Week Nine Reflection
Blog reflection question: Reflect about the information that you have encountered this week, the conversations you've had, and the progress you made in class. Post a reflection post to your blog that outlines your areas of confusion, celebration, and of interest. Be sure to share the link to the blog post to this assignment.
Truthfully I have been a bit overwhelmed trying to take in all of the technological options and trying to implement them into the classroom.
I feel like I am tinkering around the edges and not fully implementing anything. While I find a lot of the tools interesting and useful, I feel like it would be a lot better if we had a technology committee that was curating the tools and getting the students on board. In some sense it seems like I have been teaching the kids as much about the tools as I have been the content. The exception is the Google suite of apps. My students are becoming fairly proficient with Google Docs and Google Sheets.
Thus far this semester I have introduced Mindmeister.com, Storyboardthat.com and screencastomatic.com along with integrating more of the Google Suite of apps. It feels like a lot of these things are apps that I may use as a one off, but would not fully integrate. I am not sure if this is because of my teaching style or content area, or just that I am an old fogey who is having trouble seeing the usefulness of all of these things.
Probably as much as anything, the trouble may be that I don't have the time right now to dive in as deeply as I would like to really fully use some of these technologies. It is my hope that I can use this blog and the notes from this class to remind myself of some of my ideas when I have a bit more time to implement more meaningful changes in my classes.
Online Mind Mapping and Brainstorming. Retrieved October 21, 2017, from https://www.mindmeister.com/
Prototypes, L. C. (n.d.). The Worlds Best Free Online Storyboard Creator. Retrieved October 29, 2017, from http://www.storyboardthat.com/
Retrieved October 29, 2017, from https://screencast-o-matic.com/
Truthfully I have been a bit overwhelmed trying to take in all of the technological options and trying to implement them into the classroom.
I feel like I am tinkering around the edges and not fully implementing anything. While I find a lot of the tools interesting and useful, I feel like it would be a lot better if we had a technology committee that was curating the tools and getting the students on board. In some sense it seems like I have been teaching the kids as much about the tools as I have been the content. The exception is the Google suite of apps. My students are becoming fairly proficient with Google Docs and Google Sheets.
Thus far this semester I have introduced Mindmeister.com, Storyboardthat.com and screencastomatic.com along with integrating more of the Google Suite of apps. It feels like a lot of these things are apps that I may use as a one off, but would not fully integrate. I am not sure if this is because of my teaching style or content area, or just that I am an old fogey who is having trouble seeing the usefulness of all of these things.
Probably as much as anything, the trouble may be that I don't have the time right now to dive in as deeply as I would like to really fully use some of these technologies. It is my hope that I can use this blog and the notes from this class to remind myself of some of my ideas when I have a bit more time to implement more meaningful changes in my classes.
Online Mind Mapping and Brainstorming. Retrieved October 21, 2017, from https://www.mindmeister.com/
Prototypes, L. C. (n.d.). The Worlds Best Free Online Storyboard Creator. Retrieved October 29, 2017, from http://www.storyboardthat.com/
Retrieved October 29, 2017, from https://screencast-o-matic.com/
As someone who passed 40 not all that long ago, I feel the "old fogey" sentiment creeping up in my own thinking when encountering something new. Embrace this question though: if a new technology is used solely for it's hooking power ("oh shiny!") is it worthwhile to incorporate into your class? If however a technology has a real benefit, say in a portfolio, or as a collaborative tool, or as a means of content production, there's real benefit there. Even if you don't have the time mid-year to exhaustively explore options, consider allowing students to produce some technology-based media piece in response to an assignment as long as it meets your requirements to get a sense of what they're capable of. For example, if an assignment would normally be satisfied with a writing piece, would you accept students working on their own to create an annotated video that met the key project criteria?
ReplyDeleteI agree there just isn't enough time to feel like you are fully implementing anything. I feel this at the 2nd grade level where it takes about two or three times (if not more) for them to practice the tool before any real producing can happen. I have found that getting two kids to be "experts" at it and then having them train other kids has helped the most. I've also blocked off 45 minutes one time a week for technology purposes. This has helped a lot knowing that I will have 45 minutes to dive into one technology. But still.... that doesn't solve all the problems!
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