Technology Project Introduction

Welcome Miss Buhler's Junior AP Literature Class!
Here is a podcast of the Technology Project for this year:


This podcast has the complete description of your Technology Project for this quarter. Students will be working in groups for a mass media project focusing on biases found in mass media. Students will create a blog reporting their findings.  At the end of the project students will present a multimedia presentation.

Here is a written version of the podcast:

Students will participate in a mass media project locating and analyzing biases in mass media forms, such as fashion magazines, advertisements, newspaper, online forms of media, and other forms of mass media.

Students will be working in groups of two to three students each, and will create a blog per group.  This blog will document research, and allow access for the teacher, and other students to comment and add input to project.

Students will write a “Predictions Post” before starting project about what they anticipate to learn in this lesson.

Students will be required to post their progress weekly, in updates, reflections, and research findings. I encourage students to post feedback and input on other group projects in the class.  The class blog will have a link to every group’s blog.

After four weeks of research, students will design a presentation using a multimedia form, (PowerPoint, SMART Board presentation, video, podcast, etc).

Reflection #7

How do we use Freecorder 4? I downloaded it and am completely confused. Does anyone know how to use it? I need more information on what it is and how it works, and how I can use it for my project.

Technology Project Plan pt. 1

I plan to teach high school English.
The ideas I have for this Technology Project are using video recording for students to record each other acting out their interpretation of a text, for example a difficult poem, or a short story, or a section of a play.

How can the students make this interesting and engaging to other students?
What would they need? Some sort of recording device, such as the Flip video cameras, or an iphone.

I really like the idea of finding biases in media, and using images from different media sources like fashion magazines or advirtisements.   Students could use a document camera to project images on the board and analyze them in a presentation in front of the class.

I am sort of confused by this whole Technology Project, it seems very vague and broad. But these are my ideas so far on the project.

NU Educators Panel Questions

1. How has technology changed over the course of your teaching career? How do you utilize and incorporate these changes in the classroom?

2. How has technology changed the way students interact in the classroom? How has it changed how they complete assignments?

3. What is the best advice you could give to a teacher in their first year of teaching? What is the worst moment of teaching, and what is the best moment of teaching, in your experience?

"Caught on Video"

After reading Rob Spankle's blog "Caught on Video" this opens up many possibilities teachers can have in the classroom.  Also, this helps with parent and teacher interaction and connection.  A teacher can video tape what happened in class, something significant, such as a presentation or class discussion and post it on a blog or website that allows the parents at home or work to view it.  The parent can be proud of the child, and know that the teacher is being an effective teacher. 

I also see the possibility in English classes.  I am going to teach high school English, and I remember when I was in high school how entertaining it was for a group of students to act out a scene and film it and show the video in class.  This opens the door for students to work in group projects and easily submit a video with their work.  Give the class a half hour to summarize the text of what they have either, read or discussed into their own words and film it.  This could be a sitcom, a drama, a dialogue, it could be anything that the students capture on film.  Not only does it allow for an effective way to assess student knowledge it is fun and engaging for students.

Week #7

I found these websites helpful in figuring out how to use a Promethean Board.  I have realized that I do not have access to a Promethean Board, but I can learn about the skills through online tutorials, and advice on how to use basic skills.  Until I am a teacher, employed by a school and placed in a classroom I won't know exactly what technology I will be using, but it is convenient and helpful to have general knowledge about the board. 

I learned management tools of the board, for instance:

• how to calibrate the board
• how to use AcivPen, which is basically your mouse to the board
• how to use ActivInspire Toolbar
• how to make flip charts

I found these websites useful: http://www.dillon2.k12.sc.us/technology/integration/prometheanboards.asp and http://www.prometheanplanet.com/ and http://nlvm.usu.edu/

Some questions I have: Why is the ActivBoard more expensive than a SMARTBoard? What are the differences? Why isn't the ActivBoard touch screen? What do you use both pens for?

Week #6

After reading the article Generation IM, I see how I grew up in a generation very similar to Generation IM.  I remember my sixth grade teacher told us that when she was younger, she had to look up all her research in books and enclyclopedias.  Even in sixth grade that seemed odd to me.  I had done all my projects on the internet, the difference was I had not discovered Google. Or even more importantly, Google Image.  I would scour the internet to find images, copy them and use them in my project.  Now it seems as though kids just know how to find pictures, type in key words, effectively use search engines.  The statement that kids ten years ago were using books and encyclopedias is wrong, because even at fifth and sixth grade we knew how to use the internet. 

Some things I found  to be surprising in this article is that being on the internet, and social networking devices, and creating things is different from watching television because the child is engaging.  Another thing that surprised me is that children no longer have to memorize information to be good students. Information on any subject is easily accessible, instead the developing skills are analysis and critical thinking of the information they discover.

The last thing that is crucial to educating Generation IM is that teachers need to teach to this generation, and not try to utitilize the tools they used as children.

Some questions I have
How do I use podcasts? Some questions on how to use and operate the differet technologies presented?

Reflection #6

I LOVE WORDLE.  Thank you Prof. Monica Adair for introducing me to Wordle.  I absolutely love it.  I could be going Wordle crazy.  I am making a ton.  But I love the creativity and the design, it is so simple and I have always wanted something made with that sort of design.  I am going to Wordle like no one's business for the next few weeks, and I have already been showing a lot of people Wordle too.

I think it is pretty Amazing.

Reflection #5

Reading my article for my Technology Literacy paper, I had an epiphany.



(Me Thinking.)

I am reading "Multimedia Technologies and Familiar Spaces: 21^st-Century Teaching for 21^st-Century Learners” by Judy Lambert and Cuper Pru. 


 The article talks about how students need technology, because their generation has grown up immersed in technology. However, they need to process the mass amount of information they have received in your classroom.  They need to analyze and reflect what they have learned and use critical thinking.  One of the examples was a blog.  Students can use blogs to analyze and reflect what they have learned in class.

BAM! My Epiphany, I am a student, in a technology class, and we write reflections.  Unconsciously I have been writing reflections in order to process the information I have learned in class.  I have been analyzing and reflecting in all these entries titled “Reflections.”  I had already followed the article’s advice for teachers to make student learning more experiential based, but I was a student.  I intended reading this article as a “Teacher” perspective, and yet I found myself the student, in a technology class, blogging about my reflections on what I have learned in Technology in Education.  I am analyzing, reflecting, and critically thinking. It just all seems so surreal. Like a weird cycle. Teacher becomes the Student, Student becomes the teacher…
I feel very… reflective.

reflection #4

I have learned how to make SMART Board presentations to make my lessons enteractive.
I really like the "Area Capture" because it is like copying anything, I like using it for classes, or capturing notes on a smart board notebook.
One thing I am confused on is the NETS, in every lesson are we supposed to have those standards in all classes?
CONFUSED... yes.

Assignment #1

Ashley Buhler

Prof. Monica Adair

Technology in Education

5 October 2010

Technology Literacy Paper

                The article I chose is titled, “Multimedia Technologies and Familiar Spaces: 21^st-Century Teaching for 21^st-Century Learners” by Judy Lambert and Cuper Pru.  Students in this new generation have grown up constantly immersed in technology, cell phones, internet, social networking, images, media, everything technologically advanced.  Therefore, teachers must adapt their teaching methods to meet up with this digitally charged generation.

                Not only do teachers need to use multimedia technology in the classroom but they need to teach students how to process the information they receive through multimedia devices.  “Reflection and critical thinking enable students to learn from their experiences; therefore, time must be built into classroom instruction for both processes to occur” (2).  Students are given so much information through technology it is a mass amount of communication, thus teachers need to assist students dissect, reflect and analyze what they learn.  “They must learn to apply technology tools appropriately in order to process multiple perspectives on real-world problems and formulate solutions to these problems” (2).

                Lambert and Pru explain in detail how important and challenging it is for teachers to seek new ways to “integrate 21-st century skills, nonlinear thinking skills, and digital-age reflections into coursework” (2).  They references updates for the NETS for Students, and NETS for teachers and how important that is for teachers to use communication skills in ways that utilize all available technologies.

                One thing I thought was cool to see in the paper was they brought up Blogging, and in this class we have been blogging.  The article said, “Blogging offers an online world of journaling where people share their thoughts, experiences, and sometimes pictures and audio files” (8).  We have been blogging in Technology in Education, but this article explained it more as another outlet that can be used for your students.  I thought that would be beneficial for my students in a high school setting to use a blog to communicate with other students about their homework or certain assignments.   It does not just have to be an update of information about myself, events and assignments for students, parents, and administration.  They included a quote from a student, interested in becoming a teacher, who used blogging, “I want to use blogs so my students have a means of expressing themselves as well as becoming more familiar with emerging technology” (8).  I thought it was funny that another prospective teacher said “I think I will use blogging in my classroom because it gets rid of some paper work that you have to deal with; it gets the students more involved; and, most importantly, it helps out with communication” (8). It was funny to me that this person thought of using blogs to eliminate paper work you have to deal with.  That is true.  But it is also a way to engage students.  Now it seems that every student, with some exceptions, has some access to a computer and internet, whether it is in a public library, a computer lounge provided by school, or a home or personal computer.  This expands the possibility of educational tools.  I know personally from how many hours I spend each day on the internet, not committing to study purposes, but Social Networking or other entertainment sites, I can just think how much more my prospective students like to spend time on the internet.  I think it would be huge to get them involved into doing something they like, but having it relate to school.  Also, blogging is a way to reflect and analyze what the student has learned or seen.  They can analyze what I have shown them in class.  Have every student make a personal blog, and they can interact with each other by posting forums, and if I show an engaging media clip, then have each student write a reflection online.  I feel it is so important to engage students in what they like to do, but make it educational.  

Works Cited

Lambert, Judy, and Pru Cuper. "Multimedia Technologies and Familiar Spaces: 21st-Century Teaching for 21st-Century Learners." Contemporary Issues in Technology & Teacher Education 8.3 (2008): 264-276. Education Research Complete. EBSCO. Web. 5 Oct. 2010.

NETS for teachers:  I like the second standard:
Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
b. Develop technology-enriches learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning and assessing their own progress.

This made me think about my article I read that wanted teachers to incorporate not only multimedia technologies but also experiences and analyzing and reflecting what students have learned.  I feel this in critical for students to take in and internalize concepts taught in class.  It also reminds me of blogging, how students can become “active participants” by expressing how they feel about what they have learned and sharing that with others, which is a form of assessment, student voice.

NETS for Students

4. Critical thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
c. Collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions

I thought this was important because it relates back to my article to have students think about what they have learned in order for them to relate it back to world issues.  I like the idea of analyzing data to make decisions or come up with solutions to problems they might have. Students could research a global issue after watching a video and come up with solutions, such as the BP Oil Spill, or Child abductions in Uganda.   They would come up with a solution to a world issue, and make plans as to how they would achieve that solution. They could make a multimedia project to convince classmates to help support their cause.  Students afterwards would blog about their individual reflections towards their own projects, and if they thought they were convincing or persuasive enough.