Well, unfortunately I realized last night that I will only be able to make two of the Bell and Beyond days during finals week and 3 of the days in the week after that. I wish I could make it out 3 days this week but my students' final is Wednesday at 2:45. Yuck. More grading and massive amounts of office hours in the next week. A few of the students won't pass the class anyway. Seriously, one kid got a 4/50 on the exam yesterday. A 4! I don't think he tried though. Another girl I've been working with hours each week only got a 16. Its pretty bad. Anyway, I think I'm suppose to write about things I learned or didn't learn and things I liked and didn't like... though I'm not sure.
I honestly am not sure what I learned or didn't learn. It doesn't seem like I learned much. What I learned all seemed to be little things. I learned little rules about safety in using technology in the classroom, things like how to give young children specific words for which to search. I also learned a lot (and am still learning) about working with younger children in general. However, this doesn't seem extremely vital to what I want to do in the future. I also learned how to use some new computer programs that could possibly be used in my classroom but not nearly enough. Plus, I'm not sure I learned how to integrate the things too much. Yes, MovieMaker could be used for a math project but whether or not my school will allow me enough time to have a project instead of just preparing for ISTEP is what I don't know.
I would have actually enjoy learning more about technology currently used in schools - things like budgets, rules, getting the technology, and fixing the technology. More programs would have been nice too, perhaps with little projects for each program. For example, it was nice seeing Flash and I was able to import a picture but I never did get the picture to spin. However, if I had been given steps to follow on paper and an assignment of making a picture rotate or a ball bounce then I probably would have invested more time and come out more confident about the program.
The Techo board was actually a really good activity and really bad too. I liked the idea of having to go out and search for what various things were, but for one week so early in the semester, that was far too much work and there was no consequence if it wasn't done. Perhaps having 5 to 10 things each week and requiring a paragraph about each one or a blog entry about them would be better. Plus after the initial discussion of what was on the Techo board we never returned to it. That board could be the basis of other things we did in the class such as weekly demonstrations. I guess I vaguely know what RSS feeds are from the techo board and I see it mentioned online sometimes (like adding RSS feeds to things) but I still don't know how it would be used, how it would help me in my class, and when I would use it. In fact, the only program I feel confident with after this class is MovieMaker.
This class was actually much more work than I expected but the work was at least somewhat enjoyable. I think my problem with this class was not the teacher but just the class in general. How do you really make a class about technology integration in schools? From what I've heard about other ways this class has been run, I liked the way it was done. I liked the small class size and the discussions but I think so much more could have been done. It would have been nice to go to a school a couple of times and actually watch a high school math teacher integrate technology. Are there teachers in Bloomington that have the technology certification that could become mentors to the college students seeking certification? It would even be nice to help a high school teacher plan and execute a lesson or activity. I do like the idea of having one student that the W210 student would work with all three semesters but I don't see how technology integration would be guaranteed then. Plus from my experience, it is difficult to work with students through the school unless it is done in the school during the school day which would cause more problems. I really liked Bell and Beyond and I think the teaching experience at Bell and Beyond was something desperately needed by the students in W210. However, I think it would have been better if more teaching had been done. The W210 students don't necessarily need to teach complicated lessons but could teach things like writing letters or just typing. Bell and Beyond is making movies again and it is going much better this time than it went last time because the lesson has already been tried. I think that if we had taught this again using our new knowledge then things would have gone better for us. Plus requiring the W210 students to all teach during one session was a bit much. Having Andrew, myself, and Phil all teach a section in one day was just too much and should have been split up into multiple days.
All in all, I ended up enjoying this class more than I expected. Perhaps bringing the red and blue cups in so early in the semester is not the best thing to do though because it can be frightening to think a class is resorting down to learning about how to use plastic cups on computers. I liked the amount of work that was required but got fed up with everyone doing a poor job on the work, not putting any effort into the class, and turning practically every assignment in late. I think being more script about the quality of work and the due dates would be better.
One last note is that I really disliked the movie we had to do. I think the project should either have been an individual project or a required group project but not either. Plus, I honestly would rather just have written a paper. I could easily write an 8 page paper on the topic (the script I wrote for the paper was 4 pages single spaced) and putting it into the movie didn't add to my learning at all. I already have learned how to use MovieMaker because of Bell and Beyond and had already made myself my own movie weeks ago after discovering MovieMaker in class. Putting pictures to the script and having my partner attempt to read my writing didn't do much for me. I am also still frustrated that Windows Media Player wouldn't play the movies on most of the computers in our room.
If you have other questions about this class, feel free to ask. I am always willing to give you my opinion on something though at the moment I am out of ideas of things to write about concerning this class.
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Hi Joanna,
First, let me say that I appreciated having you in this course. You provided reassurance that I wasn't asking too much. On the other side, let me also say that these are undergraduate students which may be the reason for the large differentiation between your quality of work and the others. I think that perhaps a pre-survey, post-survey would really help with the direction of each students' learning. We could customize this course to each individual's preferences.
It seems like you would value more about the management of technology in schools as opposed to the integration, as well as learning specific technology programs. I hesitate to teach specific programs because everyone is so diverse in terms of their focus, that I don't want to teach Excel or even Inspiration because people may think "this doesn't apply to me". Plus, everyone should already have had the Microsoft Suite introduction within an educational context from the previous classes (w201, 301, 401).
Next, you talk about Flash, but how would you use that in the classroom? You said MovieMaker was nice to know, but you wouldn't have time.
When we talk about pairing you up with actual field experiences, this often becomes an administrative nightmare for most teacher education programs (which is why you don't see field experiences with every class). This also becomes difficult because how are we supposed to judge when teachers use technology in good ways? Should we check each semester? Have teachers apply? This becomes difficult, but something I'm seriously looking into. I also have to think about managing it on a broader scale once the class begins to get bigger. I'd welcome the opportunity to talk about this more and perhaps we can go out to lunch one day and discuss it. Thank you for all your effort in this class! And good luck in your future educational endeavors!!!!
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