Digital Blog Post #H

Three Concepts to Reflect

Chapter 10, "Promoting Success for All Students through Technology", explains the significance incorporating the individual needs of every student in a classroom. Being that this is a  very important aspect to me as a teacher, I found this chapter informative and insightful. To began the chapter, the term multicultural education is "used to describe how teachers go about 'affirming' the expansive diversity of student interests, needs, and talents present in every school classroom" (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). It is a term of equal opportunity, along with modernizing itself to the diversity of society today. Multicultural education caught my attention because I feel that a child's acceptance and comfort in a classroom is a priority. I believe in creative curriculum that allows students to identify themselves and express themselves, regardless of different prejudice.

The term "differentiated instruction (DI)" also reminds me of creative curriculum. It is "an instructional approach in which teachers create different educational experiences as ways to meet the learning needs of individual students"  (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). An example of DI in my VPK classroom would be in science center, students use magnifying glasses, scales, magnets, and more to include diverse learning styles and enhance their learning. Some are visual enhancers while others are hands-on.

The third term this week that caught me eye was "speech recognition software" which "displays a person's spoken words as written text on a computer screen" (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). As being a witness of students who struggle with fine motor disabilities, I find software like this extremely helpful in the development of four and five year olds. As a teacher, I find it useful to decipher my students' work when they write certain letters or phrases.

Chapter 10 brought a lot of insightful information to me in which I learned how diversity is a term that keeps expanding. It is important to target diverse learning styles in the classroom so every students feels welcome to grasp the information. I hope to include multicultural education by expanding on my student's interests in the classroom and always being a welcoming teacher.

And for some creative expression of this chapter!

<iframe width="800" height="1979" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="overflow-y:hidden;" src="https://magic.piktochart.com/embed/8853998-untitled-infographic"></iframe>

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/8853998-untitled-infographic




References
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Digital Blog Post #G

Three Concepts to Reflect

Chapter nine, "Expressing Creativity with Multimedia Technologies" explains how useful multimedia can present educational information. Being a new preschool (VPK) teacher, multimedia is a very useful way to teach in my classroom. Multimedia means "the presentation of material using both words and pictures" (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). Examples of multimedia that I use in my classroom is music (to dance and for learning how to follow instruction), visual word wall, circle time reading, and voice-over books. I find multimedia very beneficial, especially working with four year-olds so they have a stimulating classroom experience.

The second term I found interesting, and was not far behind "multimedia", is multimodal learning. Multimodal learning "happens when teachers combine spoken words with visuals or written text with audio or utilize simulations and models" (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). I found this interesting because I think this term targets all learning styles. Whether a child is a visual or audio learner, multimodal learning allows for all kinds of styles. This makes it a better experience for the student. An example of when I use multimodal learning in my classroom is when we do our calendar during circle time. Not only do I have a visual calendar with days of the week and months, but we also repeat our days of the week/months out loud. This way students can see it and hear it.

After looking through the rest of the chapter, the third term I found interesting was information presentation design which is "the arrangement of written and pictorial information so that its intended audiences can easily and clearly understand it" (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). Even though the other two terms were ones I apply in my classroom, this term stood out to me because it is not something I use. Although it may be hard to use PowerPoint in a VPK classroom, I think it is a useful tool for older students. It is visually stimulating for students and helps the teacher stay organized.

Chapter nine has to be one of my favorite chapters to read. Over the course of the school year, I have gone from working with one year olds to working with VPK and I have learned so many teaching strategies. This chapter I easily related to with techniques.

To go along with the chapter, he is a visual to accompany the blog post:
http://www.gliffy.com/go/publish/9220367

References
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Digital Blog Post #F

Three Concepts to Reflect

For this blog post, I found myself back in the coffee shop reading the chapter and decided on what topics to write about. In the chapter, Communicating and Collaborating with Social Media, what instantly caught my attention was the term "computer-mediated communication". As a VPK teacher, I have many possibilities of integrating technology into my classroom, and electronic communication, also known as computer-mediated communication, "encompasses many different kinds of information exchanges between people" (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). Even though this is just an introductory term, I still found it insightful to the chapter and a good introduction for me as a student. I want to improve my technology communication skills with my students.

The second topic I found interesting is two terms used to create engaging activities. Synchronous communications "occur in real time, as will cell phone observations or text message exchanges". Asynchronous communications "involve a time delay, as with email messages, online discussions, or blogs. Communicators wait for replies to their statements" (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). These were foreign terms to me because I never knew they were split into categories. I do believe it allows for creativity. For example, teacher could do instant polls in the classroom that involve students texting a number and the teacher can take a poll. The teacher can use asynchronous communication by asking students to email projects.

The third and final term I am mentioning today is Wikis. I thought this was interesting because of the group Wiki project we are doing in the class. A wiki "is a website or blogspace that is collaboratively edited and maintained by a group of people" (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). It can be used for organized. I liked being able to see this defined in the textbook while I am also learning and exploring how it works for the group project.

Here is a little asynchronous and synchronous communication joke:
https://www.bitstrips.com/user/JJ784S/read.php?comic_id=J74N3&sc=1

References
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Digital Blog Post #E

Three Concepts to Reflect

With as many real world and crazy situations in every day life, Chapter 7 titled "Exploring Problem Solving with Software, Apps, and Games" targets how learning games and software can beneficially promote problem solving skills for students. The first term that caught my eye in the chapter was called an ill-structure problem. "Problems in the real world are complicated, messy, and often require trade-offs and compromises to resolve. Such real-world issues have been called ill-structured problems because there is no simple formula to follow to get things done" (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). I favored this term because it explains that instead of ignoring the problem, it encourages students to define and face such problems with educational actions. Teachers can give students complex or simple online problem-solving activities. And with increased development in technology, I feel like simulation games and apps can improve more and more for students to use problem-solving skills.

Along with ill-structure problems, comes the higher and lower order thinking of it all called Bloom's Taxonomy. I targeted this term next because I had honestly always heard of this but never knew what it meant. Bloom Taxonomy is a "seminal educational classification tool" that was developed by Bloom and his collaborators to distinguish between the "different forms of thinking, from basic recall and interpretation of information (lower-order thinking) to comparison and evaluation of theories and perspectives (higher-order thinking) (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). I think this term allows for more structure, for when it comes to problem-solving, in a non-structured based every day life. An example would be for lower-order is memorizing spelling words. Higher-order would be putting together a poem or story using those words. Both types are designed to help students succeed in higher order thinking.

The third term I am mentioning is computer games. I think we all know what it means but I found it interesting how the book mentions it. As a child, computer games was something growing and becoming popular. I would play Sesame Street learning games on my parents' computer. Computer games "are computer, video, and web-based game software applications that are immensely popular among children and adolescents today" (Maloy, Verock-O'Laoghlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2014). These games provide an electronic playing environment along with visual feedback once a milestone has been completed on the game. Some computer games can add story-lines and plots to embellish the game, or movies and commercial television are included to promote certain interests. I hope to see computer games continue in the right direction when it comes to educationally shaping the students' higher order of thinking.

After reading this chapter, I found it to be one of my favorites. Now working as a full time VPK teacher, I thought it was interesting to see how helpful computer games can be in the classroom. My class uses an iPad for individual small group time in which students can play educational shape sort and mathematics/science games. Blooms Taxonomy taught me the difference between lower and higher order of thinking so I can challenge my students more. I think the terms provided in this chapter allow for a little more structure in this ill-structure problem solving world.

As sort of a review of this post, here is a short fun quiz based on the three terms above.
https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=1a02e018-40e8-4882-98d9-6381315e2ed8

References
Hunt, Alaina. (2015, October 6). "Chapter 7 Blog Post #E" Kahoot!. Retrieved October, 6, 2015, from
https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=1a02e018-40e8-4882-98d9-6381315e2ed8.

Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.