Even though I am not planning a career in teaching, I found this class to be extremely valuable. Before this class I was proficient on the basic functions of a computer (email, internet, word, a little PowerPoint and Excel), but there is so much new technology to learn! I found the lessons on PowerPoint, Excel, InspireData, 4Nets, and the Business Letter to be the most valuable for me personally. Outside of the classroom, I think I will use the above lessons with the most frequency.
As a teacher I would use InspireData, Inspiration, Filamentality, Excel and the Newsletter in the classroom. I think Inspiration is great tool to use in the classroom, especially for younger students. Inspiration allows students to organize their ideas in a visual and creative way. InspireData is a program that I would use over Access any time! I loved InspireData. InspireData is visual, easy to use and easy to teach which makes it a great program for both students and teachers. The Filamentality Hotlist is another fantastic tool that I would definitely use in the classroom. I had the most fun creating my Filamentality project! I think students would enjoy this type of interactive assignment much more than a simple worksheet that is to be filled out with the facts from a book. The websites you add onto Filamentality are fun and interactive and keep students engaged and interested in learning. I would also use a weekly Newsletter to keep parents and students informed of what is going on inside and outside of the class. Using Microsoft Word to create a newsletter with colorful graphics and WordArt is a great communication tool. I would use Excel as a teacher to keep track of the grades of my students so that I could keep them apprise of their progress as well as to keep myself organized. I felt the Blogs, the Rubric and the Software Evaluations did not have very much value for me personally. I think the largest reason for this is because I do not plan on becoming a teacher. The Blogs I found to be time consuming but not the most valuable use of time. I think the idea of a Blog is great, but having to write one every week and respond to two Blogs I felt to be excessive considering the level of value they bring. I think the creation of the Rubric was very fun, but not valuable to me personally. I also found the Software Evaluations to be of less value to me for the same reason. I think if I was planning on becoming a teacher I would definitely find the Rubric and Evaluations valuable, but not necessarily the Blogs….
I think the video project was very fun to do! However, I feel there could be improvement on the amount of time we are given to do the video project. I feel that the video project holds a lot of value and possibility for learning but we were not given enough time to fully capitalize on it. I enjoyed the video and learning the technology and editing, but when working with a group it is difficult to get everyone together and film given only one week.
All in all, I think this class is very valuable and I learned so much!
3 comments:
I also found Inspiration and Filamentality to be a valuable tool to use in the classroom. I think almost everyone will agree that the blogs are not that useful. The only good thing I can say about them is that it is a for sure way to get us to read the material Erika assigned, but that's about it. Finally, I have to admit that I learned a lot of things I never knew how to do before I took this class.
I also thought this class was exteremely valuable!! I really learned a lot here and I am looking forward to using some of this technology in the future with my classes!! :)
I thought that this class was very interesting and had no idea that there were so many tools out there to organize and convey data. Whether you're gonna be a teacher like me or not, this info was valuable and I will definitely carry it on into my future.
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