Blog Post #10

Peripherals and non-computer audio-visual technologies can be integrated into the classroom in a number of ways.  One way that I became used to peripherals in the classroom was through a projection screen.  School projectors use a clear plastic sheet that you can write on and show to the class.  They are helpful when school budget is low and you need to display information.  The projector can also be connected to computers to display additional information.

An interesting website that I will without a doubt use as a teacher in the future is “BrainPOP.”  BrainPOP has been around for 15 years and is a great tool in the classroom.  It is an interesting website that has videos, articles, and games to engage students in learning.  There are a few BrainPOP websites for specific target learners: BrainPOP Jr. (K-3), BrainPOP, BrainPOP Espanol, and BrainPOP Esl.  These all can be used in the classroom to engage students in learning. 

BrainPOP has many different subjects within each website.  In the original BrainPOP there is science, social studies, english, math, engineering and technology, health, and arts and music.  As you can imagine, there are many videos that belong in each category.  I will definitely be using BrainPOP in the classroom to interest my students in learning; especially when I am teaching subjects that may not interest my students too much.  I wish my teachers would have used BrainPOP to explain certain subjects to me when I was in primary school.

In the future I think that I will use excel sparingly.  It is a great resource to use, but can be complicated for some people.  Since I plan on teaching elementary aged students I don’t think that it will be necessary to implement Excel into my classroom.  Although I can see how it is useful for older students.  Excel is useful in statistic and upper level math classes.  Excel can be used to make graphs and spreadsheets.  It can be used to create formulas to solve problems like determining the monthly payment on loans using different repayment amounts and interest rates.  It is a helpful tool when trying to solve difficult problems using formulas.

From the Powerpoint 1 assignment I learned a lot about non-linear presentations.  I think that they can be very useful in teaching.  It can really get a student involved and interested in a subject.  It was a very time consuming project though.  It was tedious to have to create action buttons on every page.  I will definitely be using this skill in the future.  I can see myself creating review games for my students.  Heres a picture of my home page for my jeopardy game!

Also here are the blogs that I commented on,

Post #9

Blog Post 9

Blog Post #9

I think that there are many advantages to using presentation software in the classroom.  It is very beneficial to students when their teachers use different medias to present information to them.  It is an advantage to students that have different learning styles.  Since not everybody learns the same way it is very helpful when there are multiple ways that information is presented to a student t really helps with the learning process.  I think that is the biggest advantage of presentation software.  Although another advantage to presentation software is that it can be accessed anywhere since it is created on a computer.  Instead of traditional lectures, this type of teaching can be saved and sent to students that miss class.  In addition presentation software can be very engaging and interest students more so than other teaching methods.  There are disadvantages to presentation software.  At times it can be time consuming to create these presentations.  In addition presentation software is often very expensive and not everyone has access to it.

The digital divide is a very interesting topic.  It is often seen as a separating factor among different characteristics including age, demographic, gender, etc.  It is what separates individuals in technology matters.  Some individuals are more likely to participate in technological matters depending on their upbringing.  Typically people who are from middle class and up are better with digital matters.  I feel that since I am from a middle class family that I already have a decent amount of technological education that I will be able to teach my future students very well based off of my past experiences.

An issue that is related to educational technology that currently interests me is online schooling.  I think that it is very fascinating that some grade school age children attend school strictly online using podcasts and online video tutorials.  I don’t particularly agree with online schooling technology for grade school ages, but it might be the best option for some.  It is interesting that young children use video tutorials to replace traditional schooling.

Blogs that I responded to:

Blog Post 8

Post #8

Blog Post #8

I think that PowerPoint is a great tool to support student learning at each knowledge dimension in particular lessons.  I cant remember a teacher of mine that hasn’t used PowerPoint to aide in instruction.  It is such an easy tool to use and it really can help get certain points across in lessons, especially explanatory and informational lessons.  For example.  If you were going to use Powerpoint, you should consider using the entire Microsoft Office Suite.  Office Suite includes all of their products, and they all work together flawlessly.  They were made to be integrated within one another.  You can easily switch from Microsoft Word, to Microsoft Publisher and then to Microsoft Excel and finish your presentation with Microsoft PowerPoint.  You can link these all together using hot buttons and links.  It is easy to switch between programs if you need to present something else like video, audio animation, graphic, or text.

Adaptive technologies are a great way to support learners.  I have had teachers and students in the past use adaptive technologies such as hearing aides and translators.  An adaptive technology is something that helps overcome a disability of some sort.  Ive never used an adaptive technology, but I have had classmates that are exchange students and handicap students that have trouble with speaking that use a handheld translator.  The translator really helped conversation move along easy.  They were a great help.  In addition I have had both teachers and classmates that wear hearing aides that helped them in the classroom.  I think a big challenge that I would have as a teacher with adaptive technologies would be making sure that my students were receiving the right kind of help and to the right degree of help.  I would want to make sure that despite their disability they were still being challenged and learning at an appropriate level.  I would want them to feel just like every other student.

This past weeks web quest was a learning experience for me.  It took a lot of time to create this assignment.  I wasn’t a very big fan of it because I feel like as a teacher I shouldn’t provide my students with websites for their own research project.  I think it is more of a learning experience for them if they research there own topic.  I also thought that it was very time consuming to create the website.  I could have just as easily gotten my point across if I were to create a document to handout on Word.  To improve my Web Quest skills next time, I might want to consider watching more tutorials on how to create them.  It would help me speed up the process of creating Web Quests.  If I choose to use these in my teaching career I would create Web Quests for any subject, because they can be applied to almost every subject area that I can think of.

Here are some screenshots of my Web Quest!

And here are the blogs that I have responded to:

https://rachelsinclair4.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/blog-7/PA

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