All of these technologies allow students and teachers to contribute their own ideas and work to the larger body of knowledge that is the Web. Instead of simply handing in countless assignments to teachers to be read, graded, handed back, and most likely thrown away, we can now offer our students a totally new way of looking at the work they do. It’s not meant for the teacher of the class or even the school. It’s meant for the world-literally. It’s not meant to be discarded or stored in a folder somewhere; it’s meant to be added to the conversation and potentially used to teach others. Richardson, 2010 (p. 155-156)
This semester has certainly pushed me beyond my “web-based” comfort zone…and further. I learned the most about blogs and wikis because of how they were seamlessly incorporated into the course requirements. The way we used blogs to post our understanding of each module (lesson) is exactly the way I would like to use them as a teacher. Using our Weebly portfolio and our class wiki page as web-based management tools made posting more authentic than simply using the D2L discussion forum. My learning is the direct result of using the tools presented in this class rather than just reading about them. According to Dr. Shirley Campbell (ITEC 7410), “The person using the tool is the person doing the learning.” Not only am I living proof, but I am also a work in progress. Prior to this class, I had very little to no interaction with many web 2.0 tools. Now I can say that I have experience using the following tools: Creative Commons, Delicious, Flickr, Padlet, Screencast, Socrative, Twitter, and Wiki. These are not the only tools I used, but by far the ones that made the greatest impact on my learning this semester.
It is no secret that since attending the ISTE 2014 Conference at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) I have just fallen in love with the web-based student response system, Socrative. I cannot wait to use it. The idea of seeing my K-2nd graders using iPads to take quizzes is most exciting! I am most excited for S. Riley because using the touch screen on the iPad is much simpler for her due the challenges she has with her fine motor (gripping) skills. She mastered using the computer mouse last year, but this year taking computer based assessments will much come easier. I am also reminded of how C. Keys HATES using headphones to take computer based assessments. Using Socrative with the iPad will allow him to focus on the assessment rather than fiddle with the headset. Incidentally, he found that covering only ear or placing the headset around his neck worked best for him. I never thought about Socrative as an Assistive Technology (AT) tool until this moment. The beauty of it all is that Socrative is FREE, and we already have iPads, so now I am able to further accommodate the needs of my students. I plan to share this revelation with other Special Education teachers, and my Technology Specialist.
I am definitely walking away with a wealth of tools that will benefit my students. I do not propose that my life as a teacher will get easier, but I do believe that I am in a position to affect change in the lives of my students. Who knew?
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.
This semester has certainly pushed me beyond my “web-based” comfort zone…and further. I learned the most about blogs and wikis because of how they were seamlessly incorporated into the course requirements. The way we used blogs to post our understanding of each module (lesson) is exactly the way I would like to use them as a teacher. Using our Weebly portfolio and our class wiki page as web-based management tools made posting more authentic than simply using the D2L discussion forum. My learning is the direct result of using the tools presented in this class rather than just reading about them. According to Dr. Shirley Campbell (ITEC 7410), “The person using the tool is the person doing the learning.” Not only am I living proof, but I am also a work in progress. Prior to this class, I had very little to no interaction with many web 2.0 tools. Now I can say that I have experience using the following tools: Creative Commons, Delicious, Flickr, Padlet, Screencast, Socrative, Twitter, and Wiki. These are not the only tools I used, but by far the ones that made the greatest impact on my learning this semester.
It is no secret that since attending the ISTE 2014 Conference at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) I have just fallen in love with the web-based student response system, Socrative. I cannot wait to use it. The idea of seeing my K-2nd graders using iPads to take quizzes is most exciting! I am most excited for S. Riley because using the touch screen on the iPad is much simpler for her due the challenges she has with her fine motor (gripping) skills. She mastered using the computer mouse last year, but this year taking computer based assessments will much come easier. I am also reminded of how C. Keys HATES using headphones to take computer based assessments. Using Socrative with the iPad will allow him to focus on the assessment rather than fiddle with the headset. Incidentally, he found that covering only ear or placing the headset around his neck worked best for him. I never thought about Socrative as an Assistive Technology (AT) tool until this moment. The beauty of it all is that Socrative is FREE, and we already have iPads, so now I am able to further accommodate the needs of my students. I plan to share this revelation with other Special Education teachers, and my Technology Specialist.
I am definitely walking away with a wealth of tools that will benefit my students. I do not propose that my life as a teacher will get easier, but I do believe that I am in a position to affect change in the lives of my students. Who knew?
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.