I am really glad to have had another tech class this quarter. Technology can be quite daunting and overwhelming for someone who doesn’t use a lot of technology in life. But once you start “playing” around with it, you get used to it and it becomes second nature.
I was excited to have had the opportunity to play with the iTouch. I have blogged about what I think about it. I liked adding and looking for apps. I saw how useful some of the apps can be for teaching. I think the most useful part for the teacher is the recording capabilities. The dictation app was pretty cool (and amusing when it put in swear words the day our professor was demonstrating it). The iTouch is more useful to the students, then for the teacher – which is what our intention of using/learning about it was! As I have reflected before, I would prefer and love to have the iPad – bigger screen, bigger apps and you can hook up a key pad. The great thing about technology is that it is always being added to and upgraded. Maybe someday soon, you’ll be able to hook up a key pad to the iTouch.
Last quarter we worked with Photostory for our literacy vignettes. I enjoyed the process of finding photos, making different effects, using music and recording my voice. It makes the process very personal and has meaning. I liked how I was able to upload the video to a blogger site. I think my future students would really enjoy doing something like this as a class project!
I thought that voicethread was a neat tool to use. I liked responding to my classmates’ science lesson plan. I didn’t use a webcam, but I did write comments and recorded my comments. This would be excellent for showing off my students’ work. I am toying with the idea of either using Photostory or voicethread to display my 3rd grader’s Australia projects next quarter. Both are easy to use for students and teachers. Plus, it will give them a reason/purpose/audience for doing the project – so their parents and classmates can see what they did.
I think it is important for teachers to blog. It is especially nice when someone comments on what you wrote. I liked getting feedback on my Literacy project one. It gave me ideas, a fresh set of eyes and a different perspective. When I had questions about a method/idea/tech, it was helpful to get some answers or to think about it in a different way. It even made me question myself more!
The weebly is helpful as it organized my items into one spot. I like the fact that I now have two portfolios – one hard copy and one electronic. With the electronic version, I don’t have to worry about getting it back, like a hard copy. I can display all the really cool tech stuff I know how to do too! Add to that, the internet safety plan and I can convince someone that we can do all this cool stuff in our classrooms!
I would have loved Diigo more, had it worked for me. I was able to add my websites to our class page, but it didn’t have the memory (there was a glitch) to allow me to share it with another group. I emailed the two other people in that group telling them where to find it and I forwarded them a word document that included all the websites. But, that said, I found that what the others in our cohort had contributed to be informative and helpful!
I think that by learning these great tools, I will add to my students’ learning. Some of my students might not have the opportunity to use any of these at home. By incorporating these into my teaching, my students will be able to “keep up” with their peers; it will help shrink the tech learning curve. These can also be used to differentiate my lessons, enriching my students’ lives. There are multiple other tech teaching tools to learn. And since I am a life-long learner, I better get started!
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