Economy and effects on studentsand our experiences in overall in class.

The economy has impacted all of us and continues to do so. Our children seem to be the first to suffer. Our school districts seem to be the first for budget cuts. When watching the video, I noticed the saddnes in some of the children's faces. I noticed the desperation on one girls face. She wanted to help her over worked mom but wanted to be in school as well. Some students talked about their parents working so much they hardly saw them. Others talked about their parents losing their jobs and how scared they are. Our children should not be worried about when they will get their next meal, or if they will lose their homes. It broke my heart to watch the video. Children have enough to deal with in school. They should not have to worry about their parents or money. Our children also suffer in the classroom. My son has over thirty students in his math class. Some students stand up to learn. Others sit on the floor because there are not enough desks to go around. This year class sizes have increased by 10 at my daughters school. Teachers were laid off. Teachers have more students and less resources to teach. This can not be an effective way for students to learn. Honestly, It blows my mind! This is a very personal issue for me. I have three children and I want the very best educational envirnment for them. I feel like they are getting cheated out of a good education..............
My experiences in class have varied from class to class. This has been a very fun, and educational class for me. I have learned so much about computers and I feel very grateful. I know I have a lot more to learn but this class has given me a great start. During this class I have worried, and felt overwhelmed. This has been achallenge for me. I normally breeze through my classes almost without thought. This class was not like that for me. It has been a wonderful reality check and has helped me appreciate those who struggle in some of my other classes. I am proud of myself and I thank all my classmates. You all have helped me so much. Thank you. I hope some day I can return the favor. Christin has been a wonderful support system for me, and a great friend. I'm so thankful to have you in my lif!:) Chester.... thank you for your patience with me. I am a work in progress!

Hybrid classes......

When our professor discused having hybrid sessions, I was nervous. I didn't know what to expect and honestly thought I would get lost. The first hybrid session was fun. It was not at all what I thought it would be. It was difficult to here our professors voice, that was a bit frustrating for me, but I thought I kept up ok with that class. It was neat to see us branch off into seperate groups to do our projects. I didn't know that could be done. I learned a lot from that experience. The second hybrid class was extremely frustrating to me. I was so overwhelmed. It took me 5 hours that night to do a couple of the assignments. Some of the assignments were not working properly. I was unable to view them, and that frustrated me even more. Scholar was easy to use but Diigo was difficult for me. I was able to create one but I'm not one hundred percent sure I did it correctly. Over all I enjoyed the hybrid sessions and I became a little more comfortable with my computer and it's uses. This class has helped me relax and enjoy the computer more. I've honestly come a long way since the very first class and it feels good!!!!!

Where do I stand?

When reading Consider This by David Thornburg, I thought about how easy it is to get answers to any question just by getting on the internet. Students are cheating by using material on the web. David Thornburg writes about the fear of students not taking in knowledge, but rather copying information from the computer. He writes that it is so much easier to cheat now with all the technology with in reach, and so easy to find answers for anything. He even goes as far as to say, some teachers suggest banning electronic devices form schools all together. When I began reading this article, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to ban all electronic devices from schools. It's causing students to cheat with in hands reach and with out these devices they would not. Then I started thinking about when I went to school, and how many students cheated in my classrooms all the time with out electronic devices. We would just look at our neighbors work and copy it onto our papers. We would get together on weekends and do our homework together. We could not have retained much information while looking at our neighbors paper, or copying off of one another's homework. Let's be realistic! Cheating has occuried long before technology. It just seems easier now with hand held devices, and honestly I think it takes more time and effort to look for information on the internet, than copying off a neighbors paper. I'm not condoning cheating, I'm simply trying to keep it real. If a student is going to cheat, they will find a way with or without hand held devices or technology. In the last two paragraphs of this article, David Thornburg gives several ways to help solve this problem. I like his idea about using myriad papers sites to look for reports already written and then analyze and comment on them. This means the student would have to research, read through and think about what they have read. What a great way to learn, and take in info about the book at hand. I think I would learn more this way than if I had to write my own report. I also like how he talks about asking questions about what the student has found on the internet. This helps develop thinking skills, and our students could use this throughout their lives. I think technology helps in any ways. The internet is very helpful in many ways, and our students/children can benefit greatly from it. I understand where some teachers are coming from when they suggest banning hand held devices from schools. I can appreciate their efforts but I believe it is a bit extreme.

Our hybrid class last night was so much fun. I was concerned that I wouldn't know what to do once I got onto the session, but everyone was very helpful. One of our projects was to complete an award for a student and add a seal. It was simple until I tried to put the seal on mine, but I got through it. :) We also had to get into groups using a break out session. This was cool. We were placed into 3 seperate groups in which we could only communicate with our partners via keyboard. We had to gather information on a topic and relay that info to our group. This was fun but somewhat frustrating. It was difficult to look up information and communicate with our partners at the same time. It worked out for all of us and each project was great. It was helpful to here and see our professor. He helped out when I needed it. I learned a lot in our hybrid session. It was fun.

This week in class, I had a great time creating my video using animoto.com. I didn't know it was so easy to create a video of pictures but this site helps to make it fun. It was easy to follow the instructions, and I was impressed by the end result. I think this would be fun for students to do in the classroom. My daughter is 9 and I think she is very capable of creating a video using animoto. This could be used in the classroom in many ways. Students could make a video of their families to share with the class. What a great way for others to get to know who each student is. It could also be good to create an end of the year video using pictures taken through out the year of the students. How much fun would that be??? My daughter and I are going to create a friend video for her to share with all her friends. I'm curious to see just how much she will be able to do on her own. I think she can do this. This is a site I would use in my classroom! We also learned how to create a questionaire using google. This site was easier for me. I enjoyed creating my questionaire and would use this site to create others for my class.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

How can I use the tecnology I learned in the classroom?

Last night we learned about zoho. This is a site where we can create our own questionnaires. I had so much fun exploring the options. I think it could be a helpful tool in any classroom. Creating a questionnaire for students can be benefical to the students and the teachers. For example; My daughter had to do a science project. Every student had to sign up for what they might be interested in researching. My daughter signed up for volcanos but really didn't know exactly what she wanted to do. It would have been helpful if she had a questionaire to fill out with questions about science projest's and what interests each child. Creating a questionaire would also be helpful to the teachers and students on the first day of school. Filling out a questionaire about who each child is and what interests them, then switching with partners can be a good way to get to know one another. There are so many uses for this site, and it seems easy to do. Hopefully it can help me in the future.