ECI 546 - New Literacies & Media
"As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of 'do it yourself.'" Marshall McLuhan
If there were to be a course that convinced me I made the right choice entering the NLGL program, it would be New Literacies and Media. Seeing as how I am such a big proponent of using technology in my curriculum, this class really showed me the wealth of “cool tools” that were out there, waiting to be tapped into by us and our students. On top of that, it provided me several opportunities to gain more confidence in using technology and convincing others of its effectiveness in the classroom. Through our study and use of the TPACK model (Technological, Pedagogical Content Knowledge), we were able to gain some insight on how to incorporate technology into our classroom and show our students the value in its use.
Technology is here to stay. As the quote from Marshall McLuhan points out, we as teachers need to teach our students how to be able to "do it yourself". We cannot compete with technology and how quickly it is interacting with education, so we need to teach our students how to use it effectively and successfully. During this course, we were exposed to numerous Web 2.0 tools, (Prezi, VoiceThread, Voki, Xtranormal, ToonDoo, Glogster, Animoto) that we could use in our classrooms that would help illustrate to our students how these technologies are applied in their education. In completing our “Cool Tool Blast”, I discovered how effective ToonDoo can be in having the students create poetry with characters of their choice. I came across how intriguing Prezi can be for students who want something different from the monotony of PowerPoint. Here is an example of a Prezi I had my students complete on the culture of India. http://prezi.com/9galc8lupcuv/india-dancing/ All of these tools and presentations offered creative ways for us to reach our students now, as well as ways to prepare them for the experience they will need to have before entering high school.
Another major component to this class was our ILP (Inquiry Learning Project), where my partner and I, through much difficulty, decided to investigate whether or not using interactive technologies helped students to understand the theme of movement. We first asked our students to read over some background information about what the theme of movement was and what types of push and pull factors caused it to take place. We then presented to the classes how to use Animoto and how they were going to be creating presentations illustrating their knowledge of this topic. The students loved this assignment and the interviews at the end of the unit proved how excited students get over the use of these tools in school. (View the evolution of our project here: http://animoto.com/play/dept9T6euLi0Da60ftE6Rg) We are able to motivate our students so much more when they feel they have a choice in how they learn the material. If we can provide opportunities such as the one these students received through this project in our classes more often, we are preparing our them for success at every stage in their lives.
If there were to be a course that convinced me I made the right choice entering the NLGL program, it would be New Literacies and Media. Seeing as how I am such a big proponent of using technology in my curriculum, this class really showed me the wealth of “cool tools” that were out there, waiting to be tapped into by us and our students. On top of that, it provided me several opportunities to gain more confidence in using technology and convincing others of its effectiveness in the classroom. Through our study and use of the TPACK model (Technological, Pedagogical Content Knowledge), we were able to gain some insight on how to incorporate technology into our classroom and show our students the value in its use.
Technology is here to stay. As the quote from Marshall McLuhan points out, we as teachers need to teach our students how to be able to "do it yourself". We cannot compete with technology and how quickly it is interacting with education, so we need to teach our students how to use it effectively and successfully. During this course, we were exposed to numerous Web 2.0 tools, (Prezi, VoiceThread, Voki, Xtranormal, ToonDoo, Glogster, Animoto) that we could use in our classrooms that would help illustrate to our students how these technologies are applied in their education. In completing our “Cool Tool Blast”, I discovered how effective ToonDoo can be in having the students create poetry with characters of their choice. I came across how intriguing Prezi can be for students who want something different from the monotony of PowerPoint. Here is an example of a Prezi I had my students complete on the culture of India. http://prezi.com/9galc8lupcuv/india-dancing/ All of these tools and presentations offered creative ways for us to reach our students now, as well as ways to prepare them for the experience they will need to have before entering high school.
Another major component to this class was our ILP (Inquiry Learning Project), where my partner and I, through much difficulty, decided to investigate whether or not using interactive technologies helped students to understand the theme of movement. We first asked our students to read over some background information about what the theme of movement was and what types of push and pull factors caused it to take place. We then presented to the classes how to use Animoto and how they were going to be creating presentations illustrating their knowledge of this topic. The students loved this assignment and the interviews at the end of the unit proved how excited students get over the use of these tools in school. (View the evolution of our project here: http://animoto.com/play/dept9T6euLi0Da60ftE6Rg) We are able to motivate our students so much more when they feel they have a choice in how they learn the material. If we can provide opportunities such as the one these students received through this project in our classes more often, we are preparing our them for success at every stage in their lives.
ilp_report_-_jason_bolchalk_and_matt_friedrick1.doc | |
File Size: | 71 kb |
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