Donna's Technology Class Blog

This coming Tuesday, February 5, 2014 is Digital Learning Day. You can check out the national activities  here . In order to join in the activities, my classes are going on an Internet treasure hunt. I used a free program for teachers by AT & T Knowledge Network Explorer called Filamentality . It was pretty easy to use to create the Web Treasure Hunt;  I just followed the simple instructions. My program director asked for a web quest on the topic of community parent resources, so I chose the closest hospital, pediatric dentist and pediatrician, DMV and food stamp programs. Then I asked basic questions that could be easily found on each website. The "web quest" format seemed a bit difficult for my ESL learners, so I used the more basic "Treasure Hunt." I hope they will be able to find the information easily. In case you are interested in trying this for yourself, here's the link Parent Resource Treasure Hunt Please leave a comment below if you d...

Update: I've been working with several local adult education agencies. I was hired to teach basic "digital literacy" to adult learners, both GED and ESL classes. I am learning that it's not enough to just know how a computer works or how to access the internet. I need to make the material accessible and understandable for all the students, no matter their literacy level and English-speaking skill. Although I will admit that the English-speaking skill is more of a barrier. I sometimes have a translator, and some students bring their tutor to class to help them learn the "technology jargon." But most of the time, I have to come up with concrete explanations for words like "Malicious software" or "Malware." It's a challenge to describe "malicious" to someone who thinks that word sounds like "delicious." I am enjoying the journey. I rejoice in each small step. This last week my 6 ESL ladies each sent their first ...

I am working at our local community center in a 6-week summer day camp program. Our themes are sustainable, green, and healthful living. The 40 students are mostly ESL, and at risk for summer learning loss. They have project-based classes in cooking, yoga, community mapping, art, theater, and even gardening. All the while the students are improving their English literacy and math skills--the learning is hidden in all the fun! They take a trip to local organic farms twice a week, working on the farm in different areas each visit. They learn where their food comes from, bring it back to the cafeteria, and prepare it into delicious snacks. My job is to give them some basic digital literacy skills.Today, I integrated technology with a yoga instructor and a group of 2nd and 3rd graders. They had to type in a URL, pick a kids yoga pose from the site and demonstrate it for their friends and the yoga instructor. Then we took pictures of each pose for the kids to create a book or poster of thei...

This school year has been an incredible challenge. I was assigned to a rural high minority school. My students had lots of educational challenges. I had to learn to make my computer-curriculum relevant to them. I began with their learning the keyboard, then progressed to keying simple reports for their English Language Arts (ELA) teacher. After practicing keying personal-business letters from the textbook, my students wrote their own letters or email to a favorite sports team, recording artist or company. The students loved getting letters, pictures, and even discount cards back in thanks for their input. This not only demonstrated that the students had met the standard of being able to write a grammatically correct letter, but they also learned that they could communicate with "real" people outside their social circles. A third lesson I got to experience was some Web Site Evaluation skills. The eighth grade ELA teacher and I coordinated on a unit about Internet research....

Assignment: Reflect on the learning activity and implementation plans you developed in Weeks 6 and 7. How does your completed assignment demonstrate your learning in this course?     I developed a lesson plan that combined South Carolina 6 th grade science inquiry standards with my computer literacy standards (NETS). In this lesson, students used a simple computer game entitled, Crayon Physics on the interactive white board in my classroom. The students had to draw lines, wedges, levers, and other simple machines to propel a ball to hit a target marked by a star. Students spontaneously began using scientific language such as "force," "momentum," and "gravity." They used their critical thinking and problem solving skills to successfully complete each level. The students worked collaboratively to advance through the increasingly difficult levels. This demonstrates my learning in this course because I used a new technology in a standards-based lesson. I als...

My last class, EDUC-6715I-1 New and Emerging Technologies, at Walden University has challenged me to look at online learning modules such as Moodle and RCampus. The link below demonstrates what I have learned while reading this week's resources. http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWHD6GWrqJ9sZGRmd3pxeF8yMzRocnEyZmo&hl=en