Science/Math Technologies explored

When looking at the simulation resources of science technologies on our class website, I came across what is called a "Virtual Pond". I thought that sounded pretty interesting, so I went into the website to see what it was like. It turned out to be very informative, as there was an image of a jar of pond water, showing the typical organisms that are found in ponds. Any explorer of this, including a child, is able to know the name and function of each microscopic organism by simply clicking on the specific object in the jar. Another link to the "virtual pond" is one called "The Microbe Zoo". This site leads the explorer to discover hidden microbes in the many environments found in a zoo, such as in the dirt, by the animals, in the snack bar, etc. "Cow rumen" and "Poo corner" are two microbes discussed in "Animal Pavilion". This is an entertaining site and very interesting! I enjoyed looking at these sites for sure. :)

TPACK

After class last week, I was impressed with the content that we learned because I find TPACK to be quite fascinating. It's simple, but helps to clearly explain for teachers how they can combine or even use all the facets of this acronym, which are: Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (It also is written as TPCK). What I understood from class was that a lesson can simply be one of these types of knowledge, but most often lessons are combinations of at least two of the three types of knowledge. For example, if a teacher were to to teach a CPK lesson (Content Pedagogical Knowledge), this would test the knowledge of the students in the particular unit at hand, as well as use specific teaching methods (this is where the pedagogical knowledge comes in) to present that content. Or if someone were to teach a lesson with TCK (Technological Content Knowledge), they would use technology to help students learn the content/concepts at hand. I like that we did this in class, when we worked in small groups to find samples of whatever we could find to then look at in the electric microscopes from which we immediately saw amplified images of our findings on a big computer screen. This was definitely a fun learning experience that would ingrain into childrens' minds certain scientific knowledge using technology. Through this example and what we could think up on our own, TPACK is something that would be useful for all teachers. It's something they should all know about, because I think this is an effective way of teaching and getting through to students on many levels. It provides the means to fulfill their learning experience as not only academic, but a personal one as well!

What I learned about RSS

In the last class period, I thought that everything we went through was quite interesting. I honestly had never heard of RSS feeds before, and so learning about that was entirely new to me. As I went to different websites, searching for RSS feeds on each one, I came to realize that it's a very useful tool that I might want to use as well. I've always just gone into separate websites when I want to see if there are any updates (and that's when I remember to do it), but now by going to my blog alone (for example), I can be aware of updates that have been made to multiple websites, and all at once! This was an exciting discovery for me, and I plan on using RSS feeds as a teacher, so that I can be well-informed all the time of what new teaching techniques have come up, or even well-informed on what certain children or parents of my students are up to.
I also learned about Delicious and Goodreads, two websites that will be quite important and useful, as I try to also stay updated on the best and/or useful books that I could be utilizing in my classroom. I look forward to learning more as I use each of these book resources.

Hi

I'm making this post as an example in class. Hello, everyone! :)

What do I know?

As far as my background and experience in technology goes, I've grown up and learned whatever knowledge of technology that my older siblings brought into the home. I remember when I was little, that my older brother would type a lot of things on the massive thing we called a computer, and that I was a little intimidated by it. But then computer manufacturers came up with a bit smaller, more presentable computers, and I decided to try it out. It seemed like such a thing of the future to me. Especially when I started receiving projects in school that required internet research, I was forced to have to learn how to use it. I actually had to take a typing class in seventh grade. It was something that I kind of grasped right away, because I soon became one of the fastest typers in the class. With an increasing amount of projects that required use of technology (aka: scanners, photocopiers, computers, internet), my knowledge increased as well. I wanted to be competent in these things, because I could see that being so would be very helpful in creating and producing high-quality work for myself and others. So as far as background and experience in technology goes, it increased exponentially with each new project in school that came my way and that required more knowledge of me.