Reflection

Social media is a very important part of student life. Most students are using social media sites. Therefore, it is important for teachers to make it relevant for students by also incorporating social media sites in a classroom. There are many advantages of using social media sites. It allow students to be connected with the teacher easier and also can allow student to reach teachers a lot easier. Social media sites can also give students the ability of freedom to communicate but they need to also learn about the danger of using social media sites. Blogs are also very important for teachers to allow student to become more creative as well. Although technology has a very good future but in China using Social media sites can be a annoying. I have tried using it in China many times in school because of the China firewall it prevents me from properly accessing many sites or do not allow me from accessing sites. So it can be frustrating to use social media sites in China or even websites.

2 Image Manipulation tools

Photoshop is a very useful image manipulation tool. Photoshop is a program that allow you to manipulate pictures and images. You can put another person from another photo into the picture or you can also modify the picture to shoot your needs. Photoshop is also a very useful tool to blurr image or make the image clear. It can change the image that is dark to light. You can also draw other drawings onto the photo. Teacher do many activities with photoshop. The students can create collages or poster through photoshop. Photoshop allows visual learners to understand the content and materials being taught in class. Teacher can also accurately access the students learning through photoshop for visual learners. Also photoshop website have tutorials to teach students how to use it and many students probably have used photoshop before because it is a popular program. You can find more information on the photoshop website.
The second image manipulation tool is GIMP: The GNU image Manipulation tool. This is a free software so schools can just download this software for free and can use it with the students. This software allow photo retouch. It can also be used as a paint tool. So student can also have the power to draw what they want to depict during assignments. Teacher can tell student to draw what they have learned or diagrams for science can be drawn using this tool. This is also very benificial for visual learners. You can find GIMP on the GIMP website.

Podcast

 One major strategy using podcast is to allow student to conduct interview like a live radio show and asking or interviewing a student. This is very practical for the student and the student and teacher can also understand each other. The student will also benefit from speaking. Another teaching strategy is to provide the recorded instructions and the teacher can post it online this allow student to be able to revisit the instructions as many time as they want and anywhere they want as long as they have internet. The third teaching strategy is creating a collective podcast using blogs. Student can also be a news report to report the event in incident during a final task to show the teacher that they can apply and understand the events.

 

Here are some links you can take a look at.

Podbeans

Canada podcast

3 useful technology and resources.

Kid blog is a very useful resource and tool which can impact k-12 learning because kid blog allow student to contribute and feel like their words are heard and that learning do not need to only take place in a classroom. They can also take place at home. There are different ways to incorporate the kids blog. The teacher can use it to post assignment instructions and also daily lessons or additional information and articles. The other way is for the student to have an assignment to make their own blog or create daily reflections which will be beneficial.

 Click here to find out more. 

 

Wikispace is a very useful resource for teacher to post assignments and create a website for the whole course so students can have access to the course. Also students can also add to the space to make it more collaborative and informations can be added so that there is more contribution about the information being taught in the class. As a result, student can be engaged and learned about the materials. Group projects can also be used to allow student to create their own website as a final project to see the students understanding of information.

 

Website: wikispaces.com

 Padlet is also a very useful resource to allow student to create a wall. They can make a word wall on the internet. All they need is their own account. They can also put words that they read in a book they do not know. This can help them enhance their vocabulary. They can also share it in the class which can allow other student to learn the vocabulary. Vocabulary for different subject can also be used and that this can help the student organize properly as well.

Website: www.padlet.com

Web 2.0 tools and app

I have started using the google plus account. They both have their own benifits they are both free to use. Open office is an open source program which allow experimentation and the community can help improve the software. The program is very similar to Microsoft word and you are able to share templates and works. Also it allows you to resume your work. They have many templates to help you get started. You can pretty much do the same thing as with Microsoft word. However, there are many tools you can use which can be confusing. Google plus is good for blog and emails in which information can be posted easily. It is good to allow student to use this to communicate and collaborate with each other. It also allow student to have control and create their own account. Parents can also create their own account and help monitor the parents progress. Student can also upload information that can be for school purposes. So both have their own benifits but Google plus allow effective collaboration.

Did you know?

There are many resources and support in the districts many company of soft wares come do some training for the districts. Did you know that the Toronto district school board is using web chat to keep parents informed with any questions. Web chat allow students and parents to feel that they are participating in the school environment. Toronto district school board also uses bit strip to keep the student engaged as well. There is a list of technology and resources that the Toronto district school board uses and they also use web 2.0 tools. here is the list of web 2.0 tools they use.

Tagxedo

Wordle

Primary Wall

Padlet

Kid Blog

Bitstrips for Schools
licensed by OSAPAC

Wikispaces

PBWorks

Story Bird

Animoto

VoiceThread
school/teacher subscription required

Glogster EDU
teacher subscription required

Blogger

Blended Learning

 Response: http://timstevens111.blogspot.ca/

Blended learning is a very effective way to incorporate technology and make it realistic for the students. At the same time they can also learn new materials. Blended learning gives students the oportunity to interact with the teacher in the classroom and at home. This give them more time and opportunity to collaborate with each other. The use of a glogster is a good way for student to be able to create things and get things published and displayed in away that they believe many people can see their works or get their voice heard. Blended learning also gives the opportunity for student to post assignments and allow student to submit assignment to make it convenient for the student. There is many technology and the use of internet to help enhance students learning. Many content management systems are also simple to use and can allow the teach to incorporate these into a course or a classroom.