Reflection #5: Vidcasts

What am I learning? I have been learning about vidcasts and how they are very useful to use in the classroom. We have been learning how to gather images, music, sounds, and putting them together using Photo Story.

So what does this mean for me? It helps me to be able to teach the curriculum in a more creative and useful way. It's more enjoyable and it actually shows real photographs, music, and recordings that I can have right there for my use. It allows me to be creative and be able to express and teach the unit how I want to teach it using my own music and recordings rather than learning it out of a textbook which someone else has already done. It helps me to enhance my creativity and pictures and script, so I can teach the students what I want them to learn.

Now what does this technology teach me and my future students? It will help me to be able to teach my future students how to teach them how to use vidcasts. They can create their own vidcast for a project, report, or presentation. I think they will love creating them because its their own creation and project. They can create their own music and recordings to teach me and their fellow students the Civil War or the Native Americans. It will help me as their teacher to be able to help them understand the unit by showing pictures and sharing the information about the unit. It is fun and interesting and I think kids will love doing it and learning it!

Reflection #4: Podcasts

What am I learning? I have been learning about podcasts and how you can use podcasts to record and upload your recordings to the internet. They can also be downloaded onto your iPod, iTouch, MP3's and MP4's too. It's a really cool tool and it's so easy to do it, we uploaded our podcast recording to the internet by recording a public service announcement.

So what and why are we doing this? I think this has been an awesome assignment to do for school because it can create so many ideas to do with students. It will be so easy for them to be able to use this as well. They can use it for digital stories, downloading music, movies, and other things onto their iPods and other devices for reports and presentations. They can create their own recordings which they will be so proud of doing. I can also do it for them as their teacher to model how to record and how podcasts can work with all different kinds of assignments, plus, I think they will have fun with it.

Now what does this mean for me and my students in my future classroom? It means this that there can be more resources used rather than textbooks. They can create their own work and be creative in that way. They can work in groups and have fun with their classmates creating projects using podcasts. It will motivate them to want to do these assignments and be ones that they will remember. They can always have them and so many years down the road, they can look back and still listen to their recordings for the projects they did in school.

Reflection #3

What am I learning? I have learned about how to create Google Site for my new teacher page for me and my students and their parents. I have learned how to add announcements, homework assignments, and resources to help them too.

So what does this mean to me? This has really helped me to organize the information I need for myself and my students. It has all of my items in one place so I won't be confused and they won't be confused about where to go to find all of the information needed. It helped me to post my announcements and assignments so my students will know exactly what they need to do if they are sick or if they are going on vacation, they can know ahead of time what to do. It will save them time and their parent's time if they can find it all online.

Now what does this mean for me and my future students? It means that they can already have a syllabus for themselves and their parents. They can find resources and know more about the subject in greater detail and depth. It will help me be able to have everything in one place and allow me to be able to upload things often and be able to remind them of upcoming things. It gives them an opportunity to know me and their parents as well. All around, it is beneficial for everyone!

Reflection #2: Google Docs

What am I learning? I am learning about Google Docs and being able to create documents that can be shared with other people to collaborate and work on the same project together while being anywhere in the world. Also, I have learned how to create a Google Calendar to organize my time and my husband's time very efficiently. Google Docs has been a great tool to use to save other people time and my time as well.

So What? So what does this mean for me as a student, teacher, and colleague today? This means that I can be able to communicate with my classmates on student projects on a regular basis without having to set up a time to work on it together. We can work on it at home whatever time is convenient for us. It saves us time, money, and our sanity! :) This would be great to have the students use Google Docs as well. They can work together in groups this way, they can follow their own calendar as well as my (their teacher's) calendar so they know what's due on certain days. This allows them to do their work at school or at home. They just have to pull up the internet and it's saved. It is great to be able to share documents with other teachers in the same grade level so they can have input on assignments or lesson plans and they also know what you're teaching their students too. It is a great tool and everyone can benefit from it in the classrooms and school.

Now what? What does this technology mean for my future students as well as I for their teacher? This is a great tool and I can see so many possibilities with it. Students can correspond with each other. They can change and fix things on a report or presentation before having to turn it in to their teacher. They can be sitting at home doing it and they can do it when it's convenient for them. I can see them giving feedback to other students and adding in or changing a few things to make the presentation better. I can see my students getting along really well and having fun doing this with each other. For me, I think that I could create so many lesson plans using Google Docs. I can create a math assignment or quiz online and they can print it off and we can go over the assignment together. I can post a question about the reading, another student will answer and then they post a question about the reading too. This cycle will go on till the whole class has had the chance to answer and post a question for their class. There are many things you can do and I think you can do almost anything with Google Docs!