Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Journal 10:Exploring History in Plantation Letters


Oliver, K., & Lee, J. (2011). Exploring history in plantation letters. Learning and Leading With Technology, 38(6), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-march-april-2011.aspx

This article connects social studies with technology! There has recently been a turning point in teaching history by the use of scanning documents to use as primary resources. The article uses the Cameron Family papers as an example. The Cameron Family (plantation owners) regularly communicated by mail with their family, friends, and business associates regarding their plantation affairs in Alabama, Mississippi and North Carolina. Because their letters were so detailed, they have been key in explaining the Antebellum plantation life of the time. As of today, over 100 letters have been scanned and tagged for public use. The scanned letters are easily accessible, and can be browsed easily by search. The original document is scanned, and then another copy is transcribed for easier reading. On this site, a "Ning" is also available for teachers with lesson plans that can be shared!

The entire goal of this project is for students to be able to have historical primary documents with the use of new technology tools. This particular resource that the Cameron Family papers are on also has a structured way of teaching history with primary documents. The teaching model is called SCIM-C, meaning:

  • Summarizing
  • Contextualizing
  • Inferring
  • Monitoring
  • Corroborating
There are videos on the social studies Ning that put this learning model in action too! This new interactive "Ning" gives many important resource tools for using historical documents, and hopefully this kind of learning model will be used in all subject areas in the future!

What's the big deal with primary resources if they are translated into easier reads?

Students that are exposed to primary resources get to see the "real life" artifact even though they would read the summarized version. By seeing the true artifact, students are given a better understanding of the historical time period they are studying, and are better able to visualize what they are learning about!

What is a "Ning?"

A Ning in simply an online platform for people to create their own social networks. Ning can be used to create a fan site, a social network, a mini social network site (you can join any of the other networks created) and whatever is in your imagination. A Ning can be used for anything!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Journal 9:Harness Technology to Meet Your Students' Diverse Learning Needs


Schad, L. (2011). Harness technology to meet your student's diverse learning needs . Learning & Leading With Technology, 38(6), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-march-april-2011.aspx

Schad writes a simple yet informative article on the importance of using technology to teach. He has come up with a simple learning model to help students who were assessed in different areas, who did not produce passing scores. His model includes incorporating technology in the classroom to enhance learning. He uses Web 2.0 tools to teach in his "5 E" Model. The 5 E's are: Engage the learner, Explore the concept, Explain the concept, Elaborate on the concept, and Evaluate students' understanding. Some examples of using technology as a tool for enhancing comprehension is communication via digital posters, VoiceThreads, wikis, blogs, and connecting through video conferencing to exchange ideas.

Schad also points out that it is important to engage students inside and outside of the school walls. By incorporating more technology in the classroom, students can access these learning modules outside of the classroom, and are now taking learning into their own hands. His main goal is to use technology correctly, for the students to LEARN! If we use technology as an example for students, then they will use it to their benefit and hopefully into the "real" world.

What if students can't access these outside of the classroom due to financial burden?

There will always be students who fit under this category. Even if student's cannot access these things outside of the classroom, they are still experiencing them inside the classroom, giving them the opportunity to learn through technology. If technology is just used, then students will have a better opportunity to learn through it.

How will teachers know how to use these new technology tools?

Schad suggests that there is a master technology teacher to come into schools and help teachers understand the new technology. Some teachers may not be open to using technology because it is very foreign and might seem difficult, but if the right technology is taught in a simple way, then teachers would understand that using technology would actually make their life easier!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Journal 8: Should Schools Be Held Responsible For Cyberbullying?

Bogacz, R, & Gordillo, M. (2011, March/April). Point/counterpoint: Should Schools be Held Responsible for Cyberbullying?. Learning & Leading , 38(6), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Point_Counterpoint_Should_Schools_Be_Held_Responsible_for_Cyberbullying.aspx

There are basically two very good arguments for why cyberbullying should and should not be the school's responsibility. In this article the argument for having schools being held responsible is basically that schools administrators, parents and law enforcement should all be held accountable together as one to help prevent and control cyberbullying. Even if the bullying is off campus, it still effects the school environment, and therefore it effects the school and the school should be involved. The argument pro school involvement also suggested that parents be very in tune with what their children are doing and to even go to lengths such as to check their phones, be their "friend" on social networking sites, and to also have their passwords to their various accounts.

The argument against having schools being involved was very simple, yet powerful. It basically said that we must look at the root of the problem of bullying, which is lack of love. Children need to be loved, and supported at home and that alone is the best vaccine against bullying. I thought this was very true, and that a school's involvement could only go so far as to monitor the bullying, but inevitably it the bullying could happen either way. Love is the answer!!

How do we pass on all this love anyways?

I think that the author of the article was very valid in saying that the root of the problem is lack of love. But it's not so simple that all of a sudden when I child is loved they are perfect and that bullying is out of their range. Love can also be spread in many different ways (like love of sports, music, dance, etc.). If love is the answer then we all need to spread it as much as we can and we need to especially start at a young age with our children!

If a school does get involved, how would you feel about monitoring that as an educator?

I understand that cyberbullying is something that has recently evolved in the past couple of years. I think that as an educator you can do the best possible to try and monitor it, but its a pretty hard load to carry. All you can do as an educator is try to promote a comfortable learning environment, and to make your classroom comfortable and bonded together as one.

Journal 7: My Personal Learning Network

My Personal Learning Network consists of many valuable resources that sort of confused me at first, but now that I am getting the hang of them it actually makes my life a lot easier. I use skype, Twitter, Diigo, Facebook, and blogging to get resources from other educators. Mind you I have just begun, so my posts are minimal. I am still in the stage of just browsing what other people can offer. As I browse others' opinions and resources, it gives me a better understanding what what I enjoy, feel, and would like to use during my educational journey.

When we had the assignment to sign up for Twitter, and our professor, Jeff Heil stated that Twitter was the single most informative educational social network he has, I honestly sort of didn't believe him. I was (and still kind of am) under the impression that Twitter was just for celebrities to talk about things they are doing all day long, and people who are bored just follow them during their daily routine. I thought Twitter was just another form of Facebook, just 140 characters long. Just another place to shout out your business!

With this mindset, it was hard for me to want to participate in an educational chat. I participated in Socal Media Club Education Connection (#smcedu) at 12:30pm, 4/11/11, and found their views on trying to create a news model for the US with higher technology incredibly honorable. Although they are small voices just tweeting about this subject, they had some pretty powerful things to say in 140 characters or less! The chat made me realize that "The news will never make the kind of money entertainment makes." Their words were powerful and made me feel like I was participating in something way bigger than me. I guess Twitter isn't so bad after all! I am now following a few friends, but mostly other people in my class on Twitter. I have still kept my following in Twitter limited because I am new to who I really want to follow. It's still hard for me to follow people on Twitter because I feel strange "following" someone that I have never met, but hopefully I will get more acquainted with Twitter and become followers of many!

Diigo as a networking use was kind of odd to me at first too. I thought it was just a really cool way to save pages that you like so you don't always have to be on your computer's "bookmarks" to find them. Little did I know that there is yet ANOTHER place where people are tagging things, following each other, and sharing information. I tagged a really cool website where someone posted his "Top 10 Educational Videos" (and I also followed him), I tagged random educator's blogs that stood out to me (Cool Cat Teacher, Teacher's Teaching Teachers), and lastly I tagged a People to People International Youtube channel (because of my obsession with everything international). I am networking on Diigo by following these people with the same interests as me, with hopes that I can share some of my information to them also. These things stood out to me, and they also link to other resources...creating my PLN one step at a time.

Finally, I joined the Educator's PLN. I watched an AMAZING video that someone posted about reading vs. understanding. I found it so amazing I will also post it here. If you're anyone interested in 10 minutes of wow, just watch this! Simple, to the point, and powerful.


Okay, okay, Professor Heil I get it. I am starting to understand the great uses of technology and sharing of information. I thought this video was so awesome it made me want to make one myself, and to also explore what other ideas are in educator's heads. I'm excited to see what my PLN can do for me, and what I can do for my PLN!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Journal 6: Grow Your Personal Learning Network

Warlick, D. (2009). Grow your personal learning networks. Learning and Leading with Technology, 36(6).

David Warlick outlines the uses and the different kinds of Personal Learning Networks in his article. He separates the three different kinds of PLN's into these groups: personally maintained synchronous connections, personally and socially maintained semisynchronous connections, and dynamically maintained asynchronous connections. Those sound pretty fancy, but he gives a logical explanation for each. Personally maintained synchronous connections are those who you use to answer questions, solve problems and accomplish goals. He compared this type of network with going to a meeting at work, except you can attend in your pajamas, and you don't have to see anyone else so you aren't biased. Personally and socially maintained semisynchronous connections are basically connections you make when you post something on facebook or twitter, having something to say without necessarily having a time limit on the answer. These PLN's are the ones you casually look at while you may be doing something else. Examples of these are Twitter, and Google docs. Dynamically maintained asynchronous connections are the ones that deal not with individuals (as the previous two), but with information that we consider useful. With this PLN you should be able to put all of the things that you find useful (for me, like travel blogs, cheap airline tickets, and vacation spots) all in one thing called a "RSS Aggregator." Then, to wrap this whole thing into one, big, information sending and receiving PLN, you can send these useful tips to other people in your other two personal networks. You save the information, and then you can share it with whomever you please, whether it be personal feeds or professional feeds (if you are a PLN network, you probably have many PLN's that you work with). It all comes together as a big information sharing melting pot that you can use to expand your knowledge, and share it with others! Pretty cool if you ask me!

When creating your PLN, where do you even start?

When creating a Personal Learning Network, you should start by understanding what kind of communication, or ideas, or information you would like to have, because PLN's can vary and get pretty confusing when you start mixing ideas, etc. Things like Twitter would be a good way to start because you can find people with your same interests easily, and you can enter specific chats easily. Once you find these people, and the information you would like to have, you can go further and get their blog feeds, and begin RSS feeds too.

You mentioned in the article that you should be careful with what kind of PLN's you enter into because you can become biased to subjects. How would you suggest thinking otherwise?

I think that when you enter specific PLN's you should be careful to believe everything that is presented to you. It's always smart to maybe enter into a PLN once in a while that has the opposite view or approach that you are using, to broaden your mind, and give you a different perspective.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Journal 5: Get Your Students Moving



Fish , B. (2011). Get your students moving. Learning and Leading, 34(6), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20110304#pg36

In "Get Your Students Moving," Betty Fish gives many examples of how she got her students to participate in physical activity, while in the classroom. She states that students shouldn't be just restricted to moving around doing activity during Physical Education (PE), and that getting students moving also promotes healthy learning which students consider fun. One of the activities she explains was one used for her Heart Adventure Challenge. She had the students pretend to be blood flowing through the heart, and to produce a commercial for the whole school to educate them on keeping the heart healthy. Another activity she outlined was one where she had simple relays for students to participate in, with simple learning objectives like putting numbers in order. This activity was short, let student's be active, and also sparked student interest because it was a race. Fish also used Skype to video chat with an Olympic athlete, giving students an example of live communication. The students really enjoyed this, and they would ask to Skype with the same athlete to see how she was doing! Overall, Fish stresses the importance of getting your students to move around while educating them!

What about the students who can't physically move around?

Fish gave students different tasks for her activities. The tasks weren't all limited to physical activity. Students were given tasks like creating, presenting, etc. If a student can't be physically active to the level as other students, they can still participate by doing other activities within the activity. By being active, it is not limited to physical activity, Fish just wanted to give her readers different resources to teach children how to move in different aspects.

By giving students freedom to "move around," do they perform negatively in the other not so fun activities?

I think students would just look forward to the "moving around" activities. Different teaching styles should always be welcomed, and I think that in any activity there is room to "move around." I think a teacher should just be open minded to trying new innovative teaching methods, and to always think of how a lesson could improve and promote the most learning it can!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Technology Self Assessment: School 2.0

Completing NETS-T 3, I used the School 2.0 website, and I completed a quiz as a reflection tool to assess my current level of skill in technology integration.


I chose to investigate the Top 10 web 2.0 tools for young learners for the NETS-T Module: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning. In the article I found lots of new technology tools for young learners as well as for myself. While exploring Kerpoof I found that young learners are able to do many creative activities set for their age group online, while also learning important web browsing tools for their future. Voki was also a great tool to use to get students involved by giving them the chance to create their own talking avatars to use on blogs, profiles, and email messages. A site called Create A Graph was also included, but seemed to be not as exciting and creative as Voki or Kerpoof. The simplicity of YackPack, looks like it gives educators a simple easy way to communicate and is user friendly so many can not be clouded by the difficulties of widgets and such. It seems to be like a group in Twitter, but its a group chat with pictures! While browsing Animoto I realized how easy technology is becoming for all, and that making creative slideshows or videos isn't as hard as you might think! Other Web 2.0 tools for young learners were mentioned, like skype, blogs and wikis, but these were the most beneficial for me. If we can teach young learners how to use these, then they will be properly educated, and be able to use technology for many different purposes.

Journal 4: "It's Time to Trust Teachers with the Internet"

Schaffhauser, D. (2010, December 1). It's time to trust teachers with the internet: a conversation with meg ormiston. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/Articles/2010/12/01/Its-Time-To-Trust-Teachers-with-the-Internet-A-Conversation-with-Meg-Ormiston.aspx?sc_lang=en&Page=1

In this interview, Meg Ormiston cannot stress the importance of giving teachers access to more Web 2.0 tools in schools, and for schools to let up their firewalls. She states that students are excited to interact with other students by using new technology, and that teachers are getting frustrated because they are being pressured to use 21st Century technology, and then being banned to do so. Students have access to these tools on their phones and at home, but they aren't being taught how to appropriately use them in an education sense because schools are blocking them from existence. Ormiston feels strongly that this vicious circle created is not beneficial to either the student or the educator. Both are left in the dark; one is uneducated, and one is educated with no where to go.

If firewalls were let up in all schools around the country, how would we know that all of the educators would even be knowledgeable enough to handle the new responsibility?

This would cause problems for teachers who have been teaching for a good amount of time, because most teachers who are the most knowledgable about Web 2.0 tools are the ones who new. Districts would have to make it mandatory for their teachers to be educated by teaching them how to use new technology to their advantage. This may cause trouble considering that some teachers may be against it, and wouldn't want to spend extra time learning it either.

With negative views on social networking sites all over the news, would parents be supportive with the use of Web 2.0 tools for their children?

I think the same problem with parents being skeptical about the new technology is the same problem educators have (hence the blocking). If districts let their parents know EXACTLY how their students will be using these tools, it could change their views on it, and even make them a little more educated on their use. I think educators, parents, and students all need to be in this together and have to be open to using Web 2.0 tools for their advantage. The hard part is proving that there is an advantage to using these tools for those who are in the dark about them!


Saturday, February 19, 2011

Journal 3: 100 Things That Make Me Happy


1. Getting flowers on Valentine's Day <3
2.When my boyfriend visits me at work
3.My family

4.My boyfriend

5.Disneyland
6.Heath Bars

7.Victoria's Secret Sales

8.Traveling
9.Airplane Food (weird I know)
10.Holding kittens

11.Weddings
12.Going to church
13.Popsicle on a hot day
14.Being tan

15. The beach
16.Laughing until my tummy hurts
17.Spending time with close friends
18.Smoked salmon on my salad
19.Making people happy
20.Playing Text Twist with my boyfriend
21.Doing old cheers from high school with my best friend
22.Blue Moon

23.Reading a good book

24.Hammocks

25.When my boyfriend sits by me on the couch

26.Getting to know old people
27.Pasta
28.Making new friends
29.Painting
30.Figuring things out on Word
31.Pedicures
32.Trees
33.Full tank of gas
34.My map app on my iphone
35.Cheerleading
36.Flashlights
37.Hikes
38.Waterfalls
39.New Boots
40.White Chocolate Mocha
41.Christmas

42.Blankets
43.Fair food
44.Re-runs of old shows
45.Australia
46.Top 40 songs
47.Dancing
48.Seashells

49.Poems
50.Free things
51.Home cooked meals
52.Naps

53.The Notebook

54.Forever 21
55.Hawaii
56.Skype
57.My dog, Bonnie
58.Getting paychecks that are bigger than you expected

59.Mexican food
60.Painting my nails

61.My best friends
62.Spring flowers
63.Days when class gets canceled (sorry)
64.Guacamole
65.Smoothies
66.Turtles
67.First kisses
68.Spicy things
69.MAC makeup
70.Snickers
71.Old jokes that are still funny
72.Seeing whales
73.Music videos
74.Hot tea
75.When I turn my pillow over at night to the cold side

76.Deep conversations
77.Clean laundry
78.Finding money in my pockets
79.Holding hands
80.Finding a good quote
81."Living life" moments
82.Trying new food
83.Giving good advice
84.Gift certificates
85.New school supplies
86.Massages
87.Self help books
88.Being my mother's daughter
89.When someone tells me I'm pretty
90.Falling asleep to the ocean
91.Finding something new out about yourself
92.Talking with R's as W's

93.Eating breakfast
94.Quality time
95.Cranberry juice and sprite mixed

96.Praying
97.Family Pictures
98.Dreaming
99.Flossing my teeth
100.Enjoying the simplicity of life:)

Friday, February 18, 2011

Journal 2: Join the Flock and Enhance Your Twitter Experience


Ferguson, H. (2010). Join the flock. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Join_the_Flock.aspx

In "Join the Flock," Ferguson outlines many educational tools for the use of the social networking site, Twitter. She explains that a PLN (Personal Learning Network) on Twitter can be beneficial to educators for sharing and learning from each other. She then explains how to set up a Twitter account, and that you can do many awesome things with it, like follow people who have the same interests as you, or enter into a specific topic chat by use of the # key. She also outlines Twitter vocabulary that one can use when starting Twitter. For example:
  • Twaffic: Traffic on Twitter.
  • Tweeple: Twitter users.
  • Tweeps: Your PLN followers.
These are just a few Twitter terms that she outlined, but she also gave definitions to more important things like how to follow someone on Twitter, how to microblog, and how to reweet something that someone has already posted. She explains that Twitter may be overwhelming at first, especially to non-social networking site users, but gives confidence that anyone can use Twitter effectively with enough time and patience.

How can you know that you will be getting strictly educational information? Aren't there a lot of personal tweets that get in the way?

Ferguson explains that there are many kinds of tweets that people tweet on Twitter. She proposes that to avoid mixing personal tweets with work related educational tweets, one should make many different usernames on Twitter, so that they can have separate accounts for different purposes. One can also avoid mixing the two by being selective in the people they follow and the chats they participate in.

Twitter seems to be very new age, and is only limited to 140 characters a tweet, is it really that effective?

Because Twitter is limited to 140 characters, it helps people get their information faster. There isn't long descriptions or essays that one has to filter through to get what they want. The point of Twitter is to get and share information fast, and the more effective Tweets are those that give out links to learning modules or information that one wants to share. It's a tool that is used for quickly getting and sharing information, and 140 characters is just enough space to do so. One can also do multiple tweets if their first tweet wasn't good enough too!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Journal 1: Do Web 2.0 Right by Daniel Light


Light, D. (2011). Do web 2.0 right. Learning and Leading With Technology, 5(38), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-december-january-2010.aspx

In the article by Daniel Light, I found his findings about using web 2.0 tools in the classroom beneficial and interesting. It made me think of the ways I would use technology in my classroom when I become a teacher, how I can creatively keep my students engaged with them without over doing it, and also how I would create a classroom community on and offline. Before reading this article I thought that using things like classroom blogs would only be possible in higher learning aspects, such as college classrooms, but now I am starting to realize that students as young as elementary age are learning how to navigate online. I also had no idea how much technology is already being used in primary and secondary schooling, and that the world is becoming an online community in more areas than one.

Do you think that using Web tools in the classroom will create more of a status separation? Will all students be able to successfully access these online tools?

This was something that came to mind when reading the article. What if I use an online blog and assign homework for students and one of my students does not have a computer accessible at home, or access to internet at home? This seems like it would be a problem because if the student did not have access to the internet at home, then he or she would not be able to to create something for my classroom if not all students couldn't participate in some activities that other students could, and this could create more separation between students than need be. I would never want participate equally.

In the article Light proposed the concern that teachers need to use their online tools in a way to promote communication both on and off line with students. Do you agree that all these online tools such as blogs can successfully do that?

This was another topic that concerned me throughout the whole article. In this class I believe that our personal blogs have been used in a positive way, and that it also creates a tighter in person community. I have been able to read things about students that I probably would have never known if we did not blog. It's nice to understand students and connect with them once you have seen their personal creativity into use. As adults, I think that we have been limited to our amount of "fun" and "creative" aspects in schooling, and I think that blogging has helped bring that side out in us. I believe that if done right, using web tools in the classroom can create even a stronger classroom offline community bond.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Introduction Letter


My name is Noelle Neuhart. I am from...drum roll please...SAN MARCOS! But don't you worry, it has been a long road for me to get here. In 422. Today. My first school was Knob Hill Elementary. Then off to Woodland Park Middle School (yes, WPMS, teehee). High school: San Marcos fighting Knights! College: 1. Palomar CC (still in San Marcos, itching to get out), 2. California State University Long Beach, 3. Griffith University, AUSTRALIA! (best year of my life), then 4. back to Long Beach(earning my BA in Communication Studies) and now, 5. back home and attending CSUSM (in hopes of figuring out life a little more).

My technology experience has been learned strictly from my experience in college. While in Australia, studying Communication Studies, I had two technology classes, where I learned how to blog, post videos on youtube, and other things that I should remember, yet for some reason can't. Because I am a new user to a Macbook, it has sparked my interest in learning how to do the "cooler" side of technology (imovie). I'd say on a scale from 1-10, I'm probably a solid 5. I use my theory to technology as I do to lots of things in life: fake it til you make it!

I'm not going to lie. This was the first time I read the Mission Statement. The two things that stood out to me the most where the words, "life-long learning" and "ongoing service." I am a firm believer that we are sponges to life and that life is a constant learning experience. Teaching as a career seems to also be one of "ongoing service," I believe its one of the best services you can offer another individual.