Digital Generation

Please turn in your printed resume at the beginning of class today.
What questions do you have about the syllabus? Other aspects of the course?

Grading policy
As promised yesterday, here is the grading policy for this class. Remember that late assignments will not be accepted (unless you use your late pass that you will receive shortly). Also remember that a portion of your grade is based on attendence. See the syllabus for further details.

A 90-100
A- Will not be assigned in this course
B+ 87-89
B 84-86
B- 80-83
C+ 77-79
C 74-76
C- 70-73

PART ONE: Finishing the Learning and Teaching Puzzle
Picking up from yesterday's class, we will discuss in more detail the learning theories quiz that everyone completed yesterday. We will then briefly discuss teaching strategies and then focus on resources and tools--the main objective of this class.

To see an explanation of your learning styles quiz click here

PART TWO: Article Discussion
You read an article about "Weaving Technology into Teaching". What have you experienced as a K-12 student that would exemplify that weaving? What knowledge do you currently have about teaching and learning? What knowledge do you have about what technology integration looks like in a classroom? What technology skills do you already possess? Post one "big idea" from the reading on the whiteboard at the back of the classroom.


PART THREE: The Digital Generation
How would you describe your future students? What type of learners will they be? What expectations will they have for their learning environment, for their teachers, for their community? You'll be teaching the millenials -- or the digital generation. On an index card, describe your future students.

Marc Prensky is an educational speaker who discusses this generation in great detail. If you were born after 1982 - you are a part of this generation - you are a digital native. Most of your teachers were digital immigrants. What does that mean for education? For understanding learning styles and teaching strategies? Where does instructional technology fit?

PART FOUR: Building a web-based portfolio

Now that you're starting to build a foundation for learning more about K-12 technology integration, it's time to start building a foundation for your web-based portfolio. We'll be adding to this electronic document throughout the semester. We'll start with a topic upon which you are an expert: yourself. We'll be building the biography page of your portfolio. Go to http://pages.google.com and login with your gmail account information. We'll walk you through the rest.

Your finished biography page (due Monday, June 12 at the beginning of class) should include the following:

1. A brief (1-2 paragraph) introduction to yourself – current information, career plans, and where you see yourself in 5 years.
2. A link to your resume.
3. At least 3 external links to places of interest.
4. 3-5 pictures

For Monday:
1. Complete your autobiography page and publish it to the web. Remember - it works best with Firefox as your browser -- download it here if you don't already have it. To access your pages to continue working on them, go to Google Pages and log in with your google idea.
2. Review your chosen curriculum standards and respond to the following questions (bring a printed copy to class on Monday):
*Why did you chose this content area/grade level?
*In general, what is the content focus for your grade level?
*What surprised you about your standards?
*What specific standards address the needs of the "digital generation"?
*What specific standards lend themselves to technology integration?What is it about them that causes you to determine this?
*What types of learners might find it easy to be successful in your content area? What types of learners might struggle?
*What specific teaching strategies (see Tuesday's blog links) would work well in your content area?
*If you were actually teaching this content area/grade level what would you want your students to know and be able to do? What would be your priorities? What would you want them to remember from your class?