What?
This week in class we finished creating our Digital Story and worked on final touches. This class was probably my favorite class all semester because it was relaxed, but still productive. Next week, we have the presentation of our Digital Stories as our final for instructional media.
So What?
I am nearing the end of my degree and will be student teaching at Jordan High School this Fall. As I look back to my experience in the Education Program, I wish I would have taken this instructional media class earlier. I learned so much great information in this class that would have been beneficial as a student. For example, if I would have known about and how to use Google Documents last semester, I would have had a better experience completing group projects. It was convenient being able to use these tools in my classes this semester.
The reason this class is required for future educators is because technology is becoming extremely prevalent in our world. We need to know how to use basic applications on the computer and be aware of the Internet's benefits and dangers. As a health educator, it is important for me to teach my students about the dangers of technology such as internet predators, sexting, and pornography. But, it is also important to teach them how to find reliable sources of research and let them discover helpful websites, like the Utah Education Network. I know what we learned this semester is important and I plan to build on and educate students throughout my teaching career.
Now What?
This class was definitely challenging and frustrating at times, but I learned so much and feel better prepared to be a teacher now. One unique attribute of this class is that I will continue to use and build on the technological skills I have acquired this semester. Many of the resources we found and tools we used in this class are ones that I will continue learning about. For example, I am confident that I will be using my Google Classroom Website in my teaching career. This website is extremely helpful to me and will be to the students in my classes. I am also excited to present my Digital Story, let my students learn and experiment with technology during my PowerPoint activity, and teach my students how to be safe using the internet.
I cannot express how glad I am that I was exposed to this information this semester. Not only have I learned how to use many specific computer applications, but I also feel confident that I have the skills and experience to "figure out" how to use applications that I may not be familiar with. I am excited to begin my student teaching experience at Jordan High School this Fall and hope I can be an asset to my cooperating teacher. My technological skills will give me a great benefit in the schools I may be a part of someday.
Video Reflection:
I believe students today are more in-tune with technology than most adults can comprehend. The video we viewed this week was called "Millenial Generation." I am not old, I only graduated High School four years ago, but this video surprised me. I was astounded by how much kids expect from technology. Most of them probably cannot imagine living without their cell phone, iPod, or the Internet.
More than anything, this video reassured my belief that as a teacher, it is imperative that I incorporate technology into my lesson plans. Most students will love it if I give them the opportunity to take out their cell phones in class for an educational purpose or if I allow their creativity to blossom as I instruct them to create a fun PowerPoint. I feel so blessed and grateful that I have been able to gain technology knowledge this semester because I now feel empowered to be a better educator in the classroom. I hope I will be able to teach my students about technology and how beneficial it can be to student success.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Reflection: Week 15
What?
This is the second week we have been working on our Digital Stories. This week in class, we were taught how to use “PhotoStory” on the school computers. Because I have a Macintosh laptop that I enjoy working with, my group is going to use the program iMovie instead of Photostory to create our Digital Story. Nothing is due next week, but Doc. Waters recommends having our Digital Stories complete so she can preview them. Our group can then make any corrections needed to perfect our final project.
So What?
The most valuable skill we acquired this week was learning how to use the application Photostory on the school computers. This application allows us to create a slideshow using music, pictures, voice recordings, and even video clips. Learning how to use this tool was much easier than I had anticipated. Because I enjoy using my Macintosh computer over a PC, I have been discovering how to use iMovie this week. iMovie is an amazing tool that I am excited to learn more about. Luckily, my husband knows how to use iMovie well and is teaching me how to become an expert at creating digital projects.
In my multicultural class this week, one of my peers created and presented a Digital Story to aid her in her book report presentation. The video she created made an impact on my learning experience. I became slightly emotional in class and could better relate to the subject she was teaching. After I saw this digital story, it motivated me even more to use technology to enhance my teaching.
Learning how to use these “movie making” applications has been enjoyable because not only is this something I can use for educational purposes throughout my teaching, it is also something I can use for recreational purposes. For example, my husband was able to create our entire wedding video using iMovie. Hopefully I will soon be able to create digital stories easily. I love learning about technology and plan to incorporate much of it during my teaching experience.
Now What?
Learning about digital stories will be valuable and meaningful in my future classroom. Digital stories can be created to address almost any health topic. This semester, my group chose to create our digital story on domestic abuse. Our story is turning out to be emotional and influential. Most likely, I will use this digital story to introduce domestic violence in my own class someday. By doing this, my student’s emotions will be surfaced and they will get to reflect on their own relationships and evaluate whether they are healthy or not.
Another benefit of creating digital stories is learning more about my content area. By simply creating this digital story, I have learned a great deal about the reality and dangers of domestic abuse. Creating digital stories and performing research not only benefits me, but it also benefits my future classroom. Through doing these activities in my class, my students will feel engaged, enjoy class more, and have the opportunity to reflect on themselves. Being exposed to this information about technology will make me a better teacher in the future.
Video Reflection:
After watching the video "Did you Know? 3.0," I started to think about the reality of technology expansion. Even in the past ten years, computers and the internet have become widely available for any use imaginable. Today, children are growing up knowing how to use technology as a means for entertainment and education and we (as teachers and parents) need to be aware of its advantages and dangers to protect and influence the future generation. As teachers, it is crucial that we know how to properly use technology in order to help our students utilize available resources used for education and also to help them know how different websites work in order to further their knowledge in this ever expanding, technological world.
I value what I have learned in this instructional media class. I feel that I am now more prepared to teach students and be current with the technology they are using. I feel this class has greatly benefited me and know that I could now figure out how to use almost any application on the computer because I have become familiar with many of them in this class. I have become a knowledgeable and reliable source for my future students to count on.
This is the second week we have been working on our Digital Stories. This week in class, we were taught how to use “PhotoStory” on the school computers. Because I have a Macintosh laptop that I enjoy working with, my group is going to use the program iMovie instead of Photostory to create our Digital Story. Nothing is due next week, but Doc. Waters recommends having our Digital Stories complete so she can preview them. Our group can then make any corrections needed to perfect our final project.
So What?
The most valuable skill we acquired this week was learning how to use the application Photostory on the school computers. This application allows us to create a slideshow using music, pictures, voice recordings, and even video clips. Learning how to use this tool was much easier than I had anticipated. Because I enjoy using my Macintosh computer over a PC, I have been discovering how to use iMovie this week. iMovie is an amazing tool that I am excited to learn more about. Luckily, my husband knows how to use iMovie well and is teaching me how to become an expert at creating digital projects.
In my multicultural class this week, one of my peers created and presented a Digital Story to aid her in her book report presentation. The video she created made an impact on my learning experience. I became slightly emotional in class and could better relate to the subject she was teaching. After I saw this digital story, it motivated me even more to use technology to enhance my teaching.
Learning how to use these “movie making” applications has been enjoyable because not only is this something I can use for educational purposes throughout my teaching, it is also something I can use for recreational purposes. For example, my husband was able to create our entire wedding video using iMovie. Hopefully I will soon be able to create digital stories easily. I love learning about technology and plan to incorporate much of it during my teaching experience.
Now What?
Learning about digital stories will be valuable and meaningful in my future classroom. Digital stories can be created to address almost any health topic. This semester, my group chose to create our digital story on domestic abuse. Our story is turning out to be emotional and influential. Most likely, I will use this digital story to introduce domestic violence in my own class someday. By doing this, my student’s emotions will be surfaced and they will get to reflect on their own relationships and evaluate whether they are healthy or not.
Another benefit of creating digital stories is learning more about my content area. By simply creating this digital story, I have learned a great deal about the reality and dangers of domestic abuse. Creating digital stories and performing research not only benefits me, but it also benefits my future classroom. Through doing these activities in my class, my students will feel engaged, enjoy class more, and have the opportunity to reflect on themselves. Being exposed to this information about technology will make me a better teacher in the future.
Video Reflection:
After watching the video "Did you Know? 3.0," I started to think about the reality of technology expansion. Even in the past ten years, computers and the internet have become widely available for any use imaginable. Today, children are growing up knowing how to use technology as a means for entertainment and education and we (as teachers and parents) need to be aware of its advantages and dangers to protect and influence the future generation. As teachers, it is crucial that we know how to properly use technology in order to help our students utilize available resources used for education and also to help them know how different websites work in order to further their knowledge in this ever expanding, technological world.
I value what I have learned in this instructional media class. I feel that I am now more prepared to teach students and be current with the technology they are using. I feel this class has greatly benefited me and know that I could now figure out how to use almost any application on the computer because I have become familiar with many of them in this class. I have become a knowledgeable and reliable source for my future students to count on.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Reflection: Week 13
What?
This week we started our project on Digital Stories. In class, we viewed examples of various types of digital stories and brainstormed ways to use them in our content areas. Next week, we are to have our script written and our storyboards completed.
So What?
Because this is the "big" assignment of the semester, I have been slightly nervous to take on the challenge all semester. But now that we have started the project I realize that, like most other activities we have completed in this class, creating a digital story is not too difficult. It simply takes a lot of hard work and creativity. It is beneficial to be completing this assignment right now as a student because it will help me get familiar with certain applications on my computer, such as iMovie. Hopefully, through creating this digital story, I will learn how to better use iMovie and use it in future school projects. As a future teacher, it is imperative to learn how to create a digital story because this is an enjoyable, intriguing way to introduce or discuss important class topics.
Another important reason why we are completing this assignment is to help and encourage us as future teachers to research and learn interesting facts about our content area. As me and my group have started to create our own digital story on domestic violence, I have been able to learn some interesting statistics and discover some shocking stories about celebrities who have experienced this type of violence by their intimate partner or another loved one. Doing this digital story has helped me become more passionate about my content area and I hope to create more digital stories in the future so I become excited and motivated to teach those topics through technology.
Now What?
I honestly believe everything we have done in this instructional media class will help me become a better teacher. I have learned a ton about technology throughout the semester and this last project of creating a Digital Story is the icing on the cake. Although my group has not come far in the actual creation of our own digital story, I am excited about our idea to make it a moving and interesting video to introduce the topic of domestic violence. I hope to think of more ideas and ways to create other digital stories so I can share those with my future classes as well.
In my future classes, I do not anticipate giving much homework to my students unless the homework is applicable to their life or a good, worthwhile project. The creation of a digital story may be advanced for High School students, but creating a similar and simpler project would be meaningful. As I mentioned before, this project has helped me, as a health education major, learn a great deal about domestic violence and I think students would enjoy picking an interesting health topic to learn about and creating a simple digital story. Their digital story would contain similar components to the one we are creating now. I believe this would be an enjoyable, challenging final and performance assessment.
Video Reflection:
The video this week was titled "NASA Digital Story." Space, astronauts, and the moon have always been topics of interest for me, so I really enjoyed this video clip. I liked how this video caught my attention with interesting visuals and facts at the beginning and then talked about various astronauts. The video did a compelling job at displaying love and compassion for those astronauts who have sacrificed their lives to helping mankind learn more about space travel. I found myself captivated by the music and explanation of some life stories in the video. In my opinion, the video ended too soon. I feel this video was beneficial to watch this week because not only was this video enjoyable, but it also helped me understand which components make up a professional, entertaining, and informational digital story.
This week we started our project on Digital Stories. In class, we viewed examples of various types of digital stories and brainstormed ways to use them in our content areas. Next week, we are to have our script written and our storyboards completed.
So What?
Because this is the "big" assignment of the semester, I have been slightly nervous to take on the challenge all semester. But now that we have started the project I realize that, like most other activities we have completed in this class, creating a digital story is not too difficult. It simply takes a lot of hard work and creativity. It is beneficial to be completing this assignment right now as a student because it will help me get familiar with certain applications on my computer, such as iMovie. Hopefully, through creating this digital story, I will learn how to better use iMovie and use it in future school projects. As a future teacher, it is imperative to learn how to create a digital story because this is an enjoyable, intriguing way to introduce or discuss important class topics.
Another important reason why we are completing this assignment is to help and encourage us as future teachers to research and learn interesting facts about our content area. As me and my group have started to create our own digital story on domestic violence, I have been able to learn some interesting statistics and discover some shocking stories about celebrities who have experienced this type of violence by their intimate partner or another loved one. Doing this digital story has helped me become more passionate about my content area and I hope to create more digital stories in the future so I become excited and motivated to teach those topics through technology.
Now What?
I honestly believe everything we have done in this instructional media class will help me become a better teacher. I have learned a ton about technology throughout the semester and this last project of creating a Digital Story is the icing on the cake. Although my group has not come far in the actual creation of our own digital story, I am excited about our idea to make it a moving and interesting video to introduce the topic of domestic violence. I hope to think of more ideas and ways to create other digital stories so I can share those with my future classes as well.
In my future classes, I do not anticipate giving much homework to my students unless the homework is applicable to their life or a good, worthwhile project. The creation of a digital story may be advanced for High School students, but creating a similar and simpler project would be meaningful. As I mentioned before, this project has helped me, as a health education major, learn a great deal about domestic violence and I think students would enjoy picking an interesting health topic to learn about and creating a simple digital story. Their digital story would contain similar components to the one we are creating now. I believe this would be an enjoyable, challenging final and performance assessment.
Video Reflection:
The video this week was titled "NASA Digital Story." Space, astronauts, and the moon have always been topics of interest for me, so I really enjoyed this video clip. I liked how this video caught my attention with interesting visuals and facts at the beginning and then talked about various astronauts. The video did a compelling job at displaying love and compassion for those astronauts who have sacrificed their lives to helping mankind learn more about space travel. I found myself captivated by the music and explanation of some life stories in the video. In my opinion, the video ended too soon. I feel this video was beneficial to watch this week because not only was this video enjoyable, but it also helped me understand which components make up a professional, entertaining, and informational digital story.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Reflection: Week 12
What?
This week in class we were introduced to the PowerPoint Activity. The description of this activity is different from past semesters because instead of presenting on two activities from our PowerPoint textbook, we created our own unique PowerPoint activity for our future classes. This activity is due next Wednesday, April 7, along with our podcast and vidcast.
So What?
The main reason we are doing this PowerPoint activity in our class is to get more familiar and intimate with the PowerPoint program. PowerPoint is a valuable classroom resource that most of us, as teachers, will be using all the time with our students. Before I started this instructional media class, I was able to make a basic PowerPoint presentation, but now I am able to do many more fun and exciting activities with my PowerPoint presentations. For example, I now know how to hyperlink, add pictures, sound, and movies to my presentations. Not only will this information help in my future teaching career, but it helps me now as a college student because I am often making PowerPoint presentations for class projects.
In previous semesters, the PowerPoint activity was slightly different from what it is now. This semester, we get to come up with our own fun, creative PowerPoint activity to use in our future classroom. What is even more exciting, is that Doctor Waters is giving us the opportunity to be able to publish our PowerPoint activity in her textbook that she is currently writing. "Doc" Waters is having a competition between the students to see who can come up with the best, most creative activities to be published in the textbook. This competition is motivating because it would be greatly beneficial to have an educational publication on my resume.
Now What?
All the information I have learned about PowerPoint this week will definitely benefit my future students. I really enjoy the PowerPoint activity I made this week and am excited to utilize it in my classroom someday. This assignment in particular is important for my students to complete because not only will they be learning about an important health topic, but they will also be using their creativity, interacting with their peers, and learning how to make a professional PowerPoint at the same time. I hope to share this idea and lesson plan with my fellow health educators so we can collaborate and develop an effective lesson plan.
My current schema has developed greatly throughout the course of this class. I never imagined that I would be excited about having a classroom website or understanding the intricacies of google and the UEN website, but now I am starting to understand how enjoyable and easy technology can be. Because of all the risky information that exists on the internet, I came into this class being skeptical about using its resources. Throughout the past few weeks when I have learned how to stay safe on the computer and how to develop valuable learning tools like podcasts, vidcasts, and PowerPoints, I have come to realize that all these tools will only enhance my lesson plans and teaching skills, not hinder them.
Video Reflection:
The video we watched this week was titled "How Not to use PowerPoint." This video was a nice change from the other videos we have viewed this semester because it was a comedy about PowerPoints. I feel that being a part of the education program here at Utah Valley University has made me more critical as I watch presentations. Whenever I watch one of my peers present a lesson, paper, or project, I always critique them and think about what they are doing wrong or what they could do better, especially while viewing PowerPoints. The man in the video this week basically presented all the mistakes that should not be in a PowerPoint presentation, but are mistakes that we see all the time. For example, when people make a slide and verbalize exactly what they have written on the slide. This act is unprofessional and boring for the audience. I love making PowerPoints and believe I have a real talent for it, so I enjoyed the humor in this video. I feel this video was beneficial, educational, and enjoyable at the same time.
This week in class we were introduced to the PowerPoint Activity. The description of this activity is different from past semesters because instead of presenting on two activities from our PowerPoint textbook, we created our own unique PowerPoint activity for our future classes. This activity is due next Wednesday, April 7, along with our podcast and vidcast.
So What?
The main reason we are doing this PowerPoint activity in our class is to get more familiar and intimate with the PowerPoint program. PowerPoint is a valuable classroom resource that most of us, as teachers, will be using all the time with our students. Before I started this instructional media class, I was able to make a basic PowerPoint presentation, but now I am able to do many more fun and exciting activities with my PowerPoint presentations. For example, I now know how to hyperlink, add pictures, sound, and movies to my presentations. Not only will this information help in my future teaching career, but it helps me now as a college student because I am often making PowerPoint presentations for class projects.
In previous semesters, the PowerPoint activity was slightly different from what it is now. This semester, we get to come up with our own fun, creative PowerPoint activity to use in our future classroom. What is even more exciting, is that Doctor Waters is giving us the opportunity to be able to publish our PowerPoint activity in her textbook that she is currently writing. "Doc" Waters is having a competition between the students to see who can come up with the best, most creative activities to be published in the textbook. This competition is motivating because it would be greatly beneficial to have an educational publication on my resume.
Now What?
All the information I have learned about PowerPoint this week will definitely benefit my future students. I really enjoy the PowerPoint activity I made this week and am excited to utilize it in my classroom someday. This assignment in particular is important for my students to complete because not only will they be learning about an important health topic, but they will also be using their creativity, interacting with their peers, and learning how to make a professional PowerPoint at the same time. I hope to share this idea and lesson plan with my fellow health educators so we can collaborate and develop an effective lesson plan.
My current schema has developed greatly throughout the course of this class. I never imagined that I would be excited about having a classroom website or understanding the intricacies of google and the UEN website, but now I am starting to understand how enjoyable and easy technology can be. Because of all the risky information that exists on the internet, I came into this class being skeptical about using its resources. Throughout the past few weeks when I have learned how to stay safe on the computer and how to develop valuable learning tools like podcasts, vidcasts, and PowerPoints, I have come to realize that all these tools will only enhance my lesson plans and teaching skills, not hinder them.
Video Reflection:
The video we watched this week was titled "How Not to use PowerPoint." This video was a nice change from the other videos we have viewed this semester because it was a comedy about PowerPoints. I feel that being a part of the education program here at Utah Valley University has made me more critical as I watch presentations. Whenever I watch one of my peers present a lesson, paper, or project, I always critique them and think about what they are doing wrong or what they could do better, especially while viewing PowerPoints. The man in the video this week basically presented all the mistakes that should not be in a PowerPoint presentation, but are mistakes that we see all the time. For example, when people make a slide and verbalize exactly what they have written on the slide. This act is unprofessional and boring for the audience. I love making PowerPoints and believe I have a real talent for it, so I enjoyed the humor in this video. I feel this video was beneficial, educational, and enjoyable at the same time.
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