ILP Toolbox - Kahoot!

https://voicethread.com/share/8490064/

Post 10

My hope is to be a world history teacher for high school.  There are so many amazing and fascinating websites pertaining to world history that printing articles or pages would be impossible! Data collecting tools would be a perfect way to provide extra reading to my students that I find interesting or that goes along with our lessons. I could also use some questions from specified extra readings as extra credit on tests or quizzes. I think that would be a cool way of incorporating a bit more fun facts into an otherwise pretty strait forward curriculum.

When going through my classmate’s blogs, I really like seeing the screenshots of their projects. It is really fun to see if we chose to do a topic similar or different and see why they decided to research what they did. Its also interesting to see everyone else’s comments on the technology we have gone over in class because even though we read the same book and sit through the same class, each person takes away a unique thought or outlook.

As I continue to go through my journey of becoming a teacher, I want to really solidify the skills I have acquired this past semester. Hopefully, I can work more on using the available features in Microsoft to make my work more interesting. For new technology, I just want to continue exposing myself to what is coming out and learning how to use the technology well and effectively. I know that YouTube usually has some very helpful tutorials so watching how to use/incorporate certain technologies in the classroom will probably be my go-to learning device.

Post 9

The “flipped classroom” is a relatively new concept that is being introduced to upper level school grades. This is when the teacher provides a lesson, usually recorded, to the students to review before coming into class. The students then should participate in active learning in the classroom. In theory, this is a cool, productive concept. However, in reality, many students would not review the material before and because of that not fully learn and understand the material. 

Open sources are a great resource for professionals looking to further their knowledge on a topic or to gain insight on a new subject. These resources are open to everyone, usually free or at low cost and can be relatively easy to download. There are various levels to resources as far as difficulty as far as skill level and developmental courses that build on one another.

The skills I have acquired from the PowerPoint assignments will be very beneficial when I begin my teaching career. Being able to add fun touches to my presentations such as pictures for bullet points and making animations and transitions more effective. Also being able to create non-linear PowerPoints is going to be very helpful in creating games and fun quizzes for students. These are also skills I can teach my students and create assignments on PowerPoint that are more exciting than standard presentations.  

Post 8

The Dynavsion active and interactive learning machine would be really awesome for students who suffer from ADHD or even some levels of autism. The machine has the user say aloud number combinations or solve various levels of math problems while simultaneously hitting buttons when the light flashes. Being able to not only get to practice math but also getting move and be active is very stimulating and can be very beneficial for so many students. This can also be helpful for shy students in my opinion because they are able to get up and move and have fun while having to speak up with solving problems.

PowerPoint is arguably the most common and easiest form of information delivery as an educator. With PowerPoint, we are able to pose more questions for students and provide more interactive assignments. Memorizing is a good skill for game shows, but to truly develop an educated mind, understanding concepts and how information can interact is essential. PowerPoint can help the educator accomplish this for their students.

Blogs are a great way to stay informed on what trends are happening and how well technology is being incorporated in to classroom. Lisa Nielsen is an educator who runs “The Innovative Educator” blog. She decided when she was in public school that her teachers taught in a very boring and irrelevant way. In an effort to change this, she has incorporated technology in unique ways to create a more interactive and exciting learning environment.  

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/

Post 7

There are so many assistive technologies out in the world. Virtually anything can be made possible with technology. These can include inspiration that can help reading and writing, CoWriter to help remember words and their meaning, and audiobooks that allow the student to read along. I personally have not used these technologies, however my doctor uses dragon dictation during appointments instead of writing her own notes to gain a more accurate description of health and provide quicker appointments. With any technology, glitches will occur. This is the biggest issue I foresee in the classroom. When a teacher is planning a lesson around using a technology and it does not work, frustration and inefficiency occurs.

I acquired many skills while building my webpage. Since I have never experienced building a webpage, this was completely new to me. I ran into some issues with the formatting of the site itself, I had problems figuring out how to make certain paragraphs look the way I wanted and have the layout I envisioned. Although I did get frustrated a few times, I eventually figured out how to cooperate with the site and I believe created the website I had pictured in my head beforehand. In the future, I would definitely add more details and give the page a more sophisticated, finished look. I think that having a class website is extremely helpful, they can help not only my students remember assignments but also myself and keep the entire class, me included, accountable for assignments and lesson plans.

Diigo is such a great resource for group or class collaboration. The site allows for the creation of groups and anyone in a group can bookmark a website for the whole group to see and review. Not only does diigo allow bookmarking, but also annotation of those websites. Any group member can leave notes, highlights, and tags on a page. This would be perfect for group research projects.

Post 6

I was not able to access class websites from the school’s website, so I looked for the class website by itself. Once I did this, I was able to access various classes from the high school I attended. Most have a similar color scheme (orange and black for the school colors) and many also include some picture of a lion (school mascot). About half of the websites include pictures of students doing an activity the class can be represented by. The information included a general explanation of the courses, prerequisites if necessary, and contact information for the school.

 I see myself using and updating a website, blog, or microblog in my classroom. I feel like these are all really great resources for students and parents. With this, keeping reminders for my students and myself become for efficient and hopefully more effective.  I also will definitely take advantage of recording and lesson planning programs. When lessons are made into digital files, the following years of teaching will be much less work as far as planning goes.

For sure I will be taking advantage of the technology of the smart boards. These are amazing, especially for classes that need to get up and move once and awhile. Being able to solve problems on the page, and having the advantage of being able to incorporate movements and activities into the lesson is so great for visual and kinesthetic learners. Not only can the board connect to your computer, you are able to save pages of work done on the board which is perfect for students to review. I think that any subject, any grade, and any teaching style have options for being able to use smart boards effectively.

https://voicethread.com/share/8324409/

Post 5

There are so many improving and emerging websites and pages to use in the classroom. I think that technologies that are simple to use and can incorporate faster, more efficient communication are the best for classroom use. These technologies can include twitter, which is great for fast reminders, blogs, can be used as or to submit assignments, and diigo, for efficient collaboration in collecting data. Technology use also really depends on the age group. For example, handing out iPads to a kindergarten class and having them each set up and manage their own website may not be the best idea, but using the same assignment in a high school class would be very effective.

Delicious is a really great resource for teaching. The site allows the user to save and organize links that will always be ready use or go back to. This makes lessons and planning much more efficient because having all the sites saved in the same place can cut down time spent on trying to find the cool picture or informational webpage.  To check it out, click HERE.

In my opinion, cloud computing is the technology that holds the biggest promise for education. Cloud computing is already so useful and convenient for storing webpages, pictures, songs, documents, ect. With growing innovations in technology and a growing rate of available space in many devices, I believe that clouds will enter the classroom very soon, if not already. Sites such as dropbox and google drive make sharing information so easy and multiple people can look at and edit pages simultaneously. These sites can also be accessed through apps in any device.