Looking Back, Looking Ahead

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First Day of Class

Time flies, my technology course will be finished tonight. Memory of the first of class is still vivid in my mind. Our teacher introduced quite amount of technology tools and applications that I did not know and hear about. Moreover, I had to create my blog, my professional website, and using different Web 2.0 tools to create different projects. I felt so burdened after the first day of class since I wasn’t a technology person. I didn’t have such technology senses and skills to do all those assignments. I was so worried that I couldn’t make it.

Learning Technology

As time went by, I was exposed to different kind of technology tools and I learned to use them one by one. All the assignments in this class were new to me, such as Prezi, QR rcode, Glogster, Blabberize, and so on. I sometimes needed to spend couple of hours to figure out how to use some new applications and tools. I remember I tried back and forth to adjust the outlook of my first blog post for so many times.  That’s time consuming in the beginning. However, I found that the more you use technology, the better technique you acquire. Once you get the key to open the technology world, you will find so much fun and good tools in there. I feel my burden is getting lighter after each class and I have more confidence in using technology.

Look Forward

Prezi, Glogster, Blaberrize and QR code are the applications that I like. I was so excited to make my first Prezi, a Glog, Blaberr, and I was amazed to generate a QR code. They are so practical and awesome. I definitely will use them again and again. As I will have my student teaching very soon, I will use them to make in my teaching. I already think about use Blaberrize to have students retell the story book “Brown Bear, brown Bear, What Do You See?”, and I also will develop a classroom website to connect with the parents. Moreover, I will learn to use ThingLink and Wordle so that I can use them in my teaching at well. Even though this class will be ended soon, I will keep learning technology. I should learn more to keep myself from outdated and I need more tech knowledge to teach our 21^st century learners.

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QR Code

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      After using two interact and visual tools to teach the lesson of  identifying coins, I use QR code to generate a worksheet for children to identify the value of penny and nickel. QR code – Quick Response code, is a type of matrix barcode. We can get a piece of information, a URL, a coupon or more by reading this kind of codes with a QR code reader application.  When I first saw QR code in a restaurant, I had no idea what is this about. I was told that I could use that code to order our food. Since I had no smart phone at that time, I had no attempts to learn more.

        I learn how to use QR code in my technology class and I think it is a good tool to promote children’s motivation to find out the answers their owns. I think it would be fun to put QR codes all over the classroom and instruct students to do some planned activities, such as treasure hunt, or some problem solving activities.  Moreover, we can use the codes to show the answers on the worksheet so that students can check out the answers after doing the worksheet.

        It is very easy to generate a QR code; we can do it via couple Websites. We can generate a Website URL, youtube video, plain text, social network accounts and so on to a QR code.  And then we can save it on our computers or use it whatever we want. Generating a QR code is easier than I thought. I could not believe I finished the process just with a click when I first did it. I used my phone to read the code to confirm I did it. I was so excited to see how I put a google image into a QR code. I t was very fascinating. Besides using QR code in teaching, I think we can use it in some games or activities with different age groups.

Glogster

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       The second Web 2.0 tool I use is Glogster. This application allows users to create an interactive poster or multimedia page which visitors can interact with. I think Glogster is pretty user friendly. There are different selections of texts, graphics and  walls users can add to create their Glogs. Moreover, we also can add video and audio file to our Glogs.

        For my identifying coins lesson, I create a visual poster to demonstrate the value of penny, nickel, dime and quarter. And I add a youtube video to consolidate children’s learning. This is my first time to use Glogster, I like it a lot and I definitely will use it again for teaching. I think I will try more variety next time and I also will use it for the classroom newsletter.   I have seen some examples which people use Glogster to create their classroom newsletter. I think it is very great since teachers can include video and audio on their newsletters. Parents and children can read it each together at home. I think it really help parents know more about their children’s learning.

Link for my Glog

Blabberize

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         Blabberize is an application that allows us to speak through a picture. We can manipulate the picture to say what we want to say. This is my first time to use blabberize, I think it is pretty easy to create our own stuffs. Moreover, I like that we can generate our creation into a video or embed to our blog or Webpage.  It is very handy and cool. Since my lesson is for Kindergarten children, I did not plan to have children to use Blabberize this time. However, I think I will involve young children in retelling a story that they read in class next time. That would be very fascinating and children would be so excited to hear their voices with the pictures.

        Even though the application is simple to use; however, I think it is hard to manipulate the mouth movement perfectly match the figure on the picture. I have to try couple times to adjust the mouth shape to match the figure; but I am not quite satisfying with the outcome. I need some more practices and I think picture selection is very important as well. And also, I find a hard to figure out how to edit my blabber after I save it. It does provide an ”edit” icon; however, it’s only for editing the title, description or tag. It is not for editing the blabber itself. Thus, the only think I can do is recreating another blabber. It’s quite frustrated. 

        According to my first experience in using blabberize, I think it is great and I like it a lot. I ready plan to use this application in my next presentation in introduction one  psychologist,  I hope that I can make a better blabber this time.  

                 

                                        

                                       

StrangerMine

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Digital Tattoo
          During my previous technology class, my teacher used a very vivid term “Digital Tattoo” to represent digital reputation of one self. It is an expression of an individual, highly visible and hard to remove. Therefore, people should be very careful what kinds of information and data they want to share on the Internet. My teacher also showed the class how easy people could search others’ information via Internet. From address, age, family members, profession or income, people can get the information right away.

Searching Myself

After my teacher showing all those, I feel so insecure being in this cyber world. My personal information may be exposed on the Internet already and I even not know who will have my information. However, after searching myself on the Internet, I was released that I actually do not have much information on the Internet. I only could find my twitter account information. I think one of the reasons is I seldom share my personal information via Internet. Moreover, I just a little tomato, and have limited online social network.  

Data Mining

After searching myself on the Internet, my classmate and I also searched one stranger’s data via Internet which was assigned by the teacher. During data mining the stranger, I found that it was not easy to get information as our teacher showed us. Even though he was a “Tech Person”, we only could find a few of his data, such as  his age, address, twitter account, profession, education and career background, some names of his relatives, etc. Moreover, we need to pay if we want to get more personal data and background. The whole process was quite frustrating, my classmate and I checked out numbers of websites and we only could find limited information related to the person.  I wonder the reason we could not get much information is because of our limited data mining skill or just because the person we were dataMine did not disclose much his information on the Internet. No matter what, that was a very interesting experience and helps me more cautious with internet security.

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Personal Learning Network

Twitter

I am not a “Tech Person” and I engage in limited online social network activities. I do have a facebook account; however, I only log on my account once a while to check out new posts and pictures from my friends and family. As for the requirement of my Technology classwork, I created a twitter account and I followed some education-related people or organizations. This whole process was totally new to me and I discovered there were a great numbers of educators connected on Twitter.  Since I was new to Twitter, I first picked the teacher in my technology class to follow, and then I browsed her following list and picked some people and organizations that related to education to follow. I am following 28 educators and educational organizations and I found many useful resources bombard to my twitter page every day. I do not have time check out all the resource link one by one. Yet, I do find some very  good resources through twitter.

          ThingLink
        One of the resources I find useful is posted by Susan Oxnevad on the “ThingLink Blog”. On the blog post, Susan provides step by step guide for teachers to build a ThingLink classroom. I also found that there are resourceful posts on the blog. I think that is very cool because I really want to use more technology in my future classroom to enhance students’ learning. This resource really can give me more ideas and knowledge to incorporate technology in my further teaching.  I definitely will visit this blog and follow Susan’s twitter posts to learn more technology knowledge.  

          PLN's on Twitter

Besides following some educators and educational organizations, I also learned how to retweet some useful resources via my twitter account and participate in an #Edchat. However, I made a mistake in my first live #Edchat. In order to participate in a live chat, I searched the live chat schedule. I realized there were so many live chats in different topics during the day. I spent quite amount of time to find the right #Edchat for myself to take part in. I finally found one was suit for my interest and time to join, it was on Monday 8:00pm. Yet, I did not aware of the time zone and I just could say “hi” before the live chat was over. Since the schedule which showed on Twubs indicated “your time 8:00pm-9:00pm”; therefore, I assumed there was no time difference and I missed the chat.

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As I have the previous experience, I chose another live chat schedule very carefully, and I joined #ndedchat yesterday. It was a live chat for educators to share their experiences and opinions. The topic of the live chat yesterday was teacher evaluation. Since it was my first time, I did not have much to share. I actually kind of lost in the beginning. The pace was very fast and I was very busy to follow the conversations. I also had no cues some terms they used, such as “Ts” “Ss”, “PD” and “ND”. Moreover, they mentioned about “The Marzano model”, I also had no idea what was that looked like. I found myself was so unprofessional and lack of knowledge in the conversation. However, I still tried to participate in the conversation and I found that I did learn something about how teachers would be evaluated and what they wanted to be evaluated. Even though my first #Edchat experience was a bit frustrated, I think I should make good use of PLN’s on Twitter to equip myself to be a professional educator. And I hope that I am not only get the resources from this network, I also can have contribution as well. 

Link of Susan Oxnevad's ThingLink Blog post

My first Webinar experience

Webinar

The first time when I heard the term “Webinar”, I totally have no idea what is that about. Then, I have an opportunity to view a replay Webinar. I found that Webinar is a online lectures, seminars, workshop and conferences. Webinar is more than a live video; it is interactive. We can ask questions, share information and give feedback.

SAMR Model

The Webinar I viewed was presented by Susan Oxnevad. Her topic was “Teaching Above the Line – Using the SAMR Model of Tech Integration”. SMAR represents four levels to integrate technology into the classroom. Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and  Redefinition.

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As we see the image above, the substitution and augmentation levels, technology acts as a direct substitute. There is no learning goal of using technology and the tasks are the same. These two levels are below the line. At the modification and redefinition levels, learning goals and the tasks could not be completed without technology. The tasks have redesigned or new created. Learning has been transformed with using technology. Susan pointed out that for the beginning, teachers can start with the substitution level, have the students dip their feet into the technology world first. And the ultimate goal is climbing up to the modification and redefinition levels. Susan also indicated that teachers should create their own toolkit to design learning experiences. She demonstrated some tools, such as Google Docs, ThingLink, and wikis, etc.        

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Great Experience

I learned a lot from the Webinar, All the educational technology that Susan introduced in the Webinar was so fascinating.  It really opened my eyes and I found myself so disconnected with this cyber world. I want to learn more about educational technology because it is very helpful in engaging teaching experiences. I also want to join more Webinar, especially live Webinar since I could not join live Webinar this time. I think that would be a different experience; I can actually interact with the presenter and the audiences as well.  

Source of SAMR Model: 

Cool Tools for 21 Century Learners


More information of SAMR Model: 
The SAMR Model: Backgrounds and Exemplars

2013 Trends in Online Learning Virtual, Blended and Flipped Classrooms

        

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  About the research

After reading the report of "2013 Trends in Online Learning Virtual, Blended and Flipped Classrooms",   I was surprised that high technology had been slipped into K-12 classrooms already.  I found that the use of a variety of online learning strategies with students is not only found in colleges or grad schools. In fact, many teachers in K-12 classrooms are utilizing technology in their teaching nowadays. Moreover, there are different forms of learning models, such as virtual, blended and flipped learning. This research grants me a better understanding of today’s K-12 education.

 Data from the survey

Some of the highlights of this latest update Speak Up data are 1) school administrators, online learning teachers, students and parents who participated in the survey seem to agree online learning options provide more ways to help students engage in learning; 2) students see online learning is more personal and self-paced learning; 3) online learning teachers believe online learning motivate students’ learning more and is an efficient way for teachers and students to communicate and connect around learning materials; and 4) more students and parents are interested in the value of online learning and wish their schools would provide more online learning for the students. 

      

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My little thoughts

This report gives me a great insight of using digital and technology in K-12 classrooms. I agree that using a variety of online learning strategies with children can improve students’ academic performance, enhance teachers’ effectiveness and engage parents’ involvement. Online learning allows students working at their own pace. They can rewind, pause and review the learning materials at their own time. Since our young generation is raised in the high-technology society, they definitely would be fascinated in the digital learning environment. However, I think the school administers and teachers have to make sure the students can access online learning without any obstacles before they offer the online courses and digital learning materials.  That would be awesome all the students have the same opportunity to access online learning; especially the low income students. As they may have limited accessibility to online resources, they may benefit a lot from getting such resources.

According from the report, it can be a challenge for teachers incorporate technology in teaching. We should understand that not all teachers are “tech-person”. They need a great amount of support and training to teach in virtual, blended and flipped classrooms. Therefore, how to mobilize and equip our educators to transform their teaching techniques to a cyber level is a big project!    

Source of Research: Project Tomorrow and Blackboard K-12

                                 Speak Up 2012 National Data

                                 June 2013

                                       http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/2013_OnlineLearningReport.html

   

Welcome to Sau's Place

         

Sau's picture 01

       Hi, welcome to my blog! This is
my first blog and I actually don’t know
what I  should  start  with.  I  think   I
should introduce some background of
myself  and  I  can  share some of  my
hobbies with you.

        I am a Chinese and I came from Hong Kong twelve years ago. I am a student
and I am studying Early Childhood Education. I want to be a Kindergarten teacher since I love children very much and I enjoy working with them a lot. I 
believe that each child can succeed if 
they have more role models walk with them. I want to be one of such person so that I can have positive influenced in their life. 

       My favorite drink is Coca-Cola, especially the glass bottle one. That is so great if you have a glass bottle of Coca-Cola in a hot summer day, it just washes away the heat and you feel so refreshing. One of my hobbies is collecting Coca-Cola products, such as cans, bottles and decors. The reason I collect Coca-Cola products is the beautiful and fascinating design. They have so many varieties beside cans and bottles, such as household products, stationary, or clothing. They also offer seasonal and special events cans, bottles and decors throughout the year.  Moreover, Coca-Cola products are universal; we see them in almost every corner in this world. That’s why I think Coca-Cola items are collectible; however, I collect them is only for my interest, not for sale or investment.  Collecting Coca-Cola items can be a costly hobby since some special collection or products are very expensive; thus, I just get the items both I like and affordable.  

        When I was in Hong Kong, I traveled places in Asia whenever I had vacations. I would look for Coca-Cola items in the countries I visited. I went to their supermarkets and stores to find the items. That was so fun and enjoyable to search them. Some of my friends also collect Coca-Cola products for me if they find something special and collectible. The picture on this post is only a tiny corner of my collection.  I will share some more images from my collection in the coming posts, I hope that you will like it and we may share more about it.