Spreadsheets

The spreadsheet project that I decided could best be molded to fit a Spanish high school class was the State Economy Chart. This was a project given to students to learn about the economy of a state while learning to use Microsoft Excel in an efficient way. I could give this project to students while eliminating states and adding Latin American countries. This would give my students a great insight into what is happening in countries that they never would have researched otherwise. I believe that research in a particular country increases cultural awareness and fosters a passion for learning the language. They reason that I became passionate about the Spanish language was after a project I did on Honduras my sophomore year of high school. By using this project I believe that I could greatly improve the passion for the language my students would have.

The Use of New Technologies in Education

My goals as an educator of high school students in the Spanish language is to first, teach students the language, and second, making the students familiar with cultural aspects of the language. I see technology aiding me greatly in this task. Two technologies that I foresee helping me are the Smart Board and the augmented reality visualization tool. The Smart Board can be used to administer quizzes, help teach conjugations of verbs, class activities, and many more incredible things. I think the best of those uses is helping students conjugating verbs. High school students have a very difficult time with this for their first two years of class. Helping the students with this could speed up language acquisition time immensely. The Smart Board is a tool that I will use mainly for learning the language. Now the augmented reality visualization tool will be used to teach students about the cultural aspects of the Spanish language. This can be done by showing them historical buildings, natural wonders, and the possibilities are endless as the technology improves. I can see this technology leading to the ability to explore cities of Latin American countries from the classroom. The day that that is possible will completely change the way students are educated in foreign languages.

Technological Vision of the Classroom

This classroom shows the importance of language in reference to culture and understanding of different cultures. Students are willing to fail in order to improve language skills. Failure is how we grow as language speakers! Technology is used to communicate through e-mail, video, and social media with pen pals in Latin American countries to further increase tolerance and understanding of different cultures. Suggestions for improving the class is always welcome. Students, teachers, and parents will always address each other in a respectful manner. This is a place of encouragement, not negativity!

Assistive Technology Changing Lives

Mason, Elle, and Lukas all began life with physical disabilities that the average person could never begin to comprehend. Assistive Technologies have helped change the lives of these three and many more like them. Mason is extremely visually impaired with 20/300 vision. This means that what a person with perfect vision is able to see at 300 feet, Mason is only able to see at 20 feet. He is legally blind. With assistive technology Mason is able to learn to read in write in a much easier way than before assistive technologies. Elle was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, which severely impairs muscular movement. Elle is unable to move her limbs, but thanks to assistive technology she is able to communicate with friends, family, and her teachers. Lukas was born with a disease that renders his limbs almost useless. He now can play the horn because of assistive technologies. These technologies have changed the lives of these three kids in ways that could not possibly be imagined in previous generations.

The use of iPads, SMART boards, and a Mountbatten Brailer allow Mason to be able to live a normal family and school life as he would never have been able to without these tools. The iPad is used to play educational games on because of the ability to increase text size. This increase in text size allows him to learn the alphabet as well as read words. The SMART board is used in a similar sense, just while he is at school. The Brailer that Mason used allowed him to type words in braille. This allows him to read papers that he has written. He knows what letter he typed because it is played back to him through audio speakers. Elle, the teenager with Cerebral Palsy is able to communicate with the people around her thanks to the help of a Dynavox. With this, Elle is able to form friendships and relationships that she never would have been able to without the Dynavox. Also, she can communicate her needs and wants to her family and educators as seamlessly as speaking. A joystick horn and a wheelchair give Lukas access to the opportunity to pursue music after high school. Without the joystick, Lukas never would have been able to even dream about playing an instrument in college, let alone even playing an instrument. With the help of all these technologies, students with disabilities are now able to live similar lives to those without these disabilities.

Assistive technologies are helping students with disabilities to reach their full potential. The successes of the students should not be attributed to the technologies, but the ability of the students to adapt to their environment and use technology to live a fulfilling life. The educational world is still in the beginning stages of assistive technologies. With progress in these technologies, the ability to change students with disabilities is limitless.

The Benifits of Nike+

I recently sprained my ankle playing basketball, limiting my ability to run. After downloading Nike+ to my iPhone, I decided to go on a nature walk on the beautiful greenbelt of Boise, Idaho. The application for iPhone really impressed me. The reasons being the ease of use, the recap of the workout, and the goal setting that is available on the app. I want to be a football coach and I see a variety of uses for this app besides the health benefits that could occur for myself.

After going on this nature walk, I felt fantastic. Spending some time by the river can be very therapeutic. Being able to recap the walk I just went on through Nike+ contributed to this fantastic feeling. Being able to see how fast your pace is, the distance, and the addition to my mile total all made the experience better. The fact of seeing in graph form where you just ran, gives you a sense of accomplishment that cannot be felt without the app.

My favorite part about this app is the potential use of it in my future coaching endeavors. I could start a group for my football team and have them track their workouts on a daily basis. This will give me a much better indicator of how each individual player is training than solely observing them workout. The ability to see all my players progress on a tangible piece of evidence will lead to better individual attention of players. By spending more individual time with players, the team will become better because everybody learns their own way. Accessing this way of learning in players can be done from individual attention. The other major plus of this app is the ability to see how others in the group are performing. This will lead to better competition between teammates for positions. Having better competition at positions will lead to better performance on the field. In the words of Coach Pete Carrol "Always Compete!"

Differing Students

No student in any classroom learns the exact same way. In order to help students learn differently, as a teacher, I will need to guide each student individually on their own path to learning the subject matter.In order to accomplish this I will need to do the following things; treat the student as an individual, use informal learning,  and know that tests, quizzes, and papers are on the way out. The internet has made it much easier to help students learn on their own path. Students need to be on their own path because they all have different experiences in life that have affected the way they learn. By using different websites, videos, video games, and other technologies to help students learn, I will have an easier time guiding each student on their individual path in learning. Technology is the future of education and it is going to radically change the way educators teach in the classroom.

The Wonders of Technology in the Classroom

    The human race is constantly trying to invent technologies that can help them in every aspect of their lives. After watching The Future of Education video, I found a lot of similarities, as well as differences between their predictions about education in the future and the current reality. The sick student was using a program on his computer that would give him access to information as fast as he could ask for it. This is strikingly similar to Wikipedia in our current age. The biggest difference I noticed was the set up of the classroom. It seems that old habits die hard in education. The classroom was set up with no desks and about 20 chairs for the students to sit in. They had no backpacks, pencils, binders, or any school supplies for that matter. Today, we may have our computers to use and take notes on, but the tradition of writing on paper and using a backpack are still very very prevalent. There is no doubt though, that the main point of the video rings true today. At the end the injured student stated that Pheidippides died for the access to information from running so far. Now it is as simple as sending an email, giving a person a call, or sending a text message. Nobody has to die sending a text message. 
    I believe that the improvement of current technology will be the greatest asset to educating our students in the future. I believe that within twenty years, books will be obsolete. Students will only need to bring out their tablet which has access to every book that they would ever need. Paper will be a thing of the past as well. Students can write on their tablet. Processing power of tablets in increasing at a rapid rate. In twenty years, it will be unfathomable to us how many things the tablet will be able to do for us. I know that this might sound a little bit crazy, but I believe that virtual reality will be the biggest advance in education the world has ever seen. If humans can find a way to invent very complex virtual realities, they will be able to slow time in those realities. By doing this, what a student could learn in 1 hour of virtual reality could be the same as a year of normal education. I believe that technology is still pretty far off from seeing this come to fruition. It will be a turning point in human history when the technology is invented.