Scenario

According to ISTE NETS Standards for technology, students should be able to demonstrate creativity and innovation. I think there are two main resources students can use to demonstrate this standard in the classroom. One is the use of amimoto which is a site for uploading images to turn into a video. An idea I have for my own Secondary Education English classroom would be to do a jigsaw technique where students are broken up into groups and they read and compile information about one thing in the chapter and then other groups do this for the other parts of the chapter. Then they teach it to their classmates. I believe animoto would be a great way for them to do this! Here is an example of what my English animoto:

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Going along with this, I think it would be really cool if at the beginning of the year when the students and I are discussing classroom rules, we created an animoto video with those rules in it! This could be shared with all students easily and it would incorporate the students in the developing of the classroom rules which I think is important to do. The students and I would find photos online that apply or take screen captures of text that states the rule to create this project.

Another main resource that could be used in the classroom is voicethread. Voicethread is a great way for students to do research and then present that research in a fun, technological way. Voicethread requires you to find images, place captions of text explaining the images, and then further explaining them by recording yourself. This recording is similiar to telling it in a story-like manner which makes the research much more personable and interesting. I would like to use voicethread in my classroom by having students research a historical event important in a novel we are reading and then do a voicethread on it. They could do this with a group or individually because of how simple it is to do! Here is an example of a voicethread I did for Constitution Hall in Lecompton, Kansas.

My Wow Moment

I think my 'wow' moment this semester was the fact that so many students are striving to learn based on the use of technology! I am the type of person who LOVES to read books and write with a pen and paper, but so many students are not excited about that traditional way of learning. This is primarily because they are growing up in a world where you cannot communicate a certain way without using technology. I grew up in the write in your diary stage still a little bit, and then transitioned into online technology as a middle and high school student. These students are literally using technology at the age of 2 or 3! Like I said, I am a more traditional learning and would prefer to do things by hand most often, but I refuse to be that teacher who will not accept the change in technology. I want my students to learn the best way they can however that is. I want my students to be cultured though so that they use both books and technology though, so I plan to have them do projects that are have both in them. Here are some pictures that are proof of the importance of technology in today's student's lives.

Google Image Link

Google Image

Google Image

Podcast Favorites

The podcasts that I listened to and reflected upon were really neat and helpful. It was amazing that so many educators get together and speak about the important things that go along with education. The majority of the podcasts were about incorporating technology which was interesting because these educators had so many great resources and ideas on how to do that. My favorite podcast was by the Tech Chick Tips called Sparking their Creativity. This podcast gave so many resources that would help me in my classroom as a teacher, but also as me being a college student still! I really thought the resource webnote would be something my students would love. It is a site where students can take notes on. I remember even as a middle school and high school student myself, students bringing their internet-less computers so classes just so they could take notes on the computer rather than write them. I think even more students would want to do this now. So, I think I will offer my students to do this because it may be contribute to better learning and test scores. Another resource the Tech Chick's talked about was Quizlet. This is a resource for creating flashcards and it seems to be a lot more efficient than creating them by hand. I think students would enjoy this since they can use a computer to create them and to study them. Here are some screen captures of these wonderful resources!

Semester Favorites

I enjoyed learning about all of the different resources we, as teachers, can use for our classrooms. There were so many and I hope I am able to find them when I log in to delicious so that I can make use of all the great resources! The number one part of the semester was learning about Prezi. I truly have always hated PowerPoint because of how limited it is. I feel very strongly about providing images and videos for students to relate to, but PowerPoint made it very difficult to do this well. I still need to mess with Prezi more, but I plan to use it for sure when I'm a teacher rather than PowerPoint. Here is a screen capture of what Prezi kind of looks like:

Another extremely fun project we did this semester was Animoto. I am truly considering getting a subscription so that I can make longer videos. I would use this in my classroom to grab student's attentions, but also teach them how they can make these. I think they would love to use animoto for a project. I think students should participate in technological projects as well as paper and pen projects so this could be one of them. Here is a screen capture of what different features you can have in the background of your video.

Twitter Reflection

I enjoy twitter quite a bit. I don't get on it as much as I get on facebook, but I think I will start using it more as I become more familiar with it. I have actually found that the educators I'm following have some really cool stuff to use. I think I may use them as a resource when I become a teacher for lessons. The things these educators have on their pages are even better than what google can provide. I think twitter could be used in the classroom for announcements also. It's a fast way to communicate to everyone.

Challenge-based/Prezi Reflection

I absolutely LOVE Prezi! Compared to PowerPoint, I am vote Prezi. I really think it is much more efficient and I think it would engage students so much more. Even I was much more engaged when we did our class presentations on Prezi, so I know students would be. I like how everything can be easily added and modified when it's put into Prezi. You can change the size of things and rearrange the order which is something that cannot necessarily be done the same way in PowerPoint. I am making it a personal goal to use Prezi for presenting information at least once when I become a teacher. Hopefully it turns into something I use quite often!

Using Comics Reflection

I really enjoyed creating the online comic from toondoo. It was kind of difficult at first to figure out how to work all of the tools. I kind of had to settle for some of the things I wrote with the pencil tool because I tried repeatedly to do make it perfect and more readable but it still didn't work. Although some of the tools were difficult to use, I think students would love this! I don't think I would use it as a teacher as much as I would allow the students to use it for projects and other things.