This week for class, I watched a video from the K12 Online Conference, called The Wizard of Apps. This video was very confusing at first, with the random break outs into Wizard of Oz song remixes. It was a long video and hard to follow. However, Joyce Valenza presented the video and gave many helpful websites throughout.
The Wizard of Oz Remix songs talked a lot about different internet lingo, mentioning many that I have become familiar with-such as diigo, skype, and flickr. One song went, "twitter and wikis and blogs, oh my!" I can totally relate to this song and being overwhelmed with so many different websites and online options. From this video, I gained useful websites to use in the classroom. It was hard to follow and very long, so it was hard to stay interested. However, I do think the different websites Joyce mentioned would be helpful in the future as a teacher. I visited the Wordle website that Joyce mentioned in her presentation. I had seen many of these images on student blogs that I have commented on, so it was interesting to see how these work! Now I can use them in my own blogs!
Last summer, I went to a discipleship training program called Kaleo through a campus organization called Student Mobilization. Through this program, I was trained in how to effectively share my faith with others and how to apply Biblical truths to my life. It was truly the summer of my life! I created a video on VoiceThread about my summer 2009, called The Summer of My Life: Kaleo 2009. I hope this short video can help you catch a glimpse of how amazing my summer was. This next summer, I will return to Kaleo as a student leader, and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store!
Digiteens are a group of teenagers who promote online awareness through various digital approaches. The Digital Citizenship video shows different examples of students who are informing others about "digital dangers"
I learned a lot about the power of informing people through digital media with this video. Images, voices, and music can all combine to make a very persuasive video like most of these students created. Informative videos can be very beneficial in helping others understand concepts of an issue. I found this video to be very interesting regarding the information I learned about digital dangers. To be quite honest, I felt convicted about some of my digital habits-most in particular about texting while driving. It also made me think more about my online safety. I am very familiar with Facebook and other social websites, but often don't think about my safety while on there. As a future teacher, I would love to incorporate a video project in my teaching curriculum. This type of project proves to be beneficial not only for the students, but others who are listening to it as well. The main problem I see with this idea is the fact that resources may not be available to the school where I may be teaching. Digital equipment can be very expensive. Hopefully schools will continue to encourage technology within their schools and provide the resources needed for these types of projects.
Building racecars. Studying worms. Designing high school buildings. Examining oral reef ecosystems. Investigating cystic fibrosis. Field trips. Each of these items are an example of techniques used by teachers who believe in project based learning. The purpose of this style is to put students at the center of the learning process. The video, Project Learning: An Overview gives additional information on this increasingly popular teaching style.
My most significant thought after watching this video was how the idea of incorporating projects into teaching is so broad. Teachers have countless options on how to present a certain concept to their students. There are so many opportunities to present these concepts in the form of projects and hands-on learning activities. It may take a little extra effort and creativity, but this teaching style can certainly be integrated. When I think back on different concepts taught to me, I remember things I was actively involved in much more vividly. From a class several semesters ago, I can remember the different "theories of leadership." I attribute this recollection to the fact that we learned this information by presenting it to the class through skits, activities, and games that helped us teach each theory. Even in high school, I significantly remember concepts taught through projects more rather than traditional lecture presentation-for example physics experiments on light, speed, and air; presenting english literature in the form of plays; and making miniature quilts in geometry class. As a future Family and Consumer Sciences teacher, most of my assignments will indeed be more project based. I will be able to teach my students through food experiments, sewing projects, and many more hands-on activities. It may be more of a challenge for me to incorporate lecture and other traditional forms of teaching to keep things balanced within the classroom. I also may need to think about forming one larger project instead of having multiple small projects. I love that I have the opportunity to teach students through active learning!
How do you think our incredible world was created? People around the world hold countless beliefs, ideas, theories, and views on this issue. This week, I had the opportunity to view an informational slideshow by a student in the 21st Century Global Leadership class. Cynthia created a powerpoint, How the World Was Created, that showed many different cultures' belief about this topic.
So what's your view? Personally, my beliefs are based purely off what the Bible has to say. I believe in the Bible as truth, so I believe that God is the Creator of all things. You can read the creation story, found in Genesis 1-2 of the Bible.
