What I Learned...

This class has been very helpful to me in many areas of technology; I have not only learned how to better use technology in the classroom, but I was also challenged in my stewardship of technology. As a future educator, I must start now at being a good digital citizen in the virtual world we access every day. I am a steward of what God has given me on this earth, and I must be willing as a future teacher to teach my students how to be students of integrity, in the digital world and in reality.

There are many things that I will use in my classroom that I learned in this class. Before this class, I have never really been able to use a smart board; it was great to be able to just sit and use it and learn about many of the different things that can be done with them. I will definitely need to do my best to stay up with technology. I am the one who is becoming a digital alien; all of the kids are now digital natives. But I also want to teach my kids that technology is not all there is. We live in a real world and need to be careful not to get too sucked into the digital world. I hope to be able to impact my students in a meaningful way, and I will use technology to be able to help them learn so they can be the best they can be in this world we live in called earth.

The Future

Technology has forever changed the classroom for educators. The computer, iPads, Internet and many other technologies have brought about these changes to the classroom; there have been negative and positive elements to the changes that the technologies have brought. But in terms of the future of technology, obviously it will be used in classrooms whether we as teachers want to use it or not. 

The goal of education is to teach students about how to succeed in this world, and I want my students to be prepared to be the best they can be in the world. Technology is a part of this world we live in, so I must help my students to learn how to be good stewards of technology. I will have to be very intentional about how I teach my students to use technology. Technology will be forever changing as we are using it in classrooms; I will have to be ready to roll with the changing tides and learn to adapt and teach my students how to think about and use technology.

Academic Honesty

When I hear the words academic honesty, it brings to mind being a person of integrity when it comes to our school and studies in school. Having integrity involves being honest and doing your best work all the time. Being honest involves always making sure to do your own work as a student. Our work must be our own; if we use something from another person then we must give credit where credit is due. As a future educator I will have the responsibility to not only be an example of academic honesty, but I will also need to teach my students how to be academically honest. How can I expect my students to be honest in their work if I do not let them know my expectations for them, with respect to academic honesty. It is very important for students to be academically honest; if o one teaches them, then they may try to cheat their whole way through life. I to be an educator who holds my students to a standard of integrity and honesty in all they do.

Cyberbullying

With the growth and spread of the Internet, cyberbullying is also becoming more prevalent in the virtual world many of us take part in. I would define cyberbullying as the repeated harassing, humiliating and/or threatening through the use of a virtual device (e.g. Internet, phone and computer). Students all over the world are harassed every day through social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

Cuberbullying is very demeaning and detrimental to the person being bullied. It lowers the self-esteem and self-worth of the person(s) being harassed. As an educator, I must be willing to teach my kids to use the Internet correctly. This ties back in with digital citizenship, and so I found some sites that would be very helpful as you teach your students about cyberbullying and why it is wrong.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/cyberbullying.html
http://www.internetsafety101.org/cyberbullying.htm
http://www.isafe.org/

Digital Citizenship for Teachers

In an earlier post, I wrote about how important digital citizenship is, and so this will be the baseline for what I am going to talk about. Teachers are no different than their students when it comes to digital citizenship; the teachers must be good citizens of the digital world just like the students they are teaching. Teachers must be examples for their students in the digital world. If students see their teachers being porr citizens, then they will follow that example.

As a future Christian educator, I must realize the importance of really monitering my digital citizenship. Christ calls us to be in the world but not of the world in Romans 12. I am representing Christ in all I do here on the earth, even in the digital world of computers and the Internet. I must do my best to practice being a good citizen of the digital world; in this way, people will hopefully know something is different in my life. This will give me an opportunity to share the gospel and Christ's love to them! I hope my behavior in the digital world as well as in the real world will reflect Christ in my life.

Technology in the Classroom

Technology has been embraced by educators in their classrooms. This has had positive and negative effects on learning. I will start with the positive side of technology. Technology has really helped the visual learners to be able to better learn. Powerpoints, Prezis and videos are all fairly new technologies that are available to students who are visual learners. The Internet is an amazing tool to use in classrooms and has made research papers and assignments much easier to do.

But along with these advancements in technology have come some negatives effects on student learning. Always using the Internet without checking if the information is good or not is dangerous because students can learn wrong information if they are not careful about where they are getting their information. Too much of an emphasis can be placed on technology when it is over used in the classroom. Students can still learn even if a computer is not involved, and educators need to remember this. As an educator I must strategically implement technology into my lessons with the goal of enhancing student learning.

Being an Upstanding "Citizen"

The topic of digital citizenship is a very relevant one for students today. The Internet is a great resource that is used in many classrooms throughout the world, and it is important that the students know how to be a good "citizen" in the digital world. This is essentially what digital citizenship is; it is learning how to appropriately use the Internet and all of the websites available on the Internet. There are many social networking sites, and it is important students know how to interact properly on these site. Students must be able to behave in a professional manner when in the digital world of the Internet.

If students are not taught how to be good "citizens" in the digital world, then we are heading for trouble. We live in a world where sin abounds; it does not take an expert to see this. Just as we are trying to teach values and integrity to students for living in the world, we must be teaching them good digital citizenship so a good thing like the Internet is not used for the wrong reasons. Below I have attached some links that further go into what digital citizenship is; these are links I would use to help my students become upstanding digital citizens.

http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html
http://www.nisd.net/digitalcitizen/
http://ecitizenship.csla.net/

Is that really true?

The Internet is a wonderful invention with which you can do many different things; one can view a live feed of a basketball game from the other side of the world. Someone else can instant message another person through a social networking site. Still someone else can research online encyclopedias and dictionaries for a research project. As we do all of these tasks, it is important for us to check the site to make sure it is a "valid" website. What I mean by valid is that it should have information that is accurate and true.

There are many websites out there that are bogus websites; even on places such as Wikipedia people can post information to the world that is totally false. If I just accepted everything I read on the Internet as true I would mis-informed on many things, but we cannot disregard everything we view on the Internet either. We must learn how to navigate the Internet so we can use it to its full potential. I cannot think of a time recently when I used a website that was a bogus website, but I wanted to share with you a few bogus sites I found:
http://haggishunt.scotsman.com/
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/webhoaxes/a/snoop_dogg.htm

I hope you enjoyed some of these bogus sites that give false information. Remember to be a critical surfer of the Internet; don't believe everything you see!

What is Fair?

As a future educator, there are many technologies I will want to use to help promote the best learning possible in my classroom. I might want to show a video or some pictures, or maybe I want the students to listen to a famous speech. Fair Use gives us the guidelines for using material that someone else has a copyright on; it tells us how much we can use without over-stepping the boundaries of the copyright.

Fair use will determine some of the things I can and cannot use in my classroom. If I wanted to show a video but the copyright doesn't allow for me to show the parts I want to show, then I will have to find a different resource to teach with. As a Christian, I want to be a man of integrity in all I do; if I am teaching, I want to be an example to my students of a morally upright man. Leading by example is a must for a teacher in his/her classroom. Proverbs 11:3 says, "The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity." I want to walk in the way of integrity; I will do my best to do this as I deal with Fair Use laws and how they apply in the classroom.

I have loved playing basketball ever since I was a young boy. My dad would take my three brothers and I to the gym and teach us how to dribble a basketball and would teach us to shoot a basketball with correct form. I love the competition that goes along with playing basketball. I played basketball all four years of high school and played my freshman year here at Grace University. Basketball taught me many important life lessons; someday I want to be a coach and want to have the privilege to couch young men to play the great game of basketball.

My Philosophy of Education...

Education is a very important part of growing up. How can one learn without being taught? Aristotle said, "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." It is imperative that education is upheld; the young minds of the next generation need to be shaped so they will be able to be creative cultivators of this earth. As a Christian, I believe we are here on this earth to be stewards of what God has created.

All kids who are growing up in this world should have the opportunity to go for their dreams! I believe that as a future educator (hopefully) I must be willing to do my best to train up children with values like integrity, honesty and responsibility. Education should stress how important it is to care for others and should be able to teach students how to be an upstanding citizen in their respective country. Plato puts it so majestically when he said, "The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life." Education must be preserved!  

Technology and Education

When I think of education today it is hard for me to imagine teaching without Powerpoint or Prezi presentations; teachers use videos, pictures and smart boards in our technology-filled classrooms. There still are many teachers who do not use very much technology in their lessons, but as the years go by, technology is becoming more infused with how education is done in the world. Teachers enter grades on the computer, and students interact on blog forums to complete assignments given them by teachers.

There are many uses for a computer or an iPad; the challenge for teachers is to be able to use these as learning tools that will benefit students. If the teachers do not learn to effectively use technology to promote learning in the classroom, then they really shouldn't be using the technology. The ultimate goal of schooling needs to be so the students learn; if the students are not learning the teacher is failing. Using technology to effectively enhance learning is what all teachers should strive for.

As an educator, I must be able to use technology to better help my students learn. Because I will have technology at my disposal in the classroom, I need to be able to help the students learn how to use the technology, and I need to use the technology to help my students learn whatever I am teaching. So technology is so important in education because it can be used to greatly enhance learning, but it is up to the teacher to put forth the effort required to make the technology useful.

Psalm 100

Psalm 100 has always been one of my favorite psalms. Growing up, my family would learn different verses and passages in the Bible, and this passage was one we learned when I was still a pretty young boy. When I hear someone say Psalm 100 I just think about giving praise to the Lord!

A little word about myself...

My name is Ethan McClain; I am a 20 year old Sophomore at Grace University. I have three brothers-one older and two younger. My dad is a high school history teacher at Sunshine Bible Academy; my mom helps out part-time with some projects at Sunshine Bible Academy. I have an awesome dog named Jake, but he is probably going to die soon because is getting old (so sad!). I played football, basketball and ran track all four yeas of high school.

I am really excited to be a teacher because I know how much of an impact they all had on me. I want to be a light for Christ as I teach; I am excited to try to make a positive and meaningful impact on student's lives! The Bible calls us to be excellent in what we do, and I want to be an excellent example for students to follow. I pray the Lord will use me to do the good works he has prepared for me to do (from Ephesians 2:10).