My Own Personal Learning Networks

Although I have grown up with technology, it is still difficult to remain current on all the different digital tools. The feeds are an excellent way to stay up to date and involved with the upcoming sources and methods used in the classrooms as well as life in general. Feedly and Pinterst have been my most favorite and utilized resources of. I did not delve too deeply into anything else because I found these two websites kept me occupied thoroughly. Feedly was excellent for education technology whereas Pinterest gave me hands on education activities.

Twitter was a source I struggled with. I had an account previous to joining this course but never used it.  As of now, I follow a few teachers who specialize in technology, a few of my friends, and the news. As for hashtags—edutech and education were the ones I would look at. However, I felt I did not receive as much as I invested in this site—when I tweeted, there were no responses back. It was a resource I tried to involve myself into but was not as interested or impacted by it as much as the other tools we were provided with.

LibraryThing is my favorite item I am taking away from this course. As a bookworm, this site took a passion I had and connected me to others who have a passion for reading. They challenge and encourage one another to push their reading limits and go out of their comfort zones to try something new. I think that is the perfect example of what school itself should do for students—encourage and challenge. There were book-reading challenges, the excitement over reading lists, as well as encouragement to complete books that may have been a more difficult read. There was nothing on the website that di was not encouraging and I feel that is how school should be as well.

This past month has opened my eyes to just a few of the millions of different types of resources for teachers there are in the world. Whether or not I use them all is not the question, but rather, how can I use what I know to better help my students, myself, and the school I am working with? In what ways am I providing an excellent education for my students whilst making it engaging and interesting. I think once some type of balance is found, success will follow.

Strengthening Typing Skills

Teaching students how to properly type on a keyboard is only going to become more important in this digital age world. Often times in job interview they will ask how many words you are able to type a minute and that plays a factor in the hiring process. ‘Type Fu’ is a program that works with you to work on your typing speed. “The app also features multiple levels of difficulty and once you figure out your skill level, you can immediately delve in your typing tasks. Type Fu automatically detects when you mastered a skill level and starts providing you with more challenging typing exercise to prepare you for the next level.” You can be a beginner or even if you took typing classes before, Type Fu will help you refresh your skills and take them to the next stage instantly. It is great for all ages and has numerous options for skill levels and keyboard layouts. You will be able to easily tell from the pretty charts exactly how much better your typing speed and accuracy become, and which keys your miss most. It is colorful, it is engaging, it is having fun while strengthening your typing skills.

Unfortunately, it does cost $9.99 but “educational institutions and companies can buy multiple licenses with 50% discount through the Apple Volume Purchase Program and Google Play for Education Program.” The app does not require recurring payments and constant network connection unlike online typing tutors. Once you pay for it, it's yours forever.

Ed Tech Team. "Type Fu A Great Chrome App for Learning Fast Typing ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning." Type Fu A Great Chrome App for Learning Fast Typing ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. N.p., 18 June 2015. Web. 22 June 2015. <http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/06/type-fu-great-tool-for-learning-fast-typing.html>.

Anatomy 4D Changes the Way We Learn About the Human Body

‘Anatomy 4D’ is an innovative and interactive way to study the human body for students. Although you must be at least 17 to download the free app (due to the frequent/intense sexual content or nudity that the instructor can easily control), it could be used in numerous types of classrooms to allow the users to isolate bodily systems: muscular, skeletal, circulatory and more, to see every detail and how each one works together. It continues the education by looking at the heart, revealing the spatial relationships of our organs, skeleton, muscles, and body systems. Users can learn about the human body and heart in intricate detail, highlight various organ systems individually (as mentioned before), explore and change between a male and female body, zoom in to experience each organ or body part in-depth, use new image targets including the new heart target, and to get excited about anatomy! “During an interview with CBS Dallas / Fort Worth News, Byron Nelson educator Ron Gatlin discussed how using Anatomy 4D allowed his students to jump in and start learning without hesitation. "They never thought, I don't want to touch the frog. They never thought I don't touch that worm. They all just went right to work."’

In order to use the app, one must have IOS 6.0 or later but it is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. The reviews left by consumers on the app were nothing short of excellent. I tried downloading it for myself and was a bit lost on how to maneuver around the app but I think with more practice and focus, I could really see how beneficial and useful the tool really is. I would most likely recommend using it for junior high or high school students.

Minock, D. "Anatomy 4D Changes the Way We Learn About the Human Body." Anatomy 4D Changes the Way We Learn About the Human Body. Daqri, 14 Aug. 2014. Web. 22 June 2015. <http://blog.daqri.com/anatomy-4d-changes-the-way-we-learn-about-the-human-body>.

Effectively Teaching Diverse Students

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) video addresses the difficulty most teachers have with having 30 students with all different types of learning styles. To make curriculum universal, they focus on making certain the material it is understood by everyone because each student is unique and has their own interest, background, and needs. For learning, the curriculum needs to give students the skills and enthusiasm for learning in order to be productive. It must address the three brain networks: recognition (the what of learning), skills and strategies (the how of learning) and then caring and prioritizing (the why of learning). The design aspect of the idea works with meeting the needs of each unique student. Putting ramps in buildings instead of just chairs helps those in wheelchairs as well as those pushing strollers or carts. Closed captioning tends to the needs for those who are deaf, hard of hearing, working out in gyms, and assisting those who are learning English. It is about supporting and challenging society to apply UDL goals, methods, materials, and assessments in everyday life (especially the classroom). Notice how different your students are and make sure they are comprehending the information and adjust your teaching method to help the student better understand.

By “Build[ing] an Assistive Technology Toolkit,” we are opening doors to education for those with special needs even more. The tools to promote success are being built into our digital devices and there are free options online. “Students with learning disabilities or visual impairments can find thousands of titles online in digital format so they can benefit from text-to-speech software.” If more of this is what our society has to look forward with digital technology, I am excited. It is important to give everyone the right to good education.

Ahrens, K. (2011). Build an assistive technology toolkit.Learning & Leading with Technology, 39(3), 22-24.

Learning Speed Reading by Using Digital Technology

Reading is a task students are expected to learn in their early elementary years and develop throughout their lifetime. Speed-reading is a skill one needs to develop that can prove to be very useful in life. “However, speed reading should never come at the expense of your comprehension and although it might sound hard at the start but it does get better and better with practice.”

In this day and age where books are becoming more and more uncommon in classrooms, embracing technology and its resourceful tools is the best way to prepare students for what is to come. With these following apps, students will be able to work on their speed-reading skills through “spritzing” (reading text one word at a time in Sprtiz Inc. “redicle,” a special visual frame designed for reading) while familiarizing themselves with today’s technology. Here are a few of the apps listed on the site:

Rapid Reader ($2.99) is an app that will flash one word at a time before your eyes at 40 different speeds. “Spritz provides a reticle at the ideal position in a word to allow your mind to comprehend each word despite seeing it for only a fraction of a second.” It will improve your speed-reading up to 1000 words per minute while maintaining or improving your current comprehension

Acceleread Speed Reading Trainer is a free app that is personalized to your current reading level and how you can improve your reading effectiveness. It is customizable to needs and goals to help you stay on target. Includes quizzes to track the improvement. Such results have been seen as little as in ten days.

QuickReader (a free version as well as one for $4.99) uses the same proven speed-reading technique taught to millions of people all around the world. And learning it is easy. You simply read along as QuickReader guides you through the text, automatically training you to read faster. Want to go quicker? With a couple of taps the guide speeds up… and soon you’re reading twice as fast as before.”

I downloaded the free apps for myself to try. Even as an adult, there is no harm in improving the speed of your reading as well as how to best comprehend what you have read. With all the articles and books we are assigned, these are apps we all should try. There were a couple more apps listed, but I do not see why anyone would need to purchase such apps when the free ones work so well and have such high ratings. Save yourself (and your school) money and download the free tools.

Ed Tech Team. "The Best Teacher Apps for Learning Speed Reading ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning." The Best Teacher Apps for Learning Speed Reading ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. N.p., 19 June 2015. Web. 19 June 2015. <http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/06/the-best-teacher-apps-for-learning.html>.

How Google Play for Education Fits into K–12 Learning

The Google Play for Education store is another source for teachers to find and download student-focused apps that have an impact on learning. The store includes a free recorded webinar, “Getting Started with Google Play for Education,” with four experts, including a technology coordinator and a K–8 technology teacher from a charter school in Colorado. The majority of the educational apps have material that aligns with the standards set for common core. “Google Play for Education also lets educators review an app by looking at grade-level assignments and tips that have been written by teachers who have used the app in their classrooms.”

Having tools such as Google Play to assist teachers in the classroom sounds great. My favorite part about it is “[teachers] can also have a voice in sharing what they did with their classes and how the app either worked or didn’t work for them.” This program isn’t just to be seen as a game stop, but a helpful tool in lesson plans. The schools also use programs on their devices to protect and filter any inappropriate content kids might find while researching on the Internet. The students are aware of the program and this helps hold them accountable to digital citizenship. This school in particular uses LanSchool, which allows the teachers to monitor the students’ computers. “It allows teachers to view our students’ active applications and last-visited websites.”

In this interview the teachers specifically state, “Another thing that has proved effective is that we teach digital citizenship and really stress how every student must do his or her part to make sure that our school remains a safe place to explore the world on the Internet...We believe that our students are taking ownership of our program, and that is why it has been so successful.” This supports the students Standards 1 through 6 as the students are demonstrating the transfer of current knowledge to the learning of new technologies, being digital citizens, critical thinking and problem solving, working with partners in the applications, evaluating and utilizing information properly, as well as using models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues. As for the teachers, they are expanding their own knowledge of technology to better inspire students to meet the ISTE standards. The teachers must first fully comprehend their teacher matter (Standard 1) in order to make certain the activities in Google Play correctly apply (Standards 2 and 3). By having the LanSchool program, teachers are encouraging their students to model digital citizenship (Standard 4) and are open to learning and applying new methods, such as these apps, to their classroom (Standard 5).

Conlan, M. (2015) How Google Play for Education Fits into K–12 Learning. EdTech: Focus on K–12

New Research: Banning Cell Phones Prepares Students for The Past

While schools such as Center for Economic Performance in London are banning digital devices in classrooms, there are other schools doing the complete opposite. In this digital age, researchers are finding the time of pen and paper has come to an end. Paper assessments are occurring less and less as digital devices become more and more accessible for classrooms. “Our student’s brains have indeed been rewired for the 21st century where innovation and creativity are valued over the drill, kill, and bubble fill requirements of outdated tests.” Since “Nearly 60% of teens use their own mobile devices in school for learning even when schools are not supporting such use,” many schools have instead decided to embrace this tool.  They begin by encouraging the uses of phones and tablets by creating school assignments that cater to this new learning style and have found that many students who text are increasing their literacy skills. “we must support students in effectively, respectfully, and responsibly USING their digital resources which they will need to succeed in their connected world.” 

Computers have been making their way into classrooms since 1975, making the decision to eliminate paper assessments long-time coming. While I agree we need to embrace and apply the means of the 21^st century, I disagree in the aspect of writing off the paper assessments unless it means allowing the students scratch paper to write on during the exams. Even though our world is in the digital age, I wonder how it will impact our student’s eyesight and ability to focus, when all this time is spent on looking at computers and other screens.

            As for the standards, I feel this article touched base with the ISTE standards of a teacher and not students. The students do need to apply Standard 5: Digital Citizenship and demonstrate their responsibility and ethics while taking the exams. For teachers, this exhibits Standards 3, 4 and 5 to keep students engaged as well as keeping themselves responsible and up to date with modern teaching methods. 

Nielsen, L. (2015) New Research: Banning Cell Phones Prepares Students for The Past. The Innovative Educator.