It was intriguing to me to see the student video on today's learners. Technology is growing at such a fast pace that it's hard to have enough hours in the day to keep up with life! Although that wasn't an educational tool I implemented, I did share that video with students just to guage their reaction to it. I also used it as an end of the year wrap up discussion about the types of technology they might be seeing next school year used in my classroom. I wanted to prepare them ahead of time of a shift in my teaching that would be using more blogging, discussions, research and podcasting technology.
The tech explorations were useful to me this week, in particular the PBWorks website. I already use Edmodo with my students. The last trimester of the school year, I made it mandatory for every student in every grade to sign up for it. I liked Edmodo because it was free, but it looks a bit outdated, and not as streamlined as PBWorks. However, it is free, and looks like a social networking site, which is appealing to my students.
One of the challenges I will face trying to use any product similar to PBWorks is just teaching students how to navigate it and use it regularly. Because I teach art, students don't want to use technology in class time when they think they should be in the studio space working hands on. I have also noticed that they rarely will complete work if it is posted on a site like this, EVEN though they can sign up to receive text alerts to remind them to log on and check the announcements.
More time needs to be spent experimenting this summer to prepare me for how and what items I might implement in my classroom at the beginning of next school year.
I will likely spend this summer trying out different resources and trying to find one that works for me and is easy enough to use with students.
- What steps will you take to implement this in your classroom?
- What challenge(s) will you face when using this in your classroom?
- What will you do to overcome the challenge(s)?
No comments:
Post a Comment