Tech Project/Reflection #5

When starting this project, I took the quiz to see how much I knew about technology. I scored a 5, which told me that I'm "somewhat savvy." This made me realize that I didn't know as much as I thought I did about computers.

For this project, I chose the article "California's Velcro Crop under Challenge."

Meta-Web Info

Initially, I did not recognize the domain name, and the extension is a .com, referring to a company. Since it is an article written by one man, it is a personal page. There were no embedded links on this site. To do further research, I used the search engines altavista.com, excite.com and infoseek.com. On all three search engines, my specific site was the first one to be listed in the search results. There were also articles written by other people about the issue and discussion forums. Altavisa.com said it found 44.4 million results. I didn't see results on the other two sites. I also noticed that excite.com pulled from Google, Yahoo and Bing, arguably the three most common, popular search engines. Also, infoseek.com is powered by Yahoo.com. Each site had the exact same findings on the first page. Surprisingly, there were no ads on the sides of the search engines. I know that there usually are, and they are typically ads that will attract you personally. There are tracking devices on computers that follow the sites you visit on the computer, and then there will be similar ads on search sites to try to pull you in to buy something. The company that places the ad usually gets paid per click.

Author

After typing the domain name into easywhois.com, I noticed that the page I visited wasn't registered. This doesn't show too much credibility to the website. However, just by reading the article, we know that it was written by a man named Ken Umbach.

Purpose

The purpose of this website is to educate people on California's Velcro Crop and why it's under challenge. According to archive.org, the website has been crawled 159 times since April 18, 2001. There is not much evidence for credibility of the site. As mentioned before, it was not registered on easywhois.com and we only know that the article was written by Ken Umbach back in 1993. This is an informational piece that tells people the background, issues, status and recommendations of the California Velcro Crop.

Reflective Blog #4

I actually prefer composing documents long hand first and then transferring my work on-line. I feel like I can get my thoughts across better when I am handwriting. This also makes proofreading easier because when I transfer my work to a computer document, I often catch my mistakes in grammar and spelling. I have no issues with creating something online first, but personally I prefer handwriting initially.

All of my phone numbers, notes and half of my calendar are on my phone. I do keep a day planner at work because I like to be able to see my week at a quick glance, rather than having to go into my phone and look through it one day at a time.

I don't necessarily join meetings via laptop or tablet. However at my day job, in the sales world, I have attended web-based conference calls where I will be on the phone and watching a presentation through the internal network.

Unfortunately, I am probably too connected. When I'm at work, I keep my Internet Explorer up and my phone is right by my side. When I'm at home, I'm really only on the Internet on an actual computer for school, otherwise I just use my phone for everything. The reason I started out with this being an unfortunate thing, is because I could put my phone down more. I can't say how many times I've been with my friends and we're all on our phones playing games... with each other. It sounds ridiculous, and it is. There needs to be a lot more face-to-face interaction. Sometimes when I am at home, I try to leave my phone in my room so that I can enjoy the company I have and not have my phone attached to my hip all of the time.

I am not sure if I can specifically put a number on how many things I can do at one time. Maybe 2 or 3. At work, I always listen to music when I'm recruiting or on the phone. Sometimes I'll be watching TV, playing games on my phone and talking to whoever is in the room. But then sometimes, I can only do one thing at a time... like reading or writing with no distractions.

Generally I don't play video games, and I haven't played a computer game in probably 15 years. If I am at a friend's house and they have a Wii or XBox Kinect, we will sometimes compete in those type of games. Other than that, I just play games on my phone.

Since I was born in the mid-1980s, I fall under then Generation Y category. Even though I wasn't submerged in technology growing up (because it wasn't available) like today's students are, I do believe I have a firm grasp on today's technology. I think it's very important for teachers to be up-to-date. Not only are today's students well-versed in technology, the world itself is making technological advances every day. These children need to be prepared for when they get out of school. Old teaching methods just aren't going to cut it anymore, so teachers, especially older teachers, are going to have to make some adjustments.

Reflective Blog #3

After reading the article, I definitely relate to the tenant of Assessment for Learning. While I think it is important to check for understanding on the student's past and current works, it is important to keep looking forward as well. The students need to focus on building their learning, as a fluid movement, rather than a cold stop and start method. I also believe it is crucial for the student to be involved in their own learning plan, not to just be handed assignments from the teacher. The teacher needs to be in conversation with the student on their individual learning plan and also welcome any input by the student. These assessments need to focus on improvement and compared to their own previous works, not how they compare to other students in their class. Since I am a constructivists, the assessment for learning really fits in with my ideas on how a classroom should be run and how students should be taught. Classrooms need to be a student-centered environment, not a teacher-centered environment. I believe more learning and growth within the student is better accomplished this way.

I think there is great potential for portfolio assessments. It's upsetting that students see these portfolios as something they have to do, rather than want to do. When I was at the University of Oklahoma, we had to make a portfolio of all of the projects and assignments we completed. The finished project was amazing and I was able to showcase my work to other professors, students and even employers. Students need to see portfolios as a way of showcasing their own works, not just another assignment. What you take and learn from the portfolio is priceless and can be helpful with future projects and assignments. I do think that portfolio assessments, from the teacher standpoint, should be formative because the student needs to focus on how they can improve their future works and not focus on what they did wrong in previous works. Portfolios can also showcase different talents. Projects can be created in different software programs, blogs can be written, students can even make a movie on their own computer and put it in the portfolio. All of these different things can be compiled into one portfolio, which I believe showcases the student's talent than just having the class write papers all of the time.

The creation and development of my portfolio will only enhance my learning. I have and will discover new avenues of technology, for example: wikis. Once my portfolio is started, I will be able to look back to see what I knew at first, compare it to what I know now, and figure out what other areas I need to grow in. I do not see any negative aspect of creating and using a portfolio.

Concept Mapping

Reflection:

After completing my research and created my map, the one thing that surprised me the most was how many hours students actually spend playing video games and watching television. I know that we live in a digital age and there are many different mediums of technology, but spending over 40,000 hours watching TV, playing video games and spending time on the phone is just appalling. I do believe traditional lessons need to stay intact, like reading an actual book, but teachers need to realize the world is changing and technological advances are being made every single day. Lesson plans need to start incorporating more PowerPoint presentations and use of computers, to not only keep up with the rest of the world, but to keep the students' attention. I'm not sure if I personally would change anything on how I conduct searches on the Internet, I feel like I'm on the edge of being a digital native and am very familiar with different search techniques. I am very confident with the information that I've used in the past, I feel like I grew up with most of the technology we have today and am well versed in it.

If we fail to bring technology into the classroom, I believe we would be crippling the students. Technology is present every day in pretty much every thing. From navigation systems in a car to different software packages in the corporate world. The children need to be equipped with the knowledge on how to use these outlets so that they will be prepared for the future. And not even in the real world, but as early as high school and especially college. Students now have more opportunities to go to school on-line, and knowledge of this process will be required in order for them to succeed.

For my social bookmarking tool, I chose to use Wordle. I like how easy to use it is and the format that it creates the information in. There are advantages to using these tools, such as organization and pulling out the important parts of the ideas and definitions. I will use these tools in the future for introductions to new lesson units and also have my students create their own. This will not only build their knowledge on social bookmarking tools but also be able to use their creativity. It should spark interest and get them ready for the unit/plan/assignment.