Summary of Learning

I decided to use the tool Emaze to create a presentation based on what I have learned from my class Principles of Instructional technologies. Emaze is a great tool to make presentations with! I chose it because I liked the layout of it and the way that it is visually appealing to an audience. It was very easy to use and helped me keep my presentation organized. There were also many options to make it my own while using a premade format.

The biggest thing I will take away from this class will most likely be all the tools that we learned about. There are so many ways to use these tools in a classroom. These tools will benefit students as long as they are introduced to them and are shown how to use them. Technology is constantly growing and it is only getting bigger. A lot of schools are trying to incorporate technology more so by taking this class and learning about different ways to make technology useful to students, I can guide them in the right direction. I will also take away the blended learning concept and always keep in mind that it is okay to give students some freedom.

Because I am studying to be an art teacher, it is going to be hard for me to incorporate technology into my classroom. By using the cool tools, I have had the time to think about what I can do to make sure that my classroom can have some technology in it. The easiest way for me to use these tools is to use them for reflections on art projects, and art critiques. I may also have my older students use the tools if I decide to make them research an artist. There are many ways I can continue to brainstorm how I can use technology. After this class, I know how important technology in a classroom is.

Overall, I really benefited from this class and plan to take this knowledge to a new level in my art classroom. Below I have embedded a summary of what I learned in this class!

Major Project

Hey guys! I decided to learn how to make origami for my Major Project! I made a separate blog for this project so feel free to check it out!

Major Project

Triangle, Square, Circle

This is my responce regarding a presentation by David Jakes on developing digital spaces for learning.

Student Created Ebooks

Ebooks are starting to become more and more beneficial to both students and teachers in a classroom. They are not only saving the school money, but they are more interactive for students and when used in the right way they can motivate students to want to read and write.

I recently read an article and watched a presentation by Jon Smith about a teacher's positive experience with the use of ebooks and how much it motivated his students. Before, I never realized that ebooks would improve writing skills of students because when I hear ebooks, I think about reading. But it is way more than that. When reading this article, the app Book Creator was mentioned and is a perfect example that shows how we as teachers can make writing more fun. We can have them create their own books with this app, which allows them to add pictures, video, audio and can be published. This will have a great effect on students because they will have fun learning how to properly write and will be doing it with something that makes it fun. This will also have a positive effect on teachers because the students will be excited to learn and will give their teacher their attention.

I also feel that there are a lot of benefits for students and teachers because there will be more motivated to write and teach. the students will want to write because it's exciting and the teachers will be more motivated because the students will be more excited.

This will be hard for me to use in my classroom because I will be in an art classroom. If I did want
to though, I would be able to use the Book Creator app and have my students research an artist. Instead of having them write a boring paper, I could allow them to make their essay into a book form which would allow them to show more creativity. I will just have to consider how I can make this experience a positive and beneficial one for them though.

Jon Smith definitely opened my eyes and helped me understand what ebooks can do for a classroom. I think the thing that stood out to me the most from what he said was his project "The World Is My Audience."He made a huge impact on the students he had by publishing their books. This gave the students a lot of confidence and probably made them feel good about themselves. Not only did he help these kids create a huge accomplishment, but he improved their reading and writing skills in a new unique way.

Popplet: A poppin way to create concept maps

Popplet is a great way for your students to create concept maps! This tool is perfect for middle school and up. It is very easy to use and easy to stay organized. You can add pictures and videos, which is perfect for visual learners. I used this app for the first time to make a timeline for one of my own projects and it really helped me stay organized.

Some of popplet's features include different fonts, easy access to color coding, easy to combine different ideas, and easily connects ideas. I would personally use this tool because of the organization that it would provide for my students thought process. I am studying to be an art educator so it would be nice for me to see how my students are planning to organize and understand their thought processes. I could then use their ideas and help make sure they are headed in the right direction.

Besides an art classroom, this mapping tool would be perfect for a student trying to plan out a project, a paper, and even in my case with my project. This tool not only gives students a way to organize, but the teacher can understand the students through the process and will make it easier for the teacher to give them feedback.

There are some cons to this tool that I do feel educators considering using this should be aware of. You have to create a personal account which may be a setback for some classrooms depending on age. It also does not have spell check which may or may not be an issue. I do highly recommend this tool at least for students to have for their thought process.

Teacher Awareness of Copyright

Copyright is extremely important for students, teachers, and really anyone who is using a source that doesn't belong to them. Many students and teachers may not realize that some of the simple things they take from the internet can be considered stolen, or realize the penalties for not giving an author credit to their work.

As a future teacher, I think it is important to keep in mind that I need to make sure I am using sources that are credible and that I am giving those sources credit so I can avoid the consequences. The internet is a great source for teachers to obtain information for themselves and students, but after reading an article that gave information about fair use and copyright for teachers, I realized how serious this can become. Penalties for not citing sources can result in up to $100,000 for each act of plagiarism. It is also important for teachers to look over the policies that their school district has for discipline because in some cases when charged with copyright violations, they will not be provided with legal support from their district.

Knowing this means that educators have a lot of responsibility to make sure this information is given to their students. Because I am going to be an art teacher, I will have to make sure that I am teaching my students how to cite sources if they are doing a paper for me. I will also want them to be aware of how important it is to cite other artists work when using it for their o
wn uses. I feel it is important to explain to them that downloading music and videos. I want to teach at a middle school and high school grade level so I believe this is important information that they need to understand. Many kids this age do not understand that it is illegal to download music and movies because they simply believe it is free. But what they don't know is that they could get into legal trouble for doing this. I currently do not know how I want to bring awareness to my students, but I definitely feel it is extremely important.

Another responsibility I will have as a teacher is to understand the importance of the four creative license elements. These elements consist of attribution, share-alike, non-commercial, and no derivative works. These elements can be applied to all work under copyright such as images, blog posts, articles, books, etc.

Overall I strongly believe that teachers should be aware of how important it is to make sure you are following the copyright laws. I also believe that no matter what subject that you teach, it is important to make sure you give your students background of this knowledge so you can prevent them from getting in trouble in the future.

Why Digital Citizenship is Important

The internet is constantly growing and there are many ways people can be involved with it. Becoming a teacher means that you are going to have students who are involved with the internet and are learning how to use it. The problem with this is that some students may not understand what responsibilities come along with the use of social media and the internet which is why it is important that we teach them what digital citizenship is.

Digital citizenship is one of the first steps that we can take to become more literate with media in the 21st century.  It offers a lot of opportunities and can help us make the internet safer for students. After reading about digital citizenship, I realize how much it means to me personally as well as professionally. Something that really stood out to me was how important digital security is. Knowing that whatever I do on the internet can affect my personal life really opened my eyes. It made me realize that my students may not have an understanding of this which is why I feel that it is so important to make sure that they know to be ethical when using the internet. 

I have not personally been a victim of cyberbullying but I do know people that have been. I think a big reason that we have these problems is that kids are not being taught that not only are they being disrespectful and hurtful to others, but they are creating an image of themselves that can stay with them forever through their digital footprint. By teaching our students what digital citizenship is, we will be teaching them a safe way for them to use the internet and that cyberbullying is the same thing as bullying but just over a screen. 

In my classroom, I would try to make a lesson to bring up the importance of ethics and what they mean in social media. I would also make sure that I show my students how important it is to watch what they search on the internet and how to be safe when doing so. I believe that a lot of adults feel that if they don't explain the dangers that are on the internet that somehow they will be avoided. But what they don't understand is that the internet is not going anywhere and kids are going to get curious. If we take the time to help students understand digital citizenship, we help to inform kids about the dangers and they will be safer in the future

This being said, I highly recommend that we as educators research digital citizenship in more depth and that we try to incorporate it into our classrooms.