Rwanda Orphans 2

Sunday, August 7, 2016

RWANDA ORPHANS 2016-2017

FREE MOVIE OF THE PROGRAM

Africa_FirstPass

For more information see the following link:

https://plus.google.com/+VerneWortman/posts

Friday, October 2, 2015

This blog is all about forming a symbaloo.

The following is the address for my personal symbaloo: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/verne1

Symbaloo

You will see that each part is a different color. The social sites are black. The education sites are red. The travel sites are orange. The Educational magazines are purple. The education sites for classroom are green.

Please leave comments.

All these sites may be used as you open the site. If you want to register for your own mix. go to symbaloo and register with your face book . You may adopt and use any persons symbaloo if their site is marked public. You may also use e-mail to send any page. I find this very useful. Mant sites and mixes are available to use and try.

Sunday, September 27, 2015

EDUC 630 Blog 3

Social Media

Educationally the social media of facebook can be very open to spreading new ideas and in a very large area of people. Most educational institutions use facebook to advertise the day to day goings on at their institution. It becomes a great way to circulate whatb is happening today or yesterday.In conjunction with that, I feel that twitter is a much better forum for educational ideas to be shared and investigated especially in like minded groups that are on the cutting edge of new educational developments. I have found that I like to be on twitter at least twice a week for fourums and teaching sharing of ideas and methods. It is on the cutting edge of what is happening in education. (nfographics are very important to my new learning of technology use in education. Instagram, I believe is the least used in education circles. I have not used it at all but intend to investigate ideas of using it for education,

As far as church, religious, and Christian school use of social media, the statistics are that 94% of the top churches have twitter and facebook accounts and of those, 80+% of those list those accounts on their homepages. My own church uses facebook extensively to advertise events and show the public the goings on at our church. very real stories and pictures are portrayed with plenty of comments by members and non-members alike. The rate for instagram goes down to 40% on the webpages.I feel tha small churches have not used this social media to their best advantage. Content has to be tailored to each media form as we have agreat opportunity to reach out to many people without large amounts of money spent on advertisement. I found that one program, buzzplant, works closely with churches to teach themhow to effectively use social media and develop smartphone applications to assist missionaries in the field. the prochurch podcast has abook entitled, "By the Numbers" at churchmagpress.com that offers 20 free media statistics for churches. For cumminication purposes the social media has the most use, at 46%, compared to knocking on doors at 25%, and radi, Tv and newspapers combined at 29%. So we can see the marketing of Christian institutions is very high in using the social media. I belive religion should be associated highly with technology in any way we can use it.Many churche are connecting accounts and websites using and creating digital relationships with people.

Reference,

www.churchmagpress.com

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Blog 2 EDUC630

I would like to review several of my classmates APPS reviews.

I like the idea of Magyar Tekelton that Prezi is a more fun way to present information with more possibilities and creativity than Powerpoint. One of the down falls of the Prezi APP is that it is not as usable and flexible as the Prezi computer program. I would use it for grades 4 and up.

Joe Quilt recommends Qiuzlet. because of its multiple learning strategies. The apps ease of use is stressed. For my use , I would add the upgrade so that students progress can be assessed. I find that this could be very usable for my students online in Rwanda, especially for blended and individualized instruction. its use for K-12 intrigues me. It is a fun app.

William Thompson recommends The Wonder Bunny ABC Race to reinforce younger students on the alphabet. I would use this for the first month for my literacy class at the beginning of the year. Phonics helps are available and are some needed areas I have in Rwanda. It is a free program which can be used on our multiple computers.

Ashley Fort introduces Little Bird Tales ,which can be used to create, record, stories and lessons on the web-based edition. Digital storybooks can be formed for students to present to teachers, students and the community. The greatest use for me is in integrating technology in lessons for using individual creativity of the student. It is a good blended classroom tool and can be used well in individualized instruction. Lots of creativity uses! Students can demonstrate recall and be creative integrating technologies.

Splashtop Classroom/ Mirroring 360, was reviewed as a remote desktop interaction app allowing one to remotely control ones computer while teaching a lesson. This is very helpful when the computer is connected to a projector. My teachers all could use this program.It can also be annotated and can stream students work directly to the screen for easy interaction. A subscription fee for the whole school is available. Downloads are free. Interaction with the students would be a great use.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Blog 1 EDUC630 New Developments in Online Education Integration

There are many problems associated with technology integration in the classroom. The first is teacher education in programs and their usage. I am taking this course for that very reason, as I did not grow-up with computers in hand and want all my orphan students to be adept in ICT usage. One of the real problems is keyboarding which should be taught to every student stating in third grade. Coding can begin in that grade also. The growing availability of live white boards is also a concern of mine. I would love to effectively learn to teach integrating one in my classroom.

Many teachers think it takes too much time to integrate technology. I, too thought that until two years ago. I find now that once I have learned the program and integration make it easier to present pedagogy and thinking/creative skills with students.

The lack of funds sometimes is a problem I see in many schools, especially smaller ones that combine many teacher's abilities. In order to improve our usage we need to spend the time, funds and energy needed to acquire the skills needed.

In order to correct many problems, teachers need to actively collaborate, help, and learn from each other. Principals and leaders need to actively help teachers plan curriculum that incorporates ICT into the school system. This starts with school wide communication systems for teachers, administration, and parents.

Programs need to be developed that coordinate services and talents. Comprehensive plans need to be drawn for integrating services, programming, resources, comprehensiveness, policies, procedures, careers, development, and ethics into ICT in the classroom and school districts.

Teacher and resource lack is a major problem as we see many teachers holding on to their lifetime teaching methods. Education itself must continually reteach. I am a good example of a 74 year-old teacher wanting to learn new techniques to better serve my students. Knowledge is vain without the wisdom to use it practically as we strive to become what was ordained for us by from the beginning of the world. As a missionary, I see vast areas of Africa opening up to know Christ as we integrate technology to its fullest in schools and communities. I see the use of small pads and phones as a means of education in every school childs' hands even in Africa . We are exploding in the use of WEB 2 and 3. Information literacy is now as important as reading, speaking and writing literacy to the economic success of our students' futures. Thorsen (2009) from Carr (1998) Learning

Teaching and learning processes are open wide to us as we learn the tools that can be used. Software is a means to bring what I call "realia'' to our students in a way never known before.

References:

Carr, J. (1998). Information literacy and teacher education. ERIC (ED4242331)

Thorsen, C. (2009). Tech tactics. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

DB Forum 1

Video Resource: A Vision of Student's Today

Michael Wesch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

This video listed above is an old video that I watched several years ago. One of the best parts of the video was the use of slides held by different students combining their present status with the story they were telling about the future of integrated and visual e-learning that had started to come about. Tis was contrasted well with statistics to prove heir point about what interested students most and how technology was taking over the student's learning processes. The message is still on target today and even more so in the future. Integration of technology into the classroom and into individualized study is fast becoming the future of advancing education techniques. From measuring learning digitally, to use of Open Resources, to Blended Learning techniques, and to the teaching of and acceptance of digital literacy a new addition to the 4R's, we see now talk and planning for flipped classrooms, digital badging, completely online no cost education, wearable technology, Adaptive Learning Techniques (ALT), 3-D printing used in Makepiece creativity, and STEAM and blended learning. NMC Horizon report (2015). The worldwide wearables market in the world will, alone, be responsible for tremendous economic and educational activity. Couple that with BYOC, and we can see incredible changes in technology use in education, industry, and world trade. With the advent of more digital badging and embedded recording of a students accomplishments , we can envision a change from the classroom to individualized and group learning and from instructor led to student led and challenged. The arts integration in STEAM will allow teams of artful, creative students to learn in a much more integrated and creative way.

Connected learners will be even more connected as technology brings this about. Social programs alone allow social activity as well as knowledge explosion. My only concerns are for the future. We could be without technitions to keep training and helping with problems. As this generation retires we have not educated teachers and tech persons to take their place. We need more practical teacher education before entering a classroom. I can't see all tech being learned together as a whole. Specialists will have to develop and be trained. Equipment will have to be maintained. Teachers will have to integrate their teaching more with tech devices that are ready to be used for the good education. Connected learners will need to have these teachers to be available for helping students to grasp the possibilities.
There are many problems associated with technology integration in the classroom. The first is teacher education in programs and their usage. I am taking this course for that very reason, as I did not grow-up with computers in hand and want all my orphan students to be adept in ICT usage. One of the real problems is keyboarding which should be taught to every student stating in third grade. Coding can begin in that grade also.The growing availability of live white boards is also a concern of mine. I would love to effectively learn to teach integrating one in my classroom.

Programs need to be developed that coordinate services and talents.Comprehensive plans need to be drawn for integrating services, programming, resources, comprehensiveness, policies, procedures, careers, development, and ethics into ICT in the classroom and school districts.