Thursday, April 26, 2012

WEEK THREE
Hello readers! It's, Kelsey Higgins here with an update from this week's class. This week, we learned how to make a Google survey and then make a presentation about our survey results on PowerPoint. I thought it was very interesting and cool to learn how to make a survey and then see the results from what people were asked.
In general, I love that surveys offer such diversity. People come from all walks of life, so having anonymous surveys gives each person the chance to not only answer truthfully, but give their differing opinions to each question.
After surveyed at least 10 people, we had to take the results and make a PowerPoint presentation about it. I thought it was really cool seeing the diverse answers to each question I asked. My focus for my survey was Facebook. I had surveyors range in ages from 15 years old to over 26 years old. I am glad I not only had different ages but different genders. 
I think that making a survey and seeing the results is a great skill to have for when I become an educator. I can easily make a survey for my students and ask them questions about the content they are learning. I think getting their honest opinion on whether or not they know it is really important to me. If I taught something and many students seemed confused, surveying them and asking questions about the content that was taught would be a great idea. It is also important as a teacher to use PowerPoints to help get points across. If I surveyed my students about what they were confused on and then showed the results via PowerPoint, it would show that they are not the only one confused with the subject. I think that the PowerPoint project and Google survey works well with digital age learning, student learning, digital age work, and digital citizenshp in the ISTE standards.
Look for a blog next week! Thanks for the read! 

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Week 2

Hello again! I am going to write about my experience in EDCT 203, on my 2nd week being here. The first thing we did was learn how to do an interactive power point. Throughout my life as a student, I have seen many power points. Yet, the power points I remembered the most were the animated and most interactive power points. Therefore, I was excited to learn how to make an interactive power point, so when I become a future educator, I will have the confidence that my students will remember some aspect of my power points. Being a science teacher, it is going to take me more than just writing on a chalk board to get my students to fully wrap their brains around chemical equations and other information they plan on learning. 
In class, we learned how to do an interactive quiz on the power point. I learned how to make cool transitions from one slide to the next, and even animations. Looking at power points without any animation can be very boring and hard to remember. Being able to look at a power point and see videos, listen to sounds, and make an interactive quiz will keep my students' attention and focus. 
We also learned how to make a Wiki page that day. I have always heard about wiki pages, but I was never sure what it was fully about. After EDCT 203, I had a full understanding of what Wiki pages were used for and how to make them. I learned how to make a homepage as well as a resource page. I also learned how to hyperlink addresses on the wiki and how to put a video on my wiki page as well. I plan on using my wiki page by giving as much information about the subjects I am teaching in class so my students can look at outside sources when studying for my class. I plan on posting multiple videos on the topics discussed in class as well as hyperlinks to a plethora of websites that could aide them in their success. I think that using the power points work well with digital age learning and student learning with the ISTE standards. 
I am excited for what Week 3 has to offer! I will keep you updated soon! 
Thanks for reading!
Kelsey Higgins

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Week 1 of EDCT 203



On March 29th, 2012, my EDCT 203 class met for the first time. I was excited about this class, but was also a  bit nervous. I would not say I am completely delusional when it comes to technology, but at the same time, I would not consider myself superior to my peers when it comes to technology.

       As soon as I entered class, my reservations about the class completely disappeared. My professor, Dr. Akyeampong, made each student feel welcome by allowing ourselves to introduce each other and made us feel welcome to the class and the syllabus. The four hours our class was together, professor Akyeampong taught the class on how to create a blog, turn a word document into a PDF, hyperlink websites from different documents and sources, and create a proper word document with an easy-to-read format!

I look forward to learning as much as I can from EDCT 203. I think that learning how to make websites, word documents, and other technology-related items will help me succeed as a teacher. the 21st century is all about technology. While I always thought I would be the type of teacher that would strictly use the chalk board with limited amounts of PowerPoints and Smart Boards, I don't think that would be beneficial to both my students and myself. Using technology in many ways will like power points, blogs, and smart boards will help those students who learn more effectively through visuals. Being able to use the blog as a future educator would be amazing because I could write a blog a week there my students could look at and comment if they had any questions about the materials we discussed in class. I think this week we related well to the, "Digital Age learning" and "Digital Age network" with regards to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

Expect a blog from me next week! I look forward to next week's class and I am excited to see what I get to learn.