: Before our program began, I had never heard of a wiki. This past school year, I used one constantly with my classes. It is such a great tool for "discussion", collaboration, and organization. The students were really excited about sharing their thoughts about various topics on the wiki.

5. Blogs: Like digital storytelling, blogs have been a wonderful addition to my teaching tools. They have also been a lot of fun on a personal level. My class created a book review blog which was a success. While I still really haven't taken to blogging myself, I have developed a real interest in reading many blogs. Bloglines has been a great help in managing what could be an overwhelming amount of information.

4. Photo sharing sites: Again, personally and professionally, I have gotten a lot out of my experiences with Flickr, PhotoBucket, etc. While I haven't yet used them directly with my students, I have created albums with pictures taken in my classroom. I do have some ideas in mind for using them with the students next year!

3. Web 2.0 Tools: The availability of open source resources for almost anything you can imagine was totally new to me. In the past, if I needed something, I would go to the store and buy a program. Now I go look online for a free version!

2. Project Based Learning: Students seems to respond so much more positively and learn so much more when they are working on a real-world project. When problem-solving is encouraged and technology is used as it is in the work world, as a tool/resource, it gives the children skills they will be able to use no matter what technology looks like when they are adults.

and finally...

1. GOOGLE: I never realized Google was more than a search engine! Now I use all the programs constantly. Google Docs, for example, has become a regular, everyday tool in the classroom. The ability to collaborate without being together physically is great.

Computer Architecture #4

This class has definitely taken me out of my comfort zone. There are certain aspects I am glad to have covered, but in general, this has been one of my least favorite classes. I am just not very interested in most of the material.

I am glad we went over "disaster recovery" because it was a good reminder. My husband and I haven't been as diligent as we should in backing up our documents. We are now looking into an external hard drive to back everything up. I would be most upset about losing all our family pictures.

Opening the computer wasn't as bad as I thought. I still probably won't do it very often, but it was interesting to see what was inside. I think it would have been helpful to go over it together first, however, because I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at. If my husband hadn't helped me, I wouldn't have even known how to open it.

The concept of the Linux operating systems was the most interesting to me. I had heard the term before, but I really had no idea what it was. It was neat to experiment with a couple versions and see how well they really work! I could see myself using one in the future.

The "Triumph of the Nerds" video series was very interesting. I enjoyed hearing how everything started - especially from the Mac perspective. I wish the series would be updated with another part since when it ended Apple was going down the drain and Steve Jobs wasn't even with the company!

I think the "Boot Process" assignment was a waste of time and effort. I still don't really understand the whole "bios" concept, but to be perfectly honest, I really am not interested. I just don't see how that assignment helped me to become a better teacher or even a more effective computer user.

I really think the two "organization" assignments (disaster recovery and virus protection) should have been group assignments (if they were assignments at all). I know that some people in the program are interested in the more technical side of the computers, but many of us are classroom teachers who joined this program to find out how to enhance our curriculum with technology. I don't plan to be an IT person, and I don't see a need to create an organizational plan for either topic and definitely not BOTH. I have been putting off both of those assignments because I really don't even know where to begin. I can understand creating plans from a personal perspective but not for an entire organization.

I think the "Perfect Computer" assignment will be fun. I already have some ideas, but I am still thinking about a couple options!

In conclusion, I think this class has TOO MANY long and difficult projects. It was said at the beginning that this would be a relaxing class... I don't think so. I know it was mentioned that this class should have been at the beginning of the program, but I don't agree. I think if it had been the first class, some of us may have left the program.

Computer Architecture #3

This week's topic was planning for disaster. It really got me thinking about our computers at home. My husband and I both have laptops, and we do back them up but probably not as often as we should. I was very faithful about backing things up while we were working on Action Research because I think I would have "died" had I lost all that work. Since I finished that, however, I have been a little lax again.

Time Machine was mentioned in class, and as a result, I went home and talked to my husband about it. We did a little research and decided that is the way we want to go for our laptops. I just missed Leopard when I bought my new laptop for this MEIT program so Time Machine didn't come with mine. Right now, we are in the process of deciding which external hard drive to get. Then we will upgrade to Leopard.

It will be a relief to know that if something happens to one of the computers, we will have everything safe, especially all of our pictures.

Computer Architecture #2

The countdown continues... two down, four to go!

I was really glad that we went over the Boot Process power point in class this week. While still not completely clear in all places, it made a lot more sense than the first few, frustrating times I read through it.

I am looking froward to trying out the LINUX applications. I guess I never really thought about there being any other operating systems available besides Mac and Windows. I have two live Cds burned with Slax and Ubuntu. Now I just have to try them out. I am a little nervous about messing up my computer and never getting it to come back, but I am sure it will be fine. I am much more comfortable with it because of the demonstration in class. That really helped. If I had just been given the directions, with no demo, I would be freaking out about it right now! =)

Computer Architecture #1

I have to admit that I have been dreading this class since we started the program. As much as I love using computers and learning about new applications, I have had absolutely no interest in what is inside the computer. Coming into this class, I had never been inside a computer and had no desire to change that.

My husband helped me open the computer since I didn't even know how to do that and didn't want to break it! It was interesting to see the parts and match them up with the different websites to identify them. That being said, I still don't think I will spend much time in there in the future. One thing I will take away from the experience is the ability to clean the dust out of the computer. Now that I know how to open it, I will try to get in there and clean it more often.

After reading the Boot Process power point, I felt completely stupid. I didn't even understand half of what I read. I read through it a second time a day later with slightly more comprehension. I honestly don't think I will ever use (or completely understand) most of that.

The first part of the PBS series Triumph of the Nerds was a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be when I saw it listed. It was interesting to hear how everything started, especially from the Apple perspective.

Action Research

This has been a very challenging and stressful class so far. I am pleased with the topic I have chosen. Of course, that could all change if I hit some snags along the way. I decided to study the effects of interactive wiki reports on learning. I want to see if the children learn more when they collaborate on a report and create a web page than they do when they write a traditional written report. I still have a lot of work to do on the specifics, assessments, research proposal, etc. Right now I plan to assign each student a historical figure to read about and research. I will use the same list of people in both the experimental and control groups. I want to do some sort of pre-test to check their background knowledge about the people they are learning about. Following their reading and research, the control group will write a paper about what they have learned. The experimental group will create a wiki page about the person studied. This group will also collaborate with their classmates and help each other create the pages. Once the final products are complete, I will give the same test I gave before the research as a post-test. I will check to see if their is any significant difference between the results of the two groups. I will also give all the students a short survey to see how they felt about their learning as well as their interest level. I have a lot of work to do, but I am just trying to do one thing at a time!

How True!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.