Chapter Nine

Focus Questions

How can teachers create power point presentations for maximum teaching potential and learning impact?

Teachers can use power point to create slideshows of academic material and include text, pictures, charts, graphs, audio, video and animations. It is known that successful teaching involves interactive presentation that engages students. Although power point is one the most popular presentation software programs there others known as Keynote, and Corel presentations. The more time a teacher puts into creating the power point the more opportunity it gives the teacher to make the power point visually engaging and appealing. Just as important as the visual aspect the academic content is just as important. If a teacher is willing to create a successful power point presentation it can only maximize teaching and learning potential.

                                                                                   

Photo credit to: Guides & Tutorials

               

Summary

Chapter nine starts off by focusing on multimedia technologies in classrooms. There are two important techniques in teaching, one being single-mode learning and the other being multimodal learning. Single-mode learning is simply “when a teacher talks”. Multimodal learning is when a teacher combines spoken words  with visuals or written text with audio or utilize simulations models. Multimodal learning through media has found that students who get this method of teaching outperform students who learn using traditional approaches with single modes. Multimedia technologies open a giant door of opportunities for students to succeed. Power point is a great tool to use to engage and inspire students. Power point is a multimedia presentation that is featured on many of today’s computers. Power point is a way for teachers to create a lesson using technology.  When power point is used well, it communicates information memorably to students. It’s important as an educator to keep two key questions in mind when creating a power point. “Who is my audience?” “What do I want my audience to leave knowing or remembering?” There are many ways to enhance a power point presentation but the key to success is by incorporating these attributes: visual text, visual analysis, create questions, use attention getters, and develop your own learning games. As well as incorporating power point, including videos are just as important. Incorporating video into the classroom can be done in any grade level. There are an abundance number of educational videos that can be found just within the school itself. Videos are easy to get ahold of and students become interested in these. Student’s response to video images is different from their response to printed text or teacher talk. Some teachers simply just turn the TV on and have their students watch whatever has been assigned, but there is a way for the teacher to become active and engaged in the student learning. While showing a movie a teacher can be active with the students by: using the pause and rewind buttons often, asking students to write responses, minimizing the time video is shown in the classroom, and turning off the sound or the picture. Another powerful multimedia technology that be incorporated into the classroom is digital cameras. Digital cameras are small but powerful tools capable of taking still photographs and video images that can be downloaded to a computer for printing, editing, and viewing. There are four important reasons for a teacher photographer: enhances student’s experiences, document learning, become active with learning and students become creative. Teachers and students can inexpensively photograph virtually any instructional activity from every subject area. In today’s generation there are so many ways to effectively incorporate technology. Chapter 9 finishes off by talking about podcasts and vodcasts. Podcast is an audio recording distributed online and accessed on computers or portable media plays. Educational podcasts are everywhere in the web. Major news organizations including PBS and the New York Times provide podcasts of key stories and current events. Vodcast on the other hand is a just an extension of podcasting. Teachers in the school setting can incorporate podcasts/vodcasts for creative experimentation and innovation.

In todays generation we are known as "Digital Natives". This is a great video that shows how educators can incorporate podcasts into the classroom.

 

Tech Tool Link

The tech tool link I checked out was Digital Story Telling. The website is very well organized with different featured tabs making the navigation process easy. As you scroll toward the bottom of the page the site highlights on different digital stories that people have created. The goal of this site is to serve as a useful resource for educators and students who are interested in how digital storytelling works. I would rate this webpage an overall 10. The site is very detailed when describing how to create your own storyboard.

APA

Maloy,R. (2011).Tranforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson.

Chapter 8

 

Focus Question

How can teachers use a website or blog to improve teaching and learning?

Teachers can create a blog account that would allow students to become actively engaged online. Teachers can pose questions and ask students to respond. This allows for online discussions to take place. Blogs are a great way for English teachers to promote literacy learning through writing and the analysis of language. Blogs are also a great way to make parents feel involved and connected. These blogs are able to update parents and share what is going on in the classroom. As well as staying connected with the parents it also allows teachers to communicate with other teachers. This way teachers are able to support one another and ask question. Blogs are great and should be incorporated into the classrooms to improve teaching/ learning!

Photo Credit: Paul T. McCain

 

Summary

Chapter eight starts off by focusing on how teachers can communicate electronically. As a teacher the major components of communication that are used are: classroom websites, email, instant messaging, discussion boards, blogs, and wikis. They each have their own purpose, but are all as equally important. There are two different types of communications, Synchronous and Asynchronous. Synchronous communications occur in real times, as with cell phone conversations or instant message exchanges. Asynchronous communications involve a time delay, i.e. email messages, threaded discussions, or blogs. Incorporating electronic communications in the classroom is very important for success. This allows for teaching interactively, sharing info, building learning communities, publishing student work, and energizing student writing. Email may be the most useful communication tool for teachers, because it has its own built-in recordkeeping system. Everyone involved in the emailing is accountable for anything he/she says. Email is consider to be more proper in the school setting compared to instant messaging which provides immediate feedback. With Email you are able to spell check and create a thoughtful reply as instant messaging most people tend to use “textspeak”. Textspeak is abbreviated collection of symbols and letters that are used for quick communication. Blogging is an immensely popular online activity. Reading a blog can be best described as reading someone’s journal/ diary. Blogs are great to incorporate into the classroom because, it enhances student learning, promotes student/family communications and professional networking. It is important to keep in mind the four key designs when creating a teacher blog. The key designs are: content posting, reader response, audience, and authorship. Wikis have also become a popular online learning tool. In schools, wikis allow students to use technology in meaningful ways, collaborate with peers, synthesis and explain content, publish their writing, and receive feedback about their learning both inside and outside the classroom. Wikis are great because they allow users to edit the same webpage. This method of blogging has greatly grown over the years.

The video below shares 10 reasons why students enjoy using blogs. Some of the examples they use are ones the book uses as well! In the video each student states why the Blog is benefitical to them.

 

Tech tool question

The tech tool link I checked out was "Go Daddy". Go daddy is an online site that allows users to create their own websites and host their own accounts. This site is used mainly for business purposes and costs money depending on the package that’s purchased. There are positive feedback comments on the home page from active users of the site. The site seems very user friendly and is very  bright and colorful which is engaging for any user online.

 

APA:

Maloy, R. (2011). Transforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson