Reflection on Chapter 12

Educational technology literacy is the ability not only to use technology, but also to apply the technology toward enriching instruction and student learning. Educators must grasp that by using technology to enhance instruction, student achievement will accelerate. The students already know the technology; it is the teacher that lags behind in this area. When the teacher takes the position of indifference toward learning technology skills, the student suffers the consequence. The same is true for administrators. Believe me, the spirit of indifference toward technology by our administrators is alive and well in our schools today. All too often when communicating with district administrators or principals, the conversation on their end begins with, “Well, I’m not computer literate…,” and they begin their spill. And I think to myself, “You’re not computer literate enough to run a report that directly relates to your job, but I know you know how to shop online because I’ve seen you do it.” To me, it is a choice. It is a choice of whether or not someone “wants” to stay up with the times to stay on top of their jobs, or whether they choose to be lazy since they are “not technology literate”. You see, shopping online is an acquired technology skill. They learned how to perform that skill because they wanted to. The skill of running a report out of a user-friendly software package can be easily acquired if the “want to” exists. Oftentimes, because the “want to” does not exist, we try to enforce acquired skills upon educators and administrators. We do this by requiring they complete some type of training or professional development. Sometimes, educators realize the potential in technology literacy, and for others, they just claim credit for attending the workshop. Sure our state and our school districts have intentions of meeting the No Child Left Behind mandates that students are technology literate by the end of 8th Grade, and educators are technology literate by 2008. But the true plan of action is non-existent. Each district is left to determine their way of accomplishing this. It is no easy feat, but with the technologies out there at our fingertips, it really should be doable. Our state Superintendent of Education is very supportive of technology. In fact, he utilizes it to address the public on a weekly basis through his Monday Memo, which can be accessed at http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/MondayMemo. Dr. Bounds has stated that he wants every high school student to have the experience of taking an online course. I think another beneficial action would be for teachers to be required to do the same, but not just on a one time basis. As the chapter pointed out, each state has their own licensure requirements. I think that if teachers were required to take an online professional development course at least every 2 years, they would become technologically literate and begin to utilize technology to enhance instruction which would ultimately mean higher student achievement.

Reflections on Chapter 11

There is an ever increasing use of technology in classrooms around the world. Countless corporations create hardware and produce software to enhance the education process for both teachers and students. With all of this technology on the market, consumers can often get confused or frustrated when trying to learn a new program. That is why many companies offer training to better incorporate the programs into everyday lessons.To help educators make their way through the maze of technology, companies offer resources that range from short pamphlets to week-long conferences. Any company looking to keep up with the technological advances and market demand will have to make sure buyers know how to use the software.Most of the top software makers provide professional development resources. Microsoft, for example, provides tutorials, lesson plans for teachers, and articles that provide easy-to-follow instructions. Another example is WebCT. Their organization offers online training as well as on site workshops.Other companies that provide technological software and products for the classroom also offer training support. Some of these companies include Adobe, Apple, Inspiration, and Annenberg Media. Adobe offers a wide array of training to meet individual needs. Online resources combine with self-paced or instructor-led courses, certification programs, professional development workshops, and seminars to help teachers learn how to use the technology. Inspiration, on the other hand, offers quick tours of software products, quick start tutorials, training CDs, and classroom product tours. Both companies offer online support as well.Of all the top manufacturers, it is perhaps Apple that provides the greatest training opportunities. Apple's programming is user friendly and provides a wide variety of multimedia applications for use in the classroom. Apple also provides opportunities to learn not only how to use the programs, but also offer tools to help teachers integrate the technology into their lesson plans.Costs of the various training programs range depending on the type of program that is being conducted. Obviously on-site workshops are more expensive than training manuals. Some companies however, like Annenberg Media's Learning.org, provide professional development for teachers free of charge.Overall, it is in the corporation's best interests to make sure that users know how to operate the hardware and software to the fullest of its potential. After all, if a program is hard to use, then people are less likely to purchase the product.

Reflections on Chapter 10

There are beliefs about learning and teaching that are shared by all distance educators. They include the premise that learning and teaching can occur in different places and at different times and that teachers and learners can communicate effectively through electronic and print media. However, the true challenge comes when a teacher or student waits on communication instant feedback an individual receives in a class that is not available. There is general agreement also that distance education is the only cost-effective way of distributing scarce expertise, and making it available on demand. The ability of distance education to deliver instruction on demand is important for business and industry, which have to find ways of providing training and retraining, throughout the year and on the job, in response to ever-changing market conditions. While there might be agreement about these benefits of distance education, there are two distinctly different perceptions about how resources should be organized to bring about these benefits. One of these views is very common, yet the future success of the field depends on a wider acceptance of the other. The schools that have long distance should look into investing in an around the clock service so that demands could be meet. Graduate students can meet some of those needs through an on-line commutation lab. The American idea of distance learning remains a very limited one. It is usually seen as the addition of high technology communications media in otherwise conventionally organized and taught classes. Because there is still a craft view of teaching, most distance education programs suffer from being under resourced. Administrators should look into creating a distance learning program that is funded solely for distance learning environments. A working environment creates an open line of communication that helps everyone contribute.

Reflections on Chapter 9

Today, with the increase in Internet connection speeds, advances in technology, the increase of total number of people online, and the decrease in connection costs it has become increasingly common to find traditional television content accessible freely and legally over the Internet. In addition to this, new Internet-only television content has appeared which is not distributed via cable, satellite, or terrestrial systems. Internet television utilizes the connections of the Internet to deliver video from a source to a target device. Teachers use this technology to bring classes together outside the normal classroom. Some of the ways in which Internet delivered television is used include: A digital camera capable of downloading images to a computer for transmission over the Internet or other network. A digital camera is capable of downloading images to a computer for transmission over the Internet or other network which give students the capabilities of a visual interpretation. Webcam software typically captures the images as JPEG or MPEG files and uploads them to the Web server. There are countless Webcam sites on the Internet that have cameras pointed at virtually everything. They provide videos of people going about their daily work as well as offering the online equivalent of the live audience. NetMeeting is a multi-point videoconferencing that has included in many versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 95 to Windows XP. It uses the protocol for video and audio conferencing, and is interoperable with based clients such as Internet Locator Service as reflector. NetMeeting was a popular way to perform video conferences and chatting over the Internet with the help of public ILS servers. This capability provides a learning shared environment, which a question or answer can be shared and gather to further the learning process.

Reflections on Chapter 8

Not all school websites are created equal. Some look nearly primitive while others appear professionally designed. But classroom web sites greatly improve communications with students, parents, and community. Communication is improved in ways that parents can monitor what their children are doing in class. The majority are simple vehicles for communicating the news and happenings of the school or the school district. You might be able to read a digital version of the school's newsletter but, which can help you know what to look towards in the future. There are several reasons for the investment in many school sites. School districts can afford to hire professional web designers or pay a staff member to be the webmaster. These webmasters are sometimes paid, which helps explain why so many school websites are not updated regularly and may appear neatly assembled. This is how a website can improve home-to-school communications.
Well-designed school websites can meet the specific needs of users and be a valuable bridge between home, school, and the community. This is confirmed what I already knew busy parents and students rely on web-based information, so it's only natural they would look to the Internet for news about their school and educational support. I learned that involving all parties in the website development process results in universal use, and support of the website and a school. The process is rewarding for everyone involved. Not only is it a vehicle for teaching the students web skills, but it also helps parents gain involvement with their kid school and value their community.

Reflections on Chapter 7

Streaming is a method of delivering an audio and video signal to your computer over the Internet, and differs from the normal method of receiving Internet audio and video in one important way instead of having to download a wav, au or other type of file completely before being able to listen to it and see, you hear the sound and see the video as it arrives at your computer, and therefore do not have to wait for a complete download which would be difficult with a live broadcast anyway!As the data arrives it is buffered for a few seconds and then playback begins. As the audio is playing, more data is constantly arriving or streaming, and as long as you are receiving a constant stream of data, you should hear constant audio. Obviously you'll need a soundcard, speakers or headphones and the appropriate software for this all to work. Think of a bucket the buffer with a hole in the bottom, being topped up with water the data. As long as there is water in the bucket, it will continue to pour out of the hole, and will do this as long as there is water in the bucket. Similarly, as long as there is data in the buffer, you will continue to hear sound. Unfortunately the buffer can empty due to congestion on the Internet which may stop you from receiving data this explains the net congestion buffers the message so you may see from time to time with the RealAudio software. Media has been altered by web-casting. Web-casting is used for live events where there can be potentially many viewers. Web-casting delivers one stream to many students simultaneously. It is essential to note that streaming serves require the appropriate hardware, network connections, and basic usage knowledge. The advantages can be seen through the creativity in the classroom, by students being able to visualize or receive auditory instructions. This type of media will help the classroom environment through communication and complex streaming.

Reflections on Chapter 6

Authoring systems are computer based programs that help non-programmers create applications. They vary in the features they provide, in the cost, and their usage. Most authoring systems also support a scripting language for more sophisticated applications. Authoring systems vary widely in orientation, capabilities, and learning curve. There is no such thing as a completely point-and-click automated authoring system; some knowledge of thinking and design is necessary. Whether you realize it or not, authoring is actually just a faster form of programming. Authoring programs can be categorized by the way in which they work. Authoring encompasses the Web site creation process that incorporates Languages. I know you all have seen those Languages many in which I today I do not know what all of them mean such as; HTML, SGML, SVG, XHTML, and XML. I could inform you on what all of those mean but why bother, just know that authoring systems uses them to make our lives easier. There are dozens of authoring programs form which teaching and learning is used. Teachers can build content where their students will have to react to situations that help them better understand their work. You can author questions and assessments using a Windows-based program or a browser with a server-based system. Windows-based authoring, which requires that software be installed on your PC, provides a powerful environment for creating simple and complex questions and assessments. MAC also offers some basic and complex programs to help the interaction with students. The advantage of authoring programs is that students can see how visualization is structured to make it easy for the learner. For instance, the flexibility to create this online course through authoring systems gives you the ability to read and interact on the reaction and thoughts of this very question. This helps provide a completely integrated E-Learning tool. It is no longer necessary to sit in the classroom to learn about systems from one outlet there are many, an authoring tool from another, and collaboration tools from a third. Whether you decide to learn the traditional classroom method by attending class or interacting with others outside the classroom, there are many versatile authoring systems that a teacher can give control to a student so that they may be active rather than passive participant. These programs include sound, incorporate text, graphics, video, and animation. Regardless of which system is used the authoring program can make the development process efficient and cost effective.

Reflections

As an advocate of equity for all children, I challenge the common, though usually unarticulated, assumption that the American educational "mainstream" is white, middle class, male-dominant, English-speaking, without disabilities and of Anglo-American culture. The corollary of this assumption is that other girls and boys-poor, or racially, culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse, or with disabilities exist on the educational periphery as exceptions with special problems to be corrected, deficits to be made up, and needs to be met before they are fit to join the educational "mainstream." The logic of this view divides our children between two student bodies - "mainstream" and peripheral and defines two distinct sets of educational parameters, making it seem natural to measure the quality of education by "mainstream" achievement while equity is measured by the extent to which peripheral boys and girls are given access to educational offerings and experiences designed to meet the needs and characteristics of "mainstream" students. It is this dualistic imaging of students that allows some to frame debate about national educational equity. I reject the exclusionary approach for which the term "mainstream" has become a code word. Our children are of both genders, many nations, every ethnic group and all economic backgrounds. They speak many languages, reflect all types and conditions, and represent all individual talents and abilities. And they are as different from each other within their groupings boy to boy, Latina to Latina, African American girl to African American boy, and so on - as they are different from each other by group. In all their diversity, they make up the true mainstream of our student population and it is our responsibility to meet their diverse needs as the needs exist, not as we find it convenient. We owe them all schools that give each the opportunity to develop knowledge, skills and understanding at the highest possible levels. We owe them schools that expect to educate, are equipped to educate, and are committed to educate a student body that mirrors the rich diversity of our people. Schools that expect less, or that are only capable of less, fail their students and the communities that support them. In the national search for educational excellence, therefore, equity is not a secondary goal that can be postponed. Equity is education is a necessary condition for national educational excellence.

Reflections on Ch 5

A spreadsheet is a rectangular table or grid of information, often financial information. The word came from spread in its sense of a newspaper or magazine item text and graphics that covers two facing pages, extending across the center fold and treating the two pages as one large one. The compound word spreadsheet came to mean the format used to present bookkeeping ledgers with columns for categories of expenditures across the top, invoices listed down the left margin, and the amount of each payment in the cell where its row and column intersect which were traditionally a spread across facing pages of a bound ledger book for keeping accounting records or on oversized sheets of paper ruled into rows and columns in that format and approximately twice as wide as ordinary paper. A spreadsheet program is designed to perform general computation tasks using spatial relationships rather than time as the primary organizing principle. Many programs designed to perform general computation use timing, the ordering of computational steps, as their primary way to organize a program. A well defined entry point is used to determine the first instructions, and all other instructions must be reachable from that point. In a spreadsheet, however, a set of cells is defined with a spatial relation to one another. It is often convenient to think of a spreadsheet as a mathematical graph, where the nodes are spreadsheet cells, and the edges are references to other cells specified in formulas. This is often called the dependency graph of the spreadsheet. References between cells can take advantage of spatial concepts such as relative position and absolute position, as well as named locations, to make the spreadsheet formulas easier to understand and manage.
The education environment has gain changing their current practices through spreadsheets. One prime example of how educators monitor their class progress in the learning environment. This program creates a changing process, by reducing the time the educator spends on preventing skills to be lost from not knowing the class weaknesses. This is one example of an educators making preventative time wasted, while becoming educationally responsible. These spreadsheets resource can be used in such a friendly to use inexpensive preserve that educators can also share ideas that can be concerted from a particular task or direction.

Reflections Chapter 4

The virtual reality technology is not yet perfect and still too expensive for the common person. The use of high-end VR is mainly restricted to larger companies, and to special areas such as medical surgery and pilot training. Home users are limited to desktop virtual reality programs, which lets them navigate in three-dimensional worlds, but seldom gives the feeling of actually being there. Human beings are social creatures that like to communicate. Because computers make networks, VR seems a natural candidate for a new communications medium (Heim, Michael 1993). Just as the Internet has become our times biggest communication network, virtual reality could have a great impact on how we share information. Imagine a meeting with people from all parts of the world in a virtual room, or playing cricket with people from Pakistan. There is quite a debate on whether or not virtual reality has positively effected education. Some proponents of virtual reality in the school argue the fact that virtual reality has a vast supply of resources as well as the fact that virtual reality will dominate society and will continue to do so. Opponents of virtual reality in education take the position of experiencing things actually and not just on a computer screen, a reality versus virtual reality argument. In addition to this, there is the aspect of time involved with using a computer as opposed to interaction with actual living things. Computers provide for a vast world of resources, which is very helpful in education. Teachers can go onto the Internet to find added information on a topic and find useful fun activities for lessons. Virtual reality will help students to explore information and do research for projects and assignments as well. The danger behind this is the fact that students can also find other means of virtual reality on the computer done by adults and use them as their own works without the teacher knowing. This is not only deceitful, but the students learn absolutely nothing. It seems like the virtual reality technology is inevitable. People initially use technology to do what they do now-but faster. Then they gradually begin to use technology to do new things. The new things change life-styles and work styles for everyday users. The new life-styles and work-styles change society and eventually technology.

Reflections on Chapter 3

Viruses are a global threat to everyone who has their computer connected to the World Wide Web. A computer virus is a computer program that is designed to replicate itself by copying itself into the other programs stored in a computer. It may be benevolent or have a negative effect, such as causing a program to operate incorrectly or corrupting a computer's memory. People create viruses. A computer virus is the same as a viral infection in humans. Of course, most virus creators seem to fail to notice the point that they cause real damage to real people with their creations. Destroying everything on a person's hard disk is real damage. Forcing the people inside a large company to waste thousands of hours cleaning up after a virus is real damage. Even a silly message is real damage because a person then has to waste time getting rid of it. For this reason, the legal system is getting much harsher in punishing the people who create viruses. Computer viruses can be caught very easily and spreads it to other computers without you knowing. One important trick was the ability to load viruses into memory so they could keep running in the background as long as the computer remained on. People have the tendency to write the codes, and test it to make sure it spreads properly and then release the virus into a realm of the unknown. Viruses are a problem because they can make your computer run slower, corrupt files and stop them from working. In extreme cases they can also stop your computer from working. Computer viruses tend to grab our attention. On the one hand, viruses show us how vulnerable we are. A properly engineered virus can have an amazing effect on the worldwide Internet. On the other hand, they show how sophisticated and interconnected human beings have become. You can protect yourself against viruses with a few simple steps. The traditional way is supposed to combat e-mail viruses also but, you should be running a more secure operating program similar to UNIX and McAfee to name a couple. You never hear about viruses on these operating programs because the security features keep viruses and unwanted human visitors away from your hard disk. Be very wary of any email attachments you receive. If you do not know who it is from, delete the message. Otherwise first save the attachment to disk before opening it. As virus creators get more sophisticated, they learn new tricks. The most important rule is never open messages from unknown sources and update personal virus operating programs regularly.

Reflections on Chapter 2

Education Technologies play a grave role in the way students will continue to learn in the future. The knowledge and skills necessary to make informed and reasonable decisions and other consequences should be treated as technological advances. Technology is not simply computers; it is learning to learn technology. Libraries have long served crucial roles in learning. The first great library, nearly 2,000 years ago, was really the first university. It consisted of a zoo and various cultural artifacts in addition to much of the ancient world's written knowledge and attracted scholars from around the Mediterranean, who lived and worked in a scholarly community for years at a time. The libraries we are members of today do not play the role of the university, but ever university has a library. Libraries have adapted over time and have become a teaching and learning tool for educators to encompass all students. Teachers must understand technology and embrace student’s success that will allow new concepts in many shapes, sizes, and temperaments. Student’s quality arises from their individual learning experience, the beliefs they have about teaching and learning, how they conceptualize their work, and the ways in which they interact with technology. Teacher’s personal beliefs and values provide the unconscious foundation for their behavior. The metaphors they use to describe their work shape the world in which they and their students operate. Because teachers' mental models of reality are highly individualistic, no two classrooms are, or can be, the same. Therefore, Technology Education is shaped and molded by educators. Real knowledge is acquired by learning what interests you, through reading, investigation, practice, or any other desirable method. To become intelligent, you must engage in activity with the idea that is you learning because you want to, because knowledge is a goal. Technology influences change, change that is power, power that has the ability to influence change.
Innovative and commendable features of the technology include but are not limited to presenting scenes, screen images, and programs from contemporary school settings. This enables teachers and students alike to visual an artifact that emphasizes data information. The teacher is allowed to have focus groups that appear throughout the learning process. Emerging technological advances that are available, but not widely distributed continue to advance the learning assessment including a large number of application ideas for students of different ages and levels of maturity and abilities. Education Technologies with several innovative and proven ideas for learners will continue to play sufficient roles in teaching and learning.

Reflections on Chapter 1

Education is to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed and reasonable decisions. Any other consequences should be treated as merely incidental. Education is not simply learning things; it is learning to learn things.
Teachers come in many shapes, sizes, and temperaments. Their quality arises from their individual personality and thinking, the beliefs they have about teaching and learning, how they conceptualize their work, and the ways in which they interact with students. Their personal beliefs and values provide the unconscious foundation for their behavior. The metaphors they use to describe their work shape the world in which they and their students operate. Because teachers' mental models of reality are highly individualistic, no two classrooms are, or can be, the same. Therefore, education is shape and molded by educators.
Real knowledge is acquired by learning what interests you, through reading, investigation, practice, or any other desirable method. To become intelligent, you must engage in activity with the idea that is you learning because you want to, because knowledge is a goal. The path to conformity varies greatly from this. Education is power, power that has the ability to influence change…

Self Intro

I am Leonardo English from Alabama. My interest is music which date back to my years in high school, where I excelled in Band, and Music Arts. I am currently serving in the Army where I soon will be commissioned as an Army Officer. I have taken a science class online in the Spring of 2004. My skills with computers are limited but I’m a fast learner. The software I am most familiar with is Micro Soft Office. It seems that in this day of age communication is all around, but I am only comfortable with using email because you can receive feedback on a question without an instrumental amount of effort. I have not used listerv or a discussion board. Blogs, video, and podcast are all technology tools I have heard of but never used. They sound encouraging for everyone to excel in if attempted. I expect to experience a great opportunity to expose the full range of technology all of which tended to reinforce and solidify my intense interest in learning new perspective on the world in which we live.

Hope you all have a great time.

Leonardo