Project #10

Blog #12

C4T #3

For my third C4T assignment, I was required to read two posts by Daniel Edwards. Although both posts were very different, I gained a lot from each of them.

Pedagogy First- Technology...
This post focuses on the major changes that education is undergoing. Mr. Edwards expresses that teachers who have taught a certain way for years are having to change and that it is causing a disruption in the learning experience. He also expresses, though, how crucial this change is. He says that everyone is a learner and that teachers should be more accepting to this change. In my comment, I said that I never realized how many changes are being made to the education system until entering EDM 310. I said that although I can see how it can be difficult for some teachers to change their ways, I agree that it is important for them to adapt and accept the changes. I expressed how beneficial technology is during the learning process and that teachers need to learn to embrace it and utilize it more in the classroom.

Top 10 Apps in Established 1:1 iPad School
In this post, Mr. Edwards shares what he believes to be the ten most beneficial apps to the learning process. The apps that he described are as follows: Explain Everything, Socrative, iMovie, iTunes U, Showbie, Edmodo, Notability, Keynote, Book Creator, and Pages. He gives a brief description of each one and explains why it is so beneficial. In my comment, I expressed that we use iMovie quite a bit in EDM 310 and that I was familiar with a few of the other apps, but that I had never heard of most of the apps he mentioned. I said that I plan to do research on each and that I am sure I will be using them in my future classroom.

Blog #11

Technology is rapidly becoming such a huge part of everyday life, and nobody understands that more than current educators. For this assignment, we were required to watch videos that included teachers sharing their experiences. These teachers know exactly how essential technology and project-based learning (PBL) are to the learning experience. We can learn a lot from those who have had experience working with technology and implementing it in the classroom. The main things they can do for us are reiterate how essential technology really is to learning, explain how important it is to engage our students, and give us ideas of how to do so.

My favorite of all of the videos was Sam Payne's Teaching Digital Citizenship. In this video, Mr. Payne talks about the importance of teaching how to use the internet safely, respectfully, and responsibly. Since it is becoming more and more common for children to work with technology and use the internet, it is definitely important to focus on this. Although this is a very important subject, it can be boring for younger children. Mr. Payne shows that there are ways to teach these things and have fun at the same time. He allowed his students to create an entire comic book centered around a superhero that exemplifies a good digital citizen. This project allowed the students to show their creativity, use technology, and learn about the subject all at the same time.


Paul Anderson's Blended Learning Cycle was also quite informative. I have heard of blended learning before, but did not fully understand exactly what it entailed. He defined blended learning as a mixture between online, mobile, and classroom learning; he also defined the learning cycle with "the 5 E's": engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate. Mr. Anderson provided his viewers with the acronym "QUIVERS" as a reminder of how to tackle the blended learning cycle. He says to successfully implement blended learning, you must do the following: question, investigate, show a video, elaborate, review, and give a summary quiz. I really like the idea of blended learning, and I am glad that Mr. Anderson has shared this acronym. I will be sure to use this method in my future classroom. It is a great way to engage students and ensure that they are actually learning.

The video Project-Based Learning consists of three experienced teachers explaining why it is so crucial to incorporate PBL in the classroom. They expressed that PBL really allows you to teach beyond the curriculum and that technology can be used as a tool to bring the content of any subject to life. These teachers got their administration to agree to allowing them more time to focus on these projects, and they said that the outcome of doing so was remarkable. They said that the students ended up producing work that they ultimately said they were very proud of, and some of the students expressed that they would be interested in doing more projects like it. That really shows that such projects really are engaging and informative all at the same time. They also showed how beneficial it can be to integrate several subjects into one project. These teachers' words just make me more excited to use PBL in my future classroom. I will definitely be using these methods when I am an educator.

In the video Making Thinking Visible, the teacher splits the students into groups and asks them to create a headline about the material they were covering. They created this headline at the beginning of the project, and at the end of the project two weeks later, he asked them how that headline had changed after learning more about the subject. This is a great way to view the students' progress and check to see if they have learned or gained anything from the project.

Project #14

Lesson Plan

Project Calendar

Project Rubric

PBL Checklist

As a group, we decided to create a project on the founding fathers. Each group will be assigned to a founding father, and the students will collaboratively research and create a Board Builder project that they will present to the class. The students will be given the option to dress up as their founding father for bonus points.

Blog #10

During my time spent in EDM 310, I have really learned the importance of using technology in the classroom regardless of what age the students are. It is very apparent after watching Little Kids... Big Potential that students of all ages are capable of actively and efficiently using technology. In the conversational videos between Mrs. Cassidy and Dr. Strange, Mrs. Cassidy expresses that she began to incorporate technology in her classroom around ten years ago when she started up her web page and has continually incorporated more and more more technology in her classroom since then. She really understands how beneficial the use of technology really is and how important it is to embrace change and advances in technology. She says, "It's not going away, it's here to stay." One form of technology that Mrs. Cassidy implements in her classroom is blogging. This is something I definitely plan on using in my future classroom. I will have a class blog and I will allow each individual student to create their own blog that they will post on regularly. By having a class blog, students and parents will easily be able to stay up-to-date with information. Parents will also be able to keep up with what their child is doing by viewing their individual blogs. Blogging will help a lot with the students' writing abilities as well as their technological abilities. It will also allow them to interact with each other as well as other people around the world (just as some of them interact with EDM 310 students). It may be difficult to teach them how to work with such technology depending on the grade level I will be teaching, but I will work with them as much as I need to until they understand how to efficiently use it. I definitely learned a lot from Mrs. Cassidy's words, and I will definitely keep all that she has said in mind as a future educator.

Project #12 Part A