Technology Education

Well, I took the Technology Ed TEXES exam today.  This will certify me to teach a wide variety of Technology related classes as well as manufacturing and a few ag classes.  I certainly don't want to be the shop teacher when I grow up but I figured the Tech Ed test should be easier than the other STEM test : Mathematics, Physical Science and Engineering.  The name alone is scary.

I'm not sure how well I did on the test, but I wasn't too sure about the Business Ed exam either and I passed it just fine.  Technology covers so much information, I'm not sure how anyone could know it all, from education standards to construction, power to manufacturing, computers to biotechnology.  Its a lot of ground to cover but I need this exam to be able to teach Commercial Photography.

I will update once I get my scores.  The waiting is the hardest part!

Reflection

This week wraps up my Educational Technology class and ends my blogging requirements.  At this point, I am not sure I can stop.  I may have to join bloggers anonymous.  "Hi, my name is Hope, and I'm a blog addict!"
I have considered blogging several times in the past as a way of journaling but always decided I would not keep with it long enough to make it worthwhile.  Having an assignment to blog weekly has been fun and interesting.  Surprisingly, I have more to share that I expected.  Maybe it is the unknown audience - I can just assume you are interested in my ramblings.  Or maybe its just my unending need to talk, even in written form.

Reflection on Ed Tech:
I have learned a lot in my Ed Tech class.  I explored and played with lots of technology I had heard of but never really experienced.  I feel more comfortable now with the thought of using technology in the classroom and have better expectations of student and learning outcomes.  With technology, I hope to improve communications with students and parents through websites, blogs and RSS feeds.  I hope to inspire learning with internet based tools as well as I-pad apps to make learning more fun and interesting.  I plan to teach student real life skills in technology that will endure even as technology changes, like copyright regulations, research evaluation tools and communication skills.

As I progress through my alternative certification and come closer to my goal of being a teacher, I am becoming more confident and excited about the prospect of teaching.  I have always felt I could connect with kids, but now I am learning skills that will allow me connect kids with knowledge.  I am looking forward to my future as an educator and my students' future as productive, educated citizens.

PS:  My e-portfolio can be found here.  While it is obviously not finished and will evolve with me, I am quite proud of all I have managed to accumulate so far.

More Websites and Apps

This week's Tech Play assignment was to explore more apps with our specific content in mind.  I plan to be certified in Business Education (grades 6-12) and Technology Education (grades 6 - 12).  I hope to teach Accounting, Computer Programming or STEM courses as part of the new STEM endorsement.

Our district currently offers Finance, Accounting, Statistics and Risk Management, Robotics, and Electronics.  It is likely we may add Principles of Technology and additional Computer Programming courses with the changes to the graduation requirements created by House Bill 5.

 

This week I explored many websites looking for content specific information in the courses I hope to teach and listed above.  As before, I found some very interesting websites with useful tools, but I also found many outdated websites and websites only interested in selling software.  Some of those might be worth investing in but that was not the point of this exercise.

Here are the following websites I discovered and explored this week:

• Khan Academy - khanacademy.org has many different videos, apps, and ideas for many different courses.  I found information about finance, statistics, science and computer programming.     The site had tons of great videos on a wide variety of topics that ran about ten minutes and could be used to introduce or supplement a lesson in the topic area.  There were also sample questions that could be used with a Promethian board to assess learning.
• SAT Word Slam is an i-pad app designed to help students expand their vocabulary and prepare them for the SAT test.  The app uses humor (sometimes crude), rhymes and mnemonic devices to help students remember and learn these words.  It also includes sample test questions.  While this is not a content specific app, I really liked the possibilities of expanding vocabulary through an entertaining means.
• www.makezine.com is an amazing DIY site with tons of project directions and videos to help kids imagine the possibilities.  The site has everything from knitting and cooking ideas to music and videos and robotics, woodshop and health projects.  This would be a great site to have kids explore other's projects and pick one to try or improve.  I could see using this with a project based learning assignment to help inspire elementary age kids to be interested in science.  There was a project to turn a bicycle in to a generator to power a series of light bulbs and a remote controlled lawnmower.  I would love to revive the science fair idea!  Students could also design their own website with their own original projects as a way to showcase their unique talent.
• While exploring science resources, I visited www.saplinglearning.com.  Our district is currently using Sapling for our IPC, Biology, Chemistry and Physics classes and could easily be used for Principles of Technology.  The sample problems in Sapling demonstrate the advantages to using technology for individualized assessment and lesson plans.  These are not multiple choice questions; they are all open-ended, fill in the blank, manipulative questions.  I filled in a chart based on my on-screen experiment, I balanced a chemical equation and I paired DNA sequences.  The software provided hints and evaluations of my answers.  It also provides instant feedback to the instructor on student understanding so re-teaching can occur immediately if necessary.
• In the world of business and accounting, I visited www.startheregoplaces.com.  I found this site by googling basic accounting tools but recognized it as a preparatory website for CPAs and a site we had entered a contest for in years past.  Every year, they challenge students to help them advertise or brainstorms ways to get kids interested in accounting.  Our students placed first and fifth in the 2011 contest to create posters about what CPA does not stand for.  The site also had computer programs designed to give students experience in corporate, managerial and forensic accounting, simulating real life situations when accounting can save a company or catch the bad guy.  I could use these examples to challenge students to make sample ledgers of their own and see if their classmates could catch their embezzling.   I think this would appeal to student's inquisitive nature and would require students to think creatively about a normally black and white mathematical subject.
• I also found an interesting web-based computer game called Zapitalism at www.zapitalism.com.  I played the free version of a business simulator and chose which business I would like to represent, based on owner and job descriptions and quickly began to make judgment calls on how to run the business.  Every business in the simulator is a retail business and must purchase, sell and manage inventory as well as manipulate employee salaries, insurance, advertisement and investments.  I was surprised by how in-depth the game was.  I was offered the option to play with up to six players so I would use the game to have classmates challenge each other to a race for wealth and success.  I could see how this could also be used to teach the economics of supply and demand.

I attempted to try out an engine simulator published on NASA's website, but it was down because of the lack of federal funding.  This made me laugh because they had to pay someone to remove the website and will have to pay someone to put it back again. . . what is the cost of a website in the mean time?  I will go back later and examine the pedagogical uses of an engine simulator later.

Overall, I had a fun week examining ideas specific to my content area.  There is a lot of information out there and I know our existing teachers are using software applications, like Sapling to enhance student learning.  I would still like to question them more specifically about any software or apps they use.  For instance, I know our Accounting teacher uses student accounting software to reinforce concepts taught in ledger form.  This is practical because no one uses ledgers to balance their books, but the ledger is necessary to teach the basic concepts of debits and credits and insure students understand the basic accounting principles that are going on behind the scenes of accounting software.

The future of technology in education is full of possibilities and I look forward to where it is taking us.