It’s funny to think about the first class we had of Productions and how quickly the end has come. When I look back at the first blog post that we used as a test, I was completely skeptical about the power and use of a blog in the classroom. Now my mind has completely changed. Although the technology we used was not as new to me as it was to others in the class, the ability and utility of the programs in a classroom was completely new territory and opened my eyes to a new avenue.
My favorite project in the class was my second story board because I dedicated it to my friend Jess who passed away earlier this year. At the time she had recently passed and the pain and sadness still weighed heavy. I thought it was a perfect opportunity to pay homage to an amazing person. So what started as a homework assignment turned out to be a healing mechanism. Because I put so much heart into making it, although it is not perfect I am the most proud of it. This I think is an important concept to take account of while teaching. Your students are going to come from various backgrounds and they may be experiencing a good day or bad day. By giving opportunities for students to creatively output their emotions into a project of their choice, I believe, gives an opportunity to build community and to expect success and academic achievement in a way that captures interest.
The project that I did not like the best was the wiki assignment. The fact that it was a group project and my group didn’t work the best together took into small account as to why this was so but also because it was a completely new concept. It was something I didn’t know how to work with and it perplexed me. The educational value to me was hard to grasp as well because of this. However seeing everybody’s presentation helped me get a better idea of how a wiki could be used.
The tools that I think are the best and that I will most likely use in my classroom in the future are blogs, podcast, and storyboards. I would use blogs as a way for students to upload projects so that it makes it easier to assess them as a teacher. I would use podcasts to record class discussions and post them on the classroom blog as a way for students to review what was said. Storyboards as a history teacher can serve of great use as a way to relay historical events in a visual representation. All in all technology is the new wave of the future in schools, and all of these resources together make for an optimal educational environment.
