Assessing Meaningful Learning

My reflection about the different assessment tools that I have learned, with how technology is being used in todays’ world.  Assessment data is easier for everyone to manage and allow teachers to assess more regularly. I didn’t know that eportfolio was a form of an assessment with technology. When it comes to technology based rubrics, there are two types that this activity has. You have the grade rubric, and the rubric gallery @ Rcampus. The last assessment tool would be the clicker. The respond system that most school districts use to keep their students engaged in the lessons and to receive immediate feedback to see if the teacher needs to adjust the curriculum.

Over this summer, I received so much information that I can take to my classroom and apply to my students. When we first started this class, I thought the class was going to be very easy and pointless because I was an All Special Education major and I would not use any of these. Learning the copyright, fair use and online safety was very helpful so I can teach my students what is fair and what is not fair. With knowing there is so many different Web 2.0 tools to assess teachers, and build your students participation, and engagement with their peers.

Technology Application Standards

§116.2. Physical Education, Kindergarten.

(a)  Introduction.

(1)  In Physical Education, students acquire the knowledge and skills for movement that provide the foundation for enjoyment, continued social development through physical activity, and access to a physically-active lifestyle. The student exhibits a physically-active lifestyle and understands the relationship between physical activity and health throughout the lifespan.

(2)  In Grades K-2, children learn fundamental movement skills and begin to understand how the muscles, bones, heart, and lungs function in relation to physical activity. Students begin to develop a vocabulary for movement and apply concepts dealing with space and body awareness. Students are engaged in activities that develop basic levels of strength, endurance, and flexibility. In addition, students learn to work safely in group and individual movement settings. A major objective is to present activities that complement their natural inclination to view physical activity as challenging and enjoyable.

(3)  The focus for kindergarten students is on learning basic body control while moving in a variety of settings. Students become aware of strength, endurance and flexibility in different parts of their bodies and begin to learn ways to increase health-related fitness.

(Source: Texas Education Agency at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/)

I would create daily activities for my students. On a day to day basis, I would be informing my students of the importance of being healthy and having fun. I would be coming up with fun games to keep my student engaged with their peers. I would also be teaching my student about the muscles, bones, heart, and lungs by having my students stretch every day before we do any activities. Every two weeks, we would complete a fitness exam making sure everyone is improving and checking the knowledge. My students must complete the final exam to make sure they have mastered and understood everything over the semester and keep using fitness in their everyday life style.

 

With me working with kindergarten, teaching my students how to control movement and stay in their own personal space would be the most important thing on my agenda. For the first two weeks of school, my students would practice on staying in their own row, an arm’s length away from others. Also I would teach my students to give each other praises and encourage others to complete the tasks as followed. All students would have to complete fitness workouts on a daily basis. To make sure that everyone is improving and becoming more healthy and aware of how the body works.

Visualizing with Technologies

I believe that visualizing with technology is great because when people are watching television - sporting events has evolved dramatically in recent years, with data visualization technology makes it much easier for spectators at home to understand what’s really going on. For instance, when it comes to watching football games, there is a yellow mark for every first down spot that the team needs to get to. The visuals are there to put the views at home in another dimension by giving you a visual in any sport. Baseball have the strike zone, I feel if Americans are not at the game to see sports plays, it would be very hard to tell what is really going on.

Because we use to have so much input when it comes to visual aides in the everyday life. Without it some people are powerless, with so many people using visuals to teach. With the use of visualization being an important strategy, a lot of people use it to help learn the materials that are being taught in a classroom to understand the concepts in a much easier and or quicker way. I personally need to have a lot of visuals to understand the materials if I have never seen it before. For humans to share their images with other humans, we must have the visualization tools down pack. 

Podcasting

I learned that podcasting is used to convert files to MP3 and other digital devices to use for music. To use podcasting you would have to download it from a website and set it to your iTunes or any music soft wire you use. With podcasting being another web 2.0 tool to use on the internet, if you have any device that you can watch a video on it could work.  With almost all school upgrading their technology in the classroom it gives the teacher more ways to use in fun way to teach the lessons. Podcasting is something like youtube.com.

With technology being so competitive, creators have to be on their toes because someone is going to create the same thing but more creative.  Podcasting is a newer way to get everyone involved without being in a chair at school.  It is also a way for students to get what they missed in class, it is also a way for other teachers and even the students’ parents to know what we are doing in the classroom.  The similar Web 2.0 tool is created to communicate with your students better. The teacher use technology to keep the students attaching in class longer by using the newer generation devices.

I own both, an iPod and an MP3 device. I use both of my devices when I’m walking to class, when I’m working out, reading, at the barber shop waiting in line to receive a haircut, and working on long activities.  I would use an iPod and or an MP3 player in my classroom when the students are reading or when I need them to transition to the next activity. I like the way we can communicate with others by just being online.  It is a lot faster than meeting up with the teacher if you are having a problem on the homework.  My disadvantages would be with everyone getting used to communicating by internet only.   I’m a person, if I have a problem I need someone to sit down next to me and help me work it out. 

Web 2.0 tools

My understanding of Web 2.0 is broken down to three important topics. First, Wikipedia is one of the most popular resources in my generation to use for a resource. With wiki being one of the known web bases, for the world to collaborate their input, especially when it comes to anybody and everybody today.  So students use wiki’s as a blog, but it is very different then a blog.  Second, Social Bookmarking is an application that allows you to share your bookmarks with specific people or groups. When you share the Bookmarking to the group they are able to see what you have posted or tagged and specifically to whom.

 Web 2.0 have a big impact on the whole world, by making it easier to access everything. Voice Thread is a very versatile app that lets you combine images, documents, and videos.  While using the voice, you can access it anywhere if you have a cell phone which makes it very beneficial for when you are wanting to study for exams and writing research papers of some sort. With the new generation of technology, applications or what we call apps that are one of the most important things in this world today. Students use Wiki to find everything that is unclear to them. Because everyone has a cell phone, which has apps that are becoming more popular to have because it is easy to access.

Copyrighting, Fair use and nutiquette

The most significant things I have learned so far would be, by copying pages of the internet and using for training purposes is copying righting. With copyrighting being so serious should stay away from the use of bootleg copies of videos, CDs, or software in order to stay away from trouble. I have to teach my students when to use fair use, if I see something on television that what over something that I taught over in my class period I can record it off of the television. Students must understand that cyber bullying is not a way to take out anger with others.

I feel that this article was very helpful for me. It helped me understand the copyright laws that include dealing with fair use and cyber bullying. People have to realize that cyber bullying is not a way to deal with their issues. Students today spend most of their time on social networking sites, where they can get involve into trouble that goes with cyber bullying and fair use laws. The way that netiquette goes is for many different type of tracking software that there is now and days, which helps with the fair use laws when it comes to children in this generation.

Mapping Activity

The way I conduct, I would use google.com and Wikipedia to see if the information matches to help me if I was unclear of the topic that is giving to me. I have heard of some of the websites, but never intend on using them. A lot of the search engines I learned, I had never heard. For the search techniques, this is the first for me as well because when you search through a website it has links where you can click to get more information.  I did not know anything about mapping information. I just thought you can find everything about a website by just going to google.com.

My habits would change over time, because if I start to use something over and over it becomes a part of my routine. With all the new information, I better understand a lot more stuff like how to find an author or publisher.  I also learn how to analyze a search by looking for any advertisements, images, and the organization. The knowledge will affect my teaching because there a lot of ways to retain information besides using the internet. I think my students will be affected by this because there are too many search engines and they would probably believe anything they read on the internet.

 In conclusion, I found out that mapping the internet is not enough to analyze and learn about the information provided. I notice that if you use any search engine, the information is the same. Some of the search engines have advertisements and the organization of the browser is plain and do not stand out. I will not rely on Wikipedia, Google, and yahoo when I do research. I also learn whether if a website is real or fake by using easywhois.com, by suggesting other domain names that are available.  I am confident that in the future, I will use what I had learned on my students to teach them about how to properly use the search engine correctly.