OETS standards and their implications...

Having the opportunity to take this course as a part of my requirements for the teaching program here at Willamette was an invaluable experience. I've grown up using computers and other forms of technology most of my life, but I learned a ton as a result of the course and will be able to use many of the tools I've learned in this setting in the school I eventually teach in. For the most part, I feel pretty competent when working with technology, but children growing up today are even more adaptable to the advances in technology spreading forth every day at a surprising rate.

Soon the new Oregon Educational Technology Standards (or OETS), will be implemented and required in all schools and grade levels giving all students the opportunity to live in a media/technology rich environment. The six standards are: creativity & innovation; communication & collaboration; research & information fluency; critical thinking, problem solving & decision making; digital citizenship; & lastly technology operations and concepts. Essentially what I think the standards are trying to accomplish is to create school-wide technological fluency among all students that they can reference and use in schools, jobs, and daily life. Giving all students an equal chance at success in a technological field will create and open doors for them in the future that may not have been available without said technology.

I plan on teaching elementary aged students, and hope to eventually work in special education. I'd like to talk about a few strategies I could use for each of the standards in my classroom.
1) Creativity & Innovation: using digital technology in the classroom is a hotbed for creativity and innovation. I will use different media elements for lessons to create variety in the classroom and students will be encouraged to use a medium that they are interested in.
2)Communication & Collaboration: In the classroom, when talking about cultural diversity I would like to use skype to have a talk between my classroom and another in a different country. I will also give my students the opportunity to have an international pen pal that they can talk to about their lives and what class is like.
3)Research & Information Fluency: this standard is very important, I will take my students into the computer lab at the school and we will learn ways to research information for projects and learn how to be able to identify ways of checking whether the information is valid or not.
4)Critical, Thinking, Problem Solving & Decision Making: Using and exposing technology in the classroom will give students various ways to go about the same problem.
5)Digital Citizenship : from day one, once I start exposing my students to the Internet and other technology devices used in the classroom, I will educate the students on how to conduct themselves and stay safe in a potentially hazardous environment. I will set out clear expectations for the students. I plan on using sites like www.digitalcitizenship.net to show how to behave in an Internet environment.
6)Technology Operations & Concepts: In my classroom, as mentioned before, I will use various types of media introducing the students to a variety of options. I plan on using a classroom website to show family what has been learned in the classroom. I also plan on using pod casting and the like for presentations on special projects.

As with anything in the classroom, and elsewhere, there are challenges I can foresee happening in the pursuit of technological education. One of the greatest challenges I see is access to technology. Budget cuts in schools being as they are, I can only imagine that spending on keeping technology current in the classrooms is going to be hard to ensure. I have a personal laptop that I plan on using in the classroom if there aren't going to be classroom computers available to my students and myself. My students may have limited access to computers outside of the schools, so I plan on having hard, as well as digital copies of newsletters and pertinent information. Since I will be working with young children, the learning curve may be hard to assess in the beginning because they are so young and many haven't had access to such media before, but I have no doubt that with a little practice my entire class will feel comfortable in working in such an environment.

All in all, the use of technology in the classroom is definitely something that needs to be addressed. I have to admit that I am both a little nervous and excited about using different medias in my room. I feel that using different mediums will help the students to think outside the box and enhance their educational experiences. I know that I have some reservations about technology that I am unfamiliar with myself, but I know that I will learn along side my students and we will both have opportunities for growth.

Google doc spreadsheets

In my past life, before starting this education program, I have had some experience working in excel spreadsheets for my accounting courses for my business minor, and in various jobs in the past. This is the first time I have actually used the google spreadsheet, and liked the similarities between the two programs. It has been some time since I've worked with data sets like this, so it did take me a bit getting into the groove finding the averages, and standard deviations especially.



as you can see with the scores, overall the test scores are steadily getting better from the first to the last test. There is some slight variation with individual scores, but on the whole, progress is made throughout the testing process.



the above chart is one that I made out of the data that was collected on the spreadsheet. I liked how easy it was to make a chart from the data.

This project was a little challenging for me, I'm still getting used to working with a laptop, so sometimes I had some issues with the formatting that was difficult to change without the use of a mouse. I found Barry's video on tips for the spreadsheets invaluable and watched quite a few times and it really helped me out in the long run and saved me from impending frustrations I would surely of encountered had the video not been made.

I already have a feeling that I will use this tool countless times throughout my teaching career in many ways. I can foresee myself tracking students progress to show parents, and like in the process of doing this exercise, I can also see myself using the spreadsheets to track progress in the testing realm to see if any changes need to be made with lesson plans.

Although I'll admit that I found this to be a little frustrating at times, it was really good to practice in the spreadsheets and I know that the more I use this program, the more proficient I will become. It was also good practice for me to learn how to imbed the data and charts onto this blog, which wasn't as easy as I had originally thought!

Here is a link to the entire sheet with the data and chart if you would like to see the sheet in its entirety.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlenwErZiIWkdGpuanMtdndoMEswX3NLVGdyakg3X0E&hl=en

Multimedia Project: 4shared.com

As a group, Desiree, Peterson, Angelica Rodriquez, and I researched 4shared.com below is a screentoaster.com recording of my voice over and the presentation itself.

Capture your screen in seconds

I found 4shared.com to be a very useful site for educators and students alike in the future. It is much like other websites talked about in class earlier such as drop box and evernote, where you can store documents in a central location online. I think this tool would be incredibly useful for older students to upload files for their teachers and vice versa. For younger students I think you could still use the site to send documents to parents and guardians.

Though I liked 4shared.com and its potential uses, I have to say that I am very impressed with how easy it is to use screentoaster.com. I'd never used it before today and was very pleased with the ease of the website. i do have to admit, it would have been easier to record my audio if I had actually told the site that my microphone is imbedded into my computer. I also didn't have the audio on too high to record so it's not especially loud, but if one has it on full sound, you can hear me, just not blaring which in some ways is even better than normal!

Evernote Presentation

Below is my presentation on the web 2.0 tool evernote, this is also my first experience using google presentations....

Skype...a new way of communication!

I'm still relatively new to the skype scene, but from what I've experienced so far, it's definitely something worth exploring!

I actually started my skype account in September before my younger sister left home to go to England for 6 months. It's always a trip to talk to her in jolly ol' England! The first time we talked she showed me around the place she was staying at and I even got to see some of the grounds and outside areas of the compound! I can definitely see using this tool in the classroom for worldwide communications. It would be so cool to have your students possibly see a little of where they are studying about, as long as you know a person from that area of course!

More recently, last Friday I had a party at my house for Halloween. A good friend who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan obviously wasn't able to attend, so we all skyped her and showed her around the house to see all the decorations and costumes. It was neat because she got to be a part of the party and it was also nice to be able to see her new apartment that she is living in too!

I know it's going to take me a little time to get used to the whole video thing, but for friends and family that aren't living next door, this is so much more interactive than just calling them on the phone!

Web 2.0 post!!!!!!!!

Web 2.0 in a nutshell is a collection of applications and services that a person can link up to on any computer with an internet connection. In todays increasingly technological based education, having sources that are available anywhere is invaluable, so one can create something on one computer and access it on another without having to email documents to oneself or use a zip disc that can easily get lost or broken. Having access to these tools is also on the whole free, which is incredibly important for educators as our funds aren’t unlimited, especially when it comes to technology. Though there are a ton of resources we can use, I’d like to go into depth for a couple of these applications below and how we could use it in a classroom…

Skype – this application is sort of a web-based phone messaging system. Currently my younger sister has been using this program a ton due to her being in England for the next six months. It’s free, and just like talking to someone across the room, but instead you’re talking to your computer and watching a video of the person on the other computer. In regards to using it in the classroom, I think this could be a great tool to use if someone has been sick and out of the classroom for a bit. The class could call upon the ill student and talk about things that have been going on in class. It could also be used to do conferences with parents who aren’t able to make it into the classroom with concerns about their student.

Delicious.com – This application is a web based social bookmarking site. One could use this website to show students particular sites that are of interest that correlate to what’s been taught in class. Using this site I could bookmark certain sites that are of interest that the student could show to their parents to facilitate learning at home as well as in the classroom. This would also work well when working on a research paper to show students good resources to start their papers from.

OTEN Conference

Here's my yodio about what I thought about the September 26th conference in Forest Grove.

classrooms + blogs = a great tool!

I was lucky enough today to have the opportunity to shadow and observe some classes at Dallas high school. One of the first things that struck me was the prevalence of cell phones everywhere. Of course it sounds cliche since we've been saying that since classes started, but to see it in action is kind of a trip. It's also cliche yet true to reflect on how technologies have changed since I was in high school. At the time I was competent to what was available, and had a email address, but didn't have a cell phone until the 2nd year of my undergrad. I can definitely see how working with yodio in a high school setting for projects and presentations could be incredibly beneficial with class blogs. It may also help (we can only hope) to utilize the students phones in a less disruptive manner while in their classes. I plan to work with younger students, but think that blogs with younger kids could be just as helpful to everyone involved in the process.

After attending the OTEN conference (that update shall be added soon, as I am finally back home where there is such thing as the internet) and watching students & teachers alike interact with one another, I think using a blog would be incredibly advantageous. I was struck by how often a student would ask about their requirements and what was due. Having a classroom blog I think would help this out tremendously, giving students and teachers another way to communicate in writing what is expected of them, as well as a concrete representation of what is going on in the classroom for curious parents and family members.

Obligatory Bio Post!

Hello and welcome, my name is Heather Brittany Vincent, and I am a 1st year Mat Aspire student. I hope to work in the Elementary level for I love working around children that are eager about life and learning. I also plan to earn a Reading, ESOL, or Special Education certification while here (it's a common theme in my life, for I love options and overloading myself and hate making decisions). How did I get to this point in my life? let me show you!...

I was born and raised in Salem. Once I graduated high school in 2001, I moved down to Eugene to go to the UO, and have been there more or less ever since. While at the UO, I majored in Anthropology and Sociology, and minored in English and Business Administration. Besides being busy with studying, I was extra busy during the Fall being in the Oregon Marching Band for 4 years. While in college I was also lucky enough to go on an Archaeological dig in the Caribbean and did a six month internship at Walt Disney World.

After college I stayed in Eugene and have held a wide range of jobs from retail to warehouse shipping to administration and beyond. Earlier this year I did a stint with Americorps and the Northwest Youth Corps and backpacked in the backcountry of Southeastern Arizona in the Coronado National Forest. It was an intensive 42 night trail maintenance/leadership program and now that I have survived the ordeal I am now trained in leading 14-19 year olds in similar 'sensory/technologically deprivation' tours. After completing the trip I realized how much I wanted to go back to school and teach. I've always toyed with the thought of teaching and have always loved working with kids and decided it was the right time to start a program such as this and do what I've always wanted.

Outside of academics and careers, I have more than a few hobbies to keep myself busy and occupied. I've always loved the theatre and have been a part of it in some capacity most of my life. I love going to movies and the theatre. I've always been an outdoorsy type of individual and go camping and hiking whenever I can. I've been playing the clarinet since I was in 6th grade, and did 8 years of marching band in high school and college. I took 4 years off and am currently in the Alumni Band and played at the UO game against Purdue last weekend. As I said before I live in Eugene, and am currently redecorating our house for halloween. Our house is somewhat of a zoo with 3 cats, a ridiculous amount of fresh & salt water fish, and the inside/outside of our house looking more and more like a scene out of New Orleans Square at Disneyland every day.

So far, the Aspire program has been perfect for me since I live out of town, with the right amount of classes and structure. I'm excited about this class and how I'll be able to apply it to my own classroom in the future. Just thinking about the advances technology has gone through since I was in school is mind blowing, it's constant, always changing and affecting our lives in areas we never even dreamt of a few years ago.