Ms.Salas's Blog

Indtroduction

mssalas — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 08:22:22 +0000

Hi I am Ms. Angie Salas. I am a student at APU and working towards my Master’s in Educational Technology and Learning. I am learning to use this site as tool for the future to communicate with my students and their parents. I have four wonderful children and another on the way. I have busy schedule that consist of being a mom, wife, sister, daughter, granddaughter,and student. My hobbies are chasing after my children, their school work, house cleaning, and helping my grandpa with my elderly grandma who suffers from memory loss. I plan that the tools and knowledge I will gain at APU will help me become a good teacher and help students succeed in the class and in their lives.

Change vs. Contiunity

mssalas — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:56:00 +0000

In his article, Prensky makes his argument that students have changed from years ago. Prensky says that this change is so radical that they are no longer are the students that the educational system was designed to teach. In a small way I do agree to some small degree. I believe that new technology has made people more aware of this and be more open to these new technologies. As educators we should keep up technology as it does help us reach out to students to educate them better and help them learn more effectively.
Dr. Prensky states “Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures”, I have to say I do not agree all the way this statement. I do not think that the brain physically changes; it is our mental thinking that changes. For example when a teacher gives an assignment, like a report, they tell children they need resources. In the old days up to the late 1990’s all students ran to the nearest local library to get resources. Now at days everything is at the click of a finger tip and hi-speed internet. Everything they need to do, they do from home unless they do not have those resources at home. Unlike past students they do not have to dig through books to find what they need, all they do is Google, Yahoo, or Bing it.
Prensky calls students that use today’s technology “Digital Native” or otherwise as he calls them to be “Native Speaker” due to the use of knowledge and knowhow of language of computer, video games, and internet. In today’s students we have to keep things creative and interesting for them to learn. I have seen it first hand with my children that they can sit there all day and listen to their teacher lecture all day along, I am the same way. We need to do a little bit of everything so we can keep on track and focused. I believe that using such things as YOUTUBE and Power point can help children stay more focused and interested in learning the subject you are teaching them.
I remember when I in school and the teacher played a video on a subject he/she was teaching I seemed to focus and want to learn more, while at the same time taking notes that I needed. As for that some things haven’t changed because, I was multi-tasking just as the students today are as they sit down to do work, for example, homework and having music in the background, I did that while been on a landmine phone. I don’t think like said before that the brain has physically changed we have just programmed it to do sereval things at once. With today’s technology we need to come up with low cost ways for schools to provide these technologies for educators and students in every subject area so they can learn to the best of their abilities, so they won’t be bored in class, and be more assertive to learning.

Goals for ED515

mssalas — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:51:34 +0000

My personal and professional goals for this class I am not sure. I hope to be able to learn as much as can about the different technologies so I can use them in the future when I teach and to help my own children in school. I want to be able to utilize and gain more knowledge about wiki’s and blog post for classroom use. Be able to use Skype without having difficultly and not getting frustrated as is learning about technology when it does not cooperate with me. I hope to accomplish and leave the class knowing that I did my best to learn. To be able to put to work all tools and anything and everything I will learn in class to my future teaching. I hope to be able to use interactive websites, YouTube, eBooks, Skype, and other sites like these to help children learn. As technology continues, I think the biggest challenge is having educators keep up with technology, it being affordable for schools, and letting the school districts be more open to the ongoing growth of technology. For our students making sure that school is not the only place where they can have access to the technology, making it affordable for parents especially those in low income areas, or making sure the local libraries can accommodate for students. With the ongoing growth of technology today companies need to be able to make it affordable for people not just wealthy people or schools. If they can make it affordable I think more schools and families would pay attention and be more open. Schools would be able to utilize more and have their educators be more update so they can help their students in their studies. Technology can make learning experiences more fun and helpful to students.