Well, we are half way through our class at this point, and I am still amazed at how many resources I have been introduced to thus far! I need to keep a log sheet of all of these resources for after this course is finished so that I can refer to them during the 2012-2013 school year! Phew! 2012-2013 sounds crazy, doesn't it? It seems fitting that we are nearly 13 years into the 21st century and that I am just now discovering technology tools that will greatly inspire and engage both my teaching and my students!
The TED website that we visited was awesome. I had to really think about which topic I was interested in researching prior to watching my first video. With all of this discussion about introducing more technology into our classrooms, it got me thinking. Yes, our kids love technology, but yet many teachers still do not. I considered myself to be somewhat "techy" and it turns out I am just barely scratching the surface! I cannot imagine what it would feel like to be a student nowadays in a school setting where teachers truly resisted introducing their students to creative and academic technology. The video that spoke to me the most was called, "Gaming can make a better world" and was presented by Jane McGonigal. The video can be found at the following link: http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html
Whew! Talk about somewhat with passion! McGonigal is a researcher and game designer. She focuses on researching how gamers can use their passion for the virtual world to be transferred to improving our real world. Students are escaping to a virtual world every day, and are extremely passionate and talented at completing tasks, problem solving, communicating effectively, and team work. However, their time and passion needs to be implemented into the real world! Well, I believe this starts with public schools and the attitudes of the teachers within the schools.
The technology explorations were cool this week as well. One website that stood out to me was ComicLife, which can be found at http://www.comiclife.com/ . Perhaps this website stood out to me because I have it in my mind that we as teachers need to be connecting the technology that our students love using to our classrooms! ComicLife is fun because it allows students to add spunk, fun, text, and dialogue to their media presentations in a comic book format. I especially liked this website because I think the boys in my class would be especially interested. I imagine this resource allowing some of my shy students to come out of their shells and attempt to share their humor with their classmates in a safe way! How fun!
I realized that if I want to engage my students using technology, I need to make my PowerPoint presentations cooler! I have one particular PowerPoint that I made for my 5th grader music students on Native American Music. I am pleased that I was able to upload some photos, clip art, and link to videos. However, I still feel like it's not engaging enough. I would like to use some of the new resources we have discovered to make my presentation more engaging and interesting. My students tend to respond fairly well to PowerPoints, but in order to keep them interested I often ask them to read the points with me, forward the slide presentation to the next slide, or use a worksheet to follow along. They certainly don't appear to "excited" when I open up a presentation, but they don't complain either. I think this presentation would be more interesting if I was able to make it more interactive, rather than just something for them to sit and watch. I LOVE the online collaborative sites we explored this week that allow multiple users to review presentations, comment, doodle, and discuss. It would certainly make for a fun assessment in the future.
I enjoyed this week because I am certainly a visual learner and teacher! Being a music teacher, I rely heavily on audio, media clips, video, and presentations that I can use on my interactive white board (Smartboard) with my projector. When you teach every student in the school, you realize quickly that using a Smartboard to present content is far better than printing thousands of pieces of paper! Learning about more resources and tools to help me present my material more effectively to my students is priceless!
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