ILP: "Design" - Podcast

I decided to do a podcast for one of my independent learning projects.  I think podcasts provide a great way for students to become familiar with a concept.  Podcasts are typically short and to the point, so students can listen to it whenever they want.  I decided to make my podcast about teachers using technology in the classroom and how it is always changing.  I also gave some examples of technologies that are helpful in classrooms.  This podcast is directed towards college students that are trying to become teachers.  The podcast was very easy to make, and I will definitely utilize this tool in my future classroom.  

ILP "Design" - Prezi

I created a Prezi presentation for this lesson.  In this first grade class, the students are learning about plants.  The presentation is very simple and not long.  I believe this will help the students focus more and not be overwhelmed by new information.  I also provided an example slide at the end of the presentation for them to put this new information into perspective.  I think Prezi’s are a better and more interesting way to present things to a classroom.  This was actually my first time using Prezi, but I think it will be a great addition in my future classroom. 

https://prezi.com/rc_0vn1iznof/plant-prezi/

10 The last post

I really liked this week’s assignment because I never knew how to make an interactive PowerPoint before.  This tool will be really useful in making fun review games for my class around test time.  Next time I may change the format of my PowerPoint to a different game other than Jeopardy.  Jeopardy can take a long time because there are so many questions, and I may only have class time for a shorter game.  I also really like how the layouts of certain games are available to us online so it is really easy for teachers. 

I think Data Collection tools will be helpful in calculating students’ grades.  It helps me create an organized list of students’ assignments and tests.  It also provides a fast way to calculate averages, medians, modes, etc.  It’s also nice that you only have to write out the formula to calculate these things once and then you can just copy and paste it for the entire list.  Data Collection tools will end up saving me a lot of time as a teacher and it will also keep me more organized.

One of the topics I found most interesting from reviewing classmates’ blogs was flipped classrooms.  I think this provides students with a helpful tool in reviewing for exams and bringing the classroom home.  These flipped lectures also may help give teachers ideas on how to teach that concept to their students.  I also liked reading about the different technologies people want to incorporate into their future classrooms that we did not previously discuss in class.

A technology-related skill I would like to learn next is Microsoft Publisher.  I have tried to use this tool before, but I found it confusing because I have never learned about it in class.  I think this tool would be good for newsletters, resumes, invitations, etc.  It seems that this tool is very helpful in the professional world, so I really hope to learn more about it in my college education. 

In order to achieve my future educational technology-related goals I will try to stay on top of new technologies.  I will also keep an open mind to new technologies and try my best to incorporate them into my classroom.  I learned many new skills in this class that will help me in my future classroom.  I hope to learn new tools from teachers in the future so that I can successfully utilize all the benefits technology has to offer. 

Survey: Reading

https://fsu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3rOkWJ4pbyCJh4N

9 online or personal lecture?

I think the Flipped Classroom is a great resource for students and teachers.  This gives students an easy way to study at home before tests because they have their teachers’ lectures on the computer.  Also, teachers are able to get ideas based off of how other teachers teach certain lessons.  One of my high school classes actually had a flipped classroom.  It was nice during test time, but I didn’t like that we didn’t get that in-classroom lecture experience.  It was easier to remember information when I actually heard the teacher in class.  I believe that it is a good addition to a teacher’s lectures in class. 

http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/

This site would be useful in my professional development.  It helps teachers find books depending on the subject, author, etc.  This would help me find proper books for my future classroom, and I can use it in several locations.  This site can be used in the classroom, at home, or in the library. 

This site also provides teachers with student activities and quizzes.  This helps teachers access whether the book they chose was good for their students.  This will help me change the lesson plans in my classroom for future years.  This site is very convenient because so much can be accomplished on this site alone.  Teachers don’t need to assign students to complete activities on a bunch of different sites.  

Before this week’s assignment, I did not know how to hyperlink something to another slide.  This skill will be helpful in presentations if I don’t want to click through all the slides just to get to a slide later on in the presentation.  This will also help students stay more focused.  I also never knew I could look online to get PowerPoint templates.  I always just looked at the different designs that PowerPoint provides us with.  I believe that these other templates provide a more interesting format for students to look at.

8 past, present, and future technologies

I think Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) hold the biggest promise for future education.  These online environments allow learners to target personal learning goals with selected strategies and resources.  This type of learning is especially useful for distant education programs and other types of teaching that can’t be done face-to-face.  Schools and teachers may use PLEs to share their work and social media experiences.  They may also use them to create their own learning tools. 

Another future technology in education is flexible displays.  These displays are flexible, light-weight, and extremely thin.  Students are able to roll them up which makes it very easy to bring them from class to class.  These displays are especially useful for notetaking during lectures.  The purpose of them is to be handier than bringing bulky laptops, tablets, and notebooks. 

The digital divide is the difference between the people who have access to technology and those who 

don’t have access to technology.   I grew up with having access to technology at home, so I feel more confident using technology in the classroom.  The digital divide is an important concept for me to understand for my future classroom because each student will be exposed to different amounts of technology.  I will use technology in the classroom, but I will also teach alternative methods so the students won’t have to rely on it.  

7 PowerPoints and Presentations

I didn’t know much about Bloom’s Taxonomy before this blog. It has six learning domains: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. For the remembering domain, I could make one of my slides of the PowerPoint have basic facts that the students already have learned about the topic. This would help refresh their memory without overwhelming them with a bunch of new information. Next is understanding, so I could have them explain ideas or concepts in their own words. This would show me if they really understand the topic or not. The next domain is applying. To cover this in the PowerPoint, I would give an example on how the topic applies to the real world. I could then have the students come up with their own example. For the analyzing domain, I would have the students examine the new topic. There could be a slide explaining different concepts of the topic for students to analyze. For the evaluating domain, I would have a slide with the pros and cons of the topic. This includes weaknesses, advantages, comparing, and contrasting. For the last domain, creating, I would dedicate a slide directing students to create their own ideas about this topic. This includes projects, essays, etc.

According to chapter 4, one example of adaptive learning technology is talking spell-checkers. This supports learners because it reads aloud the misspelled word and then suggests a list or correctly spelled words for the student to choose from. This will help the student learn that they misspelled a word and learn the correct spelling. Recorded books are another example. This technology supports the students to learn and comprehend books better by hearing them than by listening. I have used recorded books in the past in classes. One challenge with using this is that not all students learn better by listening to the book. I personally found it difficult to understand the book when it was a voice recording, so this method didn’t work well for me.

This week’s assignment helped me learn how to make a class website. This will be very useful in my career because it will allow me to post assignments, announcements, and other information for parents and students. I like that this website allows a central location for students to find information. The only downside is the URL may be difficult for parents/students to remember. They also would have to type the URL in exactly to access the website. Next time I would add more photos into my website to make it more visually appealing for viewers. I’d also add more links to assignments for students.