Blog Journal 10

As a future educator, I think I will use data collection surveys and using Excel to report these findings for many things. For exmaple, if I were teaching a high school level class, I could ask students which of them have texted while driving. I could use Excel to upload my results and organize my data. I could also use data collection to acquire information on how many high school students work because they do not receieve financial help  at home. Again, like the previous example, Excel could be used to helporganize the information and allow me to express the findings in different forms such as charts, tables, etc.

From reviewing my classmates' blogs, I learned many things. Not only did I learn about the activities we did in class and their views of these things, but I also learned that athough we are in the same class, studying the same thing, we are all so different. In our blogs, we all had something different to say. It was interesting to read the outlooks of our in class assignments from my other classmates because their view of the assignments was different than mine. Lastly, my favorite thing about reading my classmates' blogs was when we would attach screenshots of the progress of our assignments. Seeing how we were all assigned the same thing, yet we all percieved the assignment in our own way and created all different things was fascinating. 

The next technology-related skill I would like to learn is how to use the SmartBoard. Although I am familiar with using this device, I would like to learn how to use it like a "pro." I believe that learning how to use this device will benefit me for when I am actually applying for a teaching position. Proficient use and knowledge of this will definitely put me ahead of collegues and allow me to be interactive while teaching my students. SmartBoard use allows students to be more engaged in the lesson and with their peers. As a future educator, I will achieve this goal by going to FSU's very own, SandBox. Here, I can spend my time practicing with the device as long as I would like. The SandBox also offers many many other cool technologies that are used and could be used in classrooms. Maybe I could even learn how to use other technological devices!

Blog Journal 9

The "flipped classroom" concept is students gathering video sources or any online material to review and help prepare for the lessons before class. During class, time is made for questions and discussion on the material and later applying the new acquired knowledge through assignments. I believe that this concept is one that will definitely be used more in the future with growing technology and more available education resources that are being created. An application that is a great resource for students to use for this concept is "Tackk." Tackk is an easy tool for creating digital assignments, which is perfect for the "flipped classroom" concept. Tackk provides an easy to use interface that enables students to post images, videos and other content and even add text to these things to ask questions or post questions on other assignemts. There is also a comments section that is automatically places for each thing a student posts for discussions within peers to be made.  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tackk-create-and-chat-with-friends/id927632716?mt=8

The podcast focused mostly on open education. Open education is providing knowledge to someone that may want to learn about a certain something without having to worry about factors such as location and money. Open content in education includes notes and lectures or anything else that may be helpful to teachers. Lastly open source in education is free technology programs that help students. One example of open content is a website called "OpenStudy." OpenStudy is a social learning network where studnts as well as independent learners can come together in a huge study group. Through this website, learners can find others who are working in similar content areas in order to support each other and answer questions they may have. http://openstudy.com

Some skills that I have gained from creating the two PowerPoints are learning ways in which I can create these presentations to be fun, eye appealing, and engaging to students. Many times powerpoints in classroom discussions are plain and boring, so I like the fact that I can create whatever I want while making it look colorful and linear at the same time. I love adding animations and action buttons and the voice over was really cool too, I had never done anything like that before for a project. I think I could improve on trying to elaborate more in my own words rather than putting so much text in the slides. This not only shows that I have knowledge of the subject area, but that I, as an educator, am confident in teaching and passing the material down to my students. I have never really used PowerPoint in the past how I have in this course, so there was definitely a lot to get to used to and a lot of navigating through the software to learn.