Reflection: Webquest 3

What?
After working out a few glitches we were finally able to finish our digital story and I am pretty happy with the result. I am a little amazed at all the cool stuff you can create using a program as simple as PhotoStory. After seeing our video with all the pictures, music, and narration added together I see the power that adding these three to a lesson can have.
So What?
What this really means to me is that we can use technology such as PhotoStory in order to apply the principles that I have been learning about in educational phsycology. That is multiple intelligences, attention getting techniques, discovery learning etc. I am optimistic about my future in teaching and I hope to use all the resources that are available to me in order to give my students the best experience that I am able too.
Now What?
Now, as I have basically said in many posts before, I will continue to learn about and practice using the technologies, particularly the free ones, that are available to me. I can see now how to apply everyday things such as Youtube that students are more likely to use. I have already created my own channel and I plan to have a few things on there that I can show to potential employers as well as videos I can use in my future classes.

Video Reflection: Millennial Generation

This video reiterates everything we've been learning throughout the entire semester, that is that the youth today, those we will be teaching, are a generation brought up with technology. This not only influences the way they live and think, but also the ideas and hopes they have for technology in the future. I can't help but laugh hearing these kids talk about how they have to be the technology tutors for their parents, because I have had to do the same thing with mine growing up. I guess this idea makes me lean towards the idea that if you can't beat them you should join them. I see no reason why I can't use the media that kids are familiar with to teach them the things that I love. The only obstacle I can see now is having that technology available at whatever school I have the pleasure of teaching at. So I can only hope for the best, and do all I can to assure that students are prepared not only with what I have to teach them, but in this ever growing technological world we live in.

Reflection:Digital Stories 2

What?
This week I was unable to come to class because I was sick. I spent the time that I would have been in class reviewing the articles and tutorials provided on the class website, as well as playing with the program PhotoStory. This is a program my wife has used in the pass to create picture presentations of friends and family. I had never taken the time to explore and play with this program, but now that I have I can say that I agree with Doc Waters on just how easy the learning curve is for this program. In minutes I was able to create a presentation with pictures, titles, music and narration; and all this before even looking at the tutorials. PhotoStory offers a very user-friendly (not to mention) free way to create digital stories for teachers.
So What?
What this means is that when I become a teacher I can use this program to make digital stories and too my relief I now know that I can do it quickly. This program will be very useful for teaching about culture and will allow me to display some of the pictures I have taken in Spanish speaking countries, which is pretty cool if you ask me.
Now What?
Now I need to keep updated and make sure I have the latest version of this program. I also plan on reviewing my pictures, and searching out pictures online that I could use in future presentations for culture, vocabulary, or whatever else I decide to teach. This class has really opened my eyes to the many free resources out there that can make teaching more fun for the students and easier for the teacher. For a guy who was barely comfortable creating a PowerPoint presentation I have come a long way and hope to use the skills I have acquired to go even further.

Video Reflection: Did You Know 3.0

Now that I know about digital stories I can see that this, along with the original version of "Did You Know" are just that. While they don't have audio narration this presentation is chalk full of information and it is accompanied by music and work imagery. The way the text was presented is more creative and dynamic than that of the original. As far as new information, I know that there were facts from more recent years, buy I do remember some of those same facts being presented in the original, such as the idea that we as educators are preparing students for jobs that do not exist. I feel that this version, just as the original, does well at getting its point across that we are living in rapidly growing world. This growth can be seen not only in population but in the technology and knowledge that exists today. To me it serves as yet another reminder of how important it is to be familiar with technology and use it as much as possible in the classroom.