My Summary of Learning for Tech Class

Perhaps my biggest insight from this class is that technology and teaching has always been related and always will be. Whether it was the introduction of writing, printing, recording or the inter-web, new modes of communication always mean that teachers need to adapt. With this thought process, I realized ed-tech isn't limited to the Social Media world, but simply means teachers should use whatever they can to aid student learning.

I chose to use Google Slides for my summary artifact for a couple reasons. This type of slide deck is a pretty common app to use to prepare for a class. Since I've always used PowerPoint in my previous career, I've been trying to get better at Slides so I can make my personal comparisons.
Secondly, I wanted to explore how to embed the presentation in a blog. Looking forward, I plan to have some sort of home page for my classes. This will serve as a communication portal with the parents, but will also be a repository for teaching materials. If I use a slide deck in class, I want to make that available for kids that are absent or kids at home for a flipped class room style.
So, without further delay......

(Click the little triangle to play in the viewer. You can click through the slides, or they will auto play after a few seconds on each slide. Clicking on the hyperlinks takes you to some of my other posts reflecting on each topic.)







That was cool.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kahoot! - Cool Tool or Strange Sound from an Owl?

Image
 It’s time for another Cool Tool review. This week I’m going to give my opinion of the Kahoot! app and hopefully give some insightful thoughts on how it can be used effectively in a classroom setting. (Wherever you see the Kahoot! or K! logos, I got them from the Kahoot! website. They make these available for download for anybody that wants to use them in an article.) Let’s get started! WHAT IS Kahoot! ? In a nutshell, Kahoot! is an application that allows teachers to create formative assessments and present them to the class in a game show format. Those are my words. Of course, the company that developed and distributes the app has fancier words. They call it “ a free game-based learning platform for teachers of awesome, classroom superheroes and all learners. ” I guess that’s the difference between an engineering background like mine and the marketing background of whoever wrote that copy.  PLEASE START WITH THE BASICS  HOW DO I GET IT? HOW MUCH DOES
Read more

Cool Tool Review - Slidestory

Image
This week, I’m reviewing a presentation Cool Tool called Slidestory. From their website, Slidestory is a way to create and share presentations .   At first, I thought this would be similar to Google Slides or Powerpoint, but it’s a bit different. What the product does it allow you to record your own narration over top of a series of picture files of your choice. Think being able to record a stereotypical “our vacation photos from an old-style carrousel slide projector” event. As I went to check this product out, three things jumped out at me. The first, the web site shows it’s a beta version. Beta software puts me on guard to start, so immediately I’m skeptical. In order to use it, you also need to create a free account. Now I’ve created accounts with several applications, but the Beta nature had me hesitate a bit more. Then, I noticed at the bottom of the page that you had to download a client application onto your own devices.   Now alarms are officially going off in my hea
Read more

Cool Tool Review - fotor. Uh, NO!

Today I’m reviewing a photo editing tool, fotor, for my Cool Tool review. Unfortunately, this is the easiest review I’ve done. Right after we signed up for Cool Tools to review, I had a need for a photo editor. Thinking I’d be efficient, I figured I would try fotor out for my needs and for my review. To use the app on my laptop, I needed to download it. That’s when the trouble started. In addition to the photo editing app, I got a browser and a security app – neither which I knew was coming or agreed to. As far as I’m concerned, that’s dirty pool. The first thing I did when I noticed these extra apps was to uninstall fotor. After I did that, the app asked for feedback as to why I was giving it the boot.   I filled out the form and told them it was because I found these other programs and if it wasn’t because of them, they should let me know and I’d try again.   That was about 6 weeks ago. I haven’t heard yet so I’m going on the assumption that the extra programs on my device came a
Read more