Finale

Gwen! Just want to let you know that I do have 7 posts on educational technology...one is a comment I responded to under the WebQuest post.

Hope this makes sense!

The End

This is my last post for EDTS, or at least I think it is. I want to reflect upon what I've gained from this course. I think in a previous post I talked about how I'm glad that Naz requires me to take this class or else I otherwise would not. Technology intimidates me. I'm glad I had to take it because I have learned so much.

My favorite assignments, because I had the most fun doing them and because I think students could get the most out of them, are the Non Linear PowerPoint and the Podcast. I LOVE that podcast! Fun, informational, and it builds on researching, revising & editing, speaking & presenting, writing, and possibly group work sills. I find the Non Linear PowerPoint helpful because it provides a fun format for teachers to use when presenting multi-faceted information. It also teaches students to look for links and models to students the thought-process that goes into organizing complex ideas.

I've gained much from this class because I know what I was taught here will effectively transpire into my classroom.

WebQuests

Not excited about this WebQuest. I do not ever see myself using a WebQuest as a future teacher. The main reason is that WebQuests rely too heavily upon the internet. This is good if it teachers students internet research and integrity skills. But when the teacher has already chosen all of the material, the WebQuest does not teach research and integrity skills. It just gives students quicker access to materials. Maybe in my WebQuest I can incorporate some of this. But even if I did, I just don't see myself using a WebQuest as a teacher. They're kind of complicated. Maybe my perspective will change after I finish the project.

Web Page

It was fun, albeit challenging, to create a web page. I liked combining creativity with critical thinking. For instance, I was able to choose aesthetically pleasing pictures but I had to structure them so they enhanced the content of my website. It was challenging, but fun.

However, I'm still unsure if I'd use this tool as a teacher For instance, is it practical? Will I have time to maintain a current website easily accessible to students? Also, does keeping a website make it an unfair advantage to students who have internet access and a useless resources for those whom do not have access all the time? I'm not sure. However, one encouraging thing is that while checking my email at work, I saw that where I work (a hs) offers internet training courses to teachers as well as the software through which to create your own web page. This is encouraging because it means schools at least offer the time and resources through which to create such an instructional tool.

Podcasts

I am very excited about Podcasts. It began yesterday when I created mine for our class. I had soooo much fun. I thought it was going to be a long, tedious process. It was long. But time flew. This is because creating a podcast involved all of my senses. I had to write, I had to speak, I had to listen, I had to look...I did everything but eat and smell. Truly, it's a fascinating process. It's rewarding to be able to play back your hard work. My favorite part was listening to where I laid multiple tracks at once. Having various layers to the podcast makes it sound professional. Knowing that I had the options of creating a rich product and knowing that my classmates would be listening to the product, motivated me to do a thorough job.

I'm even more excited about Podcasts after having read an article for my research paper. The article is titled, "A (Pod)cast of Thousands," by Ann Marie Dlott. It discusses three projects her class did with podcasts. Not only are the projects great models of researching, reading, writing, and learning for English or Social Studies classes, but additionally, the points Dlott makes about employing podcasts are convincing. Her argument proves that podcasts increase writing, speaking, listening, and even research skills. When students begin a podcast, they must contiunually revise and edit what they are going to say to be sure it sounds fluid and complete on the broadcast. This revising and editing process is widely absent from academic writing because students often do not see the point of it or because teachers do not often allow enough time for it. In the podcast process, it's almost built in. Podcasts also increase writing skills because if students know people other than their teacher will listen to the podcast, students have various audiences in mind. Whenever teachers give students options to choose their own audience, students write more authencially. This is because when students choose their audience, their writing becomes closer to professional writing. What I've mentioned above are just a few of the ways students learning increases through using podcasts. The overall point is that podcasts increase students intrinsic motivation and they increase authentic learning. This is important because with the former, students develope a thirst for learning; with the latter, students retain more of what they learn. I cannot wait to start using podcast projects when I am a secondary ed. English teacher. I just hope the school I teach in has the technology!

Internet Resources

For my INAD502 class I had to type a reflection on Internet Resources for teaching. Surprisingly, there are a lot of good ones out there! If you're an English teacher there's readwritethink.org. This website has highly detailed, intricate, and innovative lessons on just about anything. The only downfall I noticed is that they might be difficult to translate from the author of the lesson's classroom to your own. For instance, it seems that they were written for a specific group of students at a specific time...as should've happened. Anyway, prepare to read a lot and tailor the lesson to your own classroom with this website. You will get good ideas though! The other thing about this website is that it offers free use of interactive graphic organizers and stuff. I'm not sure how effective these are, but trying them couldn't hurt.

Another really cool one I found was ed.gov, the US Department of State website. The resources here are free and there are soooo many! It's really effective if you want ideas for which authors to teach or works to combine. It seems like it'd be a great tool to access for unit planning. PBS Teachers is another good one. It offers a wide array of topics to choose from, whereas other websites I visited lacked this.

It's just cool to know what resources are out there literally at our fingertips. It's overwhelming how many tools are there to guide us, instruct us, and supplement our lessons. As a future teacher, I hope I make use of all of these e-resources. It seems like a shame not to.

First Blog EVERRRR

Well I know I'm definitely going to learn a lot from this course...I don't even know what a Podcast is. SmartBoard I've at least heard of. Basically, technology is not my friend. In fact, if this course weren't required I definitely would not take it. That being said, it's a good thing this course is required. I can't have students tech-ing me under the table. I'm supposed to be teaching them!

...Bad joke.

Anyway, this sem should be fun. Oh and if anyone has helpful computer or technology advice never hesitate to let me know. :-)