Thursday, October 13, 2011

Technology Reflection: Instructional Use of Edmoto and Prezi

Technology Reflection Assignment

Description/Experience

In our last seminar, the presenter was from Clay-Batelle High School in West Virginia. She presented to us a social network called Edmoto, which is similar to facebook. She showed us that we could post assignment and anything school related on this site. We could also manage what the students are doing/saying and even give them automatic feedback on assignments that they can also turn in on this site. Edmoto is a great tool to get other resources from other teachers. The website is also a great tool for the students to work together online and ask questions when they are at home. We also learned and used Prezi. Prezi is just like powerpoint. This is a great tool for teachers to use because it is all-online and no hard drive is needed to transport the information. It is also a fun tool to use because of the effects that come with the program including different templates, zooming presentation editor, and more. The peers around me all thought these tools were awesome and that would be very useful once we begin teaching. Edmoto and Prezi will definitely be useful for me as a future teacher to incorporate into the classroom especially Prezi as it will be a different way and interesting way to present information.

Application

An instructional activity that could be used in the classroom using Edmoto would be for posting notes with the assignment. The learning outcome would be the students could look back and see what the days main points during the lecture were and also have help while doing their homework through the Internet. The age group this is directed to would be any age level from grade two to twelve. I would assess the students by having an unannounced quiz in class following submitting the assignment the night before to ensure that the activity was effective. This will show if the students actually learned from doing this assignment online, or just wrote down answers and moved on.

In the third grade class, I would first present the notes about the different types of nouns (common nouns and proper nouns). Then I would post those exact notes online to the Edmoto class page. I would then post their assignment full of questions and sentences that would enhance their understanding and have them answer the questions and submit them that night. I would also post a website that could help answer any final questions. Once the class submitted their assignment, the following day I would create a short unannounced pop quiz and assess their knowledge on common nouns and proper nouns.

Reflection

Pedagogy-Content:

I would present the information through power point or prezi, and then include demonstrations on how to figure out which noun is common and proper. I would include many examples and have the students do examples with me. I would also ask questions to make sure the students comprehended the information. The students will be excited and motivated to learn because Edmoto is similar to facebook, which is a very common social networking site in today’s day in age. The students will want to participate and be ready to learn.

Technology:

The students can be put into a class by making an account and receiving a classroom code. There will be small activities for the students to do so they can get accustomed to the program. The accessibility would be easy because the teacher can email the link out or the students can google the website.

Technology-Pedagogy:

The technology will be used the entire time because the students will be turning in their assignments through Edmoto and also receiving their assignments through the class page on Edmoto. The technology could change the way I teach because I won’t have to spend time handing out the assignment, which can sometimes take a long time. I will also be saving paper and will have the lecture notes online ready for the studnets’ use in event they missed something during class. The students may feel it is not necessary to pay attention in class if everything is online that night. I would have to make sure that I only post the main points and not every detail online so the students still pay attention during the lesson. The students will also have a pop quiz the next day so that they pay attention during the online lecture too.

Technology-Content:

This technology changes the way the content is represented because it is not a demonstration, or an explanation. Instead the information is only examples. The technology would be an additional practice outside of class and will also have extra resources to help enhance the comprehension of the content.

Technology-Pedagogy-Content:

The content would be effectively taught because the technology would be an additional site for comprehension and example practice for proper nouns and common nouns. It will also give the students interaction with other students to enhance their understanding. The technology would enhance what to teach by teaching main points in a more interesting way and how to teach by teaching in a variety of ways. I would chose my teaching strategy by picking multiple types of technology that would all relate to one another and to reach out to different types of learners.

3 comments:

  1. I agree that students would be excited to learn through Edmodo because it is so similar to Facebook. I believe using Edmodo will also increase participation in class, just as Abbey stated. I agree that if students are younger in age, that maybe a handout or at least some in-class instructional time must be implemented in order to have the students understand how to operate the site. This would increase the accessibility of the site as well clear up some misconceptions that students may have. Although I do agree that Edmodo gives lots of examples, I also believe that content is represented through demonstration as well because an example is a form of a demonstration that someone else did, which is what makes it so effective. I agree that Edmodo serves as a great place to test comprehension, serve as a place for group discussion, and to encourage students by keeping things interactive. I love the idea of having students practice simple things such as nouns, something typically boring to most students, in a fun and interesting way!

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  3. This is a great way to include the use of edmodo into the lesson on nouns. I like how you recognized that posting the assignment and notes may cause some students to slack off in class because they know it will be posted later. By implementing a quiz and in depth discussion questions, this will hopefully eliminate the problem and help the students learn what they need to. Using Prezi as another technology tool for presenting the in class discussion was also a good idea, that will engage their interest during class. Nice ideas!

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