Technology tools in the classroom! Module 4

Welcome back bloggers! I am so excited to share ideas about today’s topic! I am going to be going over 2 technology resources I have become very familiar with over the last semester! I find that these interactive technology resources are not only useful for younger grade groups, but also an awesome technique to use in upper grades! Finding something that I can add my own twist on and use for all learning types is not an easy task. I think these 2 websites provide a creative way to learn and grow in and out of the classroom. The two resources I have been getting to learn about are Google Classroom and Flipgrid,

            

I was actually introduced to Google Classroom for the first time this year. I had never used my google resources before coming to college. I truly do not know how I survived for as long as I did without having them in my tool belt! I created a Google classroom a few weeks ago and decided for my classes sake, I would create a 3^rd grade class. I was able to add a code to my class page, and then my classmates were able to then log onto their own Gmail account and add themselves as a student to my class! This is such an easy way to have students access in class work, homework, and even add projects to. Through Google classroom, I was able to upload a link to have students post a short video about who they are and what they are looking forward to learning in class this year. In the future, I think having students post a video or short bio about themselves before we get to know each other in class would be so fun and creative! No matter the age group, I think every student could benefit from a resource like this.

The second resource is another one I am just learning to use and love! In the beginning of the semester in my technology in education class we were asked to take a short 15 second video introducing ourselves on a website called Flipgrid. Like I had mentioned in the previous paragraph, this is the same website I posted on my classroom! When I did the video for my technology class, I was able to log onto my classrooms link and watch others in my class talk a bit about them and what they plan on pursuing in college! What a fun way to get to know who is going to be in your class. Another fun way to use Flipgrid is to have a student or class record a short video about how they reacted to a movie, book, class discussion, or topic! This is just a fun way for students to be able to use their voice in a different way in the classroom. Over the past week, I have been spending time in a 4^th grade classroom, and one of the other classes in our hall was actually using Flipgrid! They were recording a book review on a book they had read in class! I thought it was so creative and I was so excited to see something I was currently learning about being implemented in the classroom! 

I find these two websites great resources to use in any future setting. All age groups and learning styles will be able to take away a positive learning tool! No matter the subject, age, grade, or class, as a teacher I will definitely be using these in my future classroom. I look forward to teaching my students the importance of technology in the classroom! (As long as they are learning from it, of course!)

Twitter Blog

Over the past couple months of being in the Technology in Education class, I have learned many new techniques and ways to get involved with other professionals outside of my comfort zone. One of those new skills is using Twitter as a connection device with educators around the globe. I began by creating a new twitter specific to my education platform. I wrote a small bio about who I am and what my future endeavors look like. Once I created my own page, I began following classmates and a few other Trinity students who I knew had also created a twitter for this class. By following those students, I was able to see other educators who they were following. I also looked onto a page my professor had for us to access and followed some of the top educators on social media! By doing this, I was able to slowly broaden my connections and see what others are doing in their classes. I immediately began retweeting and favoring a ton of exciting new information I had never seen before. I also decided to follow some of the websites we were learning how to use because they would post videos and links to help with different online projects! This was a super convenient way to learn more about the websites and be able to test them out to see which I liked best. I also loved watching daily updates about what my classmates were doing in their education classes and also in their observation classes! This definitely made it begin to feel more real than ever before. As I was tweeting about ideas and questions on my twitter, I was having principals and other educators who had their own classrooms message me and comment back to my posts. It was definitely an eye opener for me and made me so excited to get in touch with all these teachers from all over the states and see their ideas right in front of me. Seeing other teachers posting about lessons they are conducting in their classrooms make me so excited for a future classroom of my own. I try to get on my education twitter daily so I can stay in the loop of what is going on outside of Trinity and the classroom I am observing. Another awesome addition to this education twitter page I have created is I can add #troll209 to any post or comment I find helpful or interesting and all my classmates can then go to the hashtag and view all the tweets in one area. I love looking at what my classmates found interesting or helpful because I feel as though a lot of us are similar learners, so this will allow us to share similar posts or ideas with one another and then that will hopefully be brought into all of our future classes. Overall, I can definitely see myself using this education twitter past my college career. I want to continue to reach out to other educators and share our ideas and love for the classroom with one another. I think this is such a great start to the connections we as educators get the opportunity to make throughout our careers! I hope to create a social media platform that other educators can look at and get ideas for their own classes! Through the rest of this semester, I definitely want to post more photos and uploads of things I have been working on or creating in not only my technology class, but also other education classes that I think would be good to share. Every little bit I retweet or like gives me a feel for how I want my classroom ran one day. I love retweeting motivational words or phrases that principals have posted in their schools or what teachers have posted in their rooms. That is definitely something I want everywhere in my future room!

Digital Storytelling

Over the past couple weeks, I have been working on a new project in Technology in Education! This project was definitely new to me, so I had to do a lot of research on how to create an affective storytelling project. One of the websites I looked into gave a great description of a digital story and it is what I kept referring to throughout the project. The website stated, “Designing and communicating information requires students to deepen their understanding of content while increasing visual, sound, oral language, creativity, and thinking skills. Making meaning out of an experience deepens the communication for both the author and the viewers. The author’s narrative voice is the center of all the multimedia decisions. The story’s narrative is first made into a voiceover and then all images, sound, music, transitions, and special effects are organized around unfolding this story” (Bernajean Porter). I find this explanation so helpful and I found myself definitely looking at this website for help while I created my own digital story. I decided to do my digital story about visual therapy. I had a hard time coming up with a topic because I couldn’t pin point one specific idea I wanted to go in depth about. I thought that my story of my experience through vision therapy at an older age would be something students of any age could look at and be able to relate to. It does not matter what age or grade the readers are in, all that is important is that they can watch the video and hear your voice and be able to take away something positive. While I was recording my voice, I had a hard time separating my ideas and my experiences into an easy flowing story. I wanted my voice to sound natural and easy going, so I made sure to video record my voice as many times as I needed until I got the result I was looking for. After I made my audio portion of the digital story, it was time for me to add the audio to Wevideo and start clipping together videos and photos that connected to my vision therapy story. I had a lot of fun looking for different photos that I thought would pair well with what I was saying in my audio portion. The whole point of adding your own voice and photos into a story is for students to be able to learn from visual, sound, oral language, and broaden their thinking skills. Not only is the storytelling technique productive for students to learn, but it is also a great way for teachers to get their students to become confident with speaking and talking about something that is personal to them. By having students record their own voices, they are working on oral presentational skills beginning at a young age. I love the idea of having my students work in a small group or alone to create a digital story to share with a classroom full of their peers. Whenever there is a presentation or video with a student’s own voice in one of my classes, I automatically zone in. There is something about hearing a story from the person who experienced it and having them explain it in their own words and voice. I find myself relating to them better and it also tugs on my emotional strings. I want my students to be able to experience not only how to create one, but also how to learn and become affected by hearing one. I think this is definitely one of the best ways to present a new story or personal story to a classroom full of egger students who are ready to learn.