Unit 4 Blog: Instructional Tools to Teach
This Unit offered a lot of different tools for teaching, but
more than that; it emphasized the importance of understanding that today’s
learners must be taught in a way that supports them in developing technology
literacy. Students must learn while
using technology and be able to respond to learning by being able to digitally
produce products that reflect their experiences. Our learners are anxious and willing to incorporate as much
technology into their daily learning environments as we can offer them.
The big question becomes more of are we
instructors ready for them in our level of technology literacy, as well as deep
knowledge of pedagogy. Learners learn
and adjust to new challenges very quickly and, and if the work that they are
involved in is meaningful to them, and challenging; they will rise to the
occasion. How one introduces technology
into the classroom doesn’t have to be complex.
In fact, often the simplest is the best to begin, and as learners build
more knowledge and creativity, they begin to take more risks and responsibility
for their learning. One very simple tool
I found out about is called Spelling
City and it allows instructors to post connected assignments related to
word knowledge and usage. Students can
interactively practice spelling that might have to do with a unit or theme of
the week, take vocabulary tests, study vocabulary, and it’s fun and free.
Of course, now that I have a blog, I am totally fascinated and excited over the collaboration
possibilities. I’ve already told my
students that we will have a classroom blog
page, and the principal just announced in his emails that a webpage is one of the things we will
develop at our school the upcoming year.
Hopefully, I will be able to be a big part of this orchestration, and
will be able to motivate colleagues to participate. I believe that a classroom blog could inspire
higher order thinking, greater motivation, and student overall support of one
another. I also believe that students
having an opportunity to go to review materials as often as they like, anytime,
would give students with learning disabilities additional support.
One of the tools I plan to use in the classroom is Animoto because students love to create
works that they can show, whether it be in a group or independently, and I
believe that this tool will allow them to learn, construct, and have fun on
many fronts; as they make it their own by creating videos that show their
understanding. I am very excited about
this tool for the classroom. Another tool that is mentioned in this unit is
Glogster which allows students or
instructors to create interactive posters, as more than one person can add
text, images, graphics, upload videos, edit, and so on. Some of these tools cost a little, but the
students will get far more in the experience of using them, and this will
certainly outweigh the costs.
This class has really helped me to understand better how to
use the multi-faceted Googledocs,
which can be used to create and share
surveys to collect data, organize, and represent data; and with allowing
learners to explore Google Earth,
the possibilities are endless from finding their house to exploring the oceans,
Mars, or, where a digital pen pal lives in another country. It is another tool that can be used literally
across all learning platforms and
learners need time to explore, and of course, instructors need time to plan how
best to utilize this versatile tool. For social networking, it was nice to learn about Ning, as it allows instructors to setup
a more controlled environment for learners, but has similar aspects as does Facebook and Myspace without the worry.
This might be a good one to bring to my school. Instructors have control over content and
pictures and videos that are uploaded.
Students can upload videos for support or presentation from TeacherTube or School Tube and post to Ning.
There are so many technology tool choices to get familiar
with, and I believe you just have to get in there and start trying them out to
see what they look like and the ideas of how to best use them will come. Mind mapping tools are always useful for
learners and now it looks like they are collaborative devices that can be used
in many ways to organize, plan, analyze, and create finished projects. I am familiar with Gliffy and Bubbl,
however, Mywebspiration is a new
tool for me to explore with learners.
Further, these tools could be helpful in supporting students with
learning disabilities make connections to concepts because it is a way to help
them organize and build knowledge.
Second life is free and in instruction allows learners to create
their own avatars. I used Voki for the first time and can see how
a dull lesson becomes interesting with a few simple technology additions, like
the Spore Creature Creator that
allows students to create animals or fantasy creatures based on some area of
instruction. Timeline Creators for
instruction allows students to create interactive timelines online. I am not familiar with these timeline
creators, and therefore, I am documenting what they are, Timetoast, TimeRime, Xtimeline, and Preceden; to look closer at
them later. There is, again, so much technology available that can be
used in instruction like Collaborative Writing
tools, Audio and Podcast tools that
allow learners access to content anywhere, and anytime with a cellphone, Voice Thread which allows learners to
participate in virtual conversations about visuals, voice, and documents. There is TodaysMeet
that offers learners a chat environment
about what is being presented.
