In this society, teachers can become overwhelmed by the tidal wave of new technology and tools available for teachers and learners. In this course we have learned about and practiced with powerful tools for teaching and learning. The web tools we explored can help channel that flood into a manageable power source for student engagement and motivation in your classroom. I felt like this course was designed to provide teachers with strategies to effectively integrate web technologies into our instruction.
I learned how to use these tools effectively in my classroom through unique scenarios that helped me understand and choose some of the best Web 2.0 tools. The approach focused on the task and tool in an effort to improve communication, collaboration, presentation, creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking with our learners. We took part in a robust exchange of practical ideas while participating in online discussion forums and sharing our experiences and learning from fellow teachers about best practices with Web 2.0 tools in our content areas.
I learned how to use these tools effectively in my classroom through unique scenarios that helped me understand and choose some of the best Web 2.0 tools. The approach focused on the task and tool in an effort to improve communication, collaboration, presentation, creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking with our learners. We took part in a robust exchange of practical ideas while participating in online discussion forums and sharing our experiences and learning from fellow teachers about best practices with Web 2.0 tools in our content areas.
Blog & Comments on Blog: The blog was an easy way to reflect on the class material and keep everything neat and organized. My favorite part was reading others opinions on how they would incorporate in their classroom. This was the most beneficial to me to get others opinions besides mine. I enjoyed using Weebly because of its simplicity. I did not necessarily like commenting on others blogs except sharing opinions on other ways to use the tools. It was difficult commenting on others questions because it always seemed repetitive. Also, being so busy many post were done late so you got way behind waiting to comment.
Hands-On Projects:
Lesson Plan – This project was not complicated but required me to think differently. I have never done a lesson plan anything like this. It was helpful in a sense that I have another example of a different type of lesson plan besides the type I was required to use in my undergraduate studies and what I am required to use at my school. I will not use this in my own teaching because we have a certain format and requirements for our lesson plans that have to be submitted online and in a notebook kept on our desk.
Hands-On Projects:
Lesson Plan – This project was not complicated but required me to think differently. I have never done a lesson plan anything like this. It was helpful in a sense that I have another example of a different type of lesson plan besides the type I was required to use in my undergraduate studies and what I am required to use at my school. I will not use this in my own teaching because we have a certain format and requirements for our lesson plans that have to be submitted online and in a notebook kept on our desk.
Google Forms – I did not know Google Forms even existed. This online tool was very easy to create and had a variety of choices for evaluation. This was and will be a very easy way to create surveys to create surveys to use in the classroom. I am thinking this web tool would be good for creating exit assignments for the end of the period as a way to evaluate student understanding for each day. This way it will be easy to know how the class stands and help determine if I can move on or if I need to go back and reteach.
Google Doc– In my opinion Google Docs is not very user-friendly. I found this project to be the most difficult to not only create, but also to figure out how to use it in the lesson I was working with. The only way I can see using it in my classroom is possibly showing it to my students that might not have access to Microsoft Word.
Google Slides – Google slides was a very easy online tool to use. I did like the tool, but I will most likely continue to use Microsoft PowerPoint. Again I see myself using this possibly for group work but also for my students who might not have access to Microsoft PowerPoint.
Podcast – After reading everyone’s blog and see how easy Voocroo seems to be, I am going to go back and try it. I never even went to the site because I knew how to do a podcast in Garageband so I went straight for that tool. On top of that, I actually used the iPhone app. Another student mentioned using the podcast to record lectures so that students could go back and listen. I never really thought about that and that is an excellent idea. This year I will be teaching Business Law and Personal Finance so I think I will definitely be using this idea!
Video Clips – As far as the movie, I had difficulty on how to use this for instruction. I have used both iMovie and Movie Maker and I for sure prefer iMovie. Movie Maker is slow and not as friendly. One of the worst things about Movie Maker if you ever move your files where you have saved the pictures you used in the movie, your movie will no longer find the files and you end up with blank spots in your movie. I am not sure that I will use this tool in my classroom except maybe the first week of school as an introduction of the class and myself.
Course Site – I have enjoyed using Weebly for a course site and all of the options for use. As educators who want to integrate technology into our curriculum delivery, we should be careful when selecting online resources, ensuring that the content is appropriate to our teaching and learning goals. I will likely use this to create a site and have the focus to be where parents are up to date with what is going on in their child's education to help kids remediate if they do not have a good understanding or to help students who may be behind.
Quiz And Forum – The quiz and forums were easy to create and will be easy to incorporate into the classroom. I liked the quiz application because it can be used for quick and easy evaluation to check student understanding. The forum will be good to use for the students to post questions and help each other.
Rubistar and Easy Test Maker – Rubistar had many different rubrics already created so that was nice, but also it was very simple to create your own. This will again be difficult to include in my classroom because we have pretty set evaluation rubrics for our school. Easy Test Maker is an online tool that is already used weekly in my classroom. I use it for all my test and quizzes because it creates the set up for you.
ScoopIt and Thinglink – Thinglink was easy to create but I am not a fan of the tool. I just don’t find it to be something senior students would enjoy. ScoopIt was an interesting way to have many sources relevant to the material you are covering. This will be a good way to support what is being taught and give the student real world scenarios where the material is relevant. I can utilize the resource with my future students and have class information organized in a suitable manner.
Electronic Portfolios: The electronic portfolio was easy to create using Weebly. I will use the one I created in this class to show students how to create and keep one organized. This will be an easy way to keep their artifact throughout the semester and then submit as a final project.