Class 10: Productivity Tools (2)

Part I: Part Two: Productivity Tools

We'll start at the beginning LoTi levels with our first project - productivity tools. Whether a teacher is a digital native or immigrant - it is necessary for educators to understand the purpose for productivity tools in the classroom. Improving teacher efficiency, promoting a professional environment, and addressing various student learning needs are just a few of the reasons for using productivity tools in the classroom. Did you know that there are national standards for technology use for teachers and for students? Productivity tools are just one part of these standards.

How do you create a professional classroom? How do you promote efficiency? What materials do you need to create before the school year begins? Do you have to create everything from scratch?
This project will help you to think about and address some of these issues. You will work individually on this project, and it will be due on Friday, February 16 at the beginning of class.

Working at a LoTi level of 1 and/or 2, you will complete the various pieces of the productivity tools project. At the end of the project - you will research examples of productivity tool use by students - in the hopes of finding examples of LoTi levels 2 and 3.

PART TWO: Creating seating charts with PowerPoint

Another example

MS PowerPoint is a dynamic software tool that allows you to create presentations. PowerPoint provides you with the opportunity to list information, display graphics (including animations), concept maps, and tables. Short movies, hyperlinks, and music may also be embedded in PowerPoint presentations.

We will spend more class time on learning about PowerPoint later in the semester. For this part of the Productivity Tools project you will learn to use the drawing tools in PowerPoint to create a seating chart. Don't forget that these same drawing tools can be used in all Office applications (Word, Excel, etc.) Here are some sites which provide more information about PowerPoint:

PowerPoint in the Classroom

Integrating PowerPoint

Using PowerPoint in the Classroom

PART THREE: Creating a Pictograph and a gradebook/attendance record in Excel

Another Example

MS Excel is the final tool we will take a look at in the MS Office Suite of applications. Excel is a spreadsheet application that is used by accountants, office managers, and small businesses. It allows you to create tabular data, work with numbers and charts in a variety of manners.

As educators, there are number of ways we can use Excel: as a record keeping tool (attendance), grades, gather and display data (graphs and charts), etc.

Classroom Excel Resources

MS Excel Modules

Today I will walk you through how to create a pictograph in Excel for one of your assignments in the productivity tools project.

For Friday
Continue working on your productivity tools project. It is due on Friday, February 16 at the beginning of class. Again, don't forget to save your files all the time.

Class 9 : LoTi & Productivity Tool

Assignment Due
Turn in the Learning Styles, Learning Strategies and Technology Integration sheet before the beginning of the class.

Part I: Level of Technology Implementation (LoTI level)

Once you know what content you should address for your subject and grade level, how do you know what types of activities to include? Look inside of an elementary school that integrates technology into its curriculum. Using the Levels of Technology Implementation to quantify what is going on in a classroom is a good way to begin.LoTi is used to evaluate how much technology is integrated into teaching. You'll be referring to these levels, along with standards, in all facets of your project work.

Resources:

• LoTI website
• Samples of students' reflection referring LoTI
  

Part II: Productivity Tool Introduction

Working with templates to create a professional classroom. Now that you have begun to build a foundation in learning theories, teaching strategies, state and national content standards, and LoTi, it is time to put together your classroom. You'll use various productivity tools: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to prepare materials for your class. Use the link to the productivity tools project description to get the specifics on the deliverables you will create.


Before you begin working on your materials, you'll sit in a short lesson on using templates to streamline your work. This will help you to create your newsletter, calendar, business cards, and certificates. Make sure to save a copy of each completed artifact to your assignments folder on your key drive. It will be easier for you if you name your files as what they are (i.e. the calendar could be called "calendar.doc")

Class 8: The Learning and Teaching Puzzle (2)

You made great comments on the Class 6's blog! I really enjoyed reading them and am imagining how your projects in this class would be and how you will integrate the grade level and subject area standards into your projects...

Today we are going to talk about the third and fourth pieces of the learning puzzle.

The third piece of learning puzzle is Teaching Strategies.
How do educators know how to teach? What strategies are used
to address certain learning styles? How does learning theory
impact teaching strategies? Is lecturing about your subject matter
all that is necessary? View descriptions of various teaching
strategies here and here. Find one classmate who has chosen a different teaching strategy and discuss about how you use the teaching strategies to introduce your chose content.

The last piece of learning puzzle is Resources and Tools. How do educators pull everything together? What tools and resources do they use to prepare a supportive learning environment? Our main focus for this semester is identifying technology-related tools and resources that support varied student learning styles and teaching strategies.

For next Monday's Class:
1.Assignment due: Decide the grade level and subject area that you are going to use during the class. Print out the standards accoring to your choice both from the Georgia Performance Standars (GPS) and the ISTE standards for technology integration. Turn in the Learning Styles, Learning Strategies and Technology Integration sheet before the beginning of the class.

2.Read LoTi Framworks developed by Dr. Christopher Moersch

Class 7: The Learning and Teaching Puzzle (1)

Our goal for this semester is to begin putting together the puzzle pieces that make up the learning and teaching process -- with a focus on tools and resources.




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How do educators know what to teach? How do they know what students should learn? Every state has standards and every content area has national standards. There are even standards for technology integration. Georgia is transitioning from Quality Core Curriculum Standards (QCC) to the Georgia Performance Standards. You can even watch a video about the Georgia Performance Standards(Also in .wmv format). You'll also want to be familiar with the ISTE standards for technology integration -- this class, and your course projects, are based on those standards. Select a grade level and subject area that will be the focus of your projects this semester. You'll need to print a copy of these standards and place them in your 3-ring binder for reference purposees this semester.

Important: Learn to navigate the Georgia Performance Standards Website so that you can select your subject area. Remember that the book you have selected must match with the Georgia Performance Standards.

At the end of last class, I asked you to take the online quiz to find out your own learning style. You were also asked to find at least two other classmates who have similar learning styles. Now I want you to talk about your learning habits in common and talk about them.

But understanding learning styles is just one part of this puzzle piece. Understanding the various learning theories is important to be able to prepare an appropriate learning environment for your students. More information can be seen in the chapters in section one in the E-Book edited by Dr. Orey, a professor of our department. Or Read more about learning theories here.

Today's tips:
Want to have a portable bookmark for your favorite websites? Try http://Del.icio.us!

Class 6: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

I linked all your web portfolios to our class website. During this semester, try to keep visiting others' portfolios and get more ideas on yours!

How do you solve or find the answer to the following questions?

You need a phone number for the main office of your auto insurance company.
You need directions to the home of your cousin's best friend.
You want to know how to convert miles to kilometers.
You want to know what time Glory Road is playing on Friday.

Depending on your answer you could be a Digital Native (DN)or Digital Immigrant (DI).

Marc Prensky coined those terms. Digital Natives are the today's K-12 students. They are used to computers, video games, cell phones, DVD players, & electronic music players. Just the opposite of that are Digital Immigrants. They are characterized by people who have adopted digital technology (like me!).

DI typically use technology in a much different way than DN. Why, you say, is this important? Well, you all will be going out to the K-12 setting working with DN. DI typically have a different mindset than DN.

Take me, for example, I am a typical DI that has adapted really well to DN. I say that because I use the Internet and the computer in many ways that DN do. However, I still have some ways of doing things that are foreign to DN.

Marc Prensky discusses this generation in great detail:

If you were born after 1982 - you are a part of this generation - you are a digital native. Most of your teachers were digital immigrants. What does that mean for education? For understanding learning styles and teaching strategies? Where does instructional technology fit?

Take a look at the Mindset List put out each year by Beloit College. Where do you fall?

With the growing number of DN it is becoming more and more evident that educators change the manner in which we disseminate information. Chalkboard or Whiteboard or SmartBoard? Lecture or PowerPoint presentation? Boardgames or Computer games?

Do you want to Learn new stuff? or Learn new ways to do old stuff?

I challenge you - as you create activities this semester - to think from the perspective of a Digital Native (if you are not one) when you are creating your activities.

Everybody has an index card. Please write down your imagination about:
What the classroom in your future teaching will look like? What the students in it will look like?

Digital Learners PPT

The Digital Learners presentation can be downloaded here. If you right click on the link you can save the presentation to your computer.

Links from the presentation:

Georgia Learning Connections

Georgia Performance Standards

National Educational Technology Standards

Contiue working on your web portfolio

Good example for personalize your web-based portfolio
Courtney William
Rachel Tuck
Leanna Destephano

Handouts of Google Pages Creator (Online)
1. Google Page Creator Help
2. Create Your Home Page With Google Page Creator

Next class we will briefly talk about the Teaching and Learning Puzzles.

Before this, do you know what's your learning style?

How do educators know how to meet the needs of the specific learners with which they are working? Are their different types of learners? Does everyone understand subject matter in the same way? How can teachers identify the different types of learners in their classrooms? Take this online quiz to determine your learning style. Find two other classmates who have similar learning styles. Find one learning/study habit that you have in common and be ready to share it with the class.Here are more resources on learning styles.
Learning Styles and Strategies
Learning Styles Explained
Learning Styles Chart
Learning Styles Self-Assessment
Multiple Intelligence Inventory

Class 5: Why web portfolio?

Start your web-portfolio

Why do we need a web-portfolio?
What is web-portfolio? How to use it? Web-portfolio, some people also call it electronic portfolio, which is e-portfolio as short. It is a new format for traditional paper-based portfolio.

Traditionally, as Philippa Butler said in his a review of the literature on portfolios and electronic portfolios, “very simply put, a portfolio is a collection of evidence that is gathered together to show a person’s learning journey over time and to demonstrate their abilities. Portfolios can be specific to a particular discipline, or very broadly encompass a person’s lifelong learning.Many different kinds of evidence can be used in a portfolio: samples of writing, bother finished and unfinished; photographs; videos; research projects; observations and evaluations of supervisors, mentors and peers; and reflective thinking about all of these. In face, it is the reflections on the pieces of evidence, the reasons they were chosen and what the portfolio creator learned from them, that are the key aspect to a portfolio. ” Kimball goes further, arguing that “neither collection nor selection of pieces to be incorporated into a portfolio are worthwhile learning tasks without a basis in reflection. Reflection undergirds the entire pedagogy of portfolios. ”

Two other key elements to portfolios are that they measure learning and development over time, and that it is the process of constructing a portfolio, rather than the end product, that is where the learning takes place.

To download the web portfolio PowerPoint file, click on here.

Class 4: Your Autobiography Page & Getting to Know Each Other

Before the class started, I will need everyone to read the blog carefully. By doing this, you will have idea what we are going to do for each class. From next time, please read the blog before you come to the class, because I will mainly use this blog site to communicate with you.

Assignment Due:
Please submit your printed resume assignment before the class!

Reminder

• Please bring the Bingo chart in the Class two handout to the class.
  
• Please set up your Google pages if you have not done it yet. We will go through the Google page creator step by step. But if you can look at it before our class, it will help you to understand it.
  

Creating your web-portfolio

Today we will be focusing on learning Google Page to create your website (e-Portfolio). Before you login on the Google Page Creator, everyone needs to come up ONE short paragraph
introduction of yourself in MICRSOFT WORD. We will use this paragraph to learn each function in the Google Page Creator. In order to avoid ineffective teaching, I would like your cooperation.
I will pause at each 3-4 steps and walk around to make sure that we are on the same step. By doing so, I will spend less time on instruction and you will EARN more time working on your assignment during the class.

Your finished autobiography page should include:

1. A brief (1-2 paragraph) introduction to yourself – current
   information, career plans, and where you see yourself in
   5 years.
2. A link to your resume.
3. At least 3 external links to places of interest.
4. 3-5 pictures

You need to have this page ready before our next class, which will be on this Friday. In the beginning of Friday's class, send out your autobiography page URL link to me at maggiehu.china@gmail.com with your NAME. Complete and publish the autobiography page before the beginning of Friday's class (Jan 19); otherwise, you will need to hand in your late pass on
Friday for additional 48 hours to work on it.

Getting to know each other
Today we will be getting to know some of the people in the room. Those of you who have been with us for three classes already, particularly those that I have already met with, should be getting a sense of who I am. However, in a lab situation it is easy to go through the entire semester and only get to know the person sitting to the right of you and the person sitting to the left of you. Today, we're going to start to change that.

For Next class

• For those of you who have not sent me your picture for the class website, please send it to me as soon as possible. I already put those pictures I got from some of you on the website. (PS: If you know how to do it, please resize your picture to 110 pixels width. Thanks:) )
• Please sign on the sign-sheet every time when you arrive the classroom. I will put it on the table nearby the door.
• Your autobiography page should be published and you should send the URL of that page before the beginning of the class. Otherwise, you will need to hand in your late pass to get extra 48 hours to work on it.
  

Class 3: OS & Resume

Before we start to talk more about operation systems of Windows and Mac, we need first think of how we will backup our files.

Ways to Backup

• Burn CDs
• Hard Drive
• UGA WebDrive
  
• Gmail or other large storage email
  

Labs in Aderhold

Aderhold (all labs close at 8:00 pm Monday-Thursday, and at 6:00 on Fridays, all labs print to rm 232 - .08/copy):

Rm 618: Windows machines with Office programs, Inspiration, Kidspiration, and an older version of Dreamweaver and Fireworks.

Rm 227: Windows machines with Office programs, Inspiration, and Kidspiration

Rm 228: Windows machines with Office programs, Inspiration, Kidspiration, and Dreamweaver MX.

Rm 233: Macintosh machines with Office programs, Inspiration, and Kidspiration

Windows OS vs. Mac OS
In last class, we already talked a little about the Windows OS and Mac OS. As I said: if you are used to the Windows platform you may want to use the Mac platform to get used to it. Conversely, if you are used to the Mac platform you may want to use the Windows platform. It is not a foregone conclusion that schools are Windows only or Mac only. It will vary, therefore, it is good to be comfortable with both.

Resource available

Using Windows and Macs (Quick Reference Chart)

Spend some time working with your neighbor on the handout called "So How Do I Do That?" (open MS Word and type some information to become familiar with the various keyboard shortcuts)

Other things you should be aware of:
--web browsers
--PDF files
--closing programs

**Picture Time**
While you are working I will be coming around to take your picture for the course website.


Assignment: Resume

In order to get you started thinking about your future I want for you to create a resume. Some of you may already have one and others may not. If you have one you may adjust it to suit this assignment (no use in recreating the wheel). Your resume should be professional and its purpose should focus on educational jobs. You'll want everything to look professional, so use a resume template for PCs or a resume template for Macs. (browse for resume templates).


A resume provides a quick overview of your educational background, work experience, and skills to perspective employers.

Several components that are required in your resume:

• Objective
• Grade Level and Subject Area you want to teach
• Education
• Work Experience
• Honors and Awards
• Computer Skills/Special Skills
• Personal Interests
• Professional References

Here are some sites to help you in creating your resume:

UGA Career Center
Tips on resumes
Resume design
Sample resume

You should submit a printed copy of your resume to me on Wednesday, January 17th.

For next class:

Set up your Gmail account
Most of have received my invitation and the step-by-step instruction for setting up a Gmail account and I have been already notified that some of you already set up their Gmail account. If you have not done with it, please get it ready before next class. We will need it to host our portfolios for this semester. Please email me if you have any questions.

Notice: There will be no class on next Monday, the M.L.K day!

Class 2: Gett started

Digital Generation

We already talked a little bit about how technologies are integrated into teaching and learning. Now let's look at what does technology integration look like Harrison County High School in Gulfport, Mississippi. This is a wonderful example of students and teachers using technology tools for learning. If that’s not enough, see how Mary Scroggs Elementary School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina integrates technology to help younger children learn.


What knowledge do you currently have about teaching and learning? About what technology integration looks like in a classroom? What technology skills do you already possess?

How would you describe your future students? What type of learners will they be? What expectations will they have for their learning environment, for their teachers, for their community?

These are all questions to consider your audience, what teaching will need to lok like for them, and how you can use technology in effective ways for this particular audience.
In order to find and document these appropriate uses of technology, you will work independently, in partners, and in groups to prepare educational activities for specific curriculum topics. You will play the role of a classroom teacher and use your content knowledge, understanding of teaching and learning strategies, and your technology skills to develop real applications for the various tools explored during the semester. Your final product will be a web-based set of activities to teach specific curriculum objectives.


USB Key Drive
You should have your USB key drive. The handout tells you how to set it up. Before you leave today you should have 2 folders and 1 document on your drive.

Two folders:

• Assignments
• Portfolio
  

Open if found document
Open MS Word and create a new document. Type the following:
1. your name
2. phone #
3. e-mail address

Save the file to your key drive (see goldenrod/buff colored handout). The file should be called "openiffound.doc". This file should be saved to the key drive - not in one of the 2 folders you created.

Class 1 - Welcome to EDIT 2000!

Welcome to EDIT 2000! This course is designed to help you to master the skills for understanding, designing, developing and evaluating issues on how to use technology for meaningful teaching and learning in P-12 classroom. The focus is not on technology, but on the teaching and learning processes into which technology can be adequately integrated.

In the course of this semester, you will need to work independently or cooperatively with others to finish a variety of projects in which different technologies are utilized to support specific curriculum focus. Most projects will require you to demonstrate your understanding of teaching and learning strategies and technology integration to address a learning need for specific grade level and subject domain. Most projects also require you to develop reflective thinking on your own learning experiences of finishing those projects. The final project is a web-based portfolio incorporating all the projects you have developed in this course.

The instructor for your EDIT 2000 class is Rui (Maggie) Hu. This course website will give you important information about this course. The syllabus will give you a basic idea about this course and what to expect during the semester.

Materials needed for this course
--a USB storage device
--a 3-ring binder to keep track of handouts.
--a back-up location for EDIT 2000 files

What to expect in EDIT 2000? Thoughts from past students...

Looking ahead

• Review the syllabus.
• On Wednesday we will set-up your key drive. Have it with you on that day and bring it to class every day.
• For this class, every student needs to have a gmail account, if you don’t have one yet, I will send out an invitation to you.

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