Funny Story With Technology - CEP 812

For CEP 812 project, I had to create a podcast about a funny thing that happened to me with technology. I used GarageBand to record my audio. I wrote my script and practiced before I recorded my voice. I uploaded my podcast into my MSU AFS space, created a feed and linked it to my blog. Enjoy!

Neringa's funny story with technology

Final Reflections CEP 811

I have really enjoyed CEP 811. It was very informative and very hands on class. I learned so much in this course that I could use in my workplace. A few projects that I enjoyed the most was creating a lesson plan, StAIR and a website.

Since I am mostly working with department administrators, the lesson plan I created could be used as a source of presentation. It was very helpful and new to me to use instructional design principles to create my lesson plan. I think that a real word performance is very important aspect when designing a lesson plan or presentation. I also really enjoyed looking back at my lesson plan and seeing how I can apply UDL Principles to assist different learners. I have the UDL checklist printed and I will design every lesson plan using UDL principles.  

StAIR project was very interesting to create. I probably spent 10-15 hours to create my project but I think once it is modified using my classmates and co-workers suggestions, it can be used by our international students. There are so many more topics that I have in mind for my other StAIR projects: applying for a social security number, driver license, etc.

I have never had a website of my own. I will use my weebly site I created mostly for personal reasons. I will upload my updated CV and upload my course work from my Certificate courses. I was struggling using Dream-weaver to create my site but it was an interesting challenge.

My new goal is to finish up my Certificate course work. I have only one more class to go and then I will try to apply for a Master’s Ed Tech program. I am a full time employee and full time mom and I am just taking one step at a time. Raising my son in a bilingual family has brought

me some ideas to create a site for Lithuanian immigrant families or create something that Lithuanian immigrant children can use to learn Lithuanian.

Online Teaching and Learning

I found the Michigan Merit Curriculum Online Experience Guideline Companion Document very useful. If I were a teaching in a classroom, I would definitely use EduBlogs http://edublogs.com – a personal online journal- as one of the technologies as an online experience. 

What content could this help you teach?

Teachers could teach a foreign language with EduBlogs. Blogging promotes writing skills and builds language proficiency. Students could blog on various topics, they could blog a summary of a book chapter, etc.  Blogging also provides a resource for sharing. Student would blog and other classmates would follow his/her blog and comment. Idea for an activity: teacher can give a student 10 new words and they would have to blog using those 10 new words. A classmate would have to comment on the blog using 5 out of 10 new foreign words. Blogging builds student's vocabulary, grammar and imagination!

This activity would also meet Michigan World Language Standards (Communicate in Languages Other Than English) 1- 1.1 Communication   Interpersonal Communication: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.

What type of pedagogical strategies might you use with your students?

Some of the pedagogical strategies that I might use are: summarizing, feedback and homework.

I did not find any technologies which would be harder to use with students.

What I like about blogs: students with various learning styles could participate in this activity. Even a shy student who does not like to speak up in the classroom would feel more comfortable writing down ideas and thoughts. 

Wiki Assignment

For my wiki lab, I looked up Michigan State University on Wikipedia. I was trying to look up anything about international student enrollment at Michigan State University. The only fact on Wikipedia was that some students come from about 125 countries. I was very surprised that no specific international student enrollment number was mentioned and what top countries were represented especially when MSU is playing a very big role in international education. This is what I corrected and added (in red):
While 89% of students come from all 83 counties in the State of Michigan,^[30] also represented are all 50 states in the U.S. and about 130 other countries.^[2] In 2010-2011 5,351 international students enrolled at MSU. The top five countries represented: China, Korea, India, Taiwan and Canada. [5] 

Here is a screenshot of a page that I corrected in Wikipedia:

I created my wiki on Wikispaces: http://neringa.wikispaces.com/

Applications of UDL Principles

My lesson plan was to teach department administrators to prepare H petitions. Various departments at the university file hundreds of H-1B work visa petitions a year. This sample lesson explains how to prepare and train department administrators to file complicated immigration petitions. The educational need for this lesson is for department administrators to know how to file H1B petitions, locate necessary forms on the website, know general information about H‐1B visa, fees needed to file H‐1B petition, and determine who qualifies for H‐1B visa. 
Below is my responses on the UDL Guidelines – Educator Checklist.
https://docs1.google.com/document/d/1fgOf18UXTaniLmLm3fDwGeEFCUxj8B1GYJX2VJ18iXg/edit?hl=en#
Resources:
UDL Guidelines
http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines 

Evaluation of Learning Material in MERLOT

LangMedia Foreign Language Media Archive

Website: http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=76168

Quality of Content: 
The website presents valid and educationally significant concepts, models, and skills for the discipline. The website is learning about new cultures and languages.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool:
The materials can be used in the explanation and demonstration stage of the learning process. 
Students will be able to:

• improve listening comprehension skills in the language of their choice
• better understand the culture of the country of their choice 
• learn the "body language" of the people of the country of their choice
• identify the differences/similarities of different cultures

The material can be used for visual and auditory learners. Students will be able to see videos, hear audios on the website from a target country and learn about its culture, watch videos of a specific theme (visiting bank, greeting friends or buying a newspaper, ordering food) in that country. Students will also be able to hear different languages of the native speakers which will help to practice their comprehension skills. The media rich presentation of material (videos, descriptions of cultures, audios, pronunciation of words and phrases) will improve student's ability to learn and comprehend language of their choice. The use of the software can easily and readily be integrated into the curriculum. Teachers can show video, audio clips in the classroom or incorporate the material in e-learning classroom. Students can also watch materials at home and materials can be used as part of homework assignments. The teaching-learning goals are very easy to identify. The site is very well organized, teacher/student can easily choose a language of their choice and go to different themes, access video/audio clips and read a brief cultures note in English about the topic of their choice. Learning assignments for using the software can be easily written (by language, theme and topic within the theme).
Ease of Use:
Labels, buttons, text and general layout of the computer interface is consistent and visually distinct. The website is very intuitive and easy to navigate. The material is very well organized. The user cannot easily get lost in the material. The module does not provide feedback about the the system status. The learning material does not require any documentation, technical support and instruction to successfully use the website. The material present information in ways that are familiar for students (videos, pictures, and descriptions). The material does present information in ways that would be attractive to students (video, audio and pictures).

Personal Learning Reflection - CEP810

This class has taught me the importance and the ways of using technologies in classrooms 

curriculum. The only way I knew how to present is using Microsoft Power Point. I never knew 

there are so many other options such as Google Presenter or Prezi! 

I have never used to blog before or I never knew what Google Docs are. I think I will be using  

Google Docs a lot especially when I am preparing a presentation with colleagues from other   

states. Blogs can be incorporated in almost any subject in the classroom: from science to 

history! 

I thought the session about Internet Security was very helpful. What an important session to know how to protect and maintain your computer as well as educate your peers and your students on digital citizenship. 

I really liked the copyright assignment. I never thought I had to cite the pictures that I copy from  the web and include them in my presentations. Now I know! 

I knew very little about text to speech before our SIG group started working on the project. Now I  

know that it is another great assisstive technology that can be used in classrooms to teach

English as a second language learners, little children how to read, for children with disabilities, 

and for other educational purposes.

and in my workplace! I never thought a blog or RSS feeds could be integrated into class

My favorite assignment was to submit a lesson or activity. I can really see myself teaching one

believe I met all of my established goals in my Personal Growth Plan but there is always room  t

o learn and grow. I am sure there are many other technologies that I am not aware of and I will  

learn about them and how to use them in my workplace when I take further certificate classes.

day! That’s where I started being creative and really enjoyed of preparing the assignment. I