Hello,
Communication is key! That's the constant phrase that came to mind as I began to read chapter 8. Chapter 8 was filled with examples of how technology has revolutionized the art communicating. This chapter shared examples of how Teachers and Students use Emailing and Instant Messenger application to talk on a daily basis. This is vital for the classroom because as educators we must make ourselves available to our students and their families and one way of doing that is through online discussions on an actual class blog or a classroom website. The blog is definitely an important asset to have because students are able to reflect on several different topics on their own leisure time. As a teacher I can use a blog to continue a class discussion and require students to write a informative post on each question that exceeds one or two sentences. I learned about the important elements that a blog must contain in order for students and parents to have access to information that they need at one click away. The basic components of a blog is a Heading, Pages, Archives, Categories, Blog roll, and Meta. These basic components made me go look back at my class blog to see how I can enhance it and make it more appealing to all visitors of my class blog. I also loved the Digital Image Scanner because it allows teachers to display the work of all students and if students know that their work will be displayed the extra effort will be placed into any work that is assigned. I loved the chart on criteria for analyzing Teacher-Made Websites and Blogs because it was essentially a check list of all the requirements needed to run a successful blog or website. I enjoyed learning about how to engage students inside of the classroom by giving them roles to create a wiki and a wiki text. The wiki is great for the classroom because students are able to build a page with all the information that they have gathered so far about a specific topic or subject and still investigate more about this topic. Wiki's are fun for the classroom because students are all able to work on one wiki by editing and making any changes they want as they gather new information.
The following chapter focused on the digital world and making fun lesson using technological devices such as video cameras. After reading this chapter I have found a new appreciation for Powerpoint and the amount of things that you can utilize it for. Visuals are very important whenever teaching a group of students because they are able to make a connection from text to picture. The students are our biggest audience so whenever I plan my next lesson on Powerpoint the components on each slide must generate a reaction from my students through a visual, video, and sound. I've heard of teacher tube but haven't really utilized it as much, after thinking about how to design a future lesson for my students, I quickly searched teacher tube to find a fun and engaging video that correlates to my chosen topic. Teacher Tube is a great website that provides an educational version of youtube, the best part is the site is user friendly. The homemade powerpoint game website is designed to help teachers create educational learning games for specific learning standards. Students have input in creating the game because they are able to input question that they want answers to. I loved the digital story telling of how students can tell a story through pictures or an actual video of the events that took place in a story. Students learn how to present a review for each leveled book that they are reading. All the auditory learners in the classroom will benefit from podcasts whenever they are preparing for a exam because they can replay important notes from a previous class or listen to audio books. Overall the technological devices that are available inside of the classroom can be utilized in many ways to make learning fun and engaging.
Two Questions:
1. Do online forums created by teachers assist parents and other members of the school community solve any school related issues ? Do teachers feel comfortable with parents and family members sharing their views on certain topics on these forums?
2. Since the majority of our students text as a form of communication instead of using the actual phone to talk, will this improve student's writing skills? Has textspeak (idc,lol,nvm) helped or hurt our students when it's come to communication ?
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