Week 8 WOW

My Aha’s were that every technology project, except the blog creation was brand new to me. The wiki is still something I am learning how to use efficiently for the possibility to use in my local library. Our library has classrooms open to the city residents to use and I am developing a class to teach to high school students on entrepreneurship. I know that the wiki can be used with Facebook or the success of this project.

My educational philosophy has certainly expanded to new technologies that I had not used before. I am certainly excited about using a wiki in the classroom in the near future. This class has been so fast and I wish it was a full semester for more in depth projects.

Week 7 Reflection

I work with so many teenagers that are unemployed and that is why I created a new wiki. Students can search for jobs and post their findings. This past week, I taught a high school class and was amazed how they did not know how to save a word document properly. Students know hot to use technology for games but sadly lack the skills necessary for employment.
This has changed my instruction because now there is a need for more specificity in my instructions. Instructing students to save a document was not clear to any student. Every student saved the document as document1. I cannot assume that they understand that each word document needs to have a separate file name. Technology is so very important for our students and teachers. I was teaching a lesson plan not created by me and it made me realize that objectives are very important for student success.

212 degrees - The Extra Degree

Week 6

The challenge of technology is sometimes it does not cooperate. I have used an ipod to listen to podcasts since 2005. I saw then that classrooms could use this for projects. I plan to put my presentations about business entrepreneurship for high school students on a podcast. Using podcasts can really streamline a teacher's life. A teacher can record a lecture once and require students to listen. The teacher can use class time to really facilitate learning. The only thing that can stop us from change is fear of doing something new in the classroom. If I could wave a magic wand, I would give every teacher the best laptop and a tech. assistant to help them 24/7. I would want there to be no computer viruses, either!

Week 5 Reflection

I consider myself very technology savvy and especially with the internet. I have been using the internet since the beginning of American Online. The quiz was eye opening and made me pause about sources I have used in the past on research papers for my bachelors degree. I know the past couple of years I have only used peer reviewed journals.

The implications for the future of students is already happening because so many students believe everything they have seen and read on the internet. I see this more with high school students who only get their news from gossip and facebook.

Unfortunately, I do not like the Delicious tool for organizing my bookmarks. I could see using the tool if I had more than 50 bookmarks. I organize simply by school and those for business separately.

Week 4 E-portfolios

A tenet of AFL that I relate to most is AFL should focus on how students learn. I have worked with many students that are just amazing, but fail every test because various of various issues. If there was a focus on how they learn instead then these students could be successful.


The potential for portfolio assessment is immense and I wonder why schools are not using them in every class. A student can grow and succeed in school when given the opportunity to do a portfolio.


The creation and development of my own portfolio is exciting and I can see that this process will be a challenge. I have already learned so much since beginning graduate school. My writing for various research papers has slowly increased in scope and depth and will only get better.

https://sites.google.com/site/mirtzportfolio/

Week 3: Wiki Creation

I have not ever created a wiki, so this was a new experience. I have worked with teenagers for over ten years as a mentor. The past two years has been especially difficult because of the high unemployment rate among teenagers. Many young adults do not have the skills necessary to market themselves in the job market. I have created a wiki that will contain ideas for resumes, internship opportunities and motivation. I work with several successful entrepreneurs that will assist with resources to add to the wiki.
The advantages of wikis are numerous and especially because it is not just information from one person, but collaboration makes a wiki successful. A disadvantage would be that possible different writing styles of various pages could be hard to comprehend for some readers. Students of today will use a technology and be engaged if we give it to them and let them be creative.
https://emerald-ideas.wikispaces.com/

Educational Technology Philosophy

Educational Technology should be at the center of what we teach our students or our youngest students will be behind the rest of the world only their very first day of school. Students today teach us technology that is second nature to them.

Over a year ago, I read an article in Fast Company.
This article was interesting because the teacher involved taught the exact same lesson to all her students. One class used smartphones to create and send videos to their classmates. These particular students all had 100% proficiency in Algebra. Click the link for the magazine to read the full article.

The more I read about technology, the more it is apparent that technology must be a part of almost every lesson plan. Technology is changing and evolving at a more rapid pace every single day. I know technology is important and I realize now that using technology needs to be second nature to me in the classroom for the success of my students.

Educational Philosophy

My educational philosophy is a combination of Constructivism and Idealism. I received my bachelors from a private Christian college. I have seen the power of building and teaching character, morals, and with a concern for the welfare of my fellow man.
I enjoy training and teaching students to learn by the use of different technologies. The learner has the responsibility of being involved in the learning process. My approach to my profession is to be actively engaged in learning strategies and technology.
I know that my educational philosophy has been enhanced with every education course. I enjoy using technology in my life and in the classroom. I hope to learn to use technology for the betterment of my students' lives.