Educational Technology- Week 6

WebQuest… a tool that was completely new to me! Prior to week six I had never heard of a WebQuest but I am so excited that I have learned about this resource!  I cannot wait to utilize this tool in my future classroom.  I also am going to share with the teacher I am an assistant to and maybe she will find it as wonderful as I did.  I am not currently teaching so the WebQuest I created will not actually be used in a current class.  The topic I chose to create my WebQuest about was the Solar System.  The students are getting the opportunity to travel to space and they get to choose the planet they want to stop at.  This leads into the paper, poster and presentation that are to be done about the planet of their choice.  This WebQuest allows the student to feel as though they are needed to find the information and the project is laid out clearly.  It is helpful as the teacher because the template provides you with the steps you need to create a fun and easy WebQuest page for the students.  The website leads you from section to section and provides advice and alerts to the user.  

Below you can find the link to my first Webquest:

http://questgarden.com/152/28/5/121127202809/

This was my first time making a WebQuest so I felt that I ran into several bumps along the way.  In general I just had to take it slow and preview what I had already done a lot along the way. I also found that once I chose the original appearance I had trouble trying to change the look of the page.  I am not incredibly happy with the color but I could not figure out how to change it once it had been decided at the beginning.  This was a good learning experience for me though because now I know that I need to look into changing the appearance and selecting more carefully at the beginning when you have the option.  Overall, I really loved this resource.  I am going to utilize it often and enjoyed exploring how to use the tool!        

Educational Technology-Week 5

When I read the words visual literacy I thought I knew exactly what that would mean and what those resources would be like; I was not accurate.  After listening to the Scorsese video I had a better understanding of the importance of visual literacy.  Throughout our lives many of us learn more than we realize from visual resources.  I think that the Scorsese video made great points about the importance of visual literacy.  It is important to have visuals in order to have understanding of any type of emotion or feelings and it can help prove psychological points.  I do agree that film and photos can be so powerful, useful and rather than just showing a video for extra understanding, a visual can actually be used alone as a learning tool.

Once I had gathered an accurate understanding of what a visual literacy tool was, I was still unsure what those types of resources would entail.  I was very intrigued by the tools that were available at the wiki and PBS sites.  I was very glad to learn that there were so many resources on PBS.  I had never thought of checking this website for educational tools.  After going through the sites I learned that these resources can be used on their own for educating students on a subject and they do not simply need to be used for extra understanding.  Most of the tools available on the site I really enjoyed and depending on the grade level, I thought they could be very useful in teaching students the information.  On the wiki site I really liked the George Washington Portrait tool. (http://www.georgewashington.si.edu/kids/portrait.html)  I realized how engaging tools like this can be for students, yet they are still very educational.  They also can really help students to get a visual of the time period and themes that were common in particular years.  On PBS I liked the Frontline site. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/)  It is a site full of great information and videos that can educate students on specific topics.  This could be a great tool for teaching if there is a video that cover the material for the current lesson plan.

Educational Technology-Week 4

We are now half way through the course and I have already learned so much about all of the technologies available to teachers and students that can help the learning experience.  I have found some resources that I am confident I will incorporate in my lessons regularly and some that I will use at least a couple of times a school year.  I will be teaching at the elementary level and Storybird is a tool that I will use in my classroom very often.  It is a free resource that allows students to create short stories and read other short stories that they have created.  This type of tools gets students excited about reading and writing, they can share their work with their classmates, and they can also read the work of their peers. 

Exploring the TED website was a great experience; what a fabulous site!  I found this resource very educational and beneficial.  I learned so much from the videos I chose to watch.  I could definitely spend a lot of time roaming around a site like this.  I watched a video that was students talking about the research they conducted and their findings.  These were students that had won awards for their research projects.  I think that this video would be a great one to show students that could help inspire them to follow their dreams and work hard to achieve goals.  The video could make a student feel that if someone else their age could do such great work so could they.  I found this very inspiring for myself and for a group of students.    

Lastly, I found that the PowerPoint information was a great review of how to effectively use a presentation and the benefits it can offer students if done correctly.  As an undergraduate, I learned many tips on how to create an impressive and effective presentation, but the information from this week is always good to be reminded of.  PowerPoints offer the teacher the opportunity to create a perfect lesson plan that can be reviewed and it is a tool that can accommodate all learning styles.  It is important to keep the slides simple.  The slides should be a good size that is clear and there should be minimal text on each slide.  As the teacher it is crucial to be very familiar with the information so that you can discuss the slides rather than read word for word from the presentation.  Reading the slides directly gets very boring for students and they may think that the teacher is not very educated on the topic. 

I created a brief PowerPoint about Kentucky history.  I do not currently have a class, so I showed the presentation to my fifth grade sister (and my kindergarten brother wanted to watch too).  I liked that I was able to put little text on the slides and just talk to her about the topic.  Presenting to my sister helped me work on not reading the slides but just informing her about the important information I know about the topic.  If I could do this presentation again, I would add more pictures. There were not enough visuals to give them an idea of what I was talking about and the images and visuals are a main factor in keeping the attention of young students.  My sister and brother loved the presentation just because I usually do not do this with them but my sister did mention that she likes more pictures.  She also gave me feedback on one slide that she did not understand.  My sister was the best audience because she was honest with me and was able to give me her opinion; it was great practice.  

Educational Technology-Week 3

Desktop publishing and word processor are tools that I have been familiar with for a significant amount of time; however, prior to this week, I had not thought about the ways these tools could be used in the classroom.  These tools are so versatile and can be used in so many different ways in the classroom.  I think that allowing students to use these tools in the editing process of writing a paper. It is a much more engaging, simple, and encouraging way for students to edit their papers.  Another gret way to use these tools is a newsletter to send home to parents.  I think sending this home with students is a great way to keep parents up to date with what their child is learning and anything important that they need to know.  I created an example of a newsletter template that could be sent home to parents.

    

In addition to these resources that can be very effective in the classroom, I found several sources while doing my technology explorations that I will use right away when I am teaching.  One that I thought was fun was called Classroom Architect.  I am someone who really enjoys having a plan and being organized.  This resource can assist me in setting up a classroom layout prior to the school year.  It is a convenient tool to figure out how you want your classroom to be set up.  I also like the idea of using this tool to do seating charts throughout the school year.  This is an excellent print out that I could leave a substitute that would be clear and organized.  The floor layout could be left as well and used to explain where different things are that the substitute will need throughout the day.

 

Dimio is another source that I will get great use out when I am teaching.  I think this resource can be used in so many neat ways.  It is a tool that can read text aloud and can combine two different voices in order to create a dialogue. In an elementary class this can be used to have books read aloud to the class even if there are several characters.  Having the different voices to separate the different characters makes it exciting for students to listen to and can keep their interest longer.  Another way to use this tool is when teaching a foreign language.  With a Spanish background, if I end up teaching Spanish I will use this as a listening activity for the students.  Listening and comprehending is an important part of a foreign language and creating these dialogues in Spanish can be a great way to practice listening skills.  A worksheet that asks questions about the dialogue will help to check the comprehension of the language.