When I look back at the last four weeks of class, I know I have learned a lot. This has been one of my favorite courses at Iowa State. Although it was tough to balance three classes, planning a wedding, and everything else that has been going on in my life for the last month, I am extremely grateful to learn all that I did. I enjoyed all that we have done, but these three are my favorite activities:
1. Blogging.
Blogging in the classroom is a great activity I had never thought of before. Making the blogs personal and confidential to be used as journals is such an interesting idea. It is more pleasing to me than traditional journals because it cuts down on paper, eliminates having to move notebooks back and forth between people, and is easier for the students to do as long as they have access to a computer. As we talked about, people type faster than they write, so students tend to put more thoughts down when they have the opportunity to write on the computer. Using technology also makes journaling more interesting. Blogging is also good to be used for communication, such as from one classroom to another.
2. Book making programs.
In particular, I am talking about Kid Pix, Comic Life, and iPhoto. All of these can be used to make books or publish children's stories in a professional way with their pictures. I loved making books when I was young, and I know a lot of other children do, too. I also realize that many struggling readers do not seem very interested in creative writing. Being able to make books that look nice and use technology can be more appealing than just writing down sentences on little paper books.
3. Digital Storytelling
Yes this activity was time and labor intensive, but it was so interesting. I had such a good time seeing what everyone else made their movies about. Watching other people's digital stories really taught me a lot about them and how to use digital storytelling in the classroom in ways I had not thought of before. I liked that this project requires such planning and organizing because these skills are vital for children to learn. It can also be easily scaffolded and done as a whole-class presentation.
Although we are already pretty loaded up on undergrad classes, I think everyone should be required to take CI 556. New teachers need to know this type of technology better, and offering this class to seniors is a great way to introduce it.
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3 comments:
I agree this class was extremely helpful and should be required for undergrads. I think it would be an excellent follow-up to C I 201. In 201 we learned how to use all of the programs but this course offered us practical ideas for how to use technology in the classroom. I'm happy I didn't miss out on this course.
Thanks for sharing your favorites - that is helpful to me in future planning!
I have to say that your favorites are probably also mine! I also liked the Flip video demo, Promethean board demo, and the other demos of programs and technology that I was previously unaware of. In fact, I plan to teach grammar using Grammar Girl next year! Time seems to have flown by-- this has definitely been one of the most enjoyable classes that I have been a part of!
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