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=Welcome to Alyssa Moser's ISTC Digital Portfolio =



Educational Technology is rapidly taking over today's classrooms. We are living in the digital age.All parts of American society are moving into the paperless, digitally networked world. Technology is continually evolving and by the time today's children are adults they will most likely be considered incompetent if they are not well versed in the digital media of the world we live in. This is why the daily use and integration of technology in the classroom is required for a well rounded education.

This portfolio is one of the many ways to utilize digital media. Not only is a wiki is an incredibly valuable tool for collaboration but it is also a great alternative to creating a website. I have used Wikispaces to create educational pages, communicate with classmates, and display my own personal work.

__ Projects and tools that I have created and/or used as a result of taking ISTC 301: __

Learning Theory Wiki- Hiearchy of Needs Collaborative

This project was what made me comfortable with using a wiki. We had to embed, link, and format the wiki collaboratively and use it for what it was created to do. I have no hesitations to create a wiki for multiple educational projects because I know my way around one now.

[|ISTC Blog] I much preferred using a blog as an alternative to turning in reflections. If I wanted to go back over what I have learned/reflected on/written about this semester and had done it through word documents, it would be a hassle. It is so much easier and aesthetically pleasing to just pull up a webpage and scroll through all my work. It also keeps my desktop from getting clogged up with documents!

Here is an example of what I might use receive information from parents at the beginning of a school year through the use of a Google Form: media type="custom" key="7764185" width="90" height="90"

Google Documents are perhaps one of the easiest ways to share and edit files. [|Here is a simple example of a google doc] used in class between myself and a classmate to create a quick and easy list.

Diigo is a very handy tool for teachers. My[| Diigo library] has just a few of the many educational websites out there.

Diigo had been one of my favorite tools to experiment with and learn about. This is one aspect of this course that I am sure to take with me as a teacher. There are several obvious benefits of downloading and using the Diigo toolbar. Every website I visit I know I can "write/highlight" on before I share it. I will have a permanent link for all my students to go to when they need to use any of the websites I have shown them in class.

I used webspiration for several activities this semester, including a [|concept map] for poetry devices, which could easily be integrated into a poetry unit.

We created several projects through webspiration this semester. I feel I learned a lot from them and am glad to have the knowledge of such a useful concept mapping tool. It is unfortunate that Inspiration is not free or else I would use it often in my teaching career. Hopefully the district I work for will have it available for their staff!

One of our final projects was the digital story. We were asked to create a movie with some sort of audio overlay explaining a component of the Universal Design for Learning. I chose to portray the component of engagement in my digital story: media type="custom" key="7764459" align="center"

I have to admit that this project was somewhat limiting to me. I would have loved to have the freedom to create a digital story involving the educational topic of my choosing; something I would use later on in my teaching career. Creating a movie about an aspect of the Universal Design for Learning will never be used in an elementary classroom. I would have been able to reuse a movie about parts of speech, an animal specie, elements of a story, or adjectives vs. adverbs. If this had been the assignment the possibilities would have been endless.

Toward the end of the semester I adapted a former third grade science lesson plan of mine to include the use of digital media:

I also co-wrote a second grade lesson on fairy tales that heavily involved the use of several types of educational technology:

Both of these lesson plans are practical and I am sure I will use them several times throughout my teaching career. Incorporating educational technology into lesson plan writing has been edifying in several ways. When I am writing the lesson I find that almost any component of the lesson can be enhanced by the use of some form of digital media whether it be an online video, a whiteboard activity, a computer game, or something like a wall wisher activity. While I am brainstorming and searching online for different resources I come across a plethora of computer activities that I never knew existed and I find myself getting as excited about them as the students would be. These two lessons would undoubtedly be half as interesting or engaging if it were not for the use of technology.

Last but not least is a podcast. The assignment was to show our understanding of the use of educational technology and its role in the classroom. media type="file" key="moserpodcast.mp3.m4a" align="center" width="300" height="50"

This was an important assignment for me because although I knew in theory how a podcast was made, until this point in my education I have never actually created one. I am a mac user so making a podcast through garage band proved to be very simple. Now that I know just how quick and easy it is to create podcasts I won't hesitate in the future to incorporate them into my instruction or any other extra curricular activities.