FINAL REFLECTION

Before the course began , I was pretty excited in terms of seeing how far we have progressed as it related to incorporating technology into education - we've made enormous advances!

Overall, I think the course was very well designed - the course fostered an environment for independence, self discipline and the utilization of effective time management skills. The vast amount of very useful articles, applications, and sites will continually be referenced for both my future lesson planning and teaching sessions. Additionally, through the use of some very demanding assignments, in terms of keeping one challenged, the "envelope was definitely pushed".

For someone that was not too savvy with technology [prior to the course], I have to say, what I have gained is just immeasurable! I am particularly proud of my Scholastic Web Page, and my ability to blog effectively.

With my renewed perspective on [technology in] education, in order for us to compete globally, utilizing computers, software applications and other educational technologies in the classroom is a definite must!

CLRN

My immediate response to the California Learning Resource Network site is wow!

By far, CLRN is the most comprehensive educational site I have explored to date. There is just an enormous wealth of very useful information, and it is only a "mouse click away". In navigating through the site, unfortunately, to my disappointment, some of the links are no longer accessible.

That said however, overall, I was extremely impressed with the site. Special attention should be paid to the ELR subject matter feature and it's virtual tours [great tool] . For quick reference, for each Resource Title in ELR, there is a corresponding "Type", "Media", "Grade Levels", "Publisher" and "Post Date". This is just one example of the useful tools in this site.

In essence, this is just a well constructed site. If you have not already, you definitely have to "bookmark" this site!

LESSON PLANS

Lesson plans can be viewed as being synonymous with a corporate "Mission Statement". Even better, I would argue lesson plans are written and binding contracts between educators and students.

Now that I have an appreciation of what lesson plans are all about, it is hard to imagine that any educator would be bold enough in conducting classroom sessions without them. From my perspective, they are indispensable in assuring classroom sessions are administered in an efficient manner.

While lesson plans themselves are vital parts of the learning process, I think it is a given that lesson plans must be well thought out [including stated objectives, clear expectations, projected outcomes], appropriately tailored to the desired grade level, effectively incorporates technology, and have the all important "hooks" to keep learners engaged.

With so many lesson plan resources available [virtually covering every educational topic], there is really no excuse in not being thoroughly prepared once you enter the classroom setting.

In doing some additional research on my lesson plan, I stumbled across an awesome site for lesson plans [daily and archived samples]:

The New York Times Learning Network
http://nytimes.com/learning/index.html

I urge you to take a look, you may find it useful.

Good luck with your lesson plans!

VIDEOS

Let me begin by saying, I think visuals in general have a tendency to better capture one's attention, when compared to print media.

Preferentially speaking, visuals definitely work better for me. I find that when reading documents in print [particularly lengthy ones and those that have no real appeal to me], I sometimes find myself losing interest, which leads to missing the message, which leads to going back and re-reading what I just read, which leads to a not efficient use of my time.

Of course with everything, the production quality and content of some videos are better than others, but again overall, videos have a tendency of quickly getting to the point in an often both entertaining and informative manner.

In addressing the videos in modules 8 and 9, I thought they all were very good - they were succinct, the points were clear, some were funny, some were serious, and they all had messages which directly relate to some of today's' educational and social issues.

The videos "Don't Believe Everything You Hear Online" and "Social Networking Tips" were spot on in addressing my on-going concern for my sons' use of: YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter... I now have them [the two videos] permanently archived for a constant reminder of those all important guidelines to follow.

"Introducing The Book" was just down-right funny. I thought it was just an excellent take of how most of us have an initial fear when new technologies are introduced [in most settings]. Which leads to the rhetorical question, why do people fear new ways of doing things? It's the fear of change itself.
Most of us tend to become very comfortable with normal routines. From my perspective, I think change is good [particularly if it's addressing efficiency]. Making that argument, if we want to minimize/erase fear, perhaps we need to do a better job in introducing change.
There's a good movie/book I suggest you take a look at on the subject of change:
http://www.whomovedmycheese.com/Movie.html

"Special Education and Social Networking" demonstrated a wonderful inclusive program for the learning disabled. However, I could not help but think, if these students were encouraged to explore new technologies or social networking independently [not sure if this is a practice in education?], they may be extremely vulnerable to deceitful people/practices. So, I'm not sure independent learning should be encouraged in this case?

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Candidly speaking, I've always had and continue to have mixed emotions regarding "Social Networking".
On the one hand, it is a wonderful medium in conveying ideas, building lasting relationships, sharing information, periodically keeping in touch with acquaintances, and so on.
On the other hand, from my perspective anyway, one must always be cautious of cyber predators, friendships that may go sour, cyber bullies, employers accessing information about you, and so on.

I guess it's just the world we live in, with "pros" there are always "cons". Not to sound as though I'm paranoid or overly cautious, but with so many reports of shady Internet practices, I think I've developed a healthy guarded approach towards new technologies in general.

To help those like me [guarded], as you might imagine, there are numerous resources available to protect one's privacy, and address other concerns one may have. Below are just a few useful links I came across:

Social Networking Sites: A Parent’s Guide
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec13.shtm

Social Networking Sites: Safety Tips for Tweens and Teens
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec14.shtm

Prevent Cyber Bullying
http://www.cyberbully411.org/who-is-targeted-by-cyberbullies.php

Social Networking in Plain English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc

I've sort of developed my own quasi "set of guidelines" to follow:

1.] Keep personal information to a minimum

2.] Know your audience/"friends"

3.] Avoid religious and political topics

4.] Any memberships or affiliations listed should be professional in nature

Wait a minute, looking back on my quasi "set of guidelines", maybe I am just a little paranoid! As I begin to become more comfortable with "Social Networking", I'm certain my paranoia will cease.

SCHOOL WEB PAGES

Quite frankly, school web pages are indispensable tools/sources to keep abreast of a school's mission statement, policies, dress code if applicable, faculty [and any changes], AM/PM programs and so on...

I have a son that attends Ronald E. McNair High School http://www.njboe.org/ and a son that attends Soaring Heights Charter School http://www.soaringheightscharterschool.com/. I often access the sites to keep track of the schools' upcoming activities/events, PTA meetings, marking periods, any school closing and/or half day schedules, as well as monitoring the annual mandated state tests.

To assure I have as much available information as possible, as I prepare to support my oldest son's decision on his college choice, lately, I have been accessing/exploring McNair's School Web Page. There's some useful information on college planning.

Now that I'm on the topic of college planning, which ties into Dr. Luongo's [March 30th] blog on "Campus Compare", I came across an awesome site http://www.collegeclicktv.com/ The sites provides access to key stats to over 2,000 colleges, videos from over 200 campuses and over 20,000 interviews from students, professors, staff, faculty and local merchants. The site also has a "College Comparison" feature. I urge you to check it out!

Back to the original topic. In essence, school web pages are just wonderful tools you can utilize in taking a more active role in your learner's education.

WEB PAGE BUILDING

Well, as promised, here is my follow up to my previous blog [Web Page Creation].

This was a very refreshing assignment! Now this is what user-friendly, educational technology is all about!

Unlike that very daunting WebQuest assignment, where one had to simultaneously decide on a topic and figure how to navigate through the application. With the ease of use of Scholastic Web Page Builder, I could actually focus more time and energy into my topic itself.

No boasting intended, but I am very pleased with the finished product. I plan on definitely incorporating my web page into my future classroom curriculum.

CREATING A WEB PAGE

Although one has to go through the actual login steps to fully opine on this assignment [which I have not done yet], on the surface, creating a web page utilizing "Scholastic Web Page Builder" appears to be far less daunting than the Web Quest assignment.

I sincerely hope I'm not getting ahead of myself in my initial opinion!

At this stage, I'm more in the process of toying with several ideas/concepts, making it mock or real, time management to complete by deadline, resources to use, targeted audience(s)...

Stay tuned, more to come.

WEB-BASED EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

In order to effectively compete with all of the extra curricular technological advances for today's generation and video "gamers", unequivocally, collectively, and collaboratively, both the designers of the educational technology and the educators in our classrooms need to make certain the software applications/resources are of the highest quality.

I presume we all agree, educational technology is essential in today's classroom settings. Not only in terms of amplifying one's teaching method, but also in assuring the aggregate learning process [utilizing all effective resources] is maximized.

In reviewing the various websites and videos for modules 5 and 6, being tactful, some of the educational resources were better than others. In order to effectively meet the needs of our students, careful analysis and consideration must be used in choosing your resource(s). Although all met the consistent theme of challenging our students at an age appropriate level, some lacked the graphics, hooks, "bells and whistles" to keep our students engaged.

It is not my intention to come across as overly critical, but rather as someone looking to offer some constructive criticism, and in a small way, the hopes developing a consensus for creating the best educational resources for all of our learners.

I would imagine that when educational software is designed, it is targeted to the masses. Based upon my limited solicited feedback in the school district I reside, I hope actionable steps are being instituted in making certain state mandated standards are met. Otherwise, resources that may be effective in fostering learning will "fall by the waist-side"!

As a side bar, because I believe to some degree they are representative of today's learners, I tested some of the sites on my sons [6th and 10th graders].

Firstly, let me make clear, I fully appreciate that "checks and balances" are necessary, and also there are marketing sales/goals designers have to consider. But in my observation, I found that sites that required extensive logins, passwords, personal information, and so, discouraged their otherwise curious nature. I guess my point is, if we expect our students to proactively/independently access and explore educational resources, we need to somehow minimize some of the pain-staking login steps.

KIDSPIRATION

I really enjoyed navigating through this site! I thought the subject matter provided exceptional visual tools for elementary learners. Additionally, the various challenging tasks, which appears to be appropriate for the targeted audience [K-5 learners], both provokes deep thinking and fosters creativity. Kidspiration covers the basic fundamental subjects of elementary education: Reading/Writing, Math, Science and Social Studies.

The "Writing View" exercise is "spot on" in terms of gauging the students' ability to grasp, comprehend and justify their answers to the various tasks. In brief, in this exercise, the students must explain why they made the decisions they did [an excellent metric].

As a future educator, with the aspiration of teaching math, I spent a great deal of time examining the math feature. The concept of consistently utilizing "building blocks" for the various math applications will make the learning process much more effective in garnering a success rate.

This may be a strong statement, but in my assessment, software of this caliber should be mandated/part of the NJCCCS for K-5 learners [as it relates to mastering educational software].

Throughout this course, both out of curiosity, and in an effort to ascertain if "textbook learning" is actually applicable to what is being taught and/or utilized in today's classroom settings, I often make a point of consulting with current educators to solicit feedback.

Not sure if this is indicative of the districts in the aggregate, but in this instance, to my dismay, in speaking with K-5 educators, overwhelmingly, most are not using this software. The reason was consistent - Apparently, Kidspiration does not adequately adhere to/addresses the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards [NJCCCS].

Instead of using Kidspiration, a large majority are utilizing various Scholastic Software packages, which based upon their archived achievement levels, better suits/prepares students in meeting the state mandated standards.

BLOGGING

After some initial strong resistance, mainly due to a lack of understanding of this media, I've come to appreciate that blogging, if done constructively, is an excellent means of expressing one's thoughts, ideals, philosophies and/or concerns on various subjects.

In essence, it allows for a "brain dump" of issues for review and perhaps rebuttal by other bloggers. As a blogger, there is the ability to tailor your message(s) in order to promote productive ongoing dialogues to a desired audience.

To my pleasant surprise, blogging is an open forum which has a global reach, which also allows the ability to engage others in masses. In terms of fostering thought provoking conversations, the opportunities are almost limitless.

Although I now enjoy the concepts of blogging, I particularly relish reading the comments to my blogs. In my opinion, the real art and/or benefit of blogging is the ability to get other bloggers to respond.

MAKING THE GRADE

Every Sunday, without fail, I make a point of purchasing "The Record" newspaper.

Why you ask? Well, there is a special segment dedicated to Education [Making The Grade]. The weekly segment focuses on teachers going "above and beyond" their defined scope of responsibilities in assuring they are meeting students' needs.

As educators, I find the readings indispensable on several fronts:

• Highlights effective "best practices"
• Fosters idea sharing
• Pinpoints successful teacher traits and teaching methods
• Speaks to shared experiences

This Sunday and perhaps ongoing, I suggest you purchase a copy and let me know what you think.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I do not work for, nor do I have a stake in the newspaper.

WEBQUEST

In reviewing Dr. Luongo's below posting to another student's blog, upon further reflection, her comments hit the mark:


"Even if you never use one again! Another thing you can take from the experience is the self-awareness of how frustrating it can be for your students when they are forced to learn something new."


If one of the desired goals was to put us in the students' shoes [when faced with a new challenge, or attempting to complete a very daunting assignment], from my perspective, mission was definitely accomplished!

WEBQUEST

Let's see now, where do I begin?

Here we go, in the spirit of taking a diplomatic, but also an honest stance on this assignment, this by far, has been an extremely daunting experience!

As a first timer to WebQuesting, but someone that is always up to the challenge, at first glance I said to myself: "There is no way I will be able to accomplish this assignment". In perusing the innumerable samples, along with the plethora of sites and tutorial, it just seemed overwhelming!

With all that said, once I actually delved into the assignment, I actually grasped the concepts fairly quickly. Although WebQuesting is a very time-consuming process, the positive outcome [once you look at the end product] is immeasurable!

Without giving any mixed messages, overall, this was a very rewarding experience. However, if I understand the functionality of Quest Garden accurately, the only downside is, after one year, after putting so much effort into this assignment, my WebQuest will be deleted forever.

ADVER-TESTING

It's a Saturday night @ 10:00 P.M. More specifically, it's 2/14/2009 [Valentine's Day] and I'm watching the channel 5 10:00 P.M. news. You may ask why am I watching the 10:00 P.M. news on Valentine's Day, well that's another story.

Now on to the more important story. While watching the news, there was a very interesting segment on education. The segment focused on a California H.S. math teacher, particularly as it related to budget constraints and funding. Due to continued tough economic conditions, the teacher was only allotted $300.00 for the year to cover classroom expenses for his students. As you might imagine, this was not nearly enough to cover his classes for the entire year.

So, using some very interesting creativity, the teacher came up with the concept of "Adver-Testing". The concept entails reaching out to local business owners, and offering them the opportunity [for small donations] to advertise their business services on the students' test papers.

The marketing idea [which was a overwhelming success,] affords the local business owners to effectively reach out to their community and market their services, while at the same time helps provide much needed funds to the school. As a result of the initial success, other teachers within the school are using this same method to raise funds.

SECRET BUILDERS

Although the site appears to be a "work in progress" initiative [did encounter some flaws], after navigating through some of the features, using some creativity, Secret Builder can be a pretty useful educational tool for students, parents and teachers alike. I particularly like the fact that the idea was a collaborative effort between parents and teachers.

The [free] site has various links and interactive activities which caters to the different age groups. It also has safety features that should put parents at ease. The contest feature offered is a definite "hook" for younger children, which will only serve to keep them intrigued to explore the site's features further.

I must admit I spent a good amount of time playing an old-time favorite: "hang man". Overall, a solid site, and it is free! I urge you to check it out.

NJCCCS

Coming from the corporate arena [Financial Services], without fail, we constantly lived by the motto: "If you can not measure it, you definitely can not manage it." As I continue to become acclimated with the education field, I find it more and more, this motto is applicable to teaching/learning as well.

You get no argument from me, succinctly, the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Technological Literacy are a must! The ability to assure our leaders of tomorrow are thoroughly prepared to compete globally, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the standards appear to be well drafted to address such. At the risk of dating myself, times have really changed/advanced since I attended high school - Computers and other technological apparatuses were NEVER utilized. It is good to see that technology now plays a huge part in the teaching/learning process.

In teaching, I guess the real challenge is in incorporating the standards into the lesson plans. I would imagine there has to be a delicate balance between a tendency to focus solely on the standards and making certain one does not lose connection with the students.

As it relates to Special Education broadly, which is the area of education I wish to pursue, there appears to be a separate set of standards [New Jersey Department of Education Special Education Self-Assessment]. Because I truly want no student disadvantaged when they ultimately enter the marketplace, so that these students can also realize their full potential, at what point do we look to integrate students with learning disabilities into the main stream? Or as adults, will they face the "sink or swim" mentality that definitely exist?

PODCASTING, ANYONE?

In perusing the articles, I'm convinced, quite simply, classroom podcasting is just an exceptional concept! Just imagine the healthy and competitive environment it would foster.

However, realistically, in this current and awful economic down-turn, how many of our schools have the necessary funding to support such an initiative?

NETS

Being a huge and rabid basketball fan, and also someone transitioning into the education area, when I first viewed this blog topic in the course syllabus, I thought, great, we are actually going to discuss sports in the course - JUST KIDDING!

Actually, from my perspective, ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards [NETS] is a wonderful "digital age" initiative for both teachers and students, which serves as a catalyst for fostering continued learning.

When I first accessed the site, what comes to mind is there is just a wealth of information here - So much so that is seemed overwhelming to digest. Taking the time to delve into the various links, the site appears to cover every aspect of educational technology in order for teachers and students to stay competitive in this ever growing global environment. Particularly as teachers, I can not imagine anyone not fully appreciating the advantages of the standards set. The standards established should serve as solid metrics for gauging/generating positive measurable results.

Conversely, however, as standards are continually added/changed/modified, should we be concerned with running the risk of creating too much bureaucracy in the learning process?

INTERNET SAFETY

After watching and re-watching the various videos, my first response was wow! There are a vast array of precautions one must adhere to in order to remain safe. With the numerous and almost unlimited educational benefits the Internet has to offer, it is just a shame that, in reference to our children, they are treated like little sheep only waiting to be preyed upon by hungry wolves.

I guess in an ideal world there would be no need for all the do's and don'ts. But we don't live in an ideal world do we. Taking a more positive perspective, I found the videos to be extremely entertaining, while at the same time provided some very informative and indispensable guidelines to follow. Being the father of two curious minors, living in a "hip hop" generation, I particularly found the [Internet Safety II and Know the Rules] videos to be spot on in delivering a memorable message to their targeted audience [minors]. I actually invited my sons to watch the videos with me.

Kudos goes out to the [Internet Safety] video as well, which appears to be tailored more towards teens. The plain/straight talk guidelines and the various help links presented delivered a loud and clear message: If you feel threatened, take appropriate actionable steps -Tell a family member, teacher, counselor...

In closing, enjoy the Internet. The pros far out weigh the cons. To borrow the title from one of the videos with a little addition, "Know and Follow the Rules".