Now if I can just scrape up the money to go buy my own ipod touch we’ll be in good shape!

Another couple of interesting topics to me were the readings on copyright and creativity.  We watched a video on creativity and how it is beginning to suffer because of the way schools are being run.  Students are forced to test constantly, and their opportunity to show their unique individuality is being boxed in more and more.  It is important to see a students’ potential and allow them to explore and enhance their creativity rather than to stifle it.   On an unrelated note, it is important that students realize what copyright is and how to use it appropriately.  With the Internet being so easily accessed, some students think it is free reign.  Teachers will need to be at the forefront of the push that everything on the web is not free for students to use as their own.  Whether it is a plagiarized paper, a presentation, or a photo they are passing as their own, these are all important lessons for students to learn about in the age of information.

The activities we did the second half of the course were very interesting and engaging.  One was the webquest, where we created a series of web pages to bring the learner throughout a series of activities to learn about a specific range of subject matter.  The teacher provides links, information, and the activity for the students to learn about and complete.  In a similar theme, we also completed a “Learning Object” which is like a webquest, but rather than perusing the web, the students stay within a self-contained website with the materials and information given to them.  Both of these activities were beneficial for me because not only did I cater them towards my discipline, but I was able to create something that I might use in my classroom one day.  I created them both on basic art principles, and created a basic assignment to accompany both of the web activities.  I am interested to see how students take to them if I ever use it in class.

“To change school practice, curriculum goals and materials, assessment policies, and teacher development must shift.Without these changes, a new technology will merely be used to enact traditional practices.” I thought this was another great quote from our readings.  In order to create change, there must be shifts in thinking and understanding of the new tools out there.  Like the quote says, if there is no change, the new tech will just replace old practices, instead of fostering new ideas and practices.  Some great aspects of the Internet is the fact that it is breaking walls down.  New users are not just passive readers, but instead both consumers and creators of content.  One can learn a ton almost anywhere or anytime they are on the web.  The web2.0 is a huge help with this age of new information and creation and can be a huge asset to classrooms using tech.  Whether the classroom is using a wiki, social networks, viewing video, interactive learning, etc there are tons of possibilities.  The blog we looked at, among other web2.0 lists are great resources for educators to find ways to work the web2.0 tools into their classroom teachings.

The project itself was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed looking at old photos.  I chose the topic because I knew I had a bunch of pics to look through, and I’d rather be in California now than working and dealing with cold weather.  I go out there often, and would like to again this winter to visit my aunt who has become ill, and my grandma who will be turning 90 I believe.  The music was chosen because it is a band I currently play with on occasion, so that was an easy choice.  I hope you enjoy!

The Horizon report also had a K12 aspect to it which also brought its own important points.  The idea that mash-ups could be used in education, in addition to social networking and changing the ways students interact are important ones.  The collaborative environment, personal communication and endless opportunity can definitely be of benefit to students and the report uses a great word for it- empowering.  Students can be empowered both in their personal and social uses of these technologies, and can experience many different learning environments and learning can take place anywhere.  Related to learning anywhere was the reading that dealt with Pockets of Potential.  This concept encourages “anytime/anywhere” learning as many worldwide citizens are becoming connected with mobile devices and laptops because cost is dropping and wifis and satellites are increasing.  Instead of a problem, leaders needs to see these tools as exactly that- an educational tool and not a distraction in school.  Another great quote to come from this article is this: “The kids these days are not digital kids. The digital kids were in the ’90s. The kids today are mobile, and there’s a difference. Digital is the old way of thinking, mobile is the new way.”  The article mentions how the adults need to catch up with what the students are using and take advantage of what these tools could become.

In week 3 there were a few more great videos and articles.  The Machine is Using Us and Schools Kill Creativity are excellent videos and get better each time.  I love in the Machine how the creator takes us through how tech has changed and evolved and adapted into modern day society.  The fact that it uses the tools it is talking about as it goes through the changes is an even better illustration.  Another article and another set of facts that computers and internet are not being used well in school.  Hardware, often in a corner computer lab, goes unused or untrained, and it says it well that students are learning more on the internet unsupervised at home than they are in their classrooms.  They realize the importance of technology, but when will the leaders and admin in our buildings?

As far as this course and the future of learning, I am excited about 556 and all of the topics that it looks like we will be covering.  I have re-purposed my blog from previous courses to share my thoughts on all of these topics.  I checked out a few of the other blog tools and some were similar, and some seemed closer to a Twitter type of blog, but figured that since I already had this one I would keep it.  In my district, it has been interesting to see the direction of technology in our district shift over the past 4 or 5 years.  A few years back, every student aged 4-6th grade had an iBook checked out to them and teachers used these everyday.  Now, there are classroom sets of Dell laptops and from what I see the laptops are not used quite as much because the carts must be checked out and wheeled from room to room.  Our district still seems dedicated to technology with purchasing lcd projectors, elmos, a few smartboards and up keeping the network and laptops and so on, however use of these technologies is more and more shifting to online testing and to accommodate the rigid structure and curriculum provided by the science and math units we have recently acquired.

Technology is certainly a part of our everyday lives, and it is becoming more of a part of teaching all the time.  However, many administrators and school districts are slow to keep up with these trends, changes and new pieces of technology.  Many forms of tech have certainly created benefits in the classroom and have provided many opportunities for learning in our classrooms.  It is nice to be able to use these new tools to help students who learn differently, to foster creativity and collaboration, and help students learn together about their curriculum and the world around them at their fingertips.  In the art realm there have been many changes with regards to incorporating tech such as the film camera becoming obsolete, using photoshop to create art, digital video, creating websites and design, using the Internet to look up information on anything from artists to art techniques and so on.  There is an exciting future ahead with regard to learning with technology in the art room.  As others have mentioned, we do need to realize that technology is a tool and there are still other forms of learning, and that tech can definitely foster, enhance, and facilitate learning, but should not be the primary focus.

As far as this week’s readings there were a few points that were good to think about.  With e-portfolios there are a lot of benefit to creating and updating these.  It is a great way to showcase good exemplars of work, and an easy way for someone to compile information in one easy to present place for schools or employers to view.  As the readings stated, it can also just be a good way to place artifacts for self-reflection.  In the art room students could create an online portfolio of artwork to showcase and display rather than carrying slides and large portfolios of artwork.  The other aspects of the readings I found interesting were the standards we looked over.  I had seen these before, but also appreciated that there were standards for teachers, that in my schooling I had never seen.  What is even funnier is that I work for district 54, and didn’t even know that these standards were around, yet they came from a district 54 site.  Judging from some of the teachers in the district, they have never seen these standards either.  With the future of learning siding heavily with technology, these teachers, as well as incoming teachers all need to be presented with technology, become comfortable with it, and begin utilizing it in classroom teaching.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have to complete a full-on evaluation, nor do I know that I would want to do it that badly, but now I will have the know-how. It will be interesting to compare my evaluation with how our school evaluates the PBIS program we have in effect. Overall this has been an informative class and it has been nice getting to know our classmates more and to see their papers develop as we worked on them. Thanks for all the interactions and feedback everyone, have a great break!

It seems what I hoped wouldn’t happen in my last post has already occurred… Grading took over my life last week, and this past week I also just started coaching and it is already an overwhelming amount of work when combined with my real job (teaching).  Add being out of town the last few weekends and it means not being very productive.  I really need to get on top of my time management skills this week to get everything done that I need to for this course.  Let’s hope I am more successful than the Illini, Bears, and our local high school football teams at getting the job done!