Reaction to Todd Oppenheimer's article

Tedd Oppenheimer mentioned that technology can rather have a negative impact on students’ success when it is used constantly in schools. Schools today are forgetting about the basic fundamentals that are essentials but rather are more focused on how to advance their schools technologically. Schools are shortening physical education, art, and music to increase time for computers and other technologies, and spending more than enough money on technologies while it should be used for other classroom and school materials and equipment, such as books, tables, chairs, etc. Students should be able to be active and moving around in class being interactive rather than staring at a computer screen all day. Schools and classrooms should never forget the basic structures as a classroom should have a teacher, for a person-to-person interaction, and books rather than both the teacher and the books being replaced with computers and other technologies.  

Useful Technology for teachers

Pear Deck

• make slideshows 
• able to view progress of each student
• NEED Google Drive to use
• able to view students' response to each questions
• not able to collaborate with other teachers

Google Docs

• students are able to collaborate to work on a project or to write a paper
• NEED google account
• slides= powerpoint
• sheets=excel

Class Dojo

• for classroom management & engagement
• to manage the students' behavior
• App
• can view it for whole class or individual student
• messenger
• parents can be updated and notified on how their child is doing in class
• over 20 different languages
• can see who (teachers) are using this website
• parent can only see information about their children

FactMonster

• interactive activities for different subjects
• different homework resources
• cannot choose grade level but can choose the subject area
• in depth information about each state

InstaGrok

• similar to Google
• search engine
• concept map about the topic
• journal
• quizzes
• keeps a report of your history

PBS Kids

• game- Super Market Mania
• like a board game
• choose gender
• mini games within a game
• for younger children

Flip Snack

• Flip Snack classroom 
• different versions (free, paid)
• can link to social media
• different resources all in one 
• can be downloaded, edited, and shared

PowToon, Thinglink, Meme

I used the three technologies, PowToon, Thinglink, and Meme, but I had the hardest time with Thinglink. I was not sure on how to create a Thinglink and how to navigate through. The assignment was to include an image, a video, and an article, but I did not know how to add all three into one Thinglink. I thought that PowToon was pretty interesting and fun because we got to create an animation for the topic and do a voice over, however, it was also quite complicated. The Meme was easy and fun to do but it was not too easy to create a Meme with only few words.

Thinglink

https://www.thinglink.com/video/719013081597870082

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/719012358743130114

Powtoon

https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/dcaiBQAlE2w/the-use-of-social-media/#/

Meme

New Game

This is a math game where as you go up the levels the math questions become more difficult. The game player can also choose what level of math they want, algebra, geometry, calculus, etc. The motive of the game is to get as many questions correct and earn points to buy new items to decorate and customize the background and to open mini games using the points they earned.

Gaming

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world?language=en (Links to an external site.)

        I watched the “Gaming can make a better world?” by Jane Mcgonigal. The speaker, Jane Mcgonigal, emphasizes how playing games is actually really good. Gaming can evolve and make our world better for the future. Mcgonigal emphasizes the four virtuous pints gaming has: Urgent Optimism, Social Fabric, Blissful Productivity, and Epic Meaning. Urgent Optimism, as Mcgonigal states, is the “desire to act immediately to tackle an obstacle combined with a belief that we have a reasonable hope of success.” Gamers have the optimism and the desire to play and win the game. The second one is Social Fabric. This is the belief that gamers like people better when they play games with them, even if they were defeated by the other person.  Gamers believe that when someone is playing a game with them, then they are spending time with them, which builds bonds, trust, and cooperation. The next one is Blissful productivity. Gamers are happier and enjoy the time working hard doing something they like rather than just relaxing. Gamers are willing to work hard if they are given the right work. The last one is Epic meaning. Gamers like being attached to missions, and gaming gives them an epic knowledge to build an epic story. These four powers, Urgent Optimism, Social Fabric, Blissful Productivity, and Epic Meaning, add up to Super empowered hopeful individuals. This is the belief that gamers are capable of changing the world. However, the problem is that gamers believe that they are only capable of changing the virtual world and not the real world.

Before we had game controllers, there were dice and other game equipment made out of sheep’s knuckles. In ancient history, Herodotus, King of Lydia, invented a game during a famine to help his people to survive and forget that they had no food to eat by eating one day and playing games the next day without eating because the people who were playing games were so engaged and into games that they would forget about their hunger. These people survived for 18 years with this life style during the famine. After the famine, the king let his people play one last game with dice. The winners of the game would go on an adventure out of their country and find a new place to live to expand their civilization. Later studies showed that the DNA of the Etruscans and the DNA of the ancient Lydians shared the same DNA. This invention of the dice game helped save their culture.

The one quote that stood out to me was “Games are a platform for change.” This was stated towards the end of the video to wrap up Mcgonigal’s idea about how gaming can change, help, and save the world for a better future.

            This video relates to all the readings because it all shows how technology, specifically gaming can help improve the human brain and our world. Through gaming people can learn several skills useful for everyday life and even learn test taking skills. 

Tree Map & Double Bubble

TPACK or RAT

TPACK and RAT are both ways to integrate technology into education. When compared between TPACK and RAT, I like the TPACK method better as it is straightforward and simpler to understand. TPACK stands for Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge, while RAT stands for Replacement, Amplification, and Transformation.  The TPACK framework gives a venn diagram that explains exactly what the purpose is and how it used. TPACK method is to show that someone could be a technology expert but that does not mean that that person is great at teaching, while someone else could be an excellent teacher but  might not know how to integrate technology into his/her lesson, and another person might know what to teach his/her students but does not know how to teach or incorporate technology into his/her content. So the purpose of TPACK is to find the middle ground for the Content knowledge, the Pedagogical knowledge, and the Technological knowledge.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Give 2 examples of how you might be able to reach each of the upper 3 levels of the Bloom’s New Taxonomy in your subject area by using technology:

Analysis
1.Students gathering information about their favorite animals and to compare and contrast the animals within each other. 
2. Students will list out what they learned in class and let other students check whether that answer is correct without a teacher's help. If the answer is wrong, then the student who is checking has to write the correct answer and validate it. 

Evaluating
The teacher will pick a topic for the day and post articles and information about that topic on the wall.
1.Students will review and write comments on the wall relating to the article posts and the information.
2.Students will collaborate on a work related to the topic on the wall and critique each other on one's work.

Creating
Students are given a set of materials and supplies.
1. Students will build a new technology or machine to complete a specific task.
2. Students will create a new website, such as a blog, to share about what they learned through the new technology they created.  

Jenkins Participatory Culture

Jenkins Participatory Culture

I like how Jenkins shows all sides to the use of media and technologies.  Under the title "The Needed Skills in the New Media Culture" it provides the readers with young students who are using technology to make a difference. These teens showed that although they are young, with the help of technology they were able to do something teens could not do in the past. Jenkins also mentions about how the youth should be taught about media literacy and the three problems to to why they should be taught: the participation gap, transparency problem, and the ethics challenge.

Learning Lab

Learning Lab

This article shows how various technologies are made available for students in different areas. The Learning Lab project is a great way for students to learn and use the numerous technologies that are not something that we can see in our everyday lives. As more and more new technologies are made available for the youth, our youth and our generation can grew up to become more technologically advanced. With more youth using these technologies for work, to learn, and to teach, teens will not only think of media and technologies as a way to kill time or something to just stare at for hours. Students will be able to use the numerous technologies to create a more advanced world.

Nichole Pinkard on Digital Literacies

Nichole Pinkard on Digital Literacies (Links to an external site.)

This is a short 7 min. video about the Digital Youth Network (DYN) in Chicago. This shows that students today use and rely on technology for every day use and for most of the school works. Schools today require students to use computers and technologies for various ways, such as for standardized tests, research, and as learning tools for lessons and in class. As the society is moving more towards into a technologically advanced community, the YOUmedia that the Chicago Public Library provided was excellent, as it provided as space for teens to use the technologies for various ways.

ToonDoo

ToonDoo

    When I began making my ToonDoo, I was confused on what and how to do it. But, as I got used to what each icon did, it was not as bad as I thought when I first began. Creating a ToonDoo and deciding on which setting, character, props, etc. to use was fun as there were so many choices and options I could choose from.
    I might use a ToonDoo in the future to represent something that may seem boring or have a boring topic into something less boring with pictures, characters, and dialogue bubbles.
    ToonDoos are a great teaching tool for teachers. This can attract the students' attention and interest since it has color and not just a paper or a page full of words, but rather a page full of colorful pictures and dialogues bubbles, which are easier and simpler for students to read. One thing I would like to recommend is to use the various available icons. The teacher can not only use the pictures and characters that are available in here, but he/she can also bring in their own picture into their ToonDoo. By bringing in their own pictures, the teacher can put his/her students' face to make the ToonDoo more personal to the students, making the lesson incorporated with the ToonDoo to become more interesting and to grab the students' attention.

Shift Happens

Shift Happens

Interesting and "AHA moment" information

• "India has more honor kids than U.S. has kids"
• "China will be the number one English speaking country"
• "There are 1.3 billion Facebook users"
• "By 2017, knowledge will double every 12 hours"

Technology

Technology has changed rapidly throughout the years. My group-mates and I came up with couple of technologies we rely on today that were not around five to ten years ago. People use apps all the time and some of them are messaging apps. I am Korean and have family and friends in Korea and other countries. Five to ten years ago, communicating with people in other countries were not as easy as it is today, it was either pay extra money for international calls, emails, or mails, but with messaging apps, such as Kakaotalk, communicating with international friends and families is just a click away, and its free! Another technology is e-book or nooks. Instead of carrying around heavy, bulky, big books around in your bag, e-books contain all the books in one device. Also, buying books in this device is a lot cheaper than buying tangible books.