End of the Year

Well I can't believe it's the end of the year. This semester just flew by!

I came in to this class thinking that it was going to be a waste of my two credits, besides filling elective requirements (sorry Professor Sorenson, but keep reading!). However, my mind has been changed on the subject (see, it got better). I learned so much about technology and how I can still use it in the third world as a missionary. By creating my website I saw how easy it was to make one and maintain it, opening up great avenues of communication for me and my potential supporters. I also saw that learning the "how" of utilizing new technology without it dominating the class would be beneficial, not matter what country I'm in. That would always be a useful thing to know and apply.

I'm glad that I was able to experience new technology, such as the SMARTBoard, that I probably would never use again. I liek to experience new things and to say that I was able to successfully anvigate a SMARTBoard is a nice achievement (to me).

So thanks Professor Sorenson! Thanks for helping me with all of my assignments and making them "mission major friendly" and allowing me to use this class to benefit my future career! :)

Cultural Differences

One hurdle I know that I will have to overcome is the cultural barrier between American-style teaching and Asian-style teaching.

In Asia, lecture is the primary way of teaching. Students learn too! A stereotype of Asian teenagers is that they are very smart. I personally do not understand how they can soak up all the information from a lecture format of teaching. Most American students (like me) die (or want to die) when they have teachers who are strictly lecuterers. So what do I do as an American abhorer of lecture who is going to teach Asian students who are used to lecture formats?

I plan on mixing the styles. I want to do some lecture but mis it up with class discussion and games. Also some field trips and hands-on activities where the students can learn experientially as opposed pure academic learning. These are some ideas for the classroom, does anyone have any other ideas? I really want to challenge the students I'll have so that they aren't trained to learn only one way. And I want to challenge myself so that I can communicate in more than one way.

Classroom in Five Years

Haha, funny story: I commented on my friend's blog on the same subject, but in my mind I thought I had already blogged about the topic myself (obviously I have not).

I think that my classroom in the Philippines will look much like it does right now: chalkboard, broken pieces of chalk, an old eraser, and worn, broken desks in a stuffy classroom. I think the most realistic technological update that a Filipino classroom will see is the whiteboard instead of the chalkboard. It would be wonderful to have in the classroom because clean would be easier, as well as having improved clarity of the information on the board. An overhead projector would be another realistic and helpful technological advancement to the Filipino classroom.

I think having computers in the school (for students) would be a wonderful advancement, but just not a logical one. Who knows though? Ten years ago no one would have guessed that SMARTBoards and other technology that's in classrooms today would have been here.

Internet Safety Issues

I guess I didn't do this blog because I felt that it did not pertain to me as a missionary, but I thought about it and I realized it does.

A lot of kids in the Philippines go to internet cafes or have access to the internet and therefore are part of online social networks and have e-mail addresses. Unfortunately, human trafficking is very prevalent in the Philippines. If the girls in my classroom are not careful then they could end up giving away too much information about themselves that a predator could use to abduct them and force them in to the sex slave industry.

I now see a need to talk about internet safety with the kids I will teach in the Philippines. It would be important for me to stress that giving out personal information to strangers over the internet is not a good, or safe, idea. This may seem cliche, but I'd rather be cliche than be a teacher who wasn't cautious enough.

Technology = Lazy Students?

People today sing the praises of technology, particularly it's role in education. However, there is a question out there, one that seems to be surprsingly unaswered. That question is: does technology make students academically lazy? Most students do not know where to find good resources for research papers until they reach college; they rely on the internet for their information.

For centuries students and teachers did not have the technology that we have today, not until about a decade ago. Yet the academic society has rapidly adapted to technology and all it has to offer, so much so that old ways of "doing" school are disappearing. Computers are replacing proper penmanship, calculators are repleacing mathematics, and the internet/podcasts are replacing proper researching/learning methods. Yet, these "ways of old" are not inferior. Many brilliant minds that the present generations have yet to match are from the past. Soreen Kierkegaard, Bietrich Bonhoeffer, Aristotle, Charles Dickens, all of these people have at least two things in common: they did not have our common technology and they still profoundly influenced the world of education.

Technology today also allows students to procrastinate more than they had in the past. They now know that their research paper can get a B- or even better, even if it isn't started until two weeks before it was due (out of an eight week period).

Overall I think that technology can profoundly influence students today, but it is up to the teacher and the student on whether that influence is going to be a bad one or a good one.

Final Project

Hey everyone! For my final project I created a website. I wrote it with the perspective that I have been on the mission field for several years and the site is for all of my supporters and friends "back in the States." I hope you all can check it out, I really enjoyed making it!

Here's the link: http://laura.voight.googlepages.com/homepage

I was surprised at how simple it was to create this site. I would recommend Google Pages to anyone and everyone! They made it easy and offer many different designs to work with. I didn't know how to upload a document onto the web, but their site made it easy to do. I was surprised at how professional it looked (to me) at the end.

Let me know what you think!

Some Extras

So in class today I got to look at some tools that are available to teachers/people out there today. There are some amazing things!

One website, http://www.gliffy.com/ allows you to make flow charts, and even floor plans! My teacher pointed out that this would be a great tool for me as a missionary. I could give a visual of my home overseas and then use flow charts to explain how I hope my ministry will progress over the years.

There's another tool called Microsoft Lesson plans that gives you ideas for lessons and how to get the students to interact with the lesson. This is very helpful, especially to brand new teachers or teachers who have taught for decades. I name these two types of teachers because new teachers are usually nervous and don't know how to get the children to interact and older teachers will get stuck in doing something voer and over again, even if the technique is outdated.

These tools were fun to play with, and I didn't want to stop (especially gliffy). so if you're a new teacher or a missionary looking for a way to "spice up" your report home, you should check out these tools.

Assignment #4

An important lesson I would like to teach the children in the Philippines would be the importance of washing their hands before they eat or touch their hands to their mouths, especially after touching an animal or trash.

I would want to present 3 main points:

i. dirty hands make dirty insides
ii. dirty insides can make you very sick
iii. washing hands keeps everything clean

To use a new technology, to be interactive I would have each child color five "germs" on paper that could eventually be stuck to a felt board (or even a chalk board). Then I would pick a child in the class and label the board after them (the board would represent them). I would talk about how clean the board is, the person must have just bathed. Then I would say, "Mikey just played with a dog, and now he's giving Timmy a hug because he's excited to see him." Timmy would go up to the board and put a "germ" on "Mikey." Then so on and so forth with a day in the life of Mikey. By the end of the day he'll have had many germs on him, even ingesting a good amount because he never washed his hands. He'll get sick.

Then I would run through the story again (a little faster) and have Mikey wash his hands, keeping him a fair bit cleaner. And then even again with ALL the children washing their hands, showing how clean Mikey is at the end of the day.

I think a felt board would be a new technology for the kids, but the lesson is nice because it can go with any type of board.

The main drawback would be that the kids get too distracted decorating their germs and by the newness of the felt board that they would lose sight of the object of the lesson: washing their hands.

from experience I've noticed that interactive learning seems to excite the kids in the Philippines. I think that's because they mostly rely on a lecture system, so having the opportunity to participate is nice for them.

A nice technological improvement to a felt board would be an overhead projector with overheads. They are easy to clean and maintain and would be a bit better than a felt board.

Missionary Blogs

Hey all!

I was really excited to find this amazing site with tons of missionary blogs. They provide access to blogs of missionaries around the world, divided by region, country, and whether the missionaries have children or not. It was very cool.

I ended up on the page of the Pape family who are currently serving as missionaries in Manila, Philippines. They are a family of five (husband, wife, and three children).

I read their blog "Should I stay or should I go now...?" and I was blessed by it. I appreciated seeing missionaries who are "on the field" who are honest and actually talking about the struggles that they are going through in trying to seek Gad's will. I love that! I constantly struggle with God's will of where I am supposed to be, but then I know that I just need to trust God. It's actually been the "theme" of my summer plans.

The few sentences that I enjoyed the most were: "It is tempting to seek a more permanent position and the security of a salary, real insurance, and a retirement plan rather than trusting that God will lead the right people at the right time to provide what we need. But as we pursued this option, it was made pretty clear that this is not what we are supposed to do." I like this because this is how I feel. I don't need to be on a salary, I don't even want a salary! Will the poor people I'm helping have a salary? Will they be able to understand why I have one? I'd rather go and teach or have a job wherever I go so that I can help without alienating people.

You should go check out that blog website, see what's going on in the world.

Kenyan Education

I just read an article from an organization that I go on missions trips with about education in Kenya. The article talks about the poverty of Sub-Saharan Africa and the costs of schooling. They make the connection that poverty is having a direct effect on the education of Africans. They expand on the idea of education, pushing it beyond the idea of reading, writing, and arithmetic. They expand the definition to include bible teaching and healthcare; both of which are important in the third world setting. The organization, Global Outreach Developments International (G.O.D.), drew a statistic from a study done by Purdue University that says by 2015 African nations will make up 75% of all un-schooled children in the world. That's so intense! I don't want the people of Africa to go without schooling. They need an education so that they can have power and no longer be oppressed.

Here's the link for the article: http://godinternational.org/godintl/?p=244

It's great.

SMART Board Presentation

So I presented my SMART Board game in class on Tuesday. It went better than I thought it would. I decided to present games that would help with a lesson on lice. I used "Hair Force One" and "Jail Louse Rock" that can be found at http://www.headlice.org/kids/headgames/index.htm. They were popular with the class and got a lot of laughs. I do think that the games were helpful because they helped with louse identification, nit identification, and what happens if you do not get rid of the nits. However, these little lessons are not explicitly presented within the games so to use them effectively there need to be moments of silence in the classroom that might be difficult to obtain with smaller children.

If I was to teach a lesson on lice to children I would first give the lesson on lice. Show some pictures of what a louse and a nit looked like, and educate them. I would talk about how lice is spread and what they should do if they think they have lice. Then I would quiz them, and the three students that answer correctly and the quickest to come up and play the games on the SMART Board.

I would also teach the same lesson to teachers so that they could be better educated on lice. However, I wouldn't quiz them and pick the three best "students." I would just ask for volunteers.

I don't know what game or activity I would do in the Philippines to supplement this lesson. I think with adults in the Philippines I wouldn't need any because they struggle with lice and would be able to pay better attention than children because they would understand the importance of being lice-free.

Why Education (and educating) is Important to Me...

I think education became important to me when I first experienced and overseas schooling environment (overseas in the third world). It was awful. I was in Guatemala and I realized that the children there had to pay a lot of money for thewir education (even if it was a public one) and they were not being taught as much as they could be (whether it was a private or public education). It saddened me. It made me realize how powerful an education is. Most third world countries lack a proper educational system. Coincidence?

I also realized how important an education was when the kids I nany for would try to eat their food with their hands that the dog had just licked! That is completely unsanitary and disgusting, but they didn't see anything wrong with it. Why? Because they had not received that education yet. No one had told them that doing that could make them extremely sick. Why should it be any different for a grown person in Guatemala or the Philippines? If no one has ever told them what is good hygiene and what is poor hygiene, how can they be expected to know?

Since that revelation, I realized that I could not blame anyone, I could only act. So that is what I will do, I will act upon my convictions. I will become an educator and teach people about their health and their beliefs and their world. They have a right to know.

Links, links, and more links!

Here are some articles at a school I will attend after Northwest. This is what I desire for myself and my life:

http://godinternational.org/godintl/?p=228

http://godinternational.org/godintl/?p=226

Please read, and enjoy!

Technology in the Third World

You know, I really would like to see more technology in the third world. However, I envision a different technology than most others. I also see technology in a different light

Take for instance, the Philippines. I would love to see a new technology in the classrooms there: whiteboards. A whiteboard would be considered a new technology in the Philippines because they are currently using chalkboards. But then I think: What will happen to all the chalk boards? Would having whiteboards create new/more jobs? Would the loss of chalkboards eliminate jobs? Why are whiteboards better?

I do not have all the answers to these questions. But I do think that whiteboards would be a good addition. They are easier to maintain and there would be less dust in the classroom atmosphere. However, an in-depth study would be needed to determine if a whiteboard would truly be better than a chalkboard.

But that's the "Western" way of thinking: a whiteboard is better. Like I said previously, I really do not know if a whiteboard is better than a chalkboard, I just consider it to be a newer technology and therefore I want it. I want to use it because it's available to the world. But if it's not better, if it will cause more harm than anything else, what's the point?

Now, imagine this train of thought for each and every piece of technology that will be/could be introduced to the third world.

No wonder politicians look so tired.

Nervous Teacher?

So I get really nervous when I have to teach. Or basically when I am in the spotlight with any kind of pressure on me.

The subject that I think I will be most nervouse to teahc overseas will be different religions. I mean, I think it is important for people to be educated on the different beliefs of the world, but what if my witness isn't strong enough or if I, for some reason, paint a religion in a better light that Christianity? It's a lot of pressure, more so than teaching hygiene/health care.

I can only pray that I will be knowledgable enough on the subject(s) to do them, and God, justice. I just want to do what He wants me to do.

SMART Board Reflection

I don't know how I feel about a SMART Board. I mean, they are cool, but what's the big deal? I think that it's just the new and "hip" technology right now, but something will replace it. I guess I don't understand why the SMART Board is supposed to be a better educational tool than anything else. I think what's cool about it, to children, is the sense of wonder it taps in to. That and the fact that the kids can participate in their learning instead of sitting and observing.

I think as a teacher in the third world I will be hard-pressed to get my message out, but the SMART Board has taught me some things, none of which have to do with technology. It has taught me to make sure that my students can interact with me and the lesson that I'm presenting to them and to tap into their sense of wonder, because that will hold their attention.

Assignment #2

I just added some new link categories: Philippines, Global Issues, Bible Teaching, Health, and Global Ethics.



As a missionary all of these topics are important an necessary for me. I refer family/friends/supporters in the United States to the "Philippines" link so that they could have an idea of what I would be experiencing living in the Philippines. It would also be a helpful tool for short terms teams that woul plan on coming to the Philippines for a few weeks. They would be able to read about the history of the Philippines as well as the governmental structure of the country. I have the business link there as well because many Filipinos try to make money by having their own business, unfortunately they all have the same business (and usually side-by-side) called sari-sari stores. These stores stock everything from candy to laundry detergent. So I believe that encouraging and helping Filipinos to come up with a business that they will have a corner on will be beneficial to them and their community.

I have a "Global Issues" category that I would use as a resource for myself, my students, and my supporters. It is always important to know what is going on in the world, and having quick links that are easy to access would help that. I would want to empower the kids that I teach in the Philippines with knowledge about everything, including the world. It would be very beneficial and important for them to know about global politics, weather, food shortages, etc. It would also be good for my supporters to have access to these links so that if something major (politically, weather, etc.) happened in the Philippines they would be able to know right away and respond (prayer, help) accordingly.

The "Bible Teaching" category is more for me and my students than it is for people who support me. It contains links that I could reference/use for Bible studies with my kids. It would also provide a link for the kids to do studies on their own, without me present. That would be ideal because it would show that they have a personal drive for God and his word.

"Health" would also be for me and my students, primarily. I think it would be good for my supporters to see what kind of hygiene problems the people in the Philippines face. Most of them contain solutions that we see as obvious, such as washing our hands before we eat after we pet an animal. These links will help me to correctly inform my students about hygiene and health care. It could also be used as a reference for the students if they had a question and I wasn't there to answer it, they could look it up themselves.

Just as I believe that education on global issues is empowering, so do I also believe that education on global ethics is important and empowering. If the students can become more aware of the world around them then they can be prepared to deal with it. They will contain a knowledge that not many of their peers would have, giving them an edge in the job world. Plus, they could then educate their peers and those younger than them so that the need for "importing" foreign teachers would dwindle, again creating more jobs.

I'm excited about these links and the ideas they spark in me about education in the third world and information gathering. The concept makes it easy and stress reduced to keep people updated on my ministry and help those that I'm educating to help themselves.

Web Page

Just in case you all didn't notice...here's the link I already posted to my website: http://laura.voight.googlepages.com/popupvideo You should check it out :)

Flexible, Appropriate, and Fun

I just read the article "flexible, Appropriate, and Fun" by Nancy Knowlton on the SMART board technology in classrooms. It was very informative and very engaging. I thought the different software that they have for the SMART board was very cool. You can do science experiments and math equations, the thing will even take notes from the teacher's voice. Very handy (and apparently helpful since the test scores went up roughly 10%). Plus the benefits for such a wide variety of students is very nice. I like that special needs student are able to use the SMART board because they hardley ever get to have fun with technology because of their ailments. I'm glad they get to have fun, non-frustrating school too. I wish I had a SMART board in high school. Anywho... my favorite part of the article was that at the end Knowlton laid the ultimate responsibility for fun, interactive learning not at the feet of the technology or the students, but the teacher. I completely agree with her.

Assignment #1 Technology Literacy

My current technology knowledge and use consists of: electronic kitchen gadgets, cell phone, phone, computer, car, ipod, internet, and probably other stuff I can't think of. I would really like to improve my internet/computer skills. I think they will come in handy in the future and I just think it is really interesting to learn about that stuff. I don't understand how or why it works and it's fascinating. Even though I'm not going to be a traditional teacher I still see value in what the "iste" site has to offer as suggestions/requirements for teachers. I believe that the intentions, and most action, can be translated into a third-world setting.

As a missionary I believe that internet/computer technology will be beneficial to me. I will be able to quickly and cheaply keep my family, friends, church, and supporters around the world updated on my activities. It would also be a good learning tool with the people I'll work with. It would be great to teach them about computers and give them that skill. This semester I would like to work on perfecting my blogging, webpage making skills and learn how to engage children/my peers in education without the newness of a technology overwhelming them.

I believe technology should be in the "behind the scenes" life of a missionary. They can use the internet for what I already noted, keeping people updated, but it can also be used for research. New technology can be useful in education on the mission field. People maybe have different learning styles but have never been given the opportunity to maximize on those different styles. The missionary would need to be careful about what technology they would use; they don't want to overwhelm the people or have the technology be so fascinating that people forget about what they're learning, or worse, try to steal it.


As a missionary I see myself working with kids, and maybe sometimes my peers. But I just have a passion for children. I could do a lesson on hygiene using a felt board type thing that has a picture of the human body on it, with cutouts indicating dirt, bacteria, water, soap, etc. Then i can tell the kids that Charlie wa playing in the dirt and now he wants to eat lunch. What steps does he need to through before he can healthily, and sanitarily, eat? Then the kids can split in to two groups and then together come up with different steps. The team that wins can get a treat or something. Another idea would be if I wanted to teach the kids a Bible story, I could use a white board, or a felt board again, and use words to fill in blanks, and then do key idea questions afterwards. I'm not too sure about that one, I need tweak it a bit. But I would like to do something like that. Besides the Bible and hygiene, I would like to teach about ehtics, or world religions, or something like that; just to make my students more aware of their world. We could go to an internet cafe and have them work in groups of three or four and research a specific religion for a few hours, and then have them present that religion to the class. All of these ideas require money, so I'll have to trust in God to provide, but I believe they will provide a great learning experience for the kids.

School Webpages

So I'm supposed to find the website of the school I'm observing. Well, seeing as I'm not in the Ed. program I am not observing a school. So I tried to look for my high school's website, and it was ridiculously hard to find. Cathedral City High School, it shouldn't be that hard. Yet it is. I tried to search it out on a search engine, and I never got the school's main website. It was super annoying/frustrating. I finally found it. The link is: http://schools.psusd.us/cc/index.htm if you want to check it out. The website is kind of ghetto, but I always tell people that I come from the ghetto (maybe now they'll believe me).

I don't like that the site does not have a "home" button. You have to click on the mascot's head to go back to the home page. How is someone supposed to know that? Other than that I thought it was pretty good. They have a lot of information (all legal) and they even have articles from current student activites (i.e. sports). I also thought it was cool that they have the schedules online, so then if there is an altered schedule for the day the students can look it up.

Technology stubborn children

Ok, so I'm all for engaging children in education, but form all the articles that are coming out today, I get the feeling that kids are expecting, no demanding everything to engage them as much as their video games will. The article, "Engage me or Enrage Me" by M. Prensky was well researched and presented a good point: kids in school today are bored. I get that technology has changed from the 1960s, but we I don't feel we need to change every aspect of the classroom. I mean, lecture has been a style of teaching that has been around for thousands of years, and I still enjoy it. Granted, I do expect my teachers to engage me, but I think the difference is that I expect them to engage me with the voice tone and by giving me valuable information. That is good public speaking. I think these kids are demanding to "have fun" and learn at the same time. They want the value of their knowledge to come from the form in which they receive it, rather than the information itself. I guess my one question is: How do we get kids in schools more interested in what they should be learning without turning the classroom into a video arcade?

Why I want to become a teacher...

This is a very interesting question for me. You see, I created this blog for a class (Technology in Education) that is a class for education majors, but I'm a mission major. Conflict? I think not.

I want to educate people, children, but not in the traditional sense. I want to teach them about Jesus (kind of a duh thought), health, power, and many other subjects. I want to educate because education is power; many people around the world are powerless because they are denied an education. It's how their corrupt governments stay wealthy and in power.

I would love to teach children because I love kids, but I think I would also enjoy teaching my peers and those older than me. To give them the power that they have been denied for a lifetime. I think that could be the greatest gift ever. However, that is a daunting task. There is a lot of responsibility for educating others and a lot of pressure, especialy if the student is your elder.

The subject... I think I've touched on that. Specifically I'd like to teach the Bible and basic health care to start. Perhaps after I have taught for a while I would expand my subjects, but considering that I'm still in school I'd say that I have more than enough on my plate.