Wrapping up the Course

I think that the TPTE 486 course is necessary for all future educators. We live in a society where technology is everywhere, especially in the classroom. Students are learning how to use computers in elementary school and are introduced to new technologies all the time. Teachers should know how to implement technology in the classroom in a way that promotes students learning and that is up to date. Students need technology skills in order to be successful in our world today so it is important that teachers have technology skills as well.
I was introduced to several technology tools and resources that I had never heard of this semester. Although I am not an expert on all of them, I feel that I have enough knowledge to be able to use the different technologies that we learned about effectively in the classroom. I plan to incorporate wikis, inquiry based activities, Google presentations, flip charts, blogs, digital diagrams, digital stories, and websites into instruction whenever possible.
Overall, this course was a great experience and I learned a great deal of valuable information.

Website

I really enjoyed working on my classroom website over the course of the semester. Google Sites made creating the website pretty easy and I discovered a lot about what I could do with this tool. Although we had a lot of structure and guidance on what to include on the site, we also had the opportunity to add our own creativity. Additionally, I really enjoyed looking at some of my peers' websites for inspiration and ideas.
I believe that a website will be extremely useful in my future classroom. It is something that parents and students can easily access for information regarding many different aspects of the classroom. The website is a good resource for parents that can help keep them involved in their child's education. The interactive activities and games on the site are good for students to use as extra practice. Lastly, the website is great for teachers to stay organized and build a collection of resources that other teachers can use.
When we first began to work on our websites, I had no clue where to start. Luckily, we were equipped with the knowledge needed during our class to create a great website that can be used in the classroom.

Digital Story

Prior to this assignment, I have had minimal experience working with iMovie. However, I found the program pretty straightforward and easy enough to use. The most difficult part of this assignment was locating the images for the video. Eventually, I figured out how to save the pictures I found from Flickr to the desktop but it did take a significant amount of time. I also had trouble deciding how much information to include in the captions of every image. I wrote a lot more on my storyboard for this project than I actually included in the digital story because I realized that the captions would be too long. I found the music for my digital story on Incompetech.com. I felt that the jazz music fit well with the theme of the Harlem Renaissance. Trimming the music to fit the video was also a challenge but I was able to overcome that as well.
Overall, I think that iMovie is a great tool for use inside and outside of the classroom. With more practice, I hope to learn more about what I can do with iMovie in order to create more complex videos for my future classroom.

Digital Diagrams

This past week, I was introduced to the Inspiration 9 software and how it can be used to create a digital diagram. I think that this is a great resources for teachers and the program allows for a lot of creativity. The program is easy to use and very versatile. However, there is one thing I did not like about creating the digital diagram: the page set up. It is difficult to tell if your diagram is within the page lines that fit the print screen. Also, the program seems to scroll automatically when adding symbols and other things to a diagram. I found myself checking frequently during the process of creating my diagram to make sure that everything fit onto one page. Other than this issue, I really enjoyed learning about and using Inspiration 9 and will probably use it again in the future.

Interactive White Board

I believe that I learned a lot while working on my flipchart project for the Interactive White Board (IWB). There is a lot that teachers can do with the ActivInspire software and it was fun to experiment with it and learn more about the different methods of interactivity. Something that went well during this project was my understanding of how to use the tools and resource packs available to the class for the assignment. I think that I picked up how to use them fairly quickly and I'm confident in my ability to use ActivInspire in the future. Something that could be improved for me would be the selection of content for the flipchart. I chose reading because I really enjoy the subject, however it does not lend itself easily to this type of tool in the classroom. I believe that I would have been able to do more with this assignment if I had chosen math or science content for my flipchart. Overall, it was a great experience and I'm glad that we had the opportunity to learn about the IWB in TPTE486!

Activ Inspire

This week in TPTE 486, we were introduced to the Promethean Interactive White Board (IWB) and ActivInspire. I think that this technology is great for the classroom. There are so many things that you can do with an IWB to teach lessons and for activities. I think that using this technology in the classroom will help get students involved and keep them engaged. As a future teacher, I am glad that we are going over some uses for the IWB because I had no clue how to use one prior to this class. I know that many schools have them in their classrooms so it is imperative that I am familiar with the technology and software. I look forward to working on my first flipchart for this class using ActivInspire and learning more about the Promethean Board.

Digital Images

I really learned a lot while working on digital images for the last few class sessions in TPTE 486. I had never used Picasa or Goggle presentation so it was nice to get some experience working with these applications. Teachers can use both of these applications for a number of activities across different content areas. I think that these web tools are great for integrating technology into the classroom.
I also did not have much knowledge about the copyright regulations for the web and the fair use policy. I think that this information is especially important for teachers because there is so much information out there that we could pull into our classrooms, but we still have to make sure that we are not violating copyright laws or committing copyright infringement. In addition, the web collections that we viewed in class are great resources that I can refer to to obtain digital images and a better alternative to just simply searching for images on Google.
Overall, I think that this section of the course is very relevant to my future teaching career. I definitely plan on using digital images to teach my students and now I know some different ways to incorporate them into my everyday lessons.

Here is the link to my classroom website where you can find the Picasa slideshow and Google presentation that I created: Ms. Ige's Tech Projects.