Marc Prensky "critique" article/Final Project Presentation

I was glad to read the article about criticisms of Marc Prensky's view of technology and digital natives. I think the author made several valid claims, and provided actual research to back up his views. Personally, I think it's sad that so many students are either on their phones, their IPods or other devices, even as they walk down the hall or have a "free moment of downtime". It seems that they can't easily tolerate not staying in touch with friends, or being amused by some game, or listening to music. That constant stimulation doesn't allow for much deep thought or reflection, or maybe a different use for their time.

While I can understand their interest and fascination with, or respect of technology, I think in some ways students are missing a more well-rounded life experience. I am always glad to hear about the ones that have pursued a different interest or hobby, one that involves actually producing something tangible or making a difference in the world for other people. I think there are other ways to interact with people, in the real world. And to be fair, I'm sure that I am just not aware of more of these instances. I hope that the media continues to look for these students and makes their contributions known - role models are so important for them.

I think part of my opinion comes from research for my final project - the phenomenon of mobile learning. I have been researching about this topic, and had to learn about the different uses and prevalence of mobile devices for education in today's world. While I can see a place for them, I still see the value in real experiences, with real objects, or going to actual places as in field trips. I think we humans are designed to take advantage of our five senses. With the way education seems to be going, and technology heading toward such a virtual human experience, we may actually be shortchanging students by replacing "authentic" activities with virtual ones. Maybe we will realize that a better balance needs to be maintained to give students a truly well-rounded education. I guess time will tell.

Ideas for Final Project (What I've Learned - Future of Education with Technology

Before I took this course, I had a vague idea of some of the technology "out there in the cloud". But after the last week or so of investigating available tools, apps, etc., I am literally blown away by all the different things I've discovered. I am also fascinated by the fact that they are available "free of charge" and only require establishing an account in order to access them. It seems like I should be paying for such powerful tools!

I wish I had grown up with more technology, so that I could feel it was more a normal part of my life - something I was naturally comfortable using. It is definitely a learning curve, and I am finding that I really need to adjust my perception of technology, my comfort level with trying new things, and my tenacity in trying to solve technological "problems".

Technology seems so natural to my students! I need to keep in mind that they have been surrounded by it, and they absorb knowledge and procedures very easily and readily. Of course, technology that I took for granted as a child my own parents were amazed with and had to learn to use as well. I guess in some ways, there's "nothing new under the sun". And these new technologies will become old-fashioned to future generations, too.

The question for this project is, which direction do I want to take, and what aspect will I want to focus on? I have enjoyed gathering all the information, and find that I go off in different directions, depending on my interest in something. I just need to try and narrow my focus to a particular area. Being a kindergarten teacher, I have tended to tailor my projects to that grade level, but I'm finding that there are more technological possibilities for the older students, due to their more mature skills and abilities.

Whatever direction I head in, I hope that I will be inspired to create a presentation that is unique. Ideally, I would like it to be useful, thought-provoking and visually effective, or maybe fill a niche that hasn't been addressed. Not a tall order, of course :)! I better get started!

Prezi Presentation

After learning the basics about Prezi, I found that it is a very usable tool, and gives a very cutting-edge feel to a presentation. I like how it provides a variety of design choices as far as font, color, size and especially the ability to imbed images or video in a simple manner. It did take me a bit of experimentation with successfully uploading a video, but I felt it was worth putting that in to personalize the presentation. One thing I am still getting used to with Prezi is its path feature. I agree with the tutorial in that viewers of the Prezi can get a little disoriented visually as the path pans from one area to another.

I really like learning about all the different and new ways to use technology - it is amazing! My teaching partner is really excited about incorporating what I've learned into our parent orientation and curriculum night programs for next year!

Second Edition of Classroom Website

I have just "launched" my second edition of our classroom website! When I created the initial edition, it was quite a learning curve! I first needed to understand how to use Weebly. Luckily, it was quite user-friendly, as it resembled using a simplified Microsoft Office Word program. I did find that there were some 'glitches' (things I really didn't understand how to resolve :)), but for the most part, it just took lots of time. One thing I still can't quite figure out is how some things look just fine in the 'edit' mode, but once it is published, things change or shift around. Oh, well, can't be perfect!

Creating the videos was probably the most creative element. I found that using Windows Movie Maker worked nicely, and I eventually got the hang of it the more I used it. Adding my own choice of copyrighted music added to the challenge of getting it uploaded and viewable. I fortunately had the help of our school technology teacher, who steered me to Vimeo, rather than YouTube, which had an issue with the copyrighted tune I had chosen. Vimeo worked just great, and it had a password protection option that I used, to put parents' minds at ease.

Speaking of making videos, I found a whole new appreciation for movie makers! The decisions that have to be made as to shooting footage (angle, action, etc.), along with the editing choices (what to keep, what to throw away), made for time-consuming projects. I ended up editing the majority of my footage, to capture the essence of the moment, or stay true to the message of the video. The first edition of my website included a video with a song I loved, but little did I know about the copyright issue! I had the video length and content just the way I liked it, and so I was very reluctant to try and find copyright free music to accompany it! Live and learn. In the second edition, I took advice of others who steered me toward the freeplaymusic site, and after searching for quite a while, found two songs that would work for my two videos. I tended to look at both the style of music and the length of the MP3 files, to determine which songs to choose. It certainly cut down on my personal choices for music, as I liked being able to choose a familiar song that seemed to perfectly fit the mood of the video. But, beggars can't be choosers!

I also found it a challenge to find appropriate websites for kindergarten students on my second edition, as I wanted to offer all new options. Many had tons of ads, which seemed to diminish the educational emphasis :). I did want to try and choose websites that had some relevance to the website edition's content, and I lucked out with a few of those. I will probably have to search other teachers' websites for their top choices, as they have probably had some experience with them.

So, I feel that the website experience has been worth it. I'm glad that the parents are enjoying it. One told me today that she loves the site, and that her preschool son especially loves the videos. Nice to hear that from such a youngster! Well, on to the next project :).