Final Submission - Revised Technology Assessment

1. At the beginning of this course, you were asked to assess your present strengths and weaknesses in technology. Has your assessment changed? If so, how?

                       

From taking the course this semester I was able to added to technology strengths. This semester I learned a lot about instructional technologies for my future library.  One of the information technologies that I learned about this semester includes glogster. Glogster is an online application tool that allows the user to create an online poster.  I learned about the online application tool from an on line discussion group. After reading about the online application tool, I immediately decided to implement the online application tool within my ESL classroom. I have used Glogster in various ways in my ESL classroom. In my ESL level one class, I utilized glogster for my students to write about their first day in the USA experiences.  My students were amazed to see that I could incorporate many videos on a single glog to showcase book talks that were created with Photo Story 3.  This semester I learned about wikis. I implemented wikis in my writing curriculum in my ESL class.  I went to various workshops in order to improve ESL writing because one of the major concerns that was peer editing needed to be done more. So I utilized the idea of the wiki so that my students can peer edit their writing samples. Students could peer edit writing samples of students in other periods.  This semester I was able to add more items to my technology strengths column because before I was only able to use power point as a presentation application tool. I also learned about two other online application tools entitled Animoto and Google docs. 

Joseph Rodriguez

Blog 4: Web 2.0 and It's implications on librarians

Organizing books and materials have always been the responsibility of a librarian. However, with the advancements in technology the way librarians organize books and materials have dramatically changed. Information technology advancement has allowed media specialist to utilize organizational and classification online applications tools to organize and classify books. Also media specialists can now create, store, and share book lists online with others. The implications of this new information technology, such as Web 2.0, include modeling for others how to organize books. Websites such as delicious shows others how websites are tagged and bookmarked. This process in turn is similar to reading strategy entitled a think aloud. Where the user discusses the process by which they complete a task verbally as opposed in their minds. By reading the tags that are associated with the bookmarks other users get ideas on how to tag their own website bookmarks. Consequently, this adds to the concept the Internet is a learning experience where everyone learns from each other.  With this being said, the websites that I have bookmarked on my delicious account include folksonomies, mashups, and web2go.  I believe these tags are more helpful than traditional headings because it leads my to understand how each website is used in education.

Joseph Rodriguez

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/Using Us

The title of the video that you were asked to view this week is "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/Using Us." Referencing what you have learned about Web 2.0 through the readings in the Courtney text and through watching the video, why do you think that Professor Wesch gave this title to the video?
The Machine is Us / Using Us.
Professor Wesch gave the video this title because he wanted to reflect upon the evolution of technology and its future implications. In the past innovators of technology brought about the first desktop computer. The desktop computer was said to do many amazing things faster than a human. I am reminded of the early inventions of the computer created by Charles Babbage that spanned the length on a room. Computers were praised because they had the capability to the many functions. However, the key word here is the “capability”. The computer was built for the capability to perform many functions. However, in the past researched suggested that computers would only be as smart as the user. If the user programmed the computer to perform various functions, then it would. If the user did not have the knowledge to program the computer, then the computer would not be reaching its fullest potential. So essentially we are the machines because the more creative we became the more innovations with computers were developed.  The advancements in technology have brought us to a point where technology is teaching us new concepts and ideas. There are many technologies that aid in student learning. I would have to say that the relationship between machines and us is cyclical. Machines are teaching us and then later in the future we are teaching machines to become more evolved. The internet is allowing the user to learn from each other from all over the world. Through the use of wikis users can edit the information to revise the data. However, this means that educational institutions should be teaching the students how to evaluate the effectiveness of what is read online.

Handheld Devices Blog

Your technology director has given you a budget of $10,000 for the purchase of handheld devices in your library. Using the prices in Chapter 5 of Courtney as a general guideline, what would you purchase and why? Your grade for this blog entry will be based on your justifications for what you purchase and your creative ideas for how to use the handhelds in the library, whether by students, faculty, and/or staff.

Using the 10000 dollar budget, I would purchase Palm TX Handheld PDA from the online vendor Best EZ online store.com. Each PDA is valued at 339 but taking taxes/shipping into consideration I would value the PDA at 370. I would purchase 27 Palm TX Handheld PDA for my library (media center). I would divide the PDA’s for student research and for teacher professional development. As the school librarian or media specialist I see my role as not only assisting student’s access information, but also assisting teacher how to utilize technology so that they too can access information and implement technology into the classroom. 15 of the Palm TX PDA’s will be used to conduct professional development of teachers. The teachers could use these portable devices to log on to PD360 an online professional development network for teachers. The students will have 12 Palm TX PDA at their disposal to conduct research, to listen to book talks, blog about book talks, and view pod casts. The important thing about these portable devices is that the student can take the PDA and listen a book talk to her another student review of the book. The students will also be able to read what other students blogged about the books. These PDA’s will be reinforcing reading, writing, and listening skills for English language learners. I would have the students download the program Graffiti 2 to the Palm TX PDA. Using the Graffiti 2 handwriting recognition is included for data input on the handheld. The dynamic input area can also be used as an onscreen keyboard and you can also write Graffiti anywhere on the screen.

Joseph Rodriguez

Individual Technology Assessment

         As an educator my I have used technology to teach various objectives in all content areas. My strengths include have an advanced knowledge base of Microsoft word, Excel, Power Point, and Access. My weakness includes not knowing about many of the new technologies that are now available to use to integrate into the classroom. I plan to continue to use my strengths in the classroom to enhance my ESL classroom. So far I have used Power Point to practice their writing, reading, listening, and speaking skills in English to create content related presentations. As a math teacher I had my students create Excel programs in which they calculate and identify triangles based upon measurements, determine the midpoint of line segments, and calculate statistics from baseball players.

            However, I would like to address my weaknesses in technology by researching my instructional strategies on how to utilize more technologies. Last year I used the Smart board in my ESL classroom. I would like to learn more ways in which teachers have used smart boards in the ESL classroom. I would like to know more internet based technologies because more of my students are acquiring computers in their homes. They would like to continue to learn when they are not at school. Last year, I used Rosetta Stone online classroom with my ESL students to reinforce their acquisition of English. This was a great experience because the students could log on any computer with internet connection because it was a website and not school based program. Students were not restricted to working on the program only at school.