Perspective and Perception on Educational Technology and Portfolio

1. What do you see in the future in regards to technology and educational technology?

I think the technologies will keep advancing; eventually, it will be a requirement for all the schools to use educational technology. However, from beginning to end, the progress of technologies still exceeds the educational reformation. The economical need in the people’s live and national defense pushes forward to make progress in technology at a tremendous pace or with giant strides, but not all the educators have high acceptability of the new technologies. I consider the reasons are:
(1) Some educators are accustomed to the traditional way of instruction, so they have low acceptability of applying new technology to educational technology.
(2) Technological accessibility needs reinforcing to let educators infuse technology into instruction.
Recently, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan has actively spread the infusion of technology into instruction to shorten the gap between the urban and rural areas, and the outcomes have been increasing remarkably.




2. If you were granted $20,000 to use in your school for educational technology, how would you use it?

We’ll evaluate what technologies that school has, and if they are still good, we will keep and upgrade the technologies. If not, we will review all the available new technology and use the grant to purchase new technologies to replace the existing ones.
If we have more grants, we’d like to buy some whiteboards and Wimba software as academic settings.




3. How would you use a portfolio (think about grants, raises, changes in position, like the
building techie, etc.

I would use a portfolio to get raises and change in present position. I am a subject teacher now, but I plan to be an administrative staff in three years. Being an executive is not that easy in my school. If I want to be an administrator, I need to get Master’s degree, be good at educational technology, have explicit target and great expectation, etc. Now, I am making efforts to make my dream come true, and that’s why I am studying here in Lawrence Tech. I think I would use a portfolio to present what I have accomplished in the past and in the coming three years. I believe studying here is a turning point in my life.
I would use Microsoft publisher to design the front cover of my portfolio, use word processor to create my personal resume, which records my personal progress of growth, educational maxims, my professional specialties, teaching experience, educational research and study, the certificates I have got, the scholarship, the prizes of winning high school teachers’ Chinese-calligraphy competitions, etc. Moreover, I would use the portfolio to show my strength and enthusiasm in education. Furthermore, I would also put professors’ or executives’ recommendation letters in it. Besides, I’d present my good achievement in evaluation of teacher’s professional development. Last but not least, I’d use the portfolio to present my special skills in educational technology to prove that I’m qualified to be a good administrator.




4. What would you or have you included in a portfolio -- think back to the one you needed to
create for Undergrad and/or to get your current job (this can be paper or electronic or a
combo)
I never created a portfolio during my university life, but after graduation, I found establishing a portfolio is quite important. When I interned in a junior high school, I collected students’ data, works, photos of teaching activities, records of students’ feedback, my resume, lesson plans, records of research and study, records of prize winning, drawings, certificates, teaching materials, handouts, reflective journals, etc. in my portfolio. All the data in it were designed by technology, as Word Processor, Spreadsheet, PowerPoint, and so on. When I took the junior high school public teacher examination, the portfolio helped me a lot because it presented my teaching achievements and the process of personal growth.

Assistive Technology Application in the Classroom

1. We have talked about how you can use some of the software tools (like WP, SS, etc) for your students with special needs. This chapter discusses some of the classroom tools. Now, please find one piece of Assistive Technology (AT), give the web address, and explain how it can be used in the classroom - This can apply to something you already use or something you would like to use or get more info about. This AT can be applied in the classroom for special needs students or for regular ed.

　Recently, digital diagrams, including concept maps and idea maps have been used in some of the schools in Taiwan and are verified to be successful and effective in students’ learning especially for those with learning disabilities. One of my colleagues recommended the use of the software, Mind 42, which is accessible from the web address http://www.mind42.com/. Mind Map, also called Graphic Organizers, makes use of lines, images, colors, key words and symbols to make students’ left brain and right brain work together simultaneously. It has some advantages: requires only basic skill, easy for teachers to apply to cross-curriculum programs, student-centered, helpful for cooperative learning, quite flexible and easy to use in academic settings because of its diagrammatic languages.
I’d like to use this software as an assistive teaching tool in my classroom to teach students how to classify ideas and group discussions by developing tree maps, circle maps, bubble maps, etc.


In the followings are some examples for Mind Map.
1.Brace Map：
http://www.mapthemind.com/thinkingmaps/themaps/brace/index.html
2.Bridge Map：
http://thinkingmaps.myteacher.dvusd.com/stories/storyReader$11
3.Bubble Map
http://www.mapthemind.com/thinkingmaps/themaps/bubble/index.html
4.Circle Map
http://thinkingmaps.myteacher.dvusd.com/about
5.Double Bubble Map
http://thinkingmaps.myteacher.dvusd.com/classwork
6. Flow Map
http://thinkingmaps.myteacher.dvusd.com/stories/storyReader$9
7. Multi-flow Map
http://thinkingmaps.myteacher.dvusd.com/stories/storyReader$10
8. Tree Map
http://www.mapthemind.com/thinkingmaps/themaps/brace/index.html




2. Give the web address of one piece of support software you currently use or would like to use.

The software I’d like to use in the classroom in the near future is shown below.
Freemind 0.9.0 B20 (Mind Mapping software)
http://tzoyiing.pixnet.net/blog/post/22523096

ConceptDraw MINDMAP Pro 5.0.5
http://www.104soft.com/software/50123.htm