A)This course gave me great
insight on how to be a connected learner outside of my inner circle of
colleagues. The activities showed me various ways to connect with other educators
around the world through Twitter, blogs, and YouTube. I really appreciated getting
the chance to explore the different things we can do on Twitter, blogs, and multiple
video creators.
B)I think the most useful
tool we explored was the screen casting tool. I like to have my students use
many types of websites and tools on the computer but showing them how to do it
beforehand is always challenging. With the use of screen casting, modeling how
to use each tool will be much easier now. I always really enjoyed using
Animoto. It was very user friendly and simple to use and it made great videos
that don’t take a long time to edit
and upload for my students.
C)I definitely plan to use screen
casting in my classroom to assist students when using educational websites, document
tools, and Seesaw. I also plan to use podcasts with my students during free-time
and to help with listening comprehension skills. I also want to continue to use
Twitter to connect with various educators around the world. I’m so thankful to have
learned how to use Tweetdeck and find resources and other educators that I can
share information with and learn things from, as well.
As I was exploring the Free Tech for Teachers blog, I came across a lot of great resources I can use in my classroom and great tutorials on how to use the tool or certain features of it. One idea that I am really excited about was an extension you can add to your google slides presentations called Slides Randomizer. It lets you take a slides presentation and randomly shuffle all of your slides. This is perfect for my sight words and other phonics slides presentations that I use with my students. This way, the words are always in a random order and the students can't say the word from memory.
I also really enjoyed how ever-so-often, he would include a spot that shares the posts that were most popular that week because I know that those posts are most likely going to be beneficial for me to look at. You can tell he spends a lot of time searching technology resources for teachers and I greatly appreciate it because I don't always have the time to search for new online resources. He puts a lot of effort into explaining how to use it in the classroom and the videos are great to show me exactly how to use the tools.
Screencasting is a great way to walk students, parents, and other teachers on how to use various online features. I could see myself using this to show students how to use new websites or online tools, such as ABCya, IXL, Epic, and even Microsoft Word! I could use this to show parents how to sign up for conferences or even how to use Seesaw. I could also use this with other teachers to show them how I use certain assessment documents or powerpoints with my students. I am so grateful to have learned about screencasting and I can't wait to use it to help my students, parents, and colleagues be more successful!
I decided to explore Canva this week. I wanted to explore this sight because I am always trying to find ways to make informational posters in my classroom to help my students remember key details during math and reading and I thought this looked like a great tool to be able to do that. I really enjoyed using Canva. It took me a while to figure out how to use the free parts of it. There are a lot of templates you can use and adjust for free and you can move text and insert your own images very easily. You do need an account to use the site, but you don't have to purchase anything if you don't want to. I could see 3rd graders and higher using this tool to create posters on books they've read, demonstrating how to solve certain math problems, or even a way to show what they learned through research projects on historical figures or animals.
Tips for users: If you don't want to purchase anything on this site, pay attention to things that have a money symbol or a crown next to the image or template. Those are things you have to purchase. Look for the ones that have nothing next to them, and you can use them however you'd like.
I used Animoto to create this short educational video on the planets in our Solar System. Animoto was super easy to use, all of the media and text were easy to modify and edit, and there were a lot of choices available to fit any video need. I could see myself using Animoto to create informational videos to introduce topics to my students. I could use it to teach certain topics, introduce myself, introduce students to routines and expectations, and much more! I could see my students using this to create short videos on research topics, such an animal life cycles in science, but they might need a lot of assistance as a first grader. I could definitely see older students in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade using this to create videos. This is a great tool and I'm so glad I was able to explore it!
The Power of Digital Storytelling to Support Teaching and Learning
by Bernard R. Robin
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1125504.pdf
This article is all about what digital storytelling is, how it is different from other videos, how it supports learning as an instructional tool in early childhood and secondary and post-secondary education. It then goes through 12 steps that educators can use when teaching how to create digital stories.
The author describes digital storytelling as a combination of storytelling with digital media (text, pictures, recorded audio narration, music, and video). He also states that digital storytelling is being used in many locations, such as schools, libraries, community centers, museums, medical and nursing schools, businesses, and more. He states that the difference between digital storytelling and other types of videos is more blurred because of the amount of videos being shared online. He says to look at the details of the video to determine if it's a digital story or not, such as the topic, where it was found, who created it and when, the length of the video, was there narration, a personal point of view, and if it's factual information or not.
He then goes on to describe how digital storytelling supports student learning. In early childhood education, it allows young children to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of educational themes and concepts. The author states that digital storytelling can help make learning more relevant for students, encourage creativity, and gives the students a voice to share ideas and feelings with others. For secondary and post-secondary students, digital storytelling allows them to construct their own meaning through research on a topic, writing a script, taking pictures, narrating, and using computer-based tools to create their stories. It demonstrates what they researched and what they learned from the experience. They also say it allows them to evaluate the reality that surrounds them and produce their own interpretation of it.
Digital storytelling is definitely something that I could use in my classroom. My first graders love to use iPads and computers to create things during their "free time" and if they were allowed to use their skills as an academic tool, I think they could be very successful. I could use this to help them retell elements of a story, create their own stories instead of writing in a journal, create math story problems, and practice using sight or spelling words in their writing. I could incorporate many standards into this fun educational process and encourage my students to be more creative at the same time. I agree with the author that this would make students more engaged because it's engaging them in ways that we haven't done before.
