I had a positive experience with the virtual class we had this past Friday. During my undergrad work, I attended Old Dominion University through a Teletechnet site at Annandale. This was a cool experience because we had students all across the United States participating and collaborating in our virtual classroom. Virtual classrooms are a great idea, but it can have its downfalls as some of us experienced with the technical difficulties of our equipment or internet connections. Personally, I believe there is nothing like being in a physical classroom because you are connecting with other classmates and teachers with face-to-face interaction.
Twitter at school?
I would have never thought about using Twitter as a form of learning for students in the classroom. My main use for it is to keep up-to-date with my friends, family, and to follow celebs:) But from the chapter we just read, social webs is becoming a new way for students to be engaged into learning and collaborating with people. I am actually excited about how social networks such as Twitter and Facebook can be used to enhance what students are learning and having another way to differentiate for students.
Story Time!!!
When I student taught in kindergarten, the usage of storytelling was a major compenent in teaching the curriculum. Storytelling either was a great way to introduce a learning concept or to reinforce what the students were learning. The kindergartners were fully engaged to the story and were able to make connections from the text to their own personal lives. I believe upgrading storytelling to digital storytelling will only enhance the learning process for students in a fun, creative, and educational manner. Not only will students benefit from this great tool, but teachers can use it to assess their students. It can be achieved by teaching students to create their own digital stories on what they are learning.
Google Tools
I have enjoyed using gmail for the past year because of the many cool features. But I have never taken the time to explore the other possibilities of using Google tools despite knowing that they are out there. I enjoyed Friday’s class because I was finally exposed to the many things Google has to offer. I particulary liked Google Squared and Google Docs because I can see them both being used in the classroom. Both of these tools would be great to enhance student research projects because Google docs allows students to work collaboratively and Google Squared provides a great starting point for research. Yes, these will probably have to be taught to your students in addition to everything else that needs to be taught. But having these tools will provide students with a rich academic experience because technology will enhance their learning.
Chapter 12
I believe the last sentence in the chapter was a critical point mentioned by the author. Teachers will be equipped to lanuch the process of change in their classrooms only when they look at themselves as digital immigrants and understand that their students are the ones who are digital natives. I know for some teachers, “change” is something very hard to do because they are so used to what they have been doing for a long time. But teachers and all educators must realize the need for change because technology is impacting everything we do. Teachers must embrace technology and integrate it into our teachings and schools. Today’s student desires and needs technology, and it is a teacher’s responsibility to find the best and meaningful approached to teachings their students. There are many resources on the internet that are interactive and will help engage students into their learning experience. The aim for teachers to use technology is to enhance their teaching methods to provide a richer academic experience for students. Technology provides many different avenues for teachers to use so that students are able to make connections to what they are learning.
dId YoU kNoW 4.0
The most interesting thing that I found about this powerpoint is how technology has changed and will continue to change our future. Like the quote at the end of the presentation, “technology used to fit in a building which now fits into our pocket and will some day in the future fit inside a blood cell.” It seems that there is something always new coming out in the technology world that is continually getting smaller and more advanced. We are living in a world that desires things or information instantaneously. As our world is becoming more technologically advanced, it is important as teachers to converge towards technology with teaching and enhancing our curriculum for students. People are relying less on traditional media platforms such as television or newspapers, and relying more on the internet and social media outlets such as Twitter because it is faster to get information.
d0ughb0y 