Technology Proficient Professional

ED-271 Technology Assessment

1. Google Apps
Google Apps generally refers to the suite of Google services such as Gmail, Docs, and Scholar. There are four different versions of Google Apps: Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Google Apps for Government, and Google Apps for Education. I think Google Apps is very helpful when you have a class that has many documents, in Google Apps for educators you are able to share documents online at anytime and form any location. Another benefit is that it is and easy to use. The video provided shows a little about Google Apps. I would give this technology tool a 4 out of 5.

2. Moodle
Moodle is an open source, online, interactive teaching and learning environment enabling educators to use technology in classroom. I would give Moodle a 4 out of 5 because it is a very useful tool if teachers are eager to teach through technology. Your students will be able to log onto the site and use it in many ways, they are able to check their grades, take quizzes, and view files attached by the teacher. Another very interesting component that is useful is the ability to have online chat with students inside the classroom, it helps for those students that are shy by letting express their opinion without verbal use.


3. Firefox
Firefox is a web browser similar to Internet Explorer, Safari, and Google Chrome. It is said to be faster, safer, and has better web experience. I would give Firefox a 2 out of 5, simply because I am not a big fan of Mozilla Firefox. I have not fully seen the capacity that Firefox is able to do but it mentions that as of March 2011, Firefox is the second most widely used browser.




4. Prezi
Prezi is a new and fun way to make present presentations. You apply your thoughts, ideas, videos and pictures on a large canvas and show their relationship with placement and scale. I would give Prezi a 4 out of 5 because it provides a more interesting and active way to present information you need to show to your audience. At first it may be overwhelming due to the huge blank canvas you might be confused where to start, but after watching the video provided as a guide to making your presentation it should make things easier for you. It takes a lot of playing around and use to fully understand how to use. I would say Prezi is a more interactive presenter compared to Microsoft's PowerPoint.




5. PhotoStory3
PhotoStory 3 is program that takes pictures of your choice and easily narrate them by adding titles, background music, and create a movie. This program is somewhat similar to Microsoft's MovieMaker but with the use of pictures only not video. I would give PhotoStory a 3 out of 5 because the ease of access is very easy and displays all the options in viewable places but the quality of the finished product is poor. At times the title you add is very hard to view and the image is sometimes distorted.




6. LiveBinder
Livebinder is a free tool that acts as your 3-ring binder for the web. Teachers can use this to collect research, organize them neatly and easily, and present and share them with ease. I would give Livebinder a 4 out of 5. This tool is very useful for teachers who have many resources and important sites that they want to share with their students. It simply bookmarks websites that you want to keep and save onto your binder. It is very easy and simple to use all is needed is to create tabs and simply insert the address of your desire into the tab and saving the website. Teachers can easily save and share their binders by providing a link for their students to go, to view the work.






7.Wix
Wix is a free website builder and it makes Flash websites with an easy drag and drop online platform. I would give this tool a 3 out of 5 because there are some level of difficulty to understand the usage of Wix. With Wix you given free templates to choose from and you are instructed to make a website of your own using the template. Wix does not allow you to make a website from scratch and design it fully as your own. When using Wix I had a very difficult time using it to it's full potential because there was a lot of icons and options to choose and it was not fully explained how to use some of these icons without having to watch the tutorial. As you use Wix more and more I think it would be a good useful tool for students to use as a way to present ideas through making of a website. Teachers can assign a final project and use Wix as the main way to put their ideas and what they have learned throughout the year.






8. Blogger
Blogger is a free weblog publishing tool from Google for sharing text, photos, and videos. I would give blogger a 5 out of 5 because this technology tool is very useful and efficient. It's free and easy to access all that is needed is a GMail account. Blogger can be used by teachers everywhere by asking students to post homework, presentation, and ideas for the class. You are able to share your blogger with everyone around the world and there are many fun option you can use such as changing your template and color.

Enabling Dreams: The Use of Assistive Technology in the Classroom

Enabling Dreams

            Every student has a right to be included into a classroom, even students with disabilities. Inclusion in the classroom is needed for students with disabilities to have proper interaction with students without disabilities. Including disabled students into a lesson is very important in the part of the teacher and it will require a long planning process and proper thought into what the student needs to do and learn.

            By having a revised lesson plan for disabled students it will give the student an opportunity to be a part of the class and learn at the same pace as the other students. Important parts of a revised lesson plan that give disabled students an opportunity to participate in class are the recent technologies that are available for them, such as a laptop and the devices that help them understand concepts. The revised lesson plan will not only help with the disabled student, it will also help you as the teacher and the other students because it will help with classroom management and make the environment easier for everyone to learn efficiently.

            Activities for inclusion of AAT are a challenge for many teachers if the right technology is not available for the teacher and student. If the right technology is available some activities that should be added into a revised lesson plan are cooperative games that include the disabled student to work with the other students. Teachers can create a cooperative game using a special program on the computer for the disabled student but will still create challenges for the other students is an idea. The cooperative game will be a supplement for the lesson the teacher will teach in the next class. I would go and find special programs on the computer and technologies that would help supplement my disabled students learning. Computers are really important because like in the “Enabling Dreams” video there are special programs out there to help assist disabled students and that are very effective. Looking at the difficulty level of inclusion I would plan and organize my lesson very thoroughly and test its efficiency and improve on it as the school year goes on.

            A revised lesson plan is very important when having a disabled student in your class. This is true because not every disabled student can automatically work inclusively with the other students in class. It will take time and a lot of further planning, organizing, and the right assistive technology to have a concrete revised lesson plan for the disabled student. Just by going into the class with no revised lesson plan for a disabled student may hurt you as a teacher because you won’t really know how to include your disabled student with the other students and teach your lesson effectively.

            For criteria I would use special quizzes and questions that were specific to the disabled students learning. I think by quizzing I’ll be able to test the disabled students effectiveness with learning through the revised activity. Also by talking to the student and getting their reaction to the revised lesson will you really understand the effectiveness of your activity. Assessing the technology that you have selected and determining the effectiveness of that AAT will help to make a more better and efficient revised lesson plan because it will show which technology worked and which did not. The effectiveness of the assistive technology is key for the disabled student to effectively learn the lesson. 

Looking Back: Digital Story Reflection

Looking Back

                Digital Story, what is it? According to the University of Houston (2011) website on “The Educational Uses of Digital Storytellng”, it is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. It mentions using images, text, narration, and music in the video and varies from two to ten minutes. When making a digital story you can tell any story that has a purpose and can be useful for others.

            The process of making a digital story is very difficult, time consuming, and a lot of work when you’re not used to the tools needed to make your story. I came to experience this difficulty because it was my first time making a digital story. Just finding a topic to tell a story about was difficult because health and physical education is very broad and many topics could’ve been made into a story. Planning and organizing is a major key when making a digital story, the storyboard really helped to produce the story and knowing how to use your program ahead of time makes it easier.

            Putting the story together such as deciding on the characters and who will play them, setting of where it is taking place, and sequencing everything to make the story flow was difficult. In my story I only needed one character but I couldn’t find anyone that was fully committed to helping me with my project and deciding where to go to take pictures was difficult too because places like classrooms are hard to get access too. One thing I found very difficult was getting the right picture for the clip because capturing the exact emotion without it looking fake and looking nature was nerve raking. I spent almost 15 minutes on only one picture that I needed because my character could not capture the image that I wanted.

            These difficulties were easy to adjust after a while of working with your character. When it came to editing my story I used PhotoStory 3, which I never used before and had slight trouble using the program. I could figure out some aspects of the program such as adjusting the lighting and fitting it so correctly so that the backdrop of the picture wasn’t black. Adjusting the text to be viewable such as size, color, and length were not that easy because it didn’t give you many options to choose. I think this program was much easier than Prezi, which was the original program I chose to do the project. Prezi’s interface was very confusing and difficult to use because it was one huge canvas and you would have to watch the video to fully understand how to use the site.

            The music to match our video was a challenge to select because we weren’t allowed to use real songs only sound clips from the site Partners in Rhyme. All the free clips that were available did not match my video so I was thankful to discover that Photo Story had a sound clip part in the program.  This lessened the challenge but it was still difficult to pick the right sound to match the video. Such challenges that bothered me was should it be a sad sound, should it be happy, or have a mellow tempo to match the story. Though it was a challenge I found it fun to try and come up with a sound that matched the story exactly.

            I mostly mentioned that this project was very difficult but I think the experience of using this tool for teaching is very interesting. It takes a lot of planning and organization but I think just by making these stories it gets the point across to the viewers more easily than reading a book. For my major, physical education, this type of technological tool will help students learn new skills easier than reading about it. Such things proper ways to bat the ball, shoot a basket, and even kick a soccer ball. Like mentioned in class most stories dealing with sports are success and learning to do something and working at is to be at the top. By making a video giving tips and helping a student improve skills will make them want to work harder in turn making them better and maybe good enough to play with the big boys.

            Digital stories take a lot of getting used to because it’s almost like making a mini movie. I think the number one problem people overlook is the planning and organizing because it happened to me and it became difficult to make my story. Learning to use the program you choose to make your digital story is a must. Once you get the hang of doing everything to make the digital story it’ll be a fast and easy way to show off your skills to viewers.

Reference:

The University of Houston (2011). The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling. Retrieved from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/.

Digital Story ED-271