AshleyW


 * Introducing:** Ashley W.

Hello everyone! This is my first time using a wikispace or anything like this before. So here goes nothing. This is my first semester at Fordham graduate school and I'm very excited to be here. I attended Hofstra University for my undergrad and majored in English creative writing and literature. I love to write and hopefully I will be a best selling author one day. I wanted to go into teaching because I feel that New York city needs better teachers who are caring and understanding. I want to try to make a difference within my classroom. Anyway, I can not wait until student teaching starts and I can finally get my hands dirty! I put up this picture as my inspiration to whom I'd like to be like when I finally do teach. (And its one of my favorite movies!)




 * My Life As a Technology User**

I can honestly say that I depend on my smart phone way too much nowadays. Before that I used my laptop for anything quick information I could get. I find myself googling just about anything and everything that I need to get quick information from. I do not feel that it is wrong to do it because that's what it comes down to in this generation.

One particular time I remember, I had to help my seventy-something year old grandmother with installing her internet connection. She had bought a new laptop and I thought she wanted to use it to play bills and such but after I created an email account for her and showed her how to use google, all she wanted to do was look up pictures and videos of Mariah Carey's new baby twins. I thought it was interesting that even she wanted to have access to the computer to investigate information that she was curious about. My six year old neice sits in front of my computer navigating herself through nickjr.com and I still find it the cutest and funniest thing in the world. I know that when it is her time to attend college or even high shcool I won't be surprised if she is exposed to wikis, blogs, and podcasts. Tehcnology will never stop expanding!

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ashley-williams/28/520/52a http://awilliams65.wordpress.com/
 * Personal Use Project**

I have had a LinkedIn in profile for a couple of years now but never really was as active as I was on Facebook....so I decided to choose LinkedIn to actually become more accustomed to it and learn how to make use of it. Check it out!

I interviewed Francine, who attends Lehman College and majors in Computer Information Systems. She talks about her major and she is learning about technology in class. I ask her about her classes and what type of programs she uses. She also shares how her major will help her get in the her dream career which is music producing. See my interview by clicking below:
 * Interview with a Tech User:**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iymzuDexL4I&feature=youtu.be

1. This semester I will start a LinkedIn account and learn to be an active user. I will use this to network with people who share the same interest in media literacy. I will try to make connections with 20 or more people. 2. This semester I will learn more about and try to find ways to incorporate Viocethread, Prezi, Google groups, Evernote, Quizlet to my lesson planning for my future class. 3. This semester I will design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments that will adapt for special needs learners. 4. This semester I will learn about the positives and negatives of technology so I can teach that to my students. I will create a lesson plan about safety, security, and privacy in posting to social networks. I can put on a presentation at the school and show an anonymous student’s facebook profile and point out the wrongs in that person’s profile. 5. This semester I will try to better understand practical educational use of blogging and podcasting.
 * Net Goals**

I used globster.com to make my poster http://www.glogster.com/awilli27/copyright-poster/g-6ljfquumgbtrecsvigodoa0
 * Copyright Clarity Poster**

I have always believed that technology would be in an important factor in a child’s education in this day and age. Technology has grown into something more than a way of finding information faster but also a quicker way to communicate with people. In this generation especially, students have discovered ways to blog about their personal life, video chat with their peers, and to express and present new ideas through podcasting and moviemaking. As a future pedagogue, I believe it is my responsibility to teach them how to implement their digital skills in school and beyond. Not only is digital media used socially and academically but I want to show my students the importance of security and privacy when dealing with technology. I believe that technology continues to expand and it will continue to expand every day. I want to encourage my students to be creative and take advantage of this ever expanding world of technology we live in. In the preface of __Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts__, Richardson states, “A growing majority of students are immersed in social networks and technologies outside of school, and most have no adults in their lives who are teaching them how to use those connections to learn” (xi Richardson). This quote is essentially true and after this semester of taking this course, I realize that by learning about these various tools of technology ourselves, we can share our knowledge with our students. Some adolescents are not aware that many adults do know about technology like they do and are not safe when going online. We as teachers in this generation can relate to these students and show them different ways to prevent identity fraud, meeting strangers online, and posting personal information online. My philosophy is to teach my children about these technologies and implement them in the classroom in a way that students will relate and be interested in learning to use their media for academic purposes as well. In this job market, many areas of work require basic literacy skills. That no longer is limited to the ability to read and write. According to Richardson, “…although those core abilities are still central to learning, they are no longer enough to ensure understanding” (p 148 Richardson). People need have basic skills in technology and the more knowledge they have, the greater their chances are in finding a job. I believe in preparing my students for the real world where they can use their digital literacy skills and become successful citizens. These tools that students learn can help them in the business world, marketing, sales, statistics, history and any other field of their interests. It is important for students to learn about social media such as facebook or Twitter because they may be asked to collaborate with others through media. Other basic skills of media literacy that I want my students to know are the importance of editing, organizing, publishing, and being creative. Students can learn about editing when blogging to make sure all their information is accurate. I can show students different tools such as Evernote and NoteStar to learn how to organize their information online. I can teach them how to save their work in a cloud like Dropbox to ensure it is always available for them to retrieve and ready for publishing. I also want to encourage my students on their creativity and for them to discover new and innovative ways to use their digital literacy for school and beyond. I have a passion for teaching and learning. I feel my students can also be my mentors as well as me being theirs. I envision my classroom being full of life and energy and the willingness to learn. I don’t think that my expectations are a long shot because I know there are students out there who share the same passion. For those students who do not never had a mentor they feel they can rely on. I will encourage my students to think outside the box and to know that I will always be there to show them the way. This generation is in for a great and new beginning world of technology that is growing every day. We as teachers must prepare and keep an open mind to the new world of technology.
 * Statement on Digital Literacy**

**References and Work Cited ** Richardson, Will. //Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms//. 3rd. California: Corwin, 2010.

[|TrackStar] TrackStar is a social bookmarking tool that teachers can use to organize and annotate web sites into lessons called “Tracks”. This tool can be used by teachers but also can be used by students as well. When I first discovered this tool was very excited because for someone like me who has not been in a classroom yet, I felt this could really benefit new teachers. However, after playing with the site for a little while I saw the flaws in cite itself. It was not put together properly and and kept leading me to dead end websites. However, the overall idea was lever and if the website was developed better, it can be truly beneficial. Teachers can use it as a backup or for simple ideas on learning how to teach lesson in different ways by other reviewing other teacher's posts. Student can use it if they want to learn a particular subject or topic they didn't already understand in class and see how it is presented in a different way that they can understand. The overall downfall is the development of the website itself. **Rating: 3.5**


 * Lesson Plan Revision **

Class: 8th grade English

Topic: Creating a journal

Materials: notebooks and computer

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Instructional Objective: Students will be able to learn how to express themselves in different and creative ways by blogging. They will be able to share their journals with each other using technology.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Motivation: I will tell my students that at the end of the lesson I gather a blog from everyone’s journal and make it into an online collage to share with the class.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Step by Step: I will put a question on the board and have students dwell on it and write down in their journal notebooks. Then I ask anyone in the class if they know what a blog is. I will then explain and teach what blogging is. Then on the classroom computer I will show different sites and tools and express blogging. I will make an assignment where the students can express their journal entry in a blog, podcast, movie, poem, or song. I will show the class various tools and websites they can use to make their projects. I will work with each of my students who need help in their blog. Then after they have completed their blogs I will have each student present their piece to the class. After the presentation I will collect each student’s blog entry and create it into one huge college by using Prezi so the students can see it put together.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Evaluation/Summary: I will determine if I have succeeded getting across the information and new skills they acquired by examining their projects.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">**Final Portfolio** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[|Final Portfolio]