Glogster is a great website to use within the classroom. The website offers many opportunities for students to gain a better understanding of a topic through the use of multimedia posters. These multimedia posters can be used for a variety of things such as a presentations, virtual field trips and taking notes.
When using Glogster, users are allowed to create their own multimedia poster on whatever topic. They are able to express their ideas through the ability to add text, video, audio, graphics, images and more. Unlike the traditional powerpoint slide presentation, Glogster allows you to have all of your information on one page. After exploring this website, I fell in love with it so much that I asked my administrator if I could get an account for my STEAM class. This is a great way for the students to gain better understanding in all of the areas of STEAM and in any of their other subjects that I cannot wait to share this with my colleagues. After reading the article, “The Impact of Blogs on College Students,” it was clear that there is a significant positive outcome when using blogging in education. Blogs have become very popular in the educational world. Instructors like to have their students use blogs because of the amazing features it offers to its users. For instance, when a course is over, students cannot access any of the course materials, completed assignments, links, etc. By using a blog, students are able to set their privacy settings to their liking, their entries can be accessed when the course is over, entries are organized by date and can even categorize them. Obviously blogs have more amazing features that students can take advantage of but those are just a few of them.
When blogging in education, it opens up the opportunity for students to become more interactive in their education process by communicating and collaborating with others. By doing so, students are able to build stronger relationships which will allow them to gain deeper meaning of materials and topics as well as become more successful in the future. I had a conversation with the teacher that I have been observing about digital storybooks and their effectiveness in the classroom. Digital storybooks are a great way to get our students more engaged and interested in the topic we are trying to teach. It is also a great tool that allows our students to re-watch parts of the video to gain a better understanding of what they are learning. Below is a digital storybook that I have created for a 1st grade lesson. This lesson is all about pumpkins. Here is screenshot of me exploring Second Life. This website seems very interesting to me. I like how you are able to virtually explore different destinations and can create your own avatar to your liking. This could be a great tool for ELA instruction because of the graphics, 3D images and text that it gives to the learner. It also has features such as voice to voice chat capability and replay video and audio. This is a great way for learners to be able to take control of their learning by allowing them the opportunity to replay and stop when needed.
I will say, I am a little nervous to use this in a school setting because of some of the graphics that I saw. This would be used for adult education.
After reading the articles, Middle School Science Teachers' Confidence and Pedagogical Practice of New Literacies and Using Social Networking Sites to Facilitate Teaching and Learning in the Science Classroom , it is clear that technology has a positive impact on our students education. By using technology in the classroom, we are allowing our students to gain a better and deeper understanding of what the material/topic is about. We are able to allow them to be more responsible, take control and use the proper techniques that help them make an impact on their educational experiences.
It is very important that when using technology in the classroom that the teacher has a solid foundation of the devices as well as the programs so that they are able to better assist the students. When implemented into the classroom and curriculum correctly, technology can be a powerful tool, allowing our students to gain more knowledge as well as see what technology can do for us. |
|