Project 13- Group Collaboration

Project 16

Smartboard project

Project 15

PLN Progress report #1

C4T Summary for January

Dot Day Is On Its Way

Kelly Hines wrote about Peter H. Reynolds. She talked about how his book The Dot is her favorite book. She mentioned that International Dot Day in on September 15th. She also says to read The Dot with our class and then discuss with them and find ways to have the students make their own marks. In my comment to her I told her that I also love The Dot and that it is a very inspirational bool that should be read to all students, to inspire them to make a difference in their life.

Blog Post #11

I enjoyed the video, Little Kids...Big Potential. In this video Mrs. Cassidy and class are showing how they use different technology in their classroom. The students use blogs, wikis, videos, Skype, a class webpage, and they use Nintendo DS's to connect with people in other classrooms all over the world. In the video the students tell about the different ways of communication and how they have learned to use it in their classrooms. The students said that blogging was their favorite, they enjoy this because they feel they are contributing to the world when people read and comment on their blog. Some of the children even gave tips on how to be safe while on the internet, they said "to only put your first name, not your last name," while you are doing things online.

This Skype Interview with Mrs.Cassidy, was very helpful for future teachers trying to learn how to incorporate technology into their classroom. Mrs.Cassidy tells how she started with only a 5 computer center in her classroom. She also talks about other teachers and how they do not feel that they need to change the way they teach to incorporate more technology, they think the way they are doing things is perfectly fine. She shares that all teachers must be technologically literate. All teachers need to keep up with the changes and development in technology, because Mrs.Cassidy says "it isn't going anywhere." While she is teaching her students in the use of technology, she teaches them the rules about how to be careful on the internet, and she shows them proper etiquette for learning comments on others' blogs.

Blog post #10

This picture by John T. Spencer is a mock of the PC and Mac commercials. I think it is still putting out the same message. I take this picture as saying that technology is the best investment for people to make. If people don't make the decision to buy a laptop now they will have to spend money on pencils and paper until they just buy a laptop that they can email assignments to their teachers and take notes on, where there is no use for paper and pencil. I like this cartoon because it shows that the decision to buy the more expensive thing can sometimes be the better choice.

Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?

On John Spencer's blog, Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?, he shares with us a conversation he and his school principal had about his class playing games. The principal was not accepting to games being played in the classroom. There are obviously rules at their school and the principal sees Spencer's "games" are breaking them. Spencer defends himself by telling the principal that these "games" are advanced simulations. Spencer has made a mock factory where the students were making their pictures and practice problem solving skills. The students would read various scenarios and describe their way that they would solve that problem. His students were playing real life scenarios, but the principal did not see it that way and told Spencer to stop. Spencer did not stop he just came up with a solution. He said his students would create an algorithm factory and integrate it into their conflict oriented reading and writing project (a.k.a The Factory Game).