Final Reflections

What is one way in which you grew as an educator from this class and how will you continue it?

The biggest thing that I am taking away from this class is the integration of technology into teaching, not just using it as another tool like a pencil or a piece of paper.  I always heard the biggest complaint on using technology is there was not time to learn how to make technology a part of the students experience.  Teachers were given technology 2 days before the beginning of the year, so it just became a piece that was added to the lesson plan instead of the lesson plan developing around the technology.  I believe to truly grow as an educator today, one thing that must be done is the desire and actual embracing of technology.  Because I do not teach my own class yet, I am able to take my knowledge and create lesson plans using this technology to one day implement.  I can truly integrate my technology in some basic way and then specialize it once I know what technology I will actually have. 
To continue I will need to continue to learn about new and different technologies.  I will not know what I will be given until I have a school to teach at, so the more different types of technology that I know, the more beneficial it will be to me in the long run.  If I can learn how to create a technology planned lesson that can be used on multiple styles of devices then I will be more prepared for whatever I face in the future. 

Underage Children and Social Networking

I think the idea behind the underage use of social media by children is a very important subject and one that is becoming more and more central all the time.  As the article mentioned, several stores and manufacturers are using social media like Facebook or twitter to communicate with cliental, excepts there cliental is under the age acceptable to use the media.  There are good reasons behind why the age limits have been set for social media because of the possibility of sexual predators online and the lack of understanding by younger children on what is alright to share with a stranger and what a stranger actually is.  As the research also showed, children 8 years and younger really have no interest in social media.  So from the study we are really focused on 9-12 year olds.  At this age, children should have a fairly decent concept of what a stranger is and what can be shared with someone you don't know.  Children of this age should not be left alone at anytime with the internet or social media, but I don't necessarily think that the answer is to not let them communicate through social media.  Todays social media is becoming the soda shop of the 50s, the telephone of the 70s, and the text message of the 2000s.  As a child gets older and grows out of the imaginary playing world that younger children use when interacting with friends they will turn to the current trend.  As mentioned by the Dean in the Grad luncheon last week, his middle school daughter communicates through Instagram - words are no longer even needed.  While this presents a scary future of what these are pictures of (or the loss of communication skills all together) we must accept that more and more companies will be using social media to connect, and they will be connecting with this age group.
I think the article pointed out good ideas in how to approach this in a safe way, like linking Facebook accounts to a parents account to the settings can be controlled.  Parents being a friend and always keeping up with the content that is shared and reviewed is also an important part.  One of the biggest parts of social media and younger children is active parent involvement, which is easy for some parents and apparently impossible for others.
The same problems with social media exist with the search engines, video games with interactive communities, and playing on the street unattended.  There is danger around every corner, it is just taking the time to learn what the danger is and develop a plan on how to handle the danger.  With children playing outside - a responsible older party should always be keeping an eye to make sure that no suspicious persons comes into the yard and to make sure that children do not stray too far from the yard.  Should the same ideas not apply to internet usage?
We cannot stop the world from using the world wide web or social media.  It is today and it is the future.  And the future is yet to exist or has not become popular.  Tomorrow there will be a new worry that must be addressed, and we will address it the same way we have for centuries now.  The information age has just made the problems more mainstream, which is not bad, but it has made parents more aware of the issues and so hopefully more parents will be proactive about the solutions.

OR Project Teaching

Class assignment: Did you learn about your teaching style in the OR project? -Discuss your teaching strengths and weaknesses from this on the blog.


Since I am doing my OR project on creating an iBook, I have actually created an iBook as a teaching assistant for teaching my project.  To test how well the tutorial was written (so it could potentially be used by students or other teachers outside of a seminar or teaching class) I had my father use the iBook draft to learn how to use iBook Author.  Since he is also a professor he was able to give me feedback in how the tutorial was written and what could be improved.
One of the biggest things I have learned in creating my tutorial and using it to help others is remembering that shorter sentences that are not complex are better.  It is not necessarily the best way to approach instructing someone on a new tool by creating complex sentences with a lot of detail to take in at once.  I have had to go back and re-read my tutorial and look for instances where I put too much information into a single thought where the user would feel overloaded by the information provided.  I have written my tutorial with the understanding that the person using it (on an independent case) knows how to use a computer fairly well and does not need guidance with simple items like how to get to different applications on a computer or how to use the computer in general.  What I did not take into account is problems that someone might run into that is outside of the tutorials pages.  While my father was trying to download iBooks Author we ran into a problem that the Mac he was using did not run Mountain Lion, instead it had Snow Leopard.  iBooks Author cannot be installed on Snow Leopard so we had to work through why the app would not load, trouble shoot the problem, then spend extra time in downloading the new operating system so he could continue with the tutorial.  Even though my father knows a lot about computers and how they operate, he is unfamiliar with how Macs work and it required some extra work to actual get to the point where he could do the tutorial.
As far as my actual teaching style, since I did not instruct him how to use my iBook, since I was testing its independent effectiveness, I will have to wait until I instruct in our class to assess my teaching style.

Professional Development

-I never saw the tweet with the assignment to post a Professional Development point in our blog till today, so I am posting this late to make up for it.-

I selected a point from "Engaging in Professional Growth and Leadership" because it mixed the most with my current job and those things that I am currently doing both in school and my everyday life.  I feel that this is a point that I have a lot of influence in both as a designer and as a teacher.

1. Engage in professional growth and leadership
1. Participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.
2. Currently as an interior designer of schools, I do research on different types of technology that can be used in a classroom and what is popular in the current trends so that I can communicate with clients effectively on what items they might potentially put in their schools.  
3. Technology is only going to become a larger piece of the education puzzle.  Knowing what is out there and how it can be used will put me ahead of the curve and keep me up to date on what is coming, what is current, and what is gone.
4. Continue to research developing trends in technology not only as a designer but as a practitioner that will eventually use these resources in the classroom.  Participate in Continuing Education provided by the architectural community to further my knowledge and understanding of current trends so that I can apply them to my own learning to become a teacher.  MetroCon 2013 (August)
5. Continue to read journals, blogs, attend conferences and weekend classes and other ways of staying current on the education trends in technology to make sure I know what is coming so that I can research and learn about it both before I am in the classroom and when I am a teacher.