Blogging

1) What are the "affordances" and "constraints" of the technology? In other words, what does the technology allow us to do or prevent us from doing?

Kids are more likely to do it since it is something different and they would be more interested in the assignment. They would be able to put what they have learned in their own words it and it lets their classmates read and comment on each other’s writings. An issue with the blogs is that all of the children post would not be able to be discussed in class  

2) What new skills do we need to teach students?

We would have to teach the students what kind of work we expect from them and how to use the website.

3) What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?

If we are having a discussion in class they can continue it after they leave the classroom and form their own opinions about it. They also would develop their web skills and conversation skills amongst their peers in a stress free environment.

4) How does the technology help me to foster creativity, innovation and some of the other 21st century skills?

It helps with creativity because they are free to express themselves in an environment where they have control and are the masters, all within a few set guidelines.

5) What are some ways I can use this technology in my classroom?

Use as a tool to discuss the main focus of a lesson, if the students are talking about a certain book or topic in science they can use the blogs to talk about things they found interesting about that section of the class and what they found troubling.

Gaming

1. What are the "affordances" and "constraints" of the technology? In other words, what does the technology allow us to do or prevent us from doing? 
   Gaming lets the students learn in fun and new ways. For example, instead of listening about a lecture on infectious diseases they might play a game that’s goal is to find a cure. The only problem is keeping them on task and seeing if they are actually learning the material.

2. What new skills do we need to teach the students?
     They would need to know how to access the game and how to play them. They should also have knowledge of the skills that are reinforced because then it is just a game


3. What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?
Games can help the students learn the work and make it fun thus making it easier to teach and also help me know the material. Teaching would be different since it would be more involved and   fun for the kids so they would be learning more, fun more attention is need to keep them on task.   

4. How does the technology help me foster creativity, innovation, and some of the other 21st century skills?
    Since technology is growing at such a rapid rate, it is natural that games would be in the classroom. It teaches them through what they know and can continue to learn through playing games at home.


5. What are some ways I can use this technology in the classroom?
 It can be used to introduce a new concept or reinforce an old one or an incentive to finish work, they can use it during free time. One of my co-ops had several games that the kids could play during free time that reinforced skills that they had learned

Creative Commons

What are the "affordances" and "constraints of the technology? In other words, what does the technology allow us to do or prevent us from doing? 
Creative Commons allows a person to obtain a license for  original works that they did and share those works with other people since unlike copyrights, creative commons allows the work to be shared and distributed without the authors permission as long as it not for profit. This makes students and teachers projects easier since they won’t have to cite everything but the students would lose the added benefit of learning about citation and giving credit to the author or creator.

What new skills do we need to teach the students?
     The students would need to learn the difference between the two so they would know what they absolutely had to cite and what they didn’t.

What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?
   This effects teaching since students will need to be taught what a copyright is and how important it is to cite those or everything just to be on the safe side.

. How does the technology help me foster creativity, innovation, and some of the other 21st century skills?
    It lets creativity into the class and should the student produce a work of their own, allows ownership and lets them share their work on the web.

5. What are some ways I can use this technology in the classroom?
This can be used to share information with the students and as an introduction to citation in a younger grade, I feel like it is more geared twards specific projects or videos.

Prezi

My partner and I are learning about Prezi. This program is useful since it can do anything that PowerPoint can but also zoom in and change its viewpoints. The drawbacks are that if used too much students can get  bored and stop paying attention to the presentation. I have not had any personal experiences with Prezi but the tool seems like it would be the best way to get students interested in a new topic. The zoom and changing of directions in the examples made the presentations much more out of the ordinary and interesting so if used students would actually pay attention. If I have the opportunity I would defiantly use this in my classroom as it will hold students attention but some of the drawbacks are making students bored if used too much or making them dizzy depending on how often the zoom and viewpoint is changed.

Auto-didacticism

When a person uses a tool to learn on their own they are able to explore the world in a much wider way.  The internet can also be used for projects and activities in the classroom. As I said in my first post, I used the internet as a major source of learning for a year. I still do it now. If I hear something that catches my interest on the television or in conservation or books I will look it up later and read about it. Reading about something or experiencing it can be valuable. For example, learning about Buddhism in high school, a friend and I decided to go and visit a temple and learn from the monks. We went to the Chuang Yen Monastery in New York and combined the knowledge the monks gave us with the knowledge we got in class, helping us with an assignment to attempt to live Buddhist for a month and tell of our experiences.  

In the American Life article it is said people use the internet to draw attention to issues. If this is true that people learn about problems that the world faces from the pages of information that they see on their screens. The internet is also used as a way for the people that want to get these problems out in the open more support and communicate with other members.  The internet is the fastest way to do it. The implication is that the internet is a powerful tool and it can be used to do many different activities and assignments. If teachers used technology to enhance learning instead of using it as a crutch or ignoring it completely then they would have more well rounded students.

Teaching/Learning

In my experience, a great learning experience is someone that values the learning differences of each student and makes the classroom experience engaging. Various types of activities can be used to keep the interest going. One year I was not going to school in the traditional sense and only had class for four hours a week so I was encouraged to use the internet to learn about whatever I wanted. If I heard about  something that peaked my interest then I would research it and give a brief report on the subject. It was a great way to learn since I had one on one interaction with the teacher. Another classroom experience that I found highly enjoyable was my senior year English class. Several kids in that particular class were taking it for graduation credit and did not care about school since they were not going on to college, so the teacher was left with a challenge on how to make the class interesting. He would connect the book to our lives, creating lessons that were interactive and significant to us. If the book we were reading was about life skills he would teach us life skills at the end of the unit or if relevant at the time it was brought up, like how to manage a mortgage or the steps to fixing a patch a wall. At the end of the year students were to give lessons to the class on skills that they knew such as building steps, or replacing a part to a car engine. The challenge was that we had to relate it back to one of the four books we had read.

The most memorable teaching experience I had was when I was teaching a group of skiers and we were working on race technique. My students mostly  have various mental disorders ranging from ADHD to schizophrenia, with some amputees at various times, so making the lesson interesting is key. One of them was really struggling with the lesson I got the others to help me show him by making the lesson into a giant game of follow the leader. After repeating this game a few times, I sent the rest of the group down with my partner and asked the student to ski in front of me and show me what he learned. After a few mistakes he was able to demonstrate the technique correctly and even beat me to the lodge.

It is hard of teachers to get the information they are trying to get across and keep the lesson interesting. That is the most challenging thing, I think. I always look for some way to make it fun and interactive but educational. I have had some teachers that have done this, but most of them did not creating an atmosphere that was stifling to the kids that were more creative and learned more hands on creating problems in school and if it is too creative the kids who are to structured will have issues. There needs to be balance.