1) Has your perspective and/or feelings changed about technology in instruction as a result of being in this course? How?
The first two weeks of this class were very difficult. I am not technology-literate and am not familiar with Google Classroom, and this made working on projects and staying up to date on class material hard to do. Throughout the class, the frustration did not ease up much. I became more prepared for the assignments, but each one was quite frustrating. Using new platforms to create and do new things with no instruction makes the projects take significantly longer. Many of the websites we used I will most likely not use in my classroom because of the time it takes to use them and how difficult they were to figure out.
I do believe that technology is growing in education and it is important for us to become familiar with it. Though it can also be used negatively and can create issues with classroom management and time management.
2) Which technologies or tools used in this course stand out to you? Why? AND 3) Which technology(-ies) are you most eager to use in the classroom? How will you use it? (This may or may not be the one(s) chosen for your final project.)
Webquest: In science, this can be used for various contents/classes. It is a great way to get students to do simple research and visit many sources of information. They are also good at surfing the internet, so they should enjoy this more than a traditional worksheet/powerpoint.
Paper slides: I think this could be used by students to show their understanding of content standards. They can create videos and share with the teacher and/or classmates. This could also be done as a gallery walk, where student groups each create videos of different content/standards. Then all students go through and view each video to learn about each video's content. This is a simple way to let students be creative and have some freedom, as well as collaborate and work together.
Blogging: This is a way for students to connect and/or journal about their experiences. Instead of having students write a journal, they can write a blog post. They could be used for answering questions, answering a prompt, commenting on others' posts, and self-tracking. Teachers could also use a blog for class updates, reminders, and assignments. It is also an easy way for parents to stay informed and up to date on what is going on in their students' classroom.
Interactive Powerpoints: I like being able to create this for students to use at their own pace. This replaces the traditional Powerpoint style of presenting to the entire class at a time, but allows students to work a their own pace. They can also be great for a flipped classroom where students review notes at home and do assignments in the classroom.
4) Based on your answer to number 3, do you think you can implement the tech. tool in a planned upcoming lesson that you will be teaching? Or, suggest it to your CT to use in an upcoming lesson? Explain.
The lack of technology resources is the biggest challenge at my current placement. We have a class set of laptops that is not even enough for everyone, and they are so slow they are difficult to use. I have introduced other types of technology for formative assessments into the class such as Kahoot, and my CT really enjoyed it. We use goformative.com frequently also for assessments. I mentioned them using more technology, though my CT thinks the availability of technology for the students is too low, and doing it in class takes too much time.
Next semester my students have one-to-one technology and use chromebooks in every class they take. This is going to be a huge adjustment for me. I would lke to find more websites/simulations/activities for them to do using their chromebooks that they have never used before.
