Final Portfolio

Here is my group's Final Portfolio.

Day 29 - 5/4/10

Yes, I would allow my students to use Wikipedia in their research, but I would not allow them to cite it. Wikipedia is a great resource to start papers and get a general idea of a subject, but then students must follow the links and resources to find the actual source of the information.

ThinkAloud

Thinkaloud

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Day 28 - 4/29/10

The website I have chosen to validate is Feline Reactions to Bearded Men. The article is on the website Improbably Research, which is a website that has humorous scientific articles. The subject of the article is also ridiculous, so it is likely that it is not true. There is a long list of authors that I could not find information on. The bibliography lists Madonna, Sinead O'Connor, Arnold Schwartzenegger, and Doctor Suess as researchers in the field of cat research. Based on these, the information on the website is not reliable.

Day 27 - 4/27/10

I learned alot about searching for information on the internet. I found it shocking that some websites that seem like they would be very reliable have grossly wrong and offensive material on them, such as the martinlutherking.org website. I learned that it is important to make sure the information you find is valid. I thought this activity met the following ISTE-NET standard:
develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools.

Day 26 - 4/22/10

I've learned a lot from my experiences with SmartBoards. They can be a great resource, but they can also be a pain to find activities that both utilize SmartBoards and are actually worthwhile and more than a gimmick for the SmartBoard software. I think that it's important to have an actual reason to use SmartBoards rather than trying to shove them into every lesson, because there are a lot of activities out there dealing with every subject that aren't really worth the time. It is also important to know how to use these activities. With the frog dissection SmartBoard activity, I think it would serve best as a pre-activity leading up to the actual dissection, rather than to be used instead of an actual frog dissection in a biology class. Overall though, I think they are very convenient. Even just the basic functions of the SmartBoard (writing in different colors, erasing, correcting student work, hiding things, etc.) that come with the SmartBoard itself would be a huge convenience for a teacher, and would replace the need for a dry-erase board or overhead projector among other things.

Day 25 - 4/20/10

I think that SmartBoards are worth the investment if teachers actually use them correctly. Any kind of technology is going to get students interested in learning, and if they are actually using the technology, they will be more apt to learn and attend class.

Day 24 - 4/15/10

Today in class we continued using whiteboards and preparing our presentations. However, we spent most of the time getting the projector to work. I think whiteboards utilize the following ISTE-NETS-T standard: customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.

WebQuest

My WebQuest

Day 23 - 4-13-10

Today in class we learned about using smartboards in the classroom and read this article about smart boards. I think that smartboards are worth the educational investment because:

Greater classroom enjoyment and motivation – particularly
on the part of
extrinsically motivated learners – can
in turn lead to fewer student
absences. Interactive whiteboards
are captivating enough to successfully
compete
with a student's favorite consumer technologies (e.g.,
game
devices, cell phones and MP3 players), focusing
students on task,
garnering
enthusiasm and providing
additional motivation to attend
class.

Smart boards increase class attendance and decrease the dropout rate of students who utlize them in class. Students are excited about technology so we need to provide them with technology so that they will remain interested in learning.

Day 22 - 4/8/10

Today in class, we continued working on our WebQuests. Building a WebQuest helps build the following 21st Century Skill:

• Understand and utilize the most appropriate media creation tools, characteristics and conventions

Day 21 - 4/6/10

Today in class we began working on our WebQuests. Building a WebQuest meets the following ISTE-NETS-T standard:
1b. engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.

Day 20 - 4/1/10

Happy April Fools' Day!

Today in class we chose a WebQuest we are going to adapt to make our own Webquest. Here is the WebQuest I am going to edit, "The World of Jazz". I like it because I like the content of the project (jazz music), and that you get to design a section of a museum. Besides the graphics and resources, I am going to change a few things. In addition to the list of jazz genres, I am going to set up a list of specific jazz artists the students can choose from, because the jazz genres aren't really even in the amount of time they took in history or the number of artists that information will be available about, and they can be really open ended with some of them. I am also thinking about putting up a map of a museum and leaving a section blank, because it could be hard for some students to envision how an entire museum is set up. A CSO this Webquest will use is: MU.O.GM6-8.4.5 discuss the evolution of musical styles, including their relationship to historical events.

Day 19 - 3/30/10

Today in class we participated in a WebQuest about WebQuests. We collaborated in groups of four to decide which WebQuest was the best. My role in the group was the Efficiency Expert, which is to decide which WebQuest is the most time efficient.
I thought the best two WebQuests were the Ancient Egypt one and the Ice Cream one because they dealt with a lot of information and creativity in a short amount of time, and they are fun.
The worst two I thought were the Underground Railroad one and the Gardening one, because there was a lot of exra work to do, and they would take the most time.
I decided the best and worst within my task as Efficieny Expert, and I chose based on time efficiency.
I thought this activity was a good example of the ISTE-NET standard for Students that deals with interacting, collaborating, and publishing with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.

Day 18 - 3/25/10

Today in class we watched the students' PhotoStories. They were all very very creative. I hope that the students had a good time collaborating with us on their stories and creating these videos, I know I enjoyed contributing and watching the results. :) PhotoStory is a great application for students to get creative and use innovative technology, not to mention working on their writing skills and art/design skills. This activity is a good example of the ISTE NET for Students standard that involves evaluating and selecting information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks. The students had to select which story they would like to continue with, and select which pictures to put in their digital story, from the wide array of images the internet has to offer. I thought that they all did a very good job finding appropriate pictures to put in their videos, which I know from making my own PhotoStory can be a bit challenging.

Day 17 - 3/23/10

Today in class we made a mini-biography for our Ning profile. This consisted of our astrological sign, someone who shares our birthday, an important event, and the weather. While the only event I had was related to cricket, it is still neat for everyone to find out what happened on their birthday, etc. We then searched for images to go along with our facts, and assembled a biography from these elements. This activity involves a number of different websites and search engines to find information about our birthdays. This is a great demonstration of the 21st century skill that says involves using technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate and communicate information.

Day 16 - 3/11/10

Today in class we designed a magazine cover with our own picture as "Teacher of the Year." I thought this was a great activity because it gave us a chance to get creative while learning how to use new technologies and portray ourself in media. I think this covered the Media Literacy standard that says: Understand and utilize the most appropriate media creation tools, characteristics and conventions.

Day 15 - 3/9/10

Today in class we looked at "Deconstructing Arnold" which shows Arnold Schwarzenegger portrayed as a politician and as an action hero, and how he was portrayed on the two different magazine covers. We talked about the use of poses, colors, camera angles etc., and we will use this information to create our own magazine cover. I think this covers the Media Literacy standard that says: Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors.

Day 14 - 3/4/10

Today the activity was to work together in groups to make a Worlde to describe Web 2.0. I was not in class but I think the Worlde activity meets the 21st Century Skill that states: Use a wide range of idea creation techniques (such as brainstorming).

Day 13 - 3/2/10

Today in class we organized our personal links in Blackboard, and made links to the Course Website, Blogmeister, Classroom 2.0, and our Facebook group, similar to the links we already made on our blog. I think this is great because it is much easier and efficient than remembering a bunch of links or following the links through our Blackboard class section. It is just easier to have them all in one place that we'll be visiting all of the time anyway. I think this perfectly exhibits the Information and Media Literacy Skill that says: Access information efficiently (time) and effectively (sources).

Day 12 - 2/25/10

Quiz

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This is my PowerPoint hypermedia quiz. I made this quiz using PowerPoint. This is different from your average PowerPoint presentation in that you click on the 2 options in the quiz, and they will each take you to a different page (either Sorry, try again or Congratulations). I even added visual and sound effects to my quiz. This is a great tool to use in schools because it presents a bright, colorful, and interactive environment for the children to take the quiz, and may help them respond to the information better. Students can even use this program to create their own quizzes for each other to take, using instructions like these. This activity is a good example of the Life & Career Skills standard, under Productivity & Accountability, Produce Results. It says that students will have to follow directions to produce high quality results.

Day 11 - 2/23/10

Today we used Blogmeister to participate in a collaborative writing activity with 5th grade students. The story is about magic unicorns and bears and elephants and lakes. Very interesting. We are now using the guidelines on the 21st Century Skills website. Under Life & Career Skills, this activity helps students Work Effectively in Diverse Teams, specifically to leverage social and cultural differences to create new ideas and increase both innovation and quality of work.

Day 10 - 2-18-10: PhotoStory

This is my rough draft for my PhotoStory, it is based on a Chinese Proverb about teaching. This is a good way of demonstrating fluency in the current knowledge of technology and communication. This demonstrates the ISTE-NET standard 3a. This would be a good way for students to really understand and illustrate a quote, and also use the newest technologies to be creative.

Day 9 - 2-16-10

Today we began using Photostory to create a digital story about a quote pertaining to education. The quote I chose is "Teachers Open the Door. You Enter by Yourself" - Chinese Proverb.
Photostory is a great way to get students, parents, and teachers interested in education. Teachers who use Photostory in class can help their students keep from dropping or failing out of school. This helps contribute to the effectiveness, vitality, and self-renewal of the teaching profession in the school and community. This is a good demonstration of the ISTE-NET standard 5d.

Day 8 - 2-11-10: ISTE-NET Activity in out-of-school life

I think a standard that I use a lot in my out-of-school life (I have an out-of-school life? ha) is standard 4c, which involves modeling good digital etiquette and social interactions through the use of technology. Whenever I e-mail anyone, especially a teacher or authority figure, I try to make the e-mail as formal as possible. Whereas other people would resort to using text acronyms and incomplete sentences, I try as much as possible to at least stick to real words. I hope that my friends and peers will take note of this and will also use this behavior, as it will help them look more intelligent.

Day 7 - 2-9-10: ISTE-NET Activity in K-16

One of the activities that I thought best fulfilled an ISTE-NET standard was when I made a website for a fictional marching band. This was for my music technology class. This was a good activity because it caused me to access a lot of different ways to get my message across, from html code to mp3 files and images. I think this best fulfills ISTE-NET standard 3c, because I communicated with would-be students and parents (if the website were real) and I used a variety of formats to get my message across. Here is a link to the website.

Day 6 - 2/4/10

Today in class we answered questions from 5th graders in California over Skype. Their questions werw about internet safety and autobiographical writing. My question was
9. Should I write about good and bad things in my life?
I answered that they should, but not to be too specific, and not to mention people's names or specific places they visit. This is a great use of technology to communicate with people both locally and from across the country as we did, or even across the world. You could use this technology to communicate with students in your class, their parents, and other teachers. This is a good way to use the ISTE-NET standard 3c.

Day 5 - 2/2/10

Happy Groundhog Day!
Today in class we used GoogleDocs to create a survey for the rest of our class to take. This allows everyone in the class to answer a question or two very quickly and quietly. We then took the information we collected and created a graph. This is a great way to collect data from an entire class, and the class can reflect on the quantitative data that has been collected. This covers the ISTE-NET standard 1c. I used my survey to ask questions about my major, specifically favorite musical time period and whether or not they play any instrument. This would be a good tool to use with a music class to find out what they are interested in and whether they have any background in music.

Music Survey

Day 4 - 1/28/10

Today in class we joined the facebook group, Web 2.0 and Schools - Discussions. This will enable us to discuss the book we are reading in this group with not only our classmates, but other associates from all over the country. This is a great way to constructively use a technology that most people think is only for "wasting time." Social networking can be used positively by students for class discussions if the students choose to use it responsibly. I think this is a great example of ISTE-NET standard 4c, which states that teachers should model responsible social interactions relating to the use of technology. By using and having your students responsibly utilize technology that could potentially be used in non-productive ways, we are showing them how to be responsible with technology.

Day 3 - 1/26/10

Today in class we joined the online global teaching community website, Classroom 2.0. This is a great resource where teachers post about their own personal experiences and other teachers can go on and read what they write, and maybe take some ideas away from that. There is a whole section pertaining to music education that I have started to look for. Joining this website applies to the following ISTE standard:
5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources.
with the following benchmark:
a. participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.
This is a great resource for teachers that they can use both locally and globally to communicate with all teachers and gain a great wealth of information that they may not get just from their own experiences or having conversations with local teachers.

Day 2 - 1/21/10

On this day in class, we used Google Docs to create resumes for ourselves. This is a good activity because making a resume is something every college student needs to have at the ready for graduate school, job interviews, or other situations where having a resume would make your life easier. Also, it is a good way to work around the Google Docs software. This activity uses the following ISTE-NET standard:
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
and the following benchmark:
b. engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.
Google Docs allows you to publish your resume to the internet, publish it to your blog, save it as a word document or pdf, or print it off. This creates a variety of ways to get your resume out there. Say you're applying to a job halfway across the country or halfway across the world. You can also put it out there for perspective employers to find you. This is not something you can do with a paper resume.

Here is my resume

Day 1 - 1/19/10

On this day we set up our blogs. We used the website, blogger. We will use this technology to do a number of things during this course. I believe that setting up and using our blogs on the first day of class met the following ISTE-NETS Standard for Teachers:
3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning: Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society.
and it meets the following benchmark:
b. collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.
I believe that this is the case because we are learning to use this blogging technology that we have already used to communicate with our teacher and our peers in the class. This technology can be used to communicate with people in your own classroom and community, or with people all over the world.

Here is a link to my blog: http://wujamaba.blogspot.com/

Copy of Circles Resume

William Jacob Leeper, III

217 Braddock Street, Fairmont, WV 26554 • 304.376.1780 • wleeper@students.fairmontstate.edu

Profile

Hello, my name is William Jacob Leeper, III. I am a recent graduate of Fairmont State University with a Bachelor's degree in Music Education. I am seeking gainful employment in the field of music education in the state of West Virginia.

Education

Fairmont Senior High School

High School Diploma, 2007

Fairmont State University

Bachelor of Arts in Education, Music Education Pre K-Adult, 2011

Skills

Technology Skills

Microsoft Office Suite, Finale Music Notation Software, Pyware Drill Writing Software, Smart Music Software, Audacity Audio Editing, CakeWalk, Band in a Box

Languages

English

Experience

Fairmont Senior High School, Fairmont, WV July 2008

Music Instructor

• Instructed music at Fairmont Senior High School's band camp during the 2008 school year. Served as saxophone instructor.
  

Fairmont State University Preschool, Fairmont, WV Fall 2009

Music Teacher

• Taught half-hour lessons at the Fairmont State University Preschool every week during the fall semester.

Marion County Parks and Recreation, Fairmont, WV 2005-2009

Concessions Woker/Manager

• Worked at the Mary Lou Retton Youth Park Concession Stand. In 2008 and 2009, served as manager of two locations.
  

Performance Experience

Spring 2011

Senior Recital Capstone Project, Fairmont, WV

Alto Saxophone

• Performed a Senior Recital on Alto Saxophone for the Department of Music of Fairmont State University faculty, students, and community members. Length of program is approximately 1 hour. Performed works by Alexander Glazunov, Paul Creston, Claude Debussy, and others.
  

2007-2011

Department of Music Recitals, Fairmont, WV

Alto Saxophone, Piano

• Performed on at least one recital per semester between 2009 and 2011. Performed on Alto Saxophone and Piano.
  

Activities

2009-2010

MENC: The National Association for Music Education, Collegiate Chapter President

Accomplishments

2009-2011

Dean's List, Fairmont State University

Fall 2009

President's List, Fairmont State University

References

Available upon request

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd8jf998_1x8s7t6hb

Introduction

Hi, my name is William Leeper, but I am more commonly known as Jay Leeper. This is my first blog entry, ever. I am creating this blog for the class, EDUC 2201, Instructional Technology. Today was our first class, so I am introducing myself here on my new blog. :)