What?
This was our third week of working on our Digital Story project. Our pictures are edited, in order, and ready to make transitions for. We are just waiting to put some other things in place first, so that we can know how long we need to show each picture for in order to make the digital story approximately 3 minutes. The focus of my group's time today was on our music. We are using a Beethoven song. We stuggled with using Audacity because our song was in the wrong format (ringtone), so we used Garageband from Doc Water's Mac. It was simpler to use than I expected, and it made me want a Mac even more than I already do! It was fun listening to the song and deciding which clips of it would fit best with the script and pictures in different parts of our story.
So What?
Music definitely adds a greater level to digital stories. If the music appropriately matches the pictures, script, and feeling of the rest of the story, it can help bring out emotions and create connections. We tried our best to chose more upbeat parts of our song for more cheerful parts of our story, and slower, sad sounding music for the parts of our story that we wanted people to feel more sorrowful. I found that it really did add a lot to the story. Before we finalized and fixed the music clips, there was a cheerful and upbeat melody playing while pictures showed a boy crying and pictures of scary medical tools. We chuckled at how ridiculus that was, and it emphasized to us the importance of choosing appropriate music to enhance the story rather than detract from it.
Now What?
Though creating a digital story is a lot of work, I have had a fun time doing it so far. I have been suprised to find that the tools like PhotoStory and GarageBand are actually very simple to use. I expected things to be more confusing and challenging than they actually have been, which makes me more willing and excited to make more digital stories in the future. I am excited to encorporate them into my classroom because it will give a new way for students to learn. Watching digital stories will help catch their attention, make connections, create emotion, add variety, and can be very enjoyable and memorable. Having students create their own digital stories will help them use higher order thinking skills, incorporate many learning styles, give variety to assignments and projects, give them opportunities to be creative and unique, and give them a challenging yet fun project that they can be proud of and learn a lot from.
Video: Millenial Generation
In this clip, students shared their "tech wish list" of technology they would like to have access to. They included what they believed "media mobility" to be. They determined that media mobility was having the ability to have technology with you wherever you are, whenever you want it. They predicted that technology will become more time effective, take out a lot of hassle, and allow more ways for interacting and communicating. I agree that technology has been advancing by leaps and bounds, and will continue to do so. I'm excited to see what new things they come up with next. I believe that the students' wish lists that they mentioned will definitely come to pass in the not-too-far off future. It will be fun to see what new technologies I can learn about and apply in my classroom.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Week 15: Digital Stories and PhotoStory
What?
This week we learned more about digital stories and specifically how to use PhotoStory in this process. PhotoStory is free to download and is very easy to use. It allows you to edit your pictures with things such as red-eye, cropping, highlighting, rotating, black and white, etc. You can also make transitions between each picture, such as panning in and out. I was surprised to learn that you can also work with music on this program. You can upload mp3's of songs that have already been created, or you can make your own music through Photo Story. It has several options and varieties to mix and match with in order to find the style of music you need to match your story. My group is doing our digital story on manualism and oppression of Deaf people.
So What?
Digital stories can be a very effective way of catching students' attention, involving multiple learning styles, creating interest, and giving a basic introduction of the topic students will be learning about. Because there are free and easy tools available such as Photo Story, ditigal stories are a very practical and fun thing for teachers to create for lessons. It does not have to be limited to only teachers, though. Many students would have a great time creating their own digital stories, and would learn a lot from that assignment. Digital stories are a fun way to learn and should definitely be incorporated into classroom instruction where possible.
Now What?
I plan on brainstorming about lessons and units in my curriculum that would benefit the most from incorporating a digital story. I'd like to use a couple digital stories throughout the semester because they are interesting, captivating, have good information and images, and help create diversity in lessons. I would also like to brainstorm about ways to assign a digital story project to my students. It would be fun to let them pick a topic relating to the Deaf community, culture, or ASL that they want to learn more about. Once they approved their topic, they could work in groups to create a digital story about that topic to present to the class. This assignment would involve many different learning styles, be flexible enough to match the students' interests, let them be creative and unique, and be an assignment that is different from the ones they typically have to do.
Video: Did You Know 3.0
This was a very interesting video for me. Before seeing some of these videos that we have been assigned to watch this semester, I had no idea how much the world uses and depends on technology. I knew that it's basically how we live today, but I had no real idea of the numbers or how to visually and concretely imagine such an impact. The following are some of the facts the video mentioned that really surprised me and helped me understand what an impact technology has had in the world:
- The top 10 in-demand jobs for 2010 didn't even exist in 2004
- Today the number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the entire planet
- For students starting a 4 year technical degree, half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their 3rd year of study
The video really made me think when it said how we are currently developing technology to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet. We are training students for jobs and technologies that don't even exist yet. We are progressing so much, that it is almost overwhelming to think of the things to come. There seems to be no limits anymore. It's exciting, and it makes me want to keep up on the latest technologies in order to know at least as much as my students will know, and be able to use those technologies and tools in the classroom.
This was a very interesting video for me. Before seeing some of these videos that we have been assigned to watch this semester, I had no idea how much the world uses and depends on technology. I knew that it's basically how we live today, but I had no real idea of the numbers or how to visually and concretely imagine such an impact. The following are some of the facts the video mentioned that really surprised me and helped me understand what an impact technology has had in the world:
- The top 10 in-demand jobs for 2010 didn't even exist in 2004
- Today the number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the entire planet
- For students starting a 4 year technical degree, half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their 3rd year of study
The video really made me think when it said how we are currently developing technology to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet. We are training students for jobs and technologies that don't even exist yet. We are progressing so much, that it is almost overwhelming to think of the things to come. There seems to be no limits anymore. It's exciting, and it makes me want to keep up on the latest technologies in order to know at least as much as my students will know, and be able to use those technologies and tools in the classroom.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Week 13- Digitial Story intro
What?
This week we began learning about digital stories. Specific aspects of digital storytelling that we learned about were scripting, narration, storyboards, and the impact that music and images can have in creating emotion and catching attention. Scripting should be done carefully and work effectively with the images used. Music should enhance and emphasize. Storyboards are a good way to get started and organized while creating a digital story. We watched some examples of good digital stories. The one about the Holocaust created a lot of emotion in the class due to the powerful images and music involved. We will be creating our own three minute digital story as groups in our specific content areas.
So What?
Digital stories are great to use in the classroom for many reasons. First of all, they can be wonderful hooks for a lesson or beginning of a new unit. Those brief three minutes can contain a great overview, create real images for students to relate to, cause interest, and begin the questioning and discussion process with students. Digital stories can also reach all kinds of different learners. Visual learners will benefit from the images and words shown, musical and auditory learners will appreciate the music used to emphasize the story, and logic-based students will learn a lot from the facts presented in the story. Hands-on students, ESL students, or others with different needs may really be able to enjoy and excel in making their own digital stories. Overall, digital stories have a lot to offer for our diverse students and their many personalities, interests, situations, and learning styles.
Now What?
My students are living in a world with so much technology and would benefit greatly from having opportunities to use this 21st century technology in their learning and my classroom. As I haven't had any experience with digital storytelling up to this point, it seems a bit intimidating to me. In order to feel more confident in this area, I plan on working hard with my group on this project to make it the best it can be. Collaborating and using the tutorials and examples to guide us will help us learn what we need to do. With practice, I know that I will be able to feel comfortable creating digital stories for my future students. It will be nice for both me and them to have an "out of the box" assignment that adds variety and interest to class. I'm excited to get started!
Video: NASA Digital Story
I thought this digital story gave good information and basic knowledge of what NASA has done, including their accomplishments and losses. I liked having the audio and images of the President's speeches about our goal of landing on the moon because it made it more real to me. Hearing his voice rather than the narrator made more of an impact and impression. The music also played a big part for me, specifically when the story talked about those who had lost their lives. At that point, the music changed to a slower and more respectful feel. The trumpet felt patriotic. It matched the mourning and respect that the world felt for the loss of those lives. The pictures of these individuals helped create emotion in me because I saw that they were real people. I wasn't as disconnected as I would have been had I just heard the narrator tell about them.
This week we began learning about digital stories. Specific aspects of digital storytelling that we learned about were scripting, narration, storyboards, and the impact that music and images can have in creating emotion and catching attention. Scripting should be done carefully and work effectively with the images used. Music should enhance and emphasize. Storyboards are a good way to get started and organized while creating a digital story. We watched some examples of good digital stories. The one about the Holocaust created a lot of emotion in the class due to the powerful images and music involved. We will be creating our own three minute digital story as groups in our specific content areas.
So What?
Digital stories are great to use in the classroom for many reasons. First of all, they can be wonderful hooks for a lesson or beginning of a new unit. Those brief three minutes can contain a great overview, create real images for students to relate to, cause interest, and begin the questioning and discussion process with students. Digital stories can also reach all kinds of different learners. Visual learners will benefit from the images and words shown, musical and auditory learners will appreciate the music used to emphasize the story, and logic-based students will learn a lot from the facts presented in the story. Hands-on students, ESL students, or others with different needs may really be able to enjoy and excel in making their own digital stories. Overall, digital stories have a lot to offer for our diverse students and their many personalities, interests, situations, and learning styles.
Now What?
My students are living in a world with so much technology and would benefit greatly from having opportunities to use this 21st century technology in their learning and my classroom. As I haven't had any experience with digital storytelling up to this point, it seems a bit intimidating to me. In order to feel more confident in this area, I plan on working hard with my group on this project to make it the best it can be. Collaborating and using the tutorials and examples to guide us will help us learn what we need to do. With practice, I know that I will be able to feel comfortable creating digital stories for my future students. It will be nice for both me and them to have an "out of the box" assignment that adds variety and interest to class. I'm excited to get started!
Video: NASA Digital Story
I thought this digital story gave good information and basic knowledge of what NASA has done, including their accomplishments and losses. I liked having the audio and images of the President's speeches about our goal of landing on the moon because it made it more real to me. Hearing his voice rather than the narrator made more of an impact and impression. The music also played a big part for me, specifically when the story talked about those who had lost their lives. At that point, the music changed to a slower and more respectful feel. The trumpet felt patriotic. It matched the mourning and respect that the world felt for the loss of those lives. The pictures of these individuals helped create emotion in me because I saw that they were real people. I wasn't as disconnected as I would have been had I just heard the narrator tell about them.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Week 12- Technology Articles/Reflections and Video
TECHNOLOGY ARTICLES/REFLECTIONS
SKYPE:
Skype is an online software application that allows people to call one another via the internet. A useful place to find out details about steps for downloading Skype and getting started is a techtorial pdf by Lorrie Jackson titled Skype: Talk to Anyone, Anywhere for Free. This techtorial discusses how not only can people speak with each other over voice-calls, but with devices such as webcams, they can video-call (video conference) other people. It mentions that other useful things to do with Skype include instant messaging and file transfer. This is all free unless calls are made to landlines or cell phones. Skype works with Windows, Mac, and Linux (Jackson). I had fun experimenting with it and found it easy to use.
Pros: Skype has so many benefits for networking, education, collaboration, sharing, and socializing. Teaching Degree.org wrote about "50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom." After looking at all of these 50 possibilities, I organized them into three groups: teacher benefits, parent benefits, and bringing more opportunities to students.
One way that teachers can benefit from using Skype is through professional development resources. It can help in informing and guiding teachers to topics that they are seeking to improve in. It also gives teachers an easier and quicker way to collaborate with other teachers. Sharing ideas and working together becomes much more efficient through this kind of technology. I hope to find other teachers willing to share and collaborate ideas through it. The more collaboration and networking I can do, the better the teacher I will be for my students. Skype can also give teachers more of opportunities to receive feedback on their teaching from other professionals (Teaching Degree.org Blog, 2009).
Skype can be wonderful for parents for many reasons. It can give teachers a new way to share students' work with their parents. Through this, parents can be more informed about the great things their students are achieving in class. Teachers can also have another way to be able to conference with parents. Some parents are busy and have a difficult time making it to the school, so Skype may be a more convenient and enjoyable option for them. Parents can be overall more involved in their child's learning and experience in your classroom through the benefits that this technology has to offer (Teaching Degree.org Blog, 2009). I plan on informing parents of these benefits and encouraging them to take advantage of Skype in order to be more involved in their child's experience in my class.
Lastly, students can benefit so much from the use of Skype in the classroom. Teachers can more easily bring busy guest speakers into the class to offer information and perspectives that the teacher wouldn't be able to convey as effectively. I would love to have Deaf guest speakers know that I would be able to use more of them through Skype than just in person. Teachers can also share educational travel experiences with their students. For example, if I were to visit Gallaudet University or the Deaf Institute in Paris, my students would be able to experience some of this as well through Skype! Students can share their projects and performances to others outside of their class, and they can also connect to people throughout the world. I'd love them to have video-chats with other ASL and Deaf students throughout the country because they would have exposure to so many more signing styles and perspectives. Teachers can also be more available to students for after-school help (Teaching Degree.org Blog, 2009).
Cons: Similar to every other online tool, Skype can lead to privacy and/or safety issues for students in our classrooms when we don't follow certain precautions. To help prevent problems, teachers should have clear and honest communication with those who their students will be communicating with. Skype calls can also cost quite a bit of money if you call a land line or mobile phone, so it is important to make sure you know who your students are calling and that they know the rules on who to communicate with during class (Jackson). Teach students about the importance of privacy and not sharing personal information while using anything online.
I will tell parents that I chose to use Skype in the classroom to enhance their student's signing skills, give them more opportunities to share and receive information otherwise inaccessible, to add a richer level of diversity in the classroom, and to involve the parents themselves.
References
Jackson, L. (n.d.). Skype: talk to anyone, anywhere for free. Retrieved from http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial107.pdf Teaching Degree.org Blog. (2009, June 30). 50 awesome ways to use skype in the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.teachingdegree.org/2009/06/30/50-awesome-ways-to-use-skype-in-the-classroom/
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Online Dictionaries/ASLpro.com (a video dictionary)
Online dictionaries can be very useful and efficient in the classroom. The specific content area I will be teaching is American Sign Language, so having access to a visual dictionary is very needed in my classrooms. Two good ASL online dictionaries that I have found are ASLPro.com and SigningSavvy.com. I will be discussing just ASLPro.com.
On ASLPro.com's home page, they describe "A Little About What We Do":
"ASLPro.com was created to be a free resource for the classroom teacher. Teachers can create accounts and personalize a quiz for their students' use, then take them into a lab and let them practice seeing models other than their own teacher. Because our signs are designed to be used in student quizzes, Non-Manual Signals are purposely omitted." (ASLPro.com)
ASLPro offers a few dictionaries, being a main dictionary, religious, conversational, and ASL for Babies dictionary. They also include QuizMe! quizzes for everyday signs, religious signs, and fingerspelling. Other free tools they offer are functional groups, shared lesson plans, mouth morphemes, ABC signs, ASL Poems 'N Songs, and games.
Pros: Both StreetDictionary and ArticleDashboard.com discuss several benefits of using online dictionaries, and the advantages they have over printed dictionaries. Compared to printed dictionaries, online dictionaries are much faster to use. If you are unsure about difficult spellings, online dictionaries make finding the word much easier as well (StreetDictionary, 2009). Online dictionaries can be used for free, and there are different ones to use for many languages. Having the option of visual and audio features helps with pronunciation and production of difficult words (StreetDictionary, 2009). Translation features are very helpful as well. Online dictionaries can also be updated easier and more quickly than printed dictionaries. Words and their meanings are very dynamic and can change over time, which is why it is important to update dictionaries frequently. Many also include informal words that printed dictionaries wouldn't (Bell, 2009).
ASLPro, specifically, would be a wonderful tool to use in an ASL classroom. It would be next to impossible to teach students every word they wanted or needed to know in one short semester, so having an online dictionary would be very beneficial to them in discovering words that were not covered in a specific unit or lesson. Being able to expand on and personalize their vocabulary is likely to help them enjoy using the language more, because they would be able to express themselves how they want to more easily. Having access to common phrases can help them practice putting these words together in helpful ways. The games would be a wonderful way to offer a fun extra credit activity or class review. the Jeopardy game, for example, asks questions about ASL History, "Guess Who" questions, and general ASL language and culture questions. Students could also expand their knowledge by exploring the "ASL Poems 'N Songs" section, and this would help include diverse learners and would help add variety to content. Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of ASLPro.com is that students can use it both at school or at home. It doesn't have to be limited to the classroom like some printed dictionaries might. Being able to see a visual representation of the vocabulary can help students learn and review much more than if they could only rely solely on the teacher for this modeling.
Cons: If you don't know how to distinguish a good online dictionary from a bad one, you may get wrong information. It is important to examine and chose an online dictionary wisely. Many of them are also only used as supplements for printed dictionaries and are not as effective on their own (Bell, 2009). Like any other online tool, you should always investigate the validity, qualifications, dates, content, etc. to determine whether or not it is a good source.
As for ASLPro, one setback is that they definitely don't have every word students may want to learn. In their FAQ page, they say that with a database containing thousands of words, they are no longer accepting requests for new signs. They are focusing their energies in other useful areas. This definitely limits the words students can learn or would be interested in. Another aspect that may be viewed as negative by some and positive by others, is that many of the model signers for ASLPro sign things differently than I learned from my Deaf professors and fellow interpreters. There are many different styles, and often times, some signs are used in some places and not others. This may confuse students who learn some words a certain way in my class.
I will most definitely inform parents about this tool and how it can help their students both in my classroom and for practice at home. I will tell them that I chose to use this tool because of the variety of learning tools it offers, as well as for it being another resource for their child to learn new vocabulary as well as review vocabulary that has been taught in class. It is difficult to write down how a word is signed, so if students could rely only on that method while learning new vocabulary in class, they would be much more likely to write it down or remember it wrong. With a visual online dictionary, they can see it being signed and will be able to have a better resource to look to than pen and paper. ASL is a visual language and should have as many visual resources as possible. Hopefully this tool will encourage curiosity, creativity, and diversity in their child's learning.
References:
ASLPro.com. (n.d.). Aslpro.com. Retrieved from http://www.aslpro.com/ Bell, R. (2009). The Advantage of using an online dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.articledashboard.com/Article/The-Advantage-of-Using-an-Online-Dictionar/633708
StreetDictionary. (2009). Online dictionaries- the universe of words. Retrieved from http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/62233/education/online_dictionaries___the_universe_of_words.html
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Video: ASL Interpretation of "Where the Wild Things Are," by Maurice Sendak (Translation by Charles Katz)
This video would be wonderful to include in an ASL Storytelling unit. I love this video for many reasons- one being that Charles Katz is a master for showing expression and creating visual imagery through his signing skills. He is a great model for my students to try to imitate and use ideas from. I also think this video is a good choice to use because the story is a well-known and favorite children's book for many people that I know. Perhaps some students will already feel a connection and and have memories of this book growing up. This story presents many opportunities for practice in describing characteristics and features (the monsters are wonderful), describing settings (the forest and where the Wild things are), incorporating gestures as well as new vocabulary. I believe students would find it very entertaining and learn a lot from it.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Week 11: Video's, Digital Cameras, Picassa
What?
This week we got to experiment using Picassa. This is a great program to work with your photos in. You can do things like crop, straighten, fix redeye, retouch, highlight, shadow, change colors, focus, blur, glow, sharpen, make sepia, black and white, and many other possibilities and combinations. Picassa also allows you to post these pictures directly to your blog, make collages, email, print them, create slideshows, and more. At the end of this post are four original pictures, then those same pictures edited and changed through Picassa.
So What?
This is a great tool to help keep pictures organized and personalized exactly how you want them. Through using this free program, your pictures can reflect your personality, enhance creativity, create variety, be more artistic and aesthetically pleasing, draw attention, look more professional, and accomplish specific goals you may have had with that picture. Sharing pictures with others can be easy and fun through this useful program.
Now What?
I'd like to continue experimenting with Picassa and continue to get more knowledgeable and comfortable with all of the possibilities that it offers. This may motivate me to be better at taking pictures, which would be very helpful! I believe it would be easy to apply this in my teaching. By taking pictures of handshapes, Non-Manual Signals (facial expressions), and signs, and then editing these pictures to draw the students' attention to specific features I'd like to emphasize, they may find their homework and assignments more interesting and may recall it easier. Visual learners would benefit greatly from having rich and diverse pictures to study and learn from. Perhaps I could even give them a project to take pictures of certain things, edit and personalize them in Picassa, and create a project from it. There can be a lot of possibilities.
Video: Top Ten Things You Do Not Learn About Teaching in College
10- Why are the bad kids never sick?
9- No matter how sick you are, it's easier to come into school than to write sub plans
8- When your students tell you they really have to go to the bathroom, always believe them
7- Forget your college friends and loved ones. Who's your new best friend? Wipes!
6- How to disarm the school alarm system on the weekends
5-You'll get so sick and tired of hearing your last name, you'll want to change it
4- Your fitness program will consist of carrying your bags to and from the school
3- Two words: Differentiating Instruction
2- The principal's office is still scary
1- Always be good to your Superintendent
I thought this was really funny, so I wrote out these 10 points they mentioned (all of which seem have some bit of truth in them, haha). I think it is true that you can't learn absolutely everything in your college classes- some things will probably have to be learned through the actual experience of teaching your own classroom. It's helpful though, to be ready for as much as you possibly can when going into your teaching experience. Paying attention and putting forth effort in college classes will help, as well as talking with other teachers and getting their advice.
This week we got to experiment using Picassa. This is a great program to work with your photos in. You can do things like crop, straighten, fix redeye, retouch, highlight, shadow, change colors, focus, blur, glow, sharpen, make sepia, black and white, and many other possibilities and combinations. Picassa also allows you to post these pictures directly to your blog, make collages, email, print them, create slideshows, and more. At the end of this post are four original pictures, then those same pictures edited and changed through Picassa.
So What?
This is a great tool to help keep pictures organized and personalized exactly how you want them. Through using this free program, your pictures can reflect your personality, enhance creativity, create variety, be more artistic and aesthetically pleasing, draw attention, look more professional, and accomplish specific goals you may have had with that picture. Sharing pictures with others can be easy and fun through this useful program.
Now What?
I'd like to continue experimenting with Picassa and continue to get more knowledgeable and comfortable with all of the possibilities that it offers. This may motivate me to be better at taking pictures, which would be very helpful! I believe it would be easy to apply this in my teaching. By taking pictures of handshapes, Non-Manual Signals (facial expressions), and signs, and then editing these pictures to draw the students' attention to specific features I'd like to emphasize, they may find their homework and assignments more interesting and may recall it easier. Visual learners would benefit greatly from having rich and diverse pictures to study and learn from. Perhaps I could even give them a project to take pictures of certain things, edit and personalize them in Picassa, and create a project from it. There can be a lot of possibilities.
Video: Top Ten Things You Do Not Learn About Teaching in College
10- Why are the bad kids never sick?
9- No matter how sick you are, it's easier to come into school than to write sub plans
8- When your students tell you they really have to go to the bathroom, always believe them
7- Forget your college friends and loved ones. Who's your new best friend? Wipes!
6- How to disarm the school alarm system on the weekends
5-You'll get so sick and tired of hearing your last name, you'll want to change it
4- Your fitness program will consist of carrying your bags to and from the school
3- Two words: Differentiating Instruction
2- The principal's office is still scary
1- Always be good to your Superintendent
I thought this was really funny, so I wrote out these 10 points they mentioned (all of which seem have some bit of truth in them, haha). I think it is true that you can't learn absolutely everything in your college classes- some things will probably have to be learned through the actual experience of teaching your own classroom. It's helpful though, to be ready for as much as you possibly can when going into your teaching experience. Paying attention and putting forth effort in college classes will help, as well as talking with other teachers and getting their advice.
Friday, October 30, 2009
PDP: My Beliefs
I believe that it is extremely unfortunate if teachers don't try to incorporate as much technology in their classroom as possible. If the tools are there, why not take advantage of them? Like one of the videos said: "Shift Happens!" and teachers need to be flexible and open-minded enough to shift right along with advancing technology. Technology can assist teachers in providing diverse learning opportunities for all of the different multiple intelligences, it can give students more active learning activities, students can experience more real-world learning experiences, and they can use the kinds of technology that they enjoy using in their life outside of school and academics.
Technology is how the world runs now, so not only can students benefit from having multiple ways to learn and access information in the classroom, but they can be prepared for real world situations that they will need to be technologically knowledgeable for. We are not only preparing them to pass the unit test, but to succeed in life in general. Technology is crucial for this goal. We should give our students every possible tool and resource we can to help them toward success and their goals in life. If we can do our best to incorporate diverse and real technology into their education, they will more likely see the relevance in what they are learning and doing. Being knowledgeable in the kinds of questions and topics that were mentioned in the UNI survey and NET standards will help us greatly in this pursuit.
Technology is how the world runs now, so not only can students benefit from having multiple ways to learn and access information in the classroom, but they can be prepared for real world situations that they will need to be technologically knowledgeable for. We are not only preparing them to pass the unit test, but to succeed in life in general. Technology is crucial for this goal. We should give our students every possible tool and resource we can to help them toward success and their goals in life. If we can do our best to incorporate diverse and real technology into their education, they will more likely see the relevance in what they are learning and doing. Being knowledgeable in the kinds of questions and topics that were mentioned in the UNI survey and NET standards will help us greatly in this pursuit.
PDP: Lessons Learned
My thoughts, concerns, and what I learned from the readings, videos, and web sites:
Technology is such a major part of our students' lives, and we can use that to our benefit in the classroom. Teens can often feel like there is a disconnect between their academic experience and their social/real-world experience. One example in this is in writing; they don't consider blogging, texting, emailing, etc as real writing. If we can incorporate these "outside school" activities into our classrooms (using technology, of course), students may be able to more easily identify the similarities between what they learn in school and how it is applicable to their lives. Social networking can increase their technology skills, creativity, generate different perspectives, and improve communication skills. Rather than have to try to compete with this outside technology that can lead to distractions, why not use it to encourage active engagement, group work and collaboration, interaction and feedback, and communication with real-world experts.
Media mobility creates so many opportunities for learning, networking, efficiency, and convenience. In one clip, a students defined media mobility as "accessible anywhere at anytime with no limitations." This means that high-tech learning can occur anywhere, anytime, if we make the effort to help our students utilize that. Not only should we provide the resources, but also facilitate the learning process. Technology has helped education through online and distance learning, virtual labs, e-books, and more. Technology has grown so much- it's exciting to predict what further technology advancement will take place and help the education process even more. It truly can help us become life-long learners.
Technology is such a major part of our students' lives, and we can use that to our benefit in the classroom. Teens can often feel like there is a disconnect between their academic experience and their social/real-world experience. One example in this is in writing; they don't consider blogging, texting, emailing, etc as real writing. If we can incorporate these "outside school" activities into our classrooms (using technology, of course), students may be able to more easily identify the similarities between what they learn in school and how it is applicable to their lives. Social networking can increase their technology skills, creativity, generate different perspectives, and improve communication skills. Rather than have to try to compete with this outside technology that can lead to distractions, why not use it to encourage active engagement, group work and collaboration, interaction and feedback, and communication with real-world experts.
Media mobility creates so many opportunities for learning, networking, efficiency, and convenience. In one clip, a students defined media mobility as "accessible anywhere at anytime with no limitations." This means that high-tech learning can occur anywhere, anytime, if we make the effort to help our students utilize that. Not only should we provide the resources, but also facilitate the learning process. Technology has helped education through online and distance learning, virtual labs, e-books, and more. Technology has grown so much- it's exciting to predict what further technology advancement will take place and help the education process even more. It truly can help us become life-long learners.
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