Final Blog Post

The skills I have learned in the course will help me meet if not exceed the standards for Ohio teachers using Technology. The different types of technology that were used in the course gave me an understanding on what kind of technology would be the most effective within the classroom. In a classroom enviroment, I can easily apply technology to inspire students to use higher levels of thinking. I have also realized to is fairly simple to design activities that will not only align with the content standards, but go beyond them. Also within this course I have developed my understanding of copyright and fair use policies. This will help to design activities that will grasp a students interest without violating any copyright laws.

Blog Post 5

Spreadsheets provide a variety of functions when used within a classroom enviroment. Spreadsheets can be used to transform dat and numbers into charts and graphs. They also are easy to update information for a real time exercise of data. It can also be use for analyzing statistics. And the final benifits would have to be the ease of maintaining a students interest.

One beneficial activity that i did not notice in the study guide is simulated data. with spreadsheet programing the varibles are easy to change, hence you can make up the "what if" factor. how would population growth be effect if world war 2 did not happen. This could be done easily by not factoring in the real population numbers during that time frame.

Non-Linear Multimedia

User of non-linear multimedia can generaly approach a subject from a feel more comfortable to the viewer. It lets viewers to approach what they dont know rather than what they do know. These two benifits also provide a final benefit, Being able to learn at you own pace.

Digital Video 2011 Reflection

I would have to say "critical thinking" is one of the most important 21st century skills to utilize when working a task such as the digital video, as if quoted from the book "analysis, synthesis, and evaluation- are key to critical thinking and form the basis for developing all other 21st Century Skills"(pg 11) Evaluation of information was quite difficult for the task at hand considering the issues of "sketchy" sources on the internet, I believe this is key to the 21st century skill of information and media literacy. I believe out of all the 21st century skills I believed I used creativity most effectively, I felt compelled to put much creative thought into my video to make my presentation more capivating to the audience. I felt I made a special experience for the people I had view my digital video. In general I felt these were the most important 21st century skills on this assaignment.

On a rather unprofessional note this project was quite frustrating at times and it took alot of bad language and thinking to complete. I encountered quite a bit of the problem bing.com would call "search engine overload". Finding relevant matetrials was quite difficult, considering there are many more irrelevent sources than there are relevant ones. Aquisition of particular multimedia materials on the internet was quite difficult to obtain considering the popular phenomina of streamed multimedia materials.

Blog Post #2

• Question 1:  In detail, describe 2 assignments you give students in your future classroom that would require them to use 21^st century skills while using word processing. NOTE:  Be sure to relate the assignments to your subject area and mention some of the ways you read about in this chapter.

     Considering the subject and age range I would be teaching(7-12th grade Social Studies), the most fundemental assignment I would give using MS Word would be the quite unpopular essay. A standard essay can be a fairly instensive task that would involve studying a particular person, place, event, or even an idea; writing about the chosen subject matter in a fair ammount of detail; as well as a good practice for the loathsome standardized testing. Overall the essay excerises a multitude of academic skills that should show a great degree of proficiency within a givin subject.

     A Second kind of assignment I would give with using MS Word would be a simple newsletter. Givin the task of writing a newsletter of being of a particular group at a specific time for example, "Imagine your are a newspaper reporter in Poland within the month September 1939." First your task would have to be to figure out what happened at that place on that particular time. Secondly the critical feeling about how you would feel put in that situation as if it were a real life scenerio. Considering the viewpoint from what they would be writing, it should create a new perspective on that particular event.

• Question 2:  Describe how technology is related to constructivist teaching.

When it comes to a constructivist style of learning, technology offers what older styles of learning can not provide easily. Students the are more visual and interactive learners are not as able to construct knowledge from books and lecture. Technology is more adaptive mediums for a constructive style of learning for these students. i.e. video, computers, etc.

21st Century Skills (Continued)

Question 1:  What are the seven 21^st century skills listed in the introductory chapter of the course pack? Name and describe these.

1.Critical Thinking - This skill particularly involes the exercise of cognitive skills i.e. comparison, sequencing, etc. Higher levels of thinking also form the basis for furth 21st century skills.

2.Information and Media Literacy- Analysis and evaluation are critical to information and media literacy considering today's mediums of information.

3.Creativity - In Websters creativity is simply defined as the ability to make new things or think of new ideas, but when used in regards to 21st century skills; this skill is one of the most important to apply classroom technology in complex and sustained situations as well as communiticating information to students, an extremeley important factor in todays dynamic classroom enviroment.

4.Communication Skills - Imparting your thoughts on others is the classic definition of this skill, however current technology has changed this skill in many ways like making it easier as well as a multitude of mediums of communication.

5.Contextual Thinking - Conextual thinking is quite simply thinking within a specific context, but its role within 21st century skills is to help students proccess and analylise information using a modern medium of information in a manner the student can understand.

6. Non-Linear Thinking. - Nonliniar thinking is becoming an important skill as technology is applied in the classroom thus making the classroom experience less linear so to speak. Overall nonlinear thinking will help intergrate the multimedia made availible by todays classroom technology.

Question 2:  What are at least three reasons it is very important today that teachers learn to use technology?

First and foremost todays society has changed thus children are exposed and attuned to computers and other technology. Secondly technology provides a vast information source from experts of all fields. Finally technology provides a far more adaptive and interactive mediums for students to learn from.

21st Century Skills

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