Issues and Trends in Educational Technology

ISSUE:

IDENTITY THEFT

According the The Department of Justice, identity theft is when there is a criminal or fraudulent act against someones identity. This is usually for an economic advancement. There are some common ways in which identity theft can occur to you:

• Shoulder surfing: This is when a person eavesdrops or overlooks on another person typing in their credit card information or relaying their information over the phone.
• Pre-approved: This is when companies send out pre-approved cards. Most people just toss it in the trash, instead of cutting up the information that is provided on the mail.
• Spam: This is when you receive those spam mails/emails. When people respond to these without checking the validity, they offer their own information up.

One thing I have come across researching this topic is that children are affected substantially more than adults. About 0.2% of dults are attacked, whereas children are attacked at a rate of 10.2%. There are many reasons leading up to this that you can read about in the cylab at CMU. Here are a few other statistics you may find interesting.

There is a resource I found that would be beneficial to introduce to students when using technology in the classroom. It is from PBS and uses examples, videos, and information regarding the importance of protecting yourself and your identity when using the web. 

TREND:

INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS

I was very intrigued when looking into interactive whiteboards. I have never seen nor used interactive whiteboards before so this is a topic I am interested in and excited to learn more about. Interactive whiteboards are being replaced by smart and promethian boards. What is so neat about them is that they capture the ink using a projector. With this capturing mechanism, notes, problems, etc. are available for uploads to a class website where students are then able to access the class content. This is beneficial to all students, especially students that have disabilities or just cannot take accurate notes. It is said that interactive whiteboards are increasing test scores, creating a higher attendance rate, and providing greater student engagement.
The NEA has an article that goes into depth the different types of interactive whiteboards if you would like more information.

Resources

National Geographic www.nationalgeographic.org

This website was suggested through our class blog, however, I use this website often. I love the pictures, the articles, activities, etc. I could use this in my final lesson, which is one animals. The students can explore national geographic, which is a scholarly source.
The standards addressed in this resource are:

Standard	Description	Essential Element
1	How to use maps and other geographic representations, geospatial technologies, and spatial thinking to understand and communicate information	The World in Spatial Terms
2	How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environments in a spatial context	The World in Spatial Terms
3	How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on Earth's surface	The World in Spatial Terms
4	The physical and human characteristics of places	Places and Regions
5	That people create regions to interpret Earth's complexity	Places and Regions
6	How culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions	Places and Regions
7	The physical processes that shape the patterns of Earth's surface	Physical Systems
8	The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems and biomes on Earth's surface	Physical Systems
9	The characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on Earth's surface	Human Systems
10	The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics	Human Systems
11	The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surface	Human Systems
12	The processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement	Human Systems
13	How the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of Earth's surface	Human Systems
14	How human actions modify the physical environment	Environment and Society
15	How physical systems affect human systems	Environment and Society
16	The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources	Environment and Society
17	How to apply geography to interpret the past	The Uses of Geography
18	How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future	The Uses of Geography

Kahoot! This webpage would be an awesome assessment at the end of the lesson. Have each student create their own quiz on their animals, perhaps in groups of reptiles, amphibians, etc. The students will compete as a class. I learned about this through my placement during Teaching Assisting. There are no standards aligned with this.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/
This site is a wonderful resource. There are many lesson ideas, free printable, etc. that you can adjust to fit almost any lesson. I could use this site in a multitude of ways with my lesson.

How are we to promote real engagement?

I have been a student for many years now, and I will be the first to say— I can fake engagement. As a teacher it is my responsibility to get to the bottom of these myths that suggest you can see students engagement, their test scores prove their engaged, engagement = fun. These examples are just a small few to the many myths that exist.

I am a firm believer, after my TA experience at Palmer elementary, that true engagement comes from relating lessons to real life situations. If a student can put themselves in the lesson and create connections between new information to other experiences, the engagement will continue to be natural. This is just one way to help provide a more raw type of engagement.

In the article, Are Your Students Engaged? Don't Be So Sure., by MindShift discusses some of the major myths that are associated with student engagement. Is disengagement paid close enough attention to? How are we suppose to make certain that students maintain their engagement? In a study that was published at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan, that engagement is promoted through choice, relevance, etc. Within these two articles there is talk about how school community and environment helps to bring the engagement into the classroom, and more importantly into the students. Technology is also a useful tool that can provide engagement within the two: classroom and student.

Work Cited:

MindShift. "Are Your Students Engaged? Don’t Be So Sure." MindShift. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2017.

School context, achievement motivation, and academic engagement: A longitudinal study of school engagement using a multidimensional perspective. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2017.

Frondeville, Tristan De. "How to Keep Kids Engaged in Class." Edutopia. N.p., 03 Aug. 2009. Web. 21 May 2017.

Why Blogs?

As I become a teacher, I have not given blogs much thought. I think there are powerful tools and reasons to use a blog inside the classroom, and yes, even in elementary. As I reflect on the uses of blogs and how I have benefited from using them in the classroom I can see trends and a multitude of reasons for not keeping blogs on the back burner.

For starters, I think a classroom blog can help students develop a sense of classroom community. This is a safe place where settings can be changed to be viewed by classroom and parents only. This allows for students to develop, create, and share their work with their peers in a safe manner. Another reason for using blogs is to create a discussion. Blogs have many features where you can comment on posts, links, etc. This gives way to an open discussion where students might feel more comfortable sharing their opinions and using different links, videos, pictures within their comments to expand their thinking.

I love the idea of students being able to make a portfolio within the blog to display their work. This acts as a showcase not only for the students, but the teacher and parents. This could be beneficial for certain situations, such as parent-teacher conferences. I am not sold with this being the only form of displaying work, as I think it is important to display hard copies throughout the room, but this is just an added benefit— you can take pictures and upload them to the portfolio!
One of the last reasons I think a blog could be beneficial is for group projects. This ties in a little with discussion, but it is an open forum for students to collaborate together, in real time. I think this is a wonderful resource we are so lucky to have. There is no time constraints, it allows documentation of their report, their progress, their conversations with one another.

Touching on our discussion during our first class, I loved the many reasons to use technology for the differentiated instruction. For elementary students, you cannot expect each student to read or write. Blogs would allow students to speak to produce their writing. For ELL's you can post videos or attach a translator for different languages. There are so many ways that blogs could be beneficial inside any classroom.

The only downfall I see with using an online resource (blog) is the access students have to computers or the internet. As I want to teach within the Public School system, not every student has access to computers at home, let alone enough for each student in the classroom. This could cause some issues when speaking about the above reasons. I think if the resources are accessible and reasonable there should be no reason to not have a classroom blog!

Unit 1- Learner Analysis

Show: Boy Meets World
Character: Cory Matthews
Year:1993-2000

• Does the student excel at school?
• Cory is an average student. He tends to take school seriously at times, although,  goofing off and focusing on anything but his academics does get in the way. He shares a fence with his teacher, which leads to more life lessons than academic ones. He tends to be responsible and make good choices. In the first season Cory receives detention more than a couple times, and this is only in 6th grade.

• What is the socioeconomic status of the character?
• The Matthews are upper-middle class. They live in a nice neighborhood, attend a good school, and have money to send their children off to college. The family attends different events and is always baking in the kitchen. 

• Does the character engage in school or does s/he distract others?
• Cory engages in school when it is a lesson that hits home. He ends up going to college, getting a degree, and moving to New York, however, there are times when Cory misbehaves. Cory makes fun of the teacher, goofs of in class with various props, cheats on a test, etc. 

• What interest does the character have?
• Cory is a very intense Philadelphia Phillies fan. He one time failed a test because he stayed up past midnight to watch a no-hitter. Other than his love for baseball, in the more recent seasons he becomes interested in his girlfriend Topanga, his friends, and graduating high school.

• If this student were in your class, what strategies and technologies could you use to assist this student?
• If I had Cory as a student, I think he would benefit from different resources technology has to offer. One strategy I would use would be to incorporate videos into the lessons. Cory's attention is not held unless he is being stimulated in any way that isn't a lecture.  His focus would be on watching an activity, experiment, documentary, etc. I think while this would be used it would also be beneficial to have Cory type notes to stay engaged, and less likely to be distracting to others. He fails to pull out proper utensils when in class, I think providing a computer would produce better results in his studies.

• Is this student “college ready”?
• Cory in the beginning of the series does not seem like a promising contender to attend college. Throughout the series he becomes more responsible as he gains more intimate relationships. He eventually goes onto college and graduates. 

About Me

My name is Erin Smith. I am getting my teaching cert in Elementary Ed and my focus is Language Arts. I enjoy many things, but the biggest one is traveling and doing backpacking trips. My fiancé, Sam and I have had the fortune of traveling far and wide and seeing the natural wonders of the world. We have hiked through Zion National Park, HOH Rainforest, Mt. Olympus, Mt. Hood, Multnomah Falls, Estes Park, Twin Peaks, Coba (largest Myan ruin), and many other remarkable landmarks.
Some activities I throughly enjoy are reading, spending time with my family and friends, hanging with my puppy, Kaiser and cooking. I am currently planning my wedding so that is taking up most of the free time I do have.

When it comes to technology I tend to feel threatened or insecure. I grew up when technology was just starting to boom. Cell phones weren't a thing until I was in High School. I think this is one reason why I feel hesitant to use technology. I am not opposed to its wonderful resources or convenience, I just haven't taken the time to appreciate all that is offered.
During my placement last semester I was at Palmer Elementary in GRPS. The budget of this school is just enough to provide each classroom with three desktops. So, throughout my experience at Palmer I did not see technology being used other than showing youtube clips for various lessons.  This is why I don't have much of a plan for incorporating technology into the classroom. I have taken classes that've made valid points of using technology with ELLs or for other differentiated instruction, but I have not seen nor experienced this in action. I am hoping this class will persuade me to take a more active approach to incorporate technology within my own classroom.

Here is a video of me hiking in Zion National Park, where Sam and I found "a little oasis," after a long 8-10 mile hike.