Ed Tech Profile Assessment NETS - 5

In this assignment I used EdTech to evaluate my educational technology proficiency at the beginning of my technology class, and at the completion of the class. As you can see my proficiency in technology increased greatly.

FAIR USE HARBOR - Copyright Ethics NETS - 3 & 4

This assignment provided information about the fair use of copyright material for educational purposes, personal use, and additions to the work. Fair Use Harbor gives us the legal and ethical protocol of copyright use for written, photographed, and video. In addition, this document was created thrugh the use of google docs in collaboration with two of my classmates.

iMovie Software Proficiency - NETS - 5

In this assignment I had the opportunity to work with imovie on a Mac computer. I used film footage of CSUSM to create a public service announcement to prospective students by using Video Fx, Sound Fx, transitions, and music to create a one minute film.

Journal 10: Enticing Teachers with Technology

Elper, James (2009, March-April). New Visions For Transforming Teaching. Learning and leading with Technology, Retrieved April 8, 2009, from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200904/

Technology can be a scary word; especially for teachers. It means learning new programs, which can be complicated and intimidating. However, teachers desperately want their students to be engaged in the learning material. Technology is the way to bridge the gap between the generations that separate students and teachers. Kids understand and love technology, and they use it everyday in their own lives. James Elper writes that the problem in getting teachers to learn about technology is a type of fear factor. Teachers don't want to sit at a conference or a learning workshop while a bunch of techies speak computerese and run programs the teacher doesn't even know how to download. Elper took this knowledge and applied it to his district's technology for teachers program. Instead of the techies teaching the course Elper and his staff offered stipends for teachers to teach other teachers about the success and technology they have been using in their classrooms. Not only did more teachers show up to the learning workshop, but they actually understood what was being said. Having the lead teachers teach the basics instead of all of the bells and whistles helped the teachers get a better grasp on the fundamentals of various programs. Elper also offered the incentives for teachers involved and signed up for the workshop. The teachers could use an LCD projector and had access to several great programs they could use through out the year. In exchange for the incentives the teachers who took part in the program had to write how the program influenced and benifited their classroom. Technology will continue to play a major role in education, and it's crucial to entice teachers to be excited about adapting to technology.

Question 1: How can we get teachers in the San Diego district to want to attend technology seminars?

Answer: I think Elper had the right idea with offering teachers incentives for their participation in seminars. money talks... especially to teachers who could always use more. The principle and purpose of the educational seminars is to show teachers how awesome their classroom can be when they use technology to relate to their students. Sometimes you have to use a little bribery as an incentive.

Question 2: How can teachers ensure the technology they are using is something their students will take interested in?

Answer: Teachers should always ask for feedback from their students because it is the most valuable information you can get. If teachers figure out what their students get excited about the teachers can better plan their lessons with technology.

Journal 9: What's Your Kid?

Waters, John (2009, March). The Kids Are All Right. T H E Journal, Retrieved April 3, 2009, from http://www.thejournal.com/articles/24104

Chances are your kid or other kids you know are better with online technology than you are. It is inevitable your child will end up online chatting with friends, creating blogs, profiles and possibly even making their own website. So where do your children or students rate in their level of online activity? According to John Waters there three different levels of online involvement that kids fall into. The first is called the "hanging out" category. The kids who are just hanging out are focused on basic technology skills mostly used to navigate the internet for information, and the necessary technology to talk to their friends through things like IM. The second group of kids are a step above the first in what's called the "messing around" group. This group is a combination of kids who are just hanging out, but who have also taken the time to learn some new programs and dabble in the technology world. Many of these kids are new to technology, but they have found an interest in what's available for their use. Finally, the third group of kids are those who are "geeking out." These children are fully immersed in online technology and often know more than adults do. The geeking out kids usually have the ability to navigate the internet, chat with friends through a variety of different outlets, and they are creating their own wiki's, web pages, and even posting videos. The geeking out kids have the ability to adapt to the majority of all new technology. It's amazing what kids can do; take advantage of what they know and learn from them!

Question 1: How can you take advantage of your students online technology knowledge?

Answer: I know you are the teacher, but take this opportunity to allow your students to teach each other! When a student teaches another student how to do something they tend to relate to one another much better than we teachers can relate to our students. Plus this opens up a great window for you as the teacher to understand what kids are into. When the teacher can get the students engaged in an interesting topic they enjoy the amount of learning that can happen is phenomenal!

Question 2: What is the benifit to using online technology as a part of your classroom?

Answer: As adults we are always complaining that students spend too much time online and not enough time doing their homework. What if we made going online their homework? Have the students create their own blogs, or communicate through google docs, or engage them in a class wiki. This way the students can do their homework while they talk to their friends online. They are great multi-taskers.

Journal 7: Make it Easy

Bigenho, Chris (2009, March/April). Mining For Gold. Learning and leading with Technology, Retrieved April/2/2009, from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200904/

Did you know that you can receive only the information you are interested in on the Internet through an RSS Aggregator? The aggregator collects updated information from the Internet, and based on the preferences you set your aggregator to it will send you the information only from the topics you have chosen as points of interest. That's like watching TV and only having to view the funny commercials you actually enjoy watching! According to Bigenho the RSS aggregator is one of the least utilized tools of Web 2.0 because most people don't understand how to use it. It is as simple as using the RSS feed and setting your preferences to the information you would like to know about. As a person who is interested in sports all I need to do is set my aggregator preferences to things like Football News, Basketball News, ect. and every time the aggregator picks up something new related to my topics it sends it directly to me. The aggregator is convenient because it weeds out all of the other countless articles and news on other things I do not care about.

Question 1: How can high school students use aggregator as a tool for the classroom?

Answer: Students can set up their own personal aggregators and preferences to receive information on various topics. The teacher can assign a variety of topics to class, which the students can add to their prefernces. Prior to coming to class students can easily access information about the assigned topics, read articles and information, and come to class prepared to talk about the recent events and thoughts on that particular topic. This not only saves the time of having to read in class, but makes it easier for the students to view the right information.

Question 2: Why should students use the RSS Aggregator over google search engine?

Answer: The RSS aggregator does the google search for you as soon as you have logged into your computer. Instead of having to type in the topic and then weed through the mess of articles and opinions of others your information is already waiting for you organized and ready to go.

Journal 6: PLN's

Warlick, David (2009,March/April). Grow Your Personal Learning Network. Learning and Leading with Technology, Retrieved 4/2/2009, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/LLIssues/Volume3620082009/MarchAprilNo6/36612w.pdf

A PLN is a Personal Learning Network, which can be useful tool for networking with people and other online resources. There are three different types of PLN's that can be used to collaborate with people and web sources. The first PLN is called Personall Maintained Synchronous Connections. You can use this PLN to solve problems and ask questions in real time, which means you can talk to anyone in world at a certain moment just like if you were in a conversation with them at an office or a coffee place. The second type of PLN is called Personally and Socially Maintained Semisynchronous Connections. Semisynchronous basically means the participants and collaborators can get back to the questions and conversations on their own time without the concern of geography or time of day. Usually this type of PLN is used at any time rather than in the "now." The final type of PLN is called Dynamically Maintained Asynchronous Connections. The main function and tool used in this PLN is RSS Aggregator, which allows people to search a variety of quality web links from a social network of people who recommend the sites. This often eliminates a tedious google search for good links or sites, and helps collaborators grasp onto a network of social bookmarked sites.

Question 1: How can asynchronous PLN's be used in a classroom?

Answer: As a teacher it would be a great idea to have students break up into small groups and work together on a project requiring Internet research. Each group should be given a section of the project to research, and that particular group can bookmark their sources through a program like Delicious. Each group will do the same for their section of the project. For the sections the groups did not have they can use the bookmarked sites and sources the other groups have marked in order to finish their research.

Question 2: What are the advantages and disadvantages to the Personally Synchronous Maintained Connections?

Answer: One advantage is that you can talk to people all over the globe for free in an instantaneous conversational manner. This allows a variety of opinions and knowledge to be shared in the moment when a person is searching for answers. The disadvantage of this type of PLN is if you cannot talk at the same time as others. This is when you would want to move to the Semisynchronous PLN's like google docs, which does not require you be available at a specific time.

Journal 8: Screencasting - NETS - 3, 4, 5

For my web tool I chose screencasting because I have never heard the term before. Screencasting is basically a video recording of a computer's screen output. In other words the computer screen is filmed usually with an audio narration of what is happening on the computer screen. Screencasting is a great way to develop tutorials for various web programs, web site navigation, or any other internet instruction. I viewed several screencasts through Web 2.0, which included directions on how to design your own website and lessons on why musicians love old school rock. Screencasting could be used as a great tool for the classroom at any age. As a teacher I could use a screencast to teach my students how to use programs like photoshop, excel, word, or any number of other programs. Tutorials through screencasting enable the students to follow along on their own computers while they see what they see on their own screens. The audio aids the audio learners, while the viewing of the screen helps the visual students. There are several different types of programs that can be used in developing a screencast which include: Windows Media Encoder, Wink, Snapz Pro X, IshowU, and many more. After learning about screencasting I will definitely look for tutorials on how to use different programs through the utilization of screencasting.

In this assignment I researched Web 2.0 tool Screencasting to discover it is a great tool for collaborating with students and peers. You can use screencasting to explain an assignment, give directions, or provide a step by step process.

JC and Jocelyn Cooper Wedding 2009: Music

JC and Jocelyn Cooper Wedding 2009: Music
I like Michael Jackson's Beat it!

Inspiration - NETS-T 1,2,3

In this assignment I used Inspiration 8, which is a program for teachers to use in creating diagrams and other creative documents.

NETS For High School Students - NETS - 1, 2, 3, 5

NETS For High School Students

View more presentations from jccooper14.

By using powerpoint I was able to create a slideshow presentation, which I could show to my students on a weekly basis. Powerpoint is a simple way of incorporating technology in the classroom.

Journal 5

Bull, Glen (2006, April). Collaboration in a Web 2.0 Environment. Learning and Leading with Technology, Retrieved March, 2009,
Holla at your boy Glen Bull for taking the web 2.0 by the horns. Haha technology humor! Basically Bull is talking about the incredible additions Web 2.0 has brought with it. In particular the RSS feeds have made syndication extremely simple. RSS feeds allow people to seek out additional information on the web without having to search all over for relevant topics relating to a web pages' content. The article focuses on the use of free aplications avaialable to all users which include: delicious.com, Writely, Bloglines, TaDa lists, and Flickr. All of the before mentioned are excellent collaboration tools, which can be used by students to share and provide informational reseources and links to other sites.

Question 1: Why are RSS feeds so useful for students?

Let's say Jeff Heil is reading an article from the New York Times for his multicultural class. The article is talking about the use of various educational methods for multicultural students when the term "inclusive education" arises. Oh fooey! Jeff doesn't know what that means, but a lot of people don't know what it means. Knowing this the New York Times has provided an RSS feed which takes the reader to an explanation of Inclusive Schooling all with the click of a button. Saves time, confusion, and is a great way to help people become more knowledgable about everything!

Question 2: Why is simple syndication so important?

Even in a technologically advanced society waiting 30 seconds at a microwave seems like a terrible waste of time just to feed our bellies. So who wants to go searching for information in the middle of an article when there are so many things to do? No one, which is why simple syndication allows quick and efficient collaboration. Way to go 2.0! Haha technology poetry!

Journal 4 - Hook Em' Up!

Riedel, Chris (2009, January). Create, Collaborate, Communicate:Empowering Students with 21st Century Skills. T.H.E. Journal, Retrieved 2009, February,
Riedel's article is basically stating that the current educational curriculum is not up to par with technology standards. The survey on IT savvy jobs was shocking to see that education was at the bottom of the pile! I understand what Riedel is getting at with his point that education needs to catch up with the rest of society. Children are more technically advanced and versed than ever before, but it's teachers who are struggling to keep up with all of the new technology tools available to assist classroom lessons. However, in an economic recession we can't even hold on to teacher's jobs let alone purchase the latest educational technology. I am sick and tired of hearning about how our teachers need this and that under the circumstances of our financial situation. Yes, we do need to do our best to provide our students and teachers with the most recent technology available, but not at the cost of jobs and larger class sizes. Something has to take priority, and in my opinion basic education must come before fancy new technology. Now with this said, part of basic education should incorporate technology use a requirement. I think the most benificial way I could use technology as a PE teacher would be to use a nutrition program to allow my students to chart out their diets. The program would enable the students to see how many calories they are eating and burning in order to adjust their goals of weight loss, gain, or maintain. Learning how to use a program like this would help the students carry their knowledge into later years, which will hopefully encourage them to watch what they eat and how much they exercise.

1. How does the education curriculum ensure students will be technology savvy?

The basic school curriculum needs to include technology classes that allow students to learn basic technology skills like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and an online etiquette class. This will help students understand the basic tech skills, which hopefully will allow them to learn other programs more easily.

2. How does the state not go broke while giving schools the necessary technology it needs to keep up with the times?

As a system we need to ask for the help of different technology companies to help donate equipment. In return we can promote the products we receive from the company.

Classroom Newsletter - NETS 1 & 3

newsletterjc

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

In this assignment I created a newsletter for my students and their parents using the program Scribd. Scribd is a great program for creating collaborative and engaging tools for teachers to communicate with their students.

Social Bookmarking

1. After checking out the National Archives website there are several great features that stand out. I chose to visit the Watergate Files archive, which is not only packed with information but also includes primary sources. The site provides the viewer with access to the trial manuscripts, tapes, and even pictures of the various evidences used against President Nixon. Primary resources are so important to use in a classroom because it allows the student to get the true facts about a historical event, and investigate and research it for him or herself.
2. After looking at the ways to become a culturally competent educator several stand out as things I would want to do as a teacher. The first is to assemble staff meetings to discuss cultural diversity, attitudes, and beliefs. It is crucial as a teacher to work in an environment that is supportive of cultural diversity in order to best teach your students. I also like the idea of collecting culturally diverse resources that relate to the students and can be used by the school staff. Often a student and teacher are not relating because of a cultural gap, which can be bridged by materials or activities taught by the teacher to show understanding of the students culture. Finally, I think using “natural helpers” is a great idea in learning about various cultural groups in the school population. A person that lives in the community and understands the beliefs, practices, and attitudes of a particular cultural group can be a valuable resource tool for teachers.
3. I found a Christian based website about Big Idea Productions, which is popular because of Veggie Tales. The site content’s reading level is 3rd-6th grade.
4. In Kathy Schrock’s guide for educators I focused on the critical evaluation surveys. The surveys are a compilation of elementary, middle school, and high school surveys that allow teachers to survey their students in order to see how well they know a subject or technological area. I think this would be very helpful for teachers because it would allow them to find the students who have knowledge in a particular subject area, and use them to help teach the other students.
5. On the multiple intelligences website under the “why” section I thought the “Listening to Teach” information was very interesting and helpful. When I think of listening I always think of the students listening to the teacher in order to learn. However, this section suggests that the teacher listen to the students in order to learn about the class as a whole and the individuals. It’s important for the teacher to listen to get to know each student, to understand the rhythm of the classroom, the cultural and socio conversation of the classroom, and the acts of silencing by the students. These listening tools will help the teacher better serve the students because the instructor will better know their pupils.
6. http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/sidebar.jsp?p=0&si=21 My lesson is geared towards the upper level grades and is designed to help students understand the different cultures and commonalities amongst their peers. The lesson includes a worksheet on which students will fill out questions in one sentence or phrase a description about their beliefs, attitudes, and preferences. The students will then break into small groups and discuss the differences they possess and talk about why that person believes the way they do. In doing this students will find differences and commonalities within their groups, and realize there are many cultures within only their classroom. After the small groups get the students to attempt to define “American Culture.” Ask the students if American culture only consists of “American” ideals or are there other cultures mixed in? The purpose of this lesson is to help the students recognize, respect, and appreciate their peer’s beliefs and cultures.
7. Wow! I only got four right out of all fifteen… that’s embarrassing! One question that stood out to me was about the children who were maltreated the most out of the top 23 wealthiest countries in the world. The answer was the U.S. and the U.K., which shocked me! I would like to know why and how this is possible, and what the qualifications are for maltreatment. Another question that interested me was the one about the average U.S. workers annual salary in comparison to a CEO. The average U.S. worker’s annual salary is equivalent to the daily salary of a CEO! Not only was I surprised, but saddened at this fact.
8. Netiquette Quiz Score: 100% Teaching students about netiquette is very IMPORTANT :-@! Students need to understand that just because no one can see them they are still responsible for the person they personify through their writing. There are so many ways a person can offend others online without doing it on purpose. By educating students using netiquette it will help eliminate and appropriate student behavior in virtual environments.

Journal 3 - "Keep Them Chatting"

Cole, Jeanie (2009, February). Keep Them Chatting. Learning and Leading with Technology, 36, Retrieved February, 2009, from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200902/
The article by Jeanie Cole about online discussions and classroom chats is not rocket science. However, she touches on several great points about holding educational chat rooms. Cole suggests several different methods of conversation, which helps students get excited and respond beyond the minimum requirements. "High level open-ended questions" give students the opportunity to respond using their imagination and historical facts. "The Inquiry Method" allows students to respond to a potential problem by researching the topic and possible effects of something. I personally like this method the best because I believe students love to think extreme, which gives them the ability to research and create worst case scenarios for a particular topic. "The discrepant event inquiry method" allows students to think outside the box with unexplained phenomenons. Students enjoy voicing their opinions, and there are so many great ideas and potential explanations from students for historical phenomenons.

Question 1: Why do students take online classes that require class chat discussions?

Answer: Ok, I know I am being the cynic here, but I was a student who used to take online classes at one time. I believe the majority of students take online classes for one major reason. The first being they think it will be easier and they like the idea of not having to show up and participate in class. Perfect! These students are ideal for the class chat rooms because they are able to express their own voice, ideas, and reason without having the fear of public speaking or harsh looks!

Question 2: Why are open ended questions so important?

Answer: I believe open ended questions intrigue and stimulate a student's thought process. When a student is given an open ended question they are able to think without limits. The student may have requirements that must be met, but their ideas and insight is limitless and encouraged to be original and descriptive.

Jounal 2 - "Museums in the Classroom"

Reissman, Rose (2009, February). Museums in the Classroom. Learning and Leading with Technology, 36, Retrieved February, 2009, from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200902/
No Bus fees, no sack lunches being stolen by the bus driver, and best of all no bus rides where the teacher has to control 36 crazy children! I think Museums in the Classroom is a brilliant idea, and shows teachers, students, and parents how wonderful technology can be. Reissman's article touches on the availability of primary resources to students without having to take an actual field trip. There are hundreds of sites students can visit online sharing and providing classrooms with pictures, articles, and activities from museums around the world. Not only can students visit the museums without ever leaving the classroom, but they can also create their own museum tours! Museums in the classroom is ideal for teachers because it allows more time to for the students to explore and learn about various topics. It also helps students hone their skills of navigating online.

Question 1: How could I use Museums in the Classroom as a physical education teacher?

Answer: Although PE takes place mostly in a gymnasium or outside on a field it is important students learn about the history of different sports. As a teacher I could take my students on virtual field trip to various sports museums where my students could learn about the history of the Olympics, other sports, and famous athletes. Visiting the museum online would help my students understand and find more appreciation for the sports the play.

Question 2: How important is it to take a field trip to an actual museum?

Answer: This may sound like a funny question, but I think getting out of school for students and taking them somewhere interesting and fun is important. If a teacher is trying to get a lot of work and research done in a short amount of time, then a virtual field trip is the way to go. However, if there is ample time I think the students do enjoy going to museums, and it is good for them to see things up close and experience hands on activities.

Journal 1

Ribble, Mike (2008-2009, December-January). Passport to Digital Citizenship. Learning and Leading with Technology, Retrieved December 2008,

After reading Ribble’s article on “Digital Citizenship” several points stuck out. Ribble touches on the crucial role technology plays in our society and how are children are quickly becoming increasingly more educated than teachers and parents. “Digital Citizenship” promotes the appropriate and necessary education of technology needed to excel and adapt to our digital society. It is important to note that Ribble’s idea of technology education requires the inclusion of parents, teachers, and the community to learn and act as technology role models to children. Ribble’s four stages of Technology Learning for Digital Citizenship is a simplified construction plan of how to teach children and society how to become familiar with technology. According to Ribble, digital citizenship is a necessity for the future of our American and International society.

Question 1: How do we monitor children on the Internet?

Answer: I believe it is essential to monitor and keep children safe while they are using the web. The Internet is such a powerful tool that can be used for both positive and negative purposes. I think the “Digital Citizenship” program could be an incredible tool for people in our education system, but it would need a specific monitoring agent to protect children from viewing explicit material and being taken advantage of online. I would rather see cd-rom programs implemented to teach young children about Internet use in order to keep them safe at a young age.

Question 2: Is it realistic to launch a program like Digital Citizenship in our economic decline?

Answer: Due to our economic crisis I think it would be foolish to attempt a program like Ribble’s. Our education system in California is broke, laying off teachers, and increasing class sizes as the years go on. It would be so difficult not only to teach technology under these current conditions, but also to monitor the students use of technological devices would be next to impossible. At this time we cannot afford the equipment for such a program.

Intro Letter - Hey Hey

Hey Techno class... since you are probably the only ones ever to red my blog; my name is JC Cooper and I teach special ed PE! I was born and raised in Carlsbad, CA where I attended Magnolia Elementary, Valley Middle School, and Carlsbad High School. I attended Villanova University in Philadelphia on a full-ride football scholarship. I received a Bachelor's degree in broadcasting with a minor in English. Ya I know... a football player with a communications degree; don't judge to quick! :)

When it comes to computers I'm a hater... but only because I'm not great with them. I do have a Mac laptop, which is fantastic! I used to be a sports anchor for ABC so I am pretty familiar with your basic video editing systems and camera operations. However, I pretty much stick to email, micro word and powerpoint, and have fun with photoshop. I am actually excited about this class because technology, especially computer work, does play a significant role in my everyday life as a teacher. I'm pretty sure all of my stuff is 08 on my Mac, but I'm not really sure.

Based on the mission statement of the university there are two aspects that I am working to achieve. As a special ed teacher educational equity is a tremendous and necessary need for special education students. I believe students with mental and physical disablities should be given an equal opportunity to learn in a safe and accomadating environment. Often times special ed students only receive love, encouragement, and positive social circles at school, which is why it is so important to offer the same opportunities for all students. I also advocate for social justice in education. Various groups of students are often over looked or left completely out of activities and opportunities based on their disabilities, race, gender, and overall appearance. As teachers it is crucial to treat every student with respect in order to overcome streotypes and classifications based on judgemental opinions. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and God bless your day!