Reflection Assignment

The most valuable things I learned in this course were

When I began taking this class, I had no clue what Web 2.0 was and how I could take advantage of free online tools like Zoho.com and GoogleDocs to create, save, share, and publish word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations that can be accessed from any computer with Internet access. Delicious was a totally new concept to me for sharing and saving bookmarked websites. Sharing documents with a colleague or class partner and publishing documents (e.g. Zoho.com) were also new ideas that will be useful for my own work on group projects in graduate school. I always thought it would be too complicated for me to publish anything on the web. I also learned some new tricks for using Apple computers that will be useful for me on my new home computer.

The least valuable or useful things to me were

There was very little that I found invaluable in this class. I learned new things about what is free and available on the Internet for use in my classroom. I feel that as a kindergarten teacher, some of the information may be too sophisticated for me to use with a class of five-year-olds, for example the use of databases and spreadsheets. However, for me as a teacher, the information on databases would be useful to keep track of lesson plans and grades for my class.

Ways my teaching/learning process will be affected

I have great new ideas for how to use the Internet in my own classroom as a kindergarten teacher. I found some great websites that are tailored to young learners and found some great ideas for lesson plans. I will not be afraid to incorporate computer use in my lessons and not wait for a weekly lesson in the computer lab given by the computer technology teacher.

Suggestions for future versions of this course

I hope that future versions of this course will include some information on how to manage photos and videos online. I have done some research and it seems like Picasa Web Albums offered by Google (use your Gmail or GoogleDocs login) is good for free online photo storage (up to 1 gigabyte free). Some projects that include use of the computer may include taking pictures to document a process, such as growing plants or stages of animal life, and you could have students include their own photos in presentations and reports. I would also like to see more coverage on blogs and how/if they would be useful in the classroom.

• See below under Important Links for links to Picasa and age-appropriate websites for kindergarteners.

Portfolio Assignment

Lesson Plans

NTeQ Lesson Plan: Word Processing and the Internet

Lesson Plan and Artifacts - http://writer.zoho.com/public/malpakl/KWilkersonNTeQLessonPlan1/script - This lesson is titled What We Wonder About Weather. It is a lesson plan that incorporates the NTeQ model by including Internet research and word processing for young students, K-1. You can use or reference this lesson plan for a science lesson based on Tennessee State Standards.

NTeQ Lesson Plan: Spreadsheets and Presentations

Lesson Plan - http://writer.zoho.com/public/malpakl/NTeQ-Lesson-Plan-Spreadsheet-Presentation - This lesson is titled How We Measure the Weather. This lesson plan incorporates the NTeQ model by using spreadsheets and presentation software. The lesson is geared for students aged K-2. You can use or reference this lesson plan for a science lesson based on measuring different types of weather and recording the data to make simple charts and presentations. The lesson is based on Tennessee State Standards.

Spreadsheet Artifact - http://public.sheet.zoho.com/public/malpakl/lessonplanartifact-1-xls1 - This is an artifact from the above lesson plan. It shows the simple spreadsheet and charts that a student can produce as part of the lesson.

Presentation Artifact - http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dcd95vxc_14c7fh4ncw - This is an artifact from the above lesson plan. It shows a short presentation of what the students learned and incorporates the students' charts.

NTeQ Unit Plan

Lesson Plan - http://writer.zoho.com/public/malpakl/NTeQ-Unit-Lesson-Plan1 - This lesson plan is titled What is the Butterfly Life Cycle? This lesson plan is a unit plan; therefore it contains two lessons that focus on the same topic. In this case, the students learn what a butterfly life cycle is by performing Internet research and reading books. They also 'grow' butterflies in class from the caterpillar stage, which allows for notes on growth stage on a daily basis. These lessons both incorporate the NTeQ model by utilizing Internet research, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations in a science lesson. These lesson plans are based on Tennessee State Standards for K-2.

Spreadsheet Artifact - http://public.sheet.zoho.com/public/malpakl/wilkerson-unit-plan-artifact - This is an artifact from the above lesson plan. It is a simple spreadsheet of data collected by students as they watched the life cycle of a butterfly in the classroom.

Presentation Artifact - http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dcd95vxc_27wrk6v4hc - This is an artifact from the above lesson plan. It shows a short presentation of what the students learned from watching butterflies develop in class.

Other Assignments

NTeQ Concept Map - http://writer.zoho.com/public/malpakl/Concept-Map-Assignment1 - This is my concept map about the NTeQ model. I used Inspiration to create the concept map and Zoho to publish the concept map to the web. You can reference this concept map for information on how the NTeQ model works and for a sample lesson.

Rubric with Emily - http://writer.zoho.com/public/malpakl/Rubric-for-IDT70611/script - I created this rubric with Emily for use with our NTeQ Lesson Plans. We used Zoho to share and update the document online, and I published the rubric to the web. It is useful as a sample rubric for any big project.

Annotated List of Educational Web Resources - http://writer.zoho.com/public/malpakl/Annotated/script - This is my annotated list of education web resources. It is written and cited according to APA style guidelines. There are some great links to websites that could be used in lesson plans for all ages.

Nutrition Spreadsheets - http://public.sheet.zoho.com/public/malpakl/nutrition - This was an assignment to show an example of how students could use spreadsheets to input data and solve equations (adding, averages, etc). The assignment has students choose meals from a list of fast food restaurants and then input the nutrition information. The students create a first spreadsheet documenting a day's worth of meals and then make a second spreadsheet with healthier options. You can reference this spreadsheet for ideas on how to use spreadsheets with upper grades or students learning about spreadsheets.

Nutrition Paragraph - http://writer.zoho.com/public/malpakl/Nutrition-Information1 - This is a short paragraph that accompanies the above nutrition spreadsheet. It compares the original spreadsheet and then the second spreadsheet with healthier options selected. It pulls some of the calculations made in the spreadsheet for reference.

Climate Spreadsheet and Chart - http://public.sheet.zoho.com/public/malpakl/climate-activity - This is another spreadsheet activity that compared climates of various cities. This is a great activity for upper grades or students learning about spreadsheets and how to make charts from data in the spreadsheet.

Kelly Wilkerson's About Me Presentation - http://docs.google.com/Presentation?docid=dcd95vxc_8crc62gcz - This is a presentation that I made about myself to experiment with PowerPoint and then to publish to the web. This shows how presentations can utilize pictures and simple text to avoid the typical bulleted look of a presentation. This was also a great way to experiment with GoogleDocs. I found that GoogleDocs was easier to use than Zoho for presentation publishing.

Ideas for Student Use of Spreadsheets - The following statements are three ideas that I came up with for students to use spreadsheets. I have the ideas listed and what grade level would be appropriate. I also created and published a sample of the student homework example that you can reference to see about simple spreadsheets with charts.

1. Students can track how many hours a day they work on homework to get average hours by subject and take averages and totals for week, month, year, make charts with data. Medium difficulty, grades 5 and up. See example here.

2. Have students chart their weekly height and weight and check back at year-end for yearly growth. Easy, best for lower grades (kindergarten +) where rapid growth spurts may occur.

3. Have students make a budget for student council or other extracurricular sport or club. Difficult, best for higher grades (grade 9+).

Important Links

Personal Wiki - http://kelwilk.pbwiki.com - This is my personal wiki. It is a work in progress, but I would like to have information about some of my favorite recipes and cooking links.

Long Term Research Topic - Synchronous Interaction Tools - This links to my research project on synchronous interaction tools. Synchronous interaction tools are tools that aid in real-time communication, i.e. instant message, chat, and webconferencing. There are some links to good webconferencing host sites.

Delicious Account - http://delicious.com/malpakl - This is my personal Delicious account. As assignments for this class, I have added a bookmark about copyright laws and teaching and a bookmark for educational resources.

Enchanted Learning Website - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Dictionary.html - I found that this website was a great resource for young learners, K-3. There is a great dictionary with pictures and easy-to-read definitions. You can use this for young students to do some of their own research. There are also great links from the dictionary based on the topic being researched.

Picasa - http://picasa.google.com/ - This a website that lets users upload, organize, and share photos. Picasa is hosted by Google, and you can login to the site using your existing Gmail or GoogleDocs username and password. Picasa is free to download and you are allowed 1 Gigabyte of storage which the website says is roughly 4,000 photos. You can edit pictures and create slideshows and movies with your pictures. I referenced Picasa above as one of the things I would like to see included in future classes. I think some of my lesson plans would benefit from taking pictures of a long process (butterfly stages in Unit Plan) for use in presentations or reports. This looks like a great place to start backing up your digital photos online for free.

America's Army - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/26/AR2005052601505.html - This is a Washington Post article about the Department of Defense/Army video game training. I posted this as relevant information about instructional software.

Evaluating Instructional Software - http://www.lacnyc.org/resources/IT/evalsoftware.htm - This website is hosted by the Literacy Assistance Center. I posted this as relevant information about evaluating instructional software. The website gives hints for using and choosing educational software, evaluation tips, and software suggestions.

Presentation Software - http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr243.shtml - This site has a PowerPoint game that can be downloaded TechKnowGenius as well as some lesson plans. It offers ideas and lesson plans for new ways of using presentation software. I posted this as a relevant link for ideas of presentation software.

Classroom Computer Management - http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/ntti/resources/workshops/managing_students/practice.html - This website from the National Teacher Training Institute (NTTI) has links and tips for managing students with computers in the following categories: whole-class presentations, computer teams, independent work, and special issues and challenges in the classroom. I posted this as a relevant link for classroom computer management.