OER

Open Educational Resources
From reading this aricle, I learned that OER could greatly benefit the nature of schooling in the future. So what is OER? It is an online program to give students and instructors access to information and tools used to help facilitate learning. Spending money on college books and materials is costly (generally between $800-100 according to Fin Aid.org), OER could help cutting the costs of extra materials.

A few resources OER has to offer...

Free online course materials and information by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that I could use someday as a Teacher. It gives information on how to teach courses, what materials will be used, what material will be covered etc. I think it's great to have access to another school's specific courses, I believe it can really help facilitate in learning and to keep an overall objective secure all across the country.

I remember back in Elementary school doing different activities on the 100th day of school. This OER gives teachers of younger students ideas about which activities to do on the 100th day of school. I think it's very convenient to have; some teachers may not be as creative as others. Teachers can even incorporate math in the 100th day of school. On this website, it gives instructions on how to challenge younger students mathematically, give them a sheet of paper and tell them to come up with 100 ways to add up to 100 (ex: 1 + 99, 50+50 etc)

In this OER, it is a case study on abortion. Abortion is a controversial topic that is brought up a lot in today's society. I'm sure as my years in college progress I will have to write papers on the matter, as I have in high school. This resource gives multiple sources of information about abortion, the criteria of the case study, and a small play for the class. It can be very useful in middle school/high school classes which is exactly the age group I will be teaching.

Here's a little more information on OER by Emerging Ed Tech...

So, why promote Online Educational Resources? I think the better question is why not? It gives us students easy access to information as well as us as future teachers. I think it's a great way to promote learning, and it gives us a great variety of material. Check it out before you knock it, it can really be beneficial. For even more information, check out this website- it goes in depth of the benefits of OER.

Flipped Learning

"Flip" teaching in the classroom around...


When this blog was assigned, I had no idea what flipped learning was. I thought it was just another name for incorporating technology in the classroom. Giving myself some time to research, using my "handy-dandy" "BFF" GOOGLE, I've found out exactly what flipped learning is. A little about Flipped Learning  Information on Flipped Learning Are two sources I used to assess the meaning of flipped learning. Also, If you click on the picture to the right (or here), It will take you to a website (Provided by my professor) to explain how to flip a classroom. Anyways, back to the subject at hand, flipped learning might very well be used in classrooms everywhere come the next 5 to 10 years. Basically, a teacher or professor makes a video pertaining to a subject matter, whether it be an animation or a video of the teacher lecturing. It is then the student's job to tune into the video made by the instructor (that is most likely posted online), grasp and understand the video lesson being taught, and be prepared to talk about the lesson in class. This gives student's more of an opportunity to interact with the teacher; class time will be used going over the lesson rather than actually getting the lesson. Here is another website with embedded articles on flipped learning. Jon Bergman, a chemistry teacher in Woodland Park, Colorado has had a very successful flipped classroom. In this video, he explains how the learning method has helped him. He expresses that he can challenge students who are at different levels of understanding.
 "In this model of instruction, students watch recorded lectures for homework and complete their assignments, labs, and tests in class." -Jon Bergman from his (and Aaron Sams) novel Flip Your Classroom: Reaching Every Student in Every Class Every Day.

There are benefits to using the flip classroom, as well as disadvantages. The pros of using this method is as I've stated before, that the student's will have classroom time to engage in the lesson and to have one on one interaction with teacher. It provides more class time to do actual work, and that gives the students more of an opportunity to learn lessons on their own time, and use class time to grasp certain concepts, or whatever the teacher has instructed. It is also beneficial for students who may have missed class, they can just simply watch the videos, learn the material, and get caught up. It will be as if they never left the classroom. The disadvantages are that, due to the very high poverty rates, many students do not have access to a computer or internet at home. Also, a teacher really has no way of knowing if students will actually watch the videos. Yes, I am sure quizzes could be given to the students testing whether or not they understand the lesson, but at least if they teach the lesson in the classroom they know, without a doubt, that their student's have gotten the lesson taught to them.

A great tool for teachers to use to make a video for a Flipped Learning Lesson is Ted-Ed. Ted Ed is a video and animation editor that allows you to post and share videos among other teachers and students. It is a great connection for 'Flipped Teachers' to use, and it facilitates learning in a whole new way.

Someday, I am going to try and be very up-to-date with my teaching styles, and if a flipped learning lesson is going to be prominent, then I will for sure try and make my lesson plan as such. I would rather, however, make sure 100% that my students are learning what they need to learn. I would therefore be way more comfortable if I taught the lessons in the classroom. I feel as if you can reach children, help them, and interact with them just as much when teaching them lessons in the classroom. I feel as if flipped learning is too dependent upon technology, a student might as well be cyber schooled if they are simply learning the lessons via video. However, like I've said, if someday it's proven that Flipped Learning is more effective, then I will definitely accommodate to that method of teaching.

Experiencing Group-Collaboration with others

My Stance on This Whole Group Thing...

My group and I did our research presentation on inclusion and how it affects the classrooms of the twenty first century. We all had to conduct actual research on Google drive, a research paper, and a presentation on  our topic. I learned how to use Prezi, which I feel will aid in student learning and will help in giving presentations someday when I am teaching. I also think that Google Drive was a very useful tool. It facilitated in sharing information, making it more convenient for our group to communicate with one another. I felt as if it was just an instant message Microsoft Word, and I really liked using it. As far as the tools we used for this project, it was successful and useful. Prezi, Powerpoint, and Google Drive will all be substantial to aid in teaching someday.

As far as the "group" portion of this project, I felt as if it was unsuccessful. I realize that collaboration among teachers is important in the education field, but I feel as if group projects in school are a hell of a lot different than group projects in the work field.  FIRST When working with people in the work place, you are all mature adults who have the motivation to do well because you are getting paid to do whatever particular project you are working on with your peers. When working on a presentation in school, you want to do well to get a good grade, but since so many other people are in the group, you don't put as much effort into the project as you would if you were by yourself. SECOND Most of the time, if you are a teacher, you don't have to do group projects. In school, we are forced to be put in groups to learn how to work with other people. I really am a people person, I love people. I am a cashier at tops, so I deal with people all of the time at work. I see people from different ages, cultures, races and economic statuses. I have the skills it takes to be amiable with people, and to understand that everyone is different. I know that someday, when I am a teacher, I have to keep an open mind to other religions, cultures, and economic statuses. Being a teacher, I can not afford to have prejudices, I have to look beyond that and think of the bigger picture. Every person deserves a solid education and opportunity, and that will someday be my job. That being said, when collaboration with other people affects my achievement or well being, I don't want to do it. I do not like group projects because I don't think they are fair. I would much rather work by myself instead of stressing out over what I have to do and what my group members are doing. 

In the end, myself, along with two of my group members, split up the work and got an equal amount done. However, one member of my group did absolutely nothing. We all offered to do a part of the project, where as she did not. She did not help with research, she didn't help in creating the Prezi presentations, she didn't help with any of the research paper. Nothing. Group texts were sent out between us throughout the few weeks we had to work on the project, and she never responded. Texts were sent out the day before the presentation was given about stepping up our game because the first few presentations were AWESOME and our's sucked compared to their's, but she never responded to that. The day of the presentation, she asked how the presentation was going, and I told her, of course. After, she started asking about the texts that were sent out the night before, and asked if we got any of her texts. She started apologizing and saying her phone didn't work, and then she went on facebook and that didn't work... blahblahblah. First of all, we had how many weeks to work on it? And she had how many opportunities to help? Also, she could have easily gone on Google Drive to get updated, or got on the Prezi account to work on the presentation throughout the weeks we worked on it, and she didn't.

IN CONCLUSION, school group projects are unfair. There's always going to be that one person who just slides by, getting a good grade that they don't deserve, or that one person who doesn't emit as much effort as the rest of the group does. There's always going to be that one person who goes above and beyond, more than everyone else, not giving the rest of the group the opportunity to shine. I think it is important to be able to work with other people and to be understanding of people's differences, but I don't think that school group projects are the best way at practicing collaboration with others.

PowerPoint (UNGH)

I'm a little unsure how I feel about making my powerpoint.

In my Teaching with Technology class, I was assigned to make a PowerPoint presentation explicating a lesson plan. Since I am a Middle School Education major, I decided it would be appropriate to use a fifth grade level curriculum, that of which included Reading Comprehension. I used my powerpoint to express the difference between synonyms and antonyms, and how to correctly decipher suffixes and affixes for certain words. I enjoyed the whole creativity aspect of the project. I liked choosing backgrounds and picking pictures appropriate for each slide. I used photobucket to find these particular pictures and backgrounds; I have always considered the website to be a useful tool in finding pictures for any project because they have such a wide variety. As far as the actual material, I used a website called FLOCABULARY, which included a list of fifth grade vocabulary words, which I chose for my synonyms and antonyms to include in the powerpoint. Part of the criteria for the project was to use hyperlinks throughout the powerpoint. I thought I would make a quiz/game out of it and use hyperlinks to direct the students to different slides if they answered questions correctly. However, I ran into a major obstruction while doing this. Half of my hyperlinks wouldn't work. I stressed out a little over it. I figured it was just that my laptop was 'goofed' up and for some reason wouldn't allow me to open them. I found out, though, that I couldn't put the blame on my laptop because, after putting the powerpoint on a flashdrive and trying it on my roommate's laptop, the links also wouldn't open on her computer. I tried re-hyperlinking on her laptop, but I still had no luck. I also tried opening the hyperlinks in the library, and on the classroom computers, but the stubborn links refused to open. My professor ended up being able to get the first serious of question's, in this case my synonyms, hyperlinks to work, but I couldn't help but be super bummed out that my links refused to cooperate. The whole hyperlink fiasco kind of made me skeptical about powerpoint. Like I've said, I did enjoy the creation aspect of the project, but the hyperlink thing really pissed me off. I'm sure, with practice, I'll enjoy creating powerpoints more, but in the future I will try to stay away from too much hyperlinking.

JUST FOR LAUGHS

Two More for the Roll

A Few Sites I Really Like

I very much enjoyed Lauren Conrad's website/blog. The once reality television star (Laguna Beach and The Hills), is now a best-selling author and a 'fashionista'. Her web page contains a little bit of everything, she explains how to do hair styles and make-up styles, she gives out fashion tips, and basically any other essentials a girl needs to know. Basically, her site includes everything pinterest would. The site is lay-outed very well, I would use the adjectives "fun" and "pretty" to describe the site. She includes videos and snap-shots in her blogs/articles to make the site even more interesting. I was very impressed with her site and chances are I'll visit it a lot. CHECK IT OUT!!! 

The other Blog I very much enjoyed was a site called Design*Sponge. The layout of this site was also very cool. There are more than one creators/authors of the blogs/site, but each creator has awesome ideas. I also really liked the posts, which included miscellaneous things such as home interior, decorations, different kinds of delectable treats, and much, much more. It's definitely really cool and worth checking out.  

My Beliefs about Technology and Learning

I think that as we progress into the Educational Society we will come across more advance technology. It's obvious that technology is rapidly getting more and more convenient. Take the Apple iPhone for example. Newer versions seem to come out quicker than I can even follow. I do believe it is important for students to learn how to navigate certain aspects WITHOUT technology, such as doing math without a calculator or finding the definition of a word using a dictionary. We, as human beings, can catch certain things that computers cannot. With that being said, if we are not taught to navigate without technology, we are better off in the long run. However, as I've mentioned, technology is advancing faster than we can say PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY as we enter into the future. It's very important to know how to navigate technology inside and outside of learning facilities to keep our knowledge up-to-date. I also believe that new technology really can help us learn. A prime example is my laptop; it's been a godsend as far as learnings concerned. It facilitates research and writing etc. CONCLUDING THIS SUBJECT MATTER: I believe Technology goes a long way with Learning. Technology is important for learning. And learning about technology is ideal for the years to come.