Reflections

I feel after these past few months I now fully understand the benefits of using technology in the classroom. Since my first day I have become increasingly more comfortable with using a Mac and feel that I could easily use one in the classroom. I have enjoyed both learning about the various programs that I can use for free and actually creating projects that I can use in my classroom. Overall, I feel that this class has been extremely beneficial and I have learned a great deal about technology.

My Digital Story

iMovie

At first I thought iMovie was difficult to navigate, but after spending more time with it I really like using this tool. I think that making movies for the classroom is a great way to introduce a lesson or unit by getting students' attention visibly. PowerPoint is always used in the classroom and I thinking using iMovie would be a welcome change. I intend to use it a lot in my classroom.

Spreadsheets

I really enjoyed this activity. I think spreadsheets can be used in the classroom in a variety of ways. Students can use them when they have downtime to practice or teachers could use them for quizzes. I initially thought that dealing with Excel would be difficult but once I discovered where everything was I found it to be really easy.

Google Forms

I think google forms is great. I would definitely use this tool in my classroom to find out students interests, to give quizzes or to help with feedback. I think the only problem is that it might not be possible for all my students to have access to the internet at the same time. This could be solved though by allowing them to complete an assignment on google forms over a period of days.

Wordle and Tagxedo

I really liked both of these Web 2.0 tools. I think these both would be great to use in the classroom especially for visual learners. I would probably use them with text that I already had, because I found typing in words to be quite tedious. The element of Tagxedo that I liked more than Wordle was the fact that you could put the words into a certain image or shape. I think that would further help visual learners.

Inspiration

 

I really liked using Inspiration and I think it would be very helpful in the classroom. I think for my specific area using Inspiration would be the most helpful when discussing cultural topics such as food or clothing.