Course Summary

Going into this summer night class, I probably wasn't the most stoked. Who really wants to be stuck in a basement computer lab for three hours when it's nice outside and there's a clean pool waiting at home? In all actuality, it turned into a great experience and really made an impression on my teaching style as well as gave me lots of wonderful (and mostly free!) tools. My attitude of "a necessary evil" turned into looking forward to class each week and having fun with our projects & assignments.

All that said, I did feel the class took awhile to "take off," meaning that I was a bit bored with the first couple of classes. Once we got into actually projects and activities, that feeling went away, but it had a bit of a curve to it,

The thing I enjoyed most was probably the Digital Storytelling project. I had so much fun making my own movie trailer for one of my favorite books! I liked our freedom of expression in the assignment and the guidance we were given by the instructor.

As a whole, I would say this class receives a 9/10. One of the most engaging and worthwhile education classes I have taken.

Interactive White Boards & ActivInspire

I love interactive white boards. Absolutely love them. I think they appeal to all types of learners (whether through visual elements, audio, or the interaction component) and allow for much more flexibility & fun than a typical white board or chalk board. I have limited experience with using one, but now that I've dabbled in ActivInspire software, I feel a lot more confident about it. I also found it simple to create flipcharts to use in the classroom and thought Promethean Planet had literal boatloads of excellent flipcharts & resources. Overall, one of my favorite tools we used this semester.

Google Presentation

I have become a recent convert to Google Docs; Google Presentation is awesome! Using presentation software such as PowerPoint or Keynote as often as educators do, it is refreshing to find a web tool that is just as powerful and is essentially foolproof. Avoiding the many caveats these other application-based presentation mediums have, I found Google Presentation to be intuitive and easy-to-use.

Consequently, when it came time to embed my presentation on my Google Site, it was very simple and streamlined. Having these things bundled together just makes sense. As a Mac user, I often have trouble with PowerPoint file formats and getting them to work properly on machines running Windows. Using Google Presentation, I can avoid the complications and simply give my presentation from the web.

Scavenger Hunt

The scavenger hunt was perhaps my favorite activity so far. There were so many different components and styles of learning that everyone could contribute in some way -- plus, we got to enjoy the nice summer weather! I liked there both being a physical component and a digital component in this exercise as well. My group, filled with elementary/special educators, chose to find shapes (which is harder to do than you would think) and realized how awesome an idea this could be for our students one day. It really takes abstract concepts and helps make them concrete.

The digital scavenger hunt was also a lot of fun because of the creative freedom we had. I chose to look for different types of weather and found several excellent pictures from the royalty-free sites list (a major help). This activity was great practice in finding quality and copyright-free images.

Inquiry Based Activity

I really enjoyed creating my very first IBA, or inquiry based activity, and utilizing things like WebQuest. I had heard about WebQuest before and knew it was an excellent educational tool but had all of zero experience with it. I can see myself using this in my classroom, most specifically as a self-directed learning activity, because many children with diverse learning needs benefit from a bit of self-guidance.

As a student who was gifted and talented through school, I would have responded well to a self-directed activity using technology and the internet to make connections/answer questions. It also seems really easy to adapt & differentiate for different levels of learners as well as students with exceptionalities.

WebQuest

WebQuests are web-based learning tools utilizing the inquiry-based learning model in which students learn by exploring the material themselves under the guidance of a teacher. I am a major proponent of the WebQuest model; being a supporter of student-directed learning and the Montessori methodology, the "teacher as a guide" concept is something I want to utilize in my classroom. This is especially useful in special education, where students often respond well to pacing themselves and learning independently.

Website Evaluation

Learning how to use the internet and its resources is extremely important for educators and their students, and the ability to shuffle through appropriate information is a huge aspect of efficient internet use in the curriculum. Students and educators alike need to be able to verify whether the information found on websites is valid and current. Being very familiar with using the internet for research, I am a fairly good judge of the credibility of a website. Checking timestamps, domain names, and site layouts can provide some clues.

Wikis

I went into this course having very little, if any, experience with wikis (aside from reading Wikipedia habitually). Utilizing not one, but two wikis this semester has shown me the proverbial light of effortless group collaboration on the web. Special educators often work side-by-side with parents, students, general educators, and school administrators, so tools that allow all parties to communicate, learn, and clarify are instrumentally valuable. I especially liked the accessibility and ease of use a wiki model provides so people with little technological knowledge can really tap into the core features of the wiki. Furthermore, I found it exciting to see everyone's contributions and collaborations. Wikis are definitely a tool I would like to utilize inside and outside the classroom.

Course Expectations

What I hope to gain from this course this semester is a broader understanding of using technology as part of every day curriculum; more specifically, utilizing technology as a tool to differentiate instruction and to make learning accessible to all. My proficiency level with computers and technology is relatively high, but I want to learn to apply that knowledge in an instructional setting.

Welcome!

Welcome to my TPTE 486 blog! I will be using this blog for reflective instruction this summer.