8/30/2012

http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/2008/11/student-friendly-learning-goals-.html 
"How does technology help with writing and communicating objectives?"

The article that Mr. Ferriter wrote made some very good and clear points about how creating objectives may take a lot of time and even seem pointless at first but once you take the time to write objectives that students can easily interpret it makes it easier as a teacher to plan out the rest of the class. I liked how making objectives seemed to spark a dedication in him to go home and assess different ways of teaching and communicating with parents and students. He revised his entire lesson plan according to the objectives he created.

I think that technology could make it easier to communicate objectives. Mr. Ferriter sent home sheets for each unit. To save paper (part of my teaching budget) I would make a website for all of my classes and have different pages pertain to each individual class and put my objectives on there correspondingly. Also, much like how college is, I would add the syllabus and lectures online.

The hardest part of having objectives for your class is making them. One way technology has already helped me with writing student friendly objectives is by providing me with Mr. Ferriter's blog. He explained an easier way of writing them by starting each statement with 'I can...' I believe that there are multiple websites/blogs that have useful tips for  creating objectives. Another way technology can make it easier to deconstruct difficult to understand objectives is by right clicking on the "fluffy" words and choosing a synonym that the computer generates that is easier for students to comprehend.

8/25/12

"Reflect on the role that technology has played in your education thus far.  What role do you see technology playing in your future career as an educator?"

 Technology is part of just about every class in one way or another to make the class easier or make the material more relatable. In anatomy and physiology we watch videos on different surgeries. In my geometry class we had quizzes every week using the clicker system. For my composition class instead of going to the library we used online resources such as ebsco. Students can take classes that aren't offered at their school through distance learning. I think the advancement in technology has made our generation more capable of learning a larger variety of information. If you are interested in something you can go home and google it. If you can't understand it from that; you can youtube or read people's blogs that describe how they did it.

I think technology will continue to upgrade, and we will have to continually be refreshing ourselves on the latest equipment. I hope that they can find a way to make it cheaper-with the constant upgrades it would be very difficult for schools to keep up with the technology if they are so expensive. I think one idea that would be neat would be a whiteboard that is kind of like a touch screen so that after you write on it you can just push an "erase button" that would clear the whole screen.