My Beliefs

I believe there are many ways technology can be used in the classroom, but finding the appropriate form of technology for the grade level I will teach will be the real challenge. I worry there is a lot of expense involved in having a technology-rich classroom. The classroom I was in for field had 4 computers. One was the teacher's computer that was pretty current. One was connected to the projector and was a dinosaur!!  It was so slow it would take about 30 minutes to boot up and get to the site you wanted. Two were for student use, also very slow, but donated by the teacher's husband's employer. The neighboring class had about 10 computers and our cooperating teacher could not explain why he had so many when she had so few. She said it was a sore spot in the school.

I believe there can be simple, inexpensive ways of using technology, such as a digital camera. I have one I am hanging onto for my classroom to use. I'd like to see students using a digital camera in new and creative ways. They could create a photo story from their pictures. They could use the simple technology of the video feature on my old camera to create a vidcast. A cell phone can create a podcast. Students could write classroom blogs to keep parents up to date on what the class is learning. Even powerpoints created by students are simple and require no extra expense as long as you having a reasonably modern computer.

There is a long way to go for many schools to be technology-rich. But there are ways to still have an exciting teaching environment without creating a greater personal expense for the teacher.

Lessons Learned

All the articles and websites I visited seemed to introduce more and more technology and multimedia resources I have not learned about or considered. It does seem there are a lot of resources and advancements in integrating technology in high schools. It would be great if elementary schools also received as much attention and funding for technology.

I liked the high tech learning site because you could delve deeper into topics you want to learn more about. The resources, links, videos and articles could help me learn more about tools or applications I haven't yet discovered or feel confident using. I learned more about Web 2.0 through one of the links that I found very helpful. I've heard the term "Web 2.0" many times but never appreciated what it meant. (By the way, whenever I hear '2.0' I think of that episode of The Office when the handbag salesgirl comes to the office and Michael says something like, "She's like the newer version of Pam. Pam 2.0.")

These websites, articles and links taught me even more how technology can be integrated into teaching and how many tools there are out there.

Strengths & Weaknesses

After reading about the NET standards I felt I had strengths in several areas:
1. basic knowledge and skills
2. identify technology resources
3. technology for professional development
4. design technology-enhanced instructions
5. using technology to collaborate and communicate.
6. using technology to increase productivity

I feel these strengths are a firm starting block to build better technological skills to help my classroom. I have used #5 above many, many times this semester in our cohort. I created a facebook group, collaborated on assignments through google docs, created a schedule using a spreadsheet in google docs, communicated with teachers and fellow students.

My weaknesses were:
1. using technology to assess and evaluate.
2. knowing how to troubleshoot
3. knowing all technology out there!

My goals:
1. Become more familiar with technology tools available for use in schools.
2. Learn more about integrating technology in the classroom.
3. Become confident with a few basic technology tools to start my classroom off.

It just seems the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know. Technology is one thing that is always changing and you have to stay current because the students certainly will. The following website had lots of information, articles, even webquests for a teacher to learn more about using technology in a classroom as well as how to set up a technology-rich classroom. http://eduscapes.com/hightech/spaces/index.htm.  The UEN website has a professional development link with lists of courses and there are MANY about technology and multimedia. These would be geared directly toward the Utah state teachers and would be very applicable to a first year teacher just getting started.

Reflection #12 Sarah Sumsion

Field Experience Service Learning Project

Cherry Creek Elementary has a student population over 600. Twenty percent of the students are hispanic, with less than 1% of other races and nationalities. The 6th grade class in Mrs. Stephanie Truscott’s class has 28 students, half boys and half girls.
From the very beginning Mrs. Truscott has been more than welcoming and accommodating. When I first contacted her she thanked me for being so on top of things and for planning ahead to let her know what was going on. Whenever we would ask her what we could do for her, how we could help, or what hours she would like us there, she would immediately ask what was required for our assignments. She made sure we were in a position to accomplish and work on school requirements. She was always friendly and open to conversation and talking about her point of view and philosophy of education.
Mrs. Truscott looked forward to our digital story and smiled and seemed very pleased while watching it.  She told us afterwards she thought it was great. She liked that it uses the core and that it was something the students can relate to. Afterwards she told us she would like a copy for her classroom for future use.
She was happy with how our lessons went and felt we prepared well in advance. She liked how we ended with our digital story at the end of our teaching week. She did not want us doing any Olympics activities because that is a fun end-of-unit activity the 6th graders do each year. She did, however, feel it appropriate to play our Olympics digital story as a preview of future lessons to come.
We taught Mrs. Truscott how to create a digital story and shared with her several different tools available to use. We explored the idea that even the students could probably make a digital story with ease. She told us the training was “awesome.” We talked about how the students enjoy movie clips and youtube things, although that site is blocked in the schools. She said the students, living in a media rich environment, would enjoy something like that over reading a textbook.
I think this service learning assignment was fantastic. It was a fun assignment, although incredibly time consuming actually making the digital story if being very conscientious of copyrighted material. I liked being able to teach someone else, because that helps me remember how to do something. I gained the ability to make a “sales pitch” for encouraging ways teachers could use digital stories. It gave me a reason to think about how great it can be to share and spread knowledge within the education community as most are working with limited resources.
This assignment for service learning was worth it. I now have a digital story I can take to my classroom, as well as the digital stories from my fellow cohort students and more. Teaching Mrs. Truscott about how to make a digital story was simple and fun. She enjoyed it and it was not terribly time consuming.

Reflection #11 Sarah Sumsion

Today in class my partner and I taught our first lesson, Blow the Roof Off, a JHAT strategy which incorporates process drama.

This lesson was a great introduction to Ancient Greece where students could act out a portion of the lesson. Motions and actions were directed for them, however we did give them liberties to improvise and make new motions. They did very well and some of their actions were clever and funny. This lesson allowed them to think about what actions would be appropriate for their card.

I would do this activity again in a heartbeat. I would do it for math, science, social studies, even English topics. The kids really enjoyed it. The teacher said she plans on stealing this lesson from us. The students learned they could act and role play while learning. After the lesson we asked them what they remembered. Most remembered the facts from the cards they acted out, but some remembered other notable facts from memorably acted moments. 

Reflection #10 Sarah Sumsion

The only technology used in class over the past several days we've observed is an overhead projector. As we left class today they were headed to the computer lab to answer an email. They do have students updating a class blog as a job assignment, however we have not seen it happen yet.

The classroom has 2 student-use computers, but I've only seen them used once for about 5 minutes and I couldn't tell what work was being done on it.

I look forward to seeing more technology used in the class. Several of our lessons will be using technology and online sources through my classroom website (my.uen since google sites are blocked). I love being in the classroom and look forward to being there again tomorrow.

Reflection #9 Sarah Sumsion

Today in class we continued to work on our digital story. Our digital story is about ancient Greece specifically the Olympics.

The more we work on our digital story, the more prepared we are to teach our cooperating teacher how to create one herself. Learning about the copyright laws has been helpful, but sometimes essential pieces of information get missed. I was happy to hear how today in class the specific copyright laws we needed to know for our digital story. It's going to be awesome.

I am very excited for field. No butterflies or nerves whatsoever. I love being in the classroom. I'm happy to have gotten some information from our cooperating teacher about the technology available in her classroom. We know she has internet, a computer and projector. She does not have a document scanner, however. My partner and I feel knowledgeable enough about creating a digital story to be ready to teach our teacher.

Reflection #8 Sarah Sumsion

Today in class we continued to work on our digital story. We searched for copyright accessible images and audio.

This assignment continues to be overwhelming to me. Seems there is no end in sight. Our class had SO many questions today and we all seemed to have different answers regarding copyright rules and grading. Some were saying it didn't matter the copyright issues. Some said we can only have 30% copyrighted materials (although the rubric says nothing about that). Some said we post the URLs at the end of the video, while others said we need to post the "authors" names at the end of the video in the credits. HELP!

Now what...we keep chugging along. I was grateful for a tip from a professional video producer who suggested flickr as a resource for images.  I found all the copyright info next to each image. That was so handy. However, the "attribution" requirements were unclear. Creative commons would say we need to recognize the contributor in the way they specify--but where do we find that? I hope we will be graded with our experience (or lack thereof) in video making considered. We are not professionals, nor are we highly experienced.

Reflection #7 Sarah Sumsion

Today we researched about copyright laws and how copying images, music and videos off the internet is considered stealing.

It's important for students and teachers to appreciate copyright restrictions. If people's creations (photos, art, story, music, etc) weren't copyrighted that person could have their ideas duplicated, borrowed, stolen, etc. and potentially could profit off of it without acknowledging the original creator. We have a moral and legal obligation to not steal from a grocery store, retail store, someone's private property, etc. Why wouldn't we extend these same obligations and laws to resources we find on the web?

For me, this was the big hole in the lesson today... "now what?"  I felt a lot of class time was spent on the history of copyright laws and how far we've come, however I wish we could have spent more time on the application of our understandings. Where do we find copyright info for all the different images, videos and music we may want to use? Are there lots of websites out there for us to draw from without running into copyright issues? Does our digital story need to be so very carefully put together so the copyrighted pictures are clearly labeled? The "now what" portion of our day really left me wanting more.  Truly - now what? I know some of these questions were answered in class, but I don't know how to get to your "Doc Waters" site. I know how to get to our class site and to the Doc Waters blog, but you referred to a Sandie "Doc" Waters site with lots of references.  How do we get there?

Reflection #6 Sarah Sumsion

Today in Instructional Media we learned about digital stories. We learned what defines them and how to create them using different tools, design aspects, mood, etc.

I can see digital stories being very beneficial in a classroom. Although the amount of time they seem to take right now can be overwhelming, perhaps we would get faster at making them with experience. Digital stories can enhance any unit such as social studies, science, math, art, literacy, etc.

After having them carefully explained and described I realized how much we already see digital stories everyday (YouTube, biographies on TV, clips about how to do something, advertisements, educational media, etc.) I felt very emotionally jerked around in class. I am so sensitive about cruelties to other human beings that I was fighting back more serious emotions and reactions to the holocaust images we saw. I was moved as well by the Gettysburg address clip. I don't like feeling emotional in class that way - but I guess the point was made. Music and photography are 2 of my "passions" - so putting them together with technology is exciting to me. The draw back will most certainly be if there are limited technological resources (computers, projectors, etc.) in the school I teach in. How else would you possibly utilize this without having everyone hovering around a laptop screen?

Week #5 Reflection - Sarah Sumsion

Key Assignment- Vidcast

Vidcast Title: “Why Revolution?”

by Sarah Sumsion and Sara Gustafson

EDEL 3250-02

Our vidcast introduces the following standard and objective:
Standard 2 (5th grade): Students will understand the chronology and significance of key events leading to self-government.


Objective 1: Describe how the movement toward revolution culminated in a Declaration of Independence.

The topic of revolution is important for students to understand as they study and learn about the US Government. This introduction to revolution vidcast helps students appreciate the emotions and feelings behind why a group of people in any part of the world revolt. Students will also see scenes from different revolutions, strikes and protests, sensing the desperation and anger in the people’s faces. The end of the video shares the images and emotions of a people enjoying freedom and liberty.

Our vidcast meets the NETS standards in several ways.  Specifically, standard 1/indicator 3, as it facilitates inspired student learning by engaging students in real world issues.  Revolution is occurring all around us, and many are because of the same reasons colonists fought for their freedom in the American Revolution.  Additionally it follows the standard 3/indicator c which states: Models digital age learning and work by communicating relevant ideas to students using a variety of media tools.

This vidcast specifically meets INTASC Standard 2C (Planning curriculum and designing instruction to enhance student learning: Design and articulate instruction aligned with Utah Core curriculum standards.) Our vidcast follows the Utah core curriculum standard 2 objective 1 (as discussed above). By designing curriculum using the vidcast we are able to establish some building blocks for further instruction regarding revolution. Our vidcast also covers INTASC Standard 1E (Creating and maintaining a positive classroom environment that promotes student learning: Use instructional time effectively to enhance student learning.) We could have easily just lectured to the students about why people revolt and told them how people may feel, but pictures are worth a thousand words. Introducing revolution using a vidcast will better evoke emotion and feelings about the topic.

A potential drawback to using this vidcast series is that it may frighten potential students who have lived in a country that went through a revolution. Some images and/or feelings may hit too close to home. However, we were very selective and careful about the images we used that they wouldn’t be too graphic or violent.

The intro to revolution vidcast will prepare students for a following activity of graphing connected thoughts, similarities, and differences related to the concept of revolution.  This activity will help students feel connected and engaged with the upcoming Unit of government and the American Revolution.  History will become relevant and important to students who have had the opportunity to think about the topic in a way that is personal and current.

Week #4 Reflection Sarah Sumsion

Today we learned about vidcasting. We learned about the different tools to create one such as a flip phone, powerpoint, photostory and jing. (I could totally get sucked into doing this - appeals to me in every way.)

I can see the value of a vidcast, especially with the direction technology is going. Students are accustomed to watching vidcasts so using one in class would be a valuable addition, as I have rarely seen them utilized in the schools I've subbed in. You would have to have the technology to show one though (computer hooked up to a projector). I can't imagine 30 kids crowded around a laptop screen - but I guess you could. These do seem to take quite a bit of time to create, but if teachers were collaborating and each creating one they could be shared.

In all these things we have been creating (google docs, podcasts, vidcasts, etc) I feel so strongly that students could easily create these and probably do a better job than some teachers. I would love to teach students how to create one - but it may not be feasible based on resources, time, etc. For students who are absent, the vidcast could catch them up on things they missed - especially if you were filming yourself and holding up the worksheet, book, art project, etc. Whether or not they had access to it - they could at least know what they missed.

Sarah Sumsion Reflection Week 3

Today we learned how to make and link podcasts. Our podcast was a public service announcement about bullying.



For a teacher today I can see this being a valuable tool. I have never made a podcast before and assumed they were only videos. Knowing you can quickly make a podcast using cell phone technology is really incredible. Teachers could collaborate using podcasts - even when they are out of town. Technology is truly amazing. I haven't quite figured out how I can use this with my other classes, other than in using a presentation of some sort.

This technology could be very useful in a classroom for many different curriculum areas. I can see students loving this. Even young students could have fun creating podcasts. Creating a podcast could be useful in doing a presentation, or giving steps for a project or activity. Students who miss school due to sickness or vacation could still get the homework and instructions. Important lectures or teaching also could be saved through podcasting. Students could do brief interviews with family, teachers, important people, or each other and use podcast technology to share their findings.

Sarah Sumsion's Reflection #2 Edel 3250 Sec 2

I had a lot of fun in class today. Yes, we had to fly to get through it all, but thank heavens I had a fantastic Computer Technology in Education class this summer (Pam Turley instructor) who prepared me well to understand most of what is going on in class. I had the basic skill set to get through class just fine today.

Putting together the classroom website is so similar to what we did with the UEN website that I'm going to have to play more to decide which site I prefer. They can do exactly the same things and I've become very familiar with myuen.org so I will have a learning curve to do the same assignments using a different tool. I can see the value in having classroom websites. Several of my children's teachers use google sites but the problem I have is remembering where to find the site and remembering to check it. There are so many tools to make each page on the google site useful. This is appealing.

I like the idea of students being able to post their work to the website, or being able to share their knowledge on a page of the website. Perhaps we allow students to be in charge of a specific page and let them utilize the technology. Especially with older students, they are so knowledgeable about technology and they would probably love being webmaster that week (versus door holder, line leader, etc.) Even something as simple as posting the spelling lists could be done by a class webmaster. As more and more people turn to google tools, I can see the calendars, homework items, announcements and contact info being easy to navigate, implement and become very helpful for parents and other teachers. I hope more teachers get on board using this technology.

Sarah Sumsion Week 1 Reflection

My last prerequisite before starting the program was Computer Technology in Education. I am so happy I just barely took that this summer (after 15 years since being in college). My instructor prepared me very well to begin this class. I was so inspired by Computer Technology that this class piggybacks well with it. After taking that class I wanted to make my classroom very high-tech, or digital friendly (whatever the proper word is). My last class taught me that the more I learned, the more I realized I didn't know. I'm sure this class will continue on that trend. I am so lucky to have very educated and competent teachers.

I hope to learn in this class how to create and implement lesson plans for my classroom using technology and media. There are so many free resources available on the web, it's thrilling. We live in a digital age. You can't pretend it's still a world using strictly paper and pencils in the classroom. I also hope to gain a better understanding of how to use technology and keep up with the plethora of changes and advancements that happen continually in technology. I consider myself somewhat tech-savvy, but after my computer technology class I realized I barely even knew the basics of what exists out there. I look forward to what this class has to offer by way of designing instructional material using technology and designing technology instruction.