Reflective Learning

This weeks project was to build and create a webquest. However that was not all we were doing we became a researcher, a college student hoping to become a teacher, a website developer, an instructional designer, a teacher in our future classroom, a student in K-12 completing a WebQuest assignment, a teacher evaluating student work, and then ultimately evaluating the effectiveness of WebQuests. That was a lot to cram in but it was totally worth it in the end.

When first introduced to webquest our professor showed us the “OG” (original) webquests. Webquests from the very beginning almost 20 years old now!!! Still can not believe the internet and our usage on it has gotten that old! However that was a great way for getting our feet wet. We then split into groups and used the modern google sites tool for setting up ours. This was great because my partner Ben and I could do this work from afar and because of the great tools that Google offers we were able to stay in communication and edit our webquest throughout the week. We were then able to incorporate a google form as our assignment page. I feel our first webquest came out pretty understandable and creative enough to catch a student’s attention.

For the rest of the assignment I had reviewed three fellow classmates webquest. This I feel this was even more enjoyable than the actual creation of our own. It really gave me a chance to see what ideas others had used webquests for and where I stood in my development of a webquest. It also showed that the possibilities were limitless. There can literally be a webquest for anything.

As a future science teacher webquests can make learning fun, interactive, and productive. Just because it is learning it doesn’t have to be so cut and dry. Living in a digital world it is my responsibility to make sure my students are not only learning the subject matter in science but that they can use modern technology to do it. As students grow up they will have to know how to use technological tools in many jobs and in life so even if they forget the subject matter later on in life they will still be learning how to do research and operate on the internet  as a tool and not just entertainment.

 

 

WebQuest

So for this post I am going to show a sample of a WebQuest. I made my first  webquest from a google sites. Then to complete the lesson I made a quiz in google forms. Over all I think this was a pretty simple way to get all the information the student would need to learn a lesson.

This webquest is designed for a 9-12 Biology class and it is called Anatomy of the cell. Ben and I tried to keep the quizzing part simple and concentrated on creating a well set up webquest. I hope you enjoy it and take home some knowledge about the cell. Thanks!

Anatomy of a Cell

 

9 Elements of Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship is a very important topic in the 21st century. Not only do teachers have to learn the basics of proper digital citizenship but it is also our responsibility to teach students and each other how to use proper behaviors and actions in the digital world. There is no way to keep students off of social media and there is no reason to force them not to use such important tools as this. But with proper education and guidance students can have a better and safer go at being a digital citizen.

Below I have attached a couple of posters. I learned how to use google draw and I have created these posters to attract young marine biologist students. Enjoy!!

 

 

 

Connected Educator

Twitter Live Chat

Through the Twitter live chat exercise I feel I learned about a whole new world and avenue to connect with fellow educators and professionals in a fast a broad network. Because of Twitter’s vast following and search engine, everyone can be connected in a matter seconds and respond to questions and comments from many different perspectives without delay.

The biggest hurdle I had to overcome was the 140 max characters on Twitter. There were many times I had to re-write my comments to make them fit right. The other challenge I experienced is the layout of the site. I suppose if I continue to use Twitter it will all make more sense to me but as a first time user it took a little longer to go through the different options and functions.

I personally feel I could use Twitter throughout my life as a great gathering place for broad and focused educational conversations and news. I like that i can go to this one place to have discussions about ideas, methods, and techniques for teaching and life lessons.

Connecting With Peers Post Chat

Connecting with my  peers, teachers, and classmates on social media is a great opportunity to gather knowledge and techniques to become a great educator. We all have the common goal of being excellent educators so connecting can be incredibly beneficial for growth and development. With all the amount of knowledge from everyone you can definitely be assured this will help me as a future educator. Following this exercise I connected with:

Marleen Heredia,

Hi Marleen! I feel if I had to pick one of these that would be a difficult time for me then it would have to be standard #4. I feel this because I am not very connected on social media in my spare time so I would naturally have a difficult time keeping up with all the constant. But here is an image that shows the importance of everything including technology to become an excellent 21st century teacher. changes.http://wieettassessment.pbworks.com/f/1278003519/globalization.jp

Jenette Molina,

Hi Jenette. I really like your openness and information you gave us. It really helps to see where others are in their understanding of things of this caliber. So to be honest on a scale of 1-10 10 being best or most comfortable I feel I lay between a 6-8 on everything. When it comes to technology i feel very comfortable using it. This is because in my day job I am always using computers and machines and I am a very quick learner with that type of stuff. Here is a link to help us learn how to use technology in our future endeavors. http://www.washington.edu/teaching/teaching-resources/engaging-students-in-learning/teaching-with-technology-2/

Edwin Gonzalez,

Hi Edwin. One of the main tech tools i could see myself using in my class would be the google forms. I think this will be a good way to judge where my students are in their learning and what I need to concentrate on. Here is a link to a site that has different ways to use google forms in the class http://ditchthattextbook.com/2016/09/08/20-practical-ways-to-use-google-forms-in-class-school/

Lilly Rivas,

Hi Lilly. To answer your question I do not think technology will be a downside for my teaching. I plan on going on to teach high school science and I think that technology will be a major asset for me. I know when I was in high school have access to all this information would have been very beneficial. https://www.education.com/reference/article/why-use-technology-science-classroom/

 

Connecting Over Social Media and ISTE

After completing this assignment I found that it related to all the ISTE standards. But if I had to pick just one it would be #5 Engage in professional growth and leadership. I feel this because Twitter is an amazing way to connect and stay connected with professionals who help you grow into the leadership role you will have to assume when becoming a teacher.

Tech Tools For Teaching

This was a very interesting and useful group project. In this group are 5 fellow students. What we did was each of us went to a list of the top 200 tech tools useful for teaching and we each picked one tool to learn about and then presented it to each other and to the class. This was very useful because what it did was it let other collaborators try and learn about a tool that one would regularly not have time to experiment with. This also really helped to get us used to and able to navigate the google drive tools that are so quickly aiding in the googlization of education.

So with this below is our slideshow and form:

Google slides

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ISTE

 The family of ISTE Standards works in concert to support students, educators and leaders with clear guidelines for the skills, knowledge and approaches they need to succeed in the digital age. So with this there are what’s called The ISTE Standards·T. It is used to define the new skills and pedagogical insights educators need to teach, work and learn in the digital age.

The best way to describe this is to summarize each standard:

1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. With this standard teachers will use their knowledge, teaching techniques, and current technology to help engage and encourage student learning.

2. Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments. With this we are to use digital tools and technology to maximize learning, knowledge, skills and attitudes.

3. Model digital age work and learning. Teachers are to use and exhibit knowledge, skills and work processes to communicate and to collaborate.  

4. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility. We are to as teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in a ever changing digital world. On top teachers are to exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices.

5. Engage in professional growth and leadership.

We as teachers are to continually grow and improve our professional practice, model lifelong learning, and demonstrate leadership in schools and the professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources. For all the standards I would rate myself at or around 6-8 out of 10. 

To end this post how would you as readers order these standards from highest priority to lowest priority?