Lindsey+Soutar

This is the page I created with html coding**__.__**This is my HTML page. My page contains my educational technology philosophy and some websites that are meaningful to me.
 * __HTML Page﻿ __**

**__Voki __** media type="custom" key="8396272" width="110" height="110" align="center"

**__Glogster __** Below is my Glog - an interactive, multimedia online poster on Pedagogical Theories:

The glogster below is about Jean Piaget. It contains biographical information and information about his four stages of development.

media type="custom" key="8902892" align="center"

**__Taking a Virtual Fieldtrip __** I think that taking a virtual fieldtrip allows for endless amounts of possibilities in the classroom. With the economy today it is hard to provide the money for students to go in fieldtrips with their class. Using virtual fieldtrips allows for the experience of a fieldtrip at school without needing any additional funding. Just like most other forms of technology, I think that virtual fieldtrips could be beneficial to students of all ages and could be very motivational for their learning. Not only are students learning new information but in many cases they are experiencing what they are learning about.

Today I was working in a 5th grade social studies class and they were learning about explorers coming to the New World, their reasons for coming, what technology they used and what new things they found. After they learned about this information they had to pretend that they were an explorer in the 1500s and write a letter to family member who had not traveled to the New World. Although the students were able to learn alot just from reading their textbook, I couldn't help but think how beneficial the Memorial Hall Museum online would be for students. They would be able to see what the explorers looked like and maybe even see letters that some explorers may have written.

In many of my classes we have discussed how experience impacts a child and the knowledge that they possess. We know that everyone has different experiences and some may be limited by the experiences that they have because of things outside of school. I think using virtual fieldtrips would help to broaden the horizon of many students to let them experience things without leaving their classroom.

**__Digital Story __**

This is my movie that I made using Windows Movie Maker. media type="file" key="The Fox and The Platypus.wmv" width="561" height="483" align="center"

This movie tells a story about The Fox and The Platypus. I wrote this fable for a group of third grade students. They have just started a writing unit on Fables, Fairytales and Folktales. At the end of the unit they will each have to choose one of these types of stories to write. I created this fable to give them an example of what they will be doing. The moral of the fable is, looks can be deceiving.

**__﻿Final Reflection __** **__﻿__**** 1. We have used many technologies in this course over the past months; which one(s) made the most impression on you? How might you integrate this technology into your teaching? ** Out of all the different technologies we have used this semester Glogster and the Digital Story with Movie Maker made the biggest impression on me. However, working in an elementary school I think Glogster would be more age appropriate and manageable for younger students. Windows Movie Maker is a really neat program to work with and its amazing how you can make anything into a movie but it was difficult for me to understand at first so I think it would be above elementary student ability.Glogster allows the concept of making posters to display information to be taken to a whole new level. Glogster does involve some experimenting but it is similar to other Microsoft programs when adding pictures and information so students may already have some background knowledge. Glogster can also be used in a way that can display as much or as little information as you want. This is beneficial because younger students as well as older elementary students can use the program. One way that I would use this technology in my teaching is to help students portray a specific character in a book that they are reading. Students could create a poster about the character including pictures, character traits, and their involvement with the story. This would help students connect with the book that they are reading at a different level.

** 2. You were asked to articulate your personal philosophy on educational technology to include in your html page. Has your philosophy changed as a result of what you have learned in this class? If so, how? ** After this semester, my personal philosophy on educational technology did not change, if anything it was supported. One of my main points in my philosophy was that the use of technology in the classroom is very important however it is not being used as much as it should be because teachers are not open to using the technology and are not being provided with adequate training on how to use the technology. All of the different technologies that we have used this semester have very practical ways that they can be implemented in the classroom, however I do not think teachers would be willing to use these programs without the training that allows them to see how beneifical the technology is. I have grown up in the digital age and love using these technologies but I don't think I would be ready to use them in my classroom if I had not experienced with the techologies in this class.

 ** 3. I have always maintained the position that students who learn to use technology effectively in their teaching should be ready to share what they’ve learned with their colleagues in schools or their place of employment - doing so makes one a teacher-leader, a position that is very important to the success of school improvement and student achievement. How do you think you could share what you’ve learned in this class with others with whom you work? What would you say to them in terms of what you believe about the importance of technology tools in teaching and learning? ** There is not a day that passes at work that someone, whether it be a teacher or another inclusion helper, asks me for help with something on the computer. I am definitely not an expert but I think because I am the youngest one there they assume that I will have the answers. Luckily, I usually know how to solve their problems and can teach them what I did so they know for the future. Being an inclusion helper makes it hard for me to show all the general education teachers everything I have learned in this class but I can definitley share it with the special educators and other inclusion helpers. All of the inclusion helpers seem to understand the importance of technology with the special education students that we work with. There is one student in particular who hates to write but will sit down and create a whole powerpoint with pictures, sound and transitions that will tell a story. It is amazing what he can do!

As far as the importance of technology I would stress how these different technologies really allow the students to express themselves. I think that the students as well as the inclusion helpers will benefit from these technologies. Programs like Movie Maker would allow students to represent their own writing or the inclusion helpers could present content information to the students in an interesting/different way.

 ** 4. What could be added to this course to make it better for graduate students? ** I really enjoyed this class. I loved the fact that we got the chance to experience and work with all of the technologies that we learned about. It was also nice sharing our projects so that we could see how everyone used the programs differently. It was also nice being given time in class to work on some of our projects in case we did not have access to the technologies outside of class. One suggestion would be to create a class Delicious account which allows you to share all of the resources that you might come across. I used one of these in a class at Mount Saint Mary's and it is really nice because there are endless amounts of resources on the internet. A Delicious account helps to narrow down the resources and saves time because you do not need to go through tons of sources before you find the one that best fits your needs.