Reflection #5

This week we learned about vidcast's. It seemed like it might be a little complicated when we first discussed it but by the time we went over all of the different things we could do I got really excited. I am excited to use the programs that we learned about. I had never heard about some of them and every time in this class I am amazed at all of the technology available to anyone.
All of the resources we talked about would be great to use in the future classroom. It would be good to create a vidcast for explaining an assignment, teach a concept, talk about upcoming assignments and events. I think it would be a great tool to use. I think it would also be fun to make learning more interesting and get the students excited about a topic.
As I think I have said in all of my posts, I hope that I can integrate technology into the classroom because I really think that students learn better and get more excited when you teach in different ways. Learning to do vidcast's just make me more skilled and makes it so I can do more things in the classroom.

Reflection #4

This week we learned how to do our own podcast. I honestly thought a podcast was something entirely different than what it is and I also thought I had never used one. haha How silly of me. A few examples of a podcast could be a youtube video, any video, radio or talkshow, and many others. I learned that I use podcasts all the time! I thought this would be a hard assignment when I first looked at it but it ended up being really easy and I can see why podcasting has become so popular, anyone can do it. The assignment was to create a public service announcement podcast lasting 1 -1:30 min long. It was pretty easy to come up with an announcement and then it was just writing down what we were going to say and recording it. It was pretty neat to learn of the many different ways you can record voice. I didn't know of all the devices available that I already had myself.
I think this would be a really good idea to use in the classroom. There are so many ways you could use podcasting in the classroom. I came up with a few ideas myself and ended up deciding almost anything you orally present in the classroom could be done with a podcast. I thought a fun idea was to create a word of the day or word of the week. You could say the word, pronounce the word, spell the word, say the meaning of the word, and use the word in a sentence. You could also have your students create their own word of the day or word of the week.
I think it would be a good idea to do the monthly announcements for the class through a podcast so that parents could listen to them and know what is going on. I think another fun idea would be for students to do interviews or role-plays and podcast them.
I am excited to use this awesome tool in the classroom. I think it will add variety and make things more fun and convenient in a lot of areas.

Reflection #3

This week we learned about creating our google site. I was really excited to learn how to do this because I enjoy being on the computer and learning how to do things on the computer. I'd like to learn as much technology as I can. We learned how to create multiple pages, and different kinds of pages: like lists, file cabinets, calendar, etc. I thought it was really neat that we could go into our Google calendar and add things to our class calendar and then those things show up on our google site. I also thought it was neat how we could add assignments for the week. The announcements page is also great to let parents know of things coming up. All of the pages we added would be extremely helpful in the future classroom.
I think it makes you more efficient and organized as a teacher if you have something like this in place. It helps students stay on top of their work when they are not able to come to school and it also helps parents know what is going on and what is due so they can encourage their child to do the assignments. The resources page is also really neat, instead of sending home a piece of paper with links on it you can just direct students to look at the class site and they will go directly to the page you want them to go. I think that will add a lot of convienence and save a lot of time for students and also for the teacher in the future. I am really excited to use this tool in the future. People are using technology so much these days and this is one of those kinds of technology that should definitely be taken advantage of. I think not only will I as a teacher love this tool but I also think the parents and students will really find it useful.

Reflection # 2

Last class period was a lot of fun to learn more about what Google offers. I already use some of their tools but did not know they had power point, excel, and I had never tried the calendar so I am really excited to try using that. Our assignment for this week is to pick a topic that we would like to do research on for our Digital Story.

I think this assignment will be very beneficial to me as a teacher. First of all I used UEN's website to do research and find the core curriculum. It was good to familiarize myself with the website and I was astounded with all of the resources available! The website will definitely be used in the future.

I think this is a good project because I will be learning about invaluable resources in the process and it will also help me as a future teacher because I will use more technology. I also think this is a great idea to introduce a topic to future student's. It is always good to know how to use more technology because our world uses technology in so many ways, so the more we know the better off we will be.

I think this technology will be a great tool in the classroom because it will make the student's more excited to learn about the topic in the digital story. I think this will also make me have more credentials as a future teacher because I will know how to use different types of technology. Technology can be such a great tool and make things much more interesting.

I always get excited to learn new technology, sometimes it can be hard in the beginning to understand how to do everything but once you get through the hurdles it is so neat the things that can be done. I really hope that I will be able to use technology in my future classroom because I really think that kids get more excited to learn when it is used correctly. I also think taking advantage of the tools available in Google will help me be better organized for my sake and for my student's sake. Even though this assignment somewhat intimidates me I am excited to learn the new programs that will help us create our digital stories!