Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Tech View

1. My tech life is best described as a habitual visitor.  I’ve spent a lot of time working within artistic digital software like the Adobe Suite but I lack the ability to figure out technological aspects of the internet and computers.  I can draw on the computer but I can’t keep the computer running.  I enjoy a shallow existence online.  I enjoy sharing myself through writing and digital art but I don’t really care about searching or peering through pages of others work.  I’d also rather read a printed book over a digital on.  I find all of the “in-your-face” advertising extremely rude and invading.
2. I like www.Socrative.com for formative assessments. It allows you to engage with students while collecting detailed summative assessment reports.  I like how you can ask a quick question and have students answer it in real time.  This is a useful tool to gage what your students know and where they can learn more.  Having a place for students to ask questions anonymously creates a safe place for them to do so.  It’s also enables you to save assessments you’ve created and share them between colleagues.  Live results allows you to see which questions you need to go over with the students.  
3. Virtual writing is important for students to do because it widens their audience.  When students know their audience includes more people, they will write their best.  Also, other people online will critique everything they see online.
http://www.shelfari.com/ Is a good site to find books of varying interests through a search engine.  It allows readers to rate and comment on books. 
http://piktochart.com/ Looks great for easy block charts and other graphic illustrations. 
http://storybird.com/ Looks like a fun way to engage students in writing games.  It allows you to create a book which is always exciting.
4. The online tools that educators are using makes illustrating visual aids very easy.  The online tools educators are using make access to material easier than ever before.  It creates a big team where educators can continue to grow, share their challenges, and keep creativity in teaching.
5. As teachers integrate technology they need to keep students safety in mind.  The virtual world makes access to information so available that crossing the line to an unsafe realm becomes extremely easy to do.  Students need to be made aware of the dangers of online communications, protocols, and “stranger danger” aspects of having the world at their fingertips.  Student’s need to be educated about every aspect of online safety.
6.  Based on my exploration, I will try out the following online tools:
Socrative www.Socrative.com

2 comments:

  1. Reese,

    Your emphasis on safety is admired. As exciting as it could be to explore and implement these tech tools we have to always rememeber to keep the safety of our students as a top priority. Over time I imagine we will become somewhat of experts with tech tools and we will discover what works and what doesn't as well as things we need to consider when introducing tech tools into the classroom. Good luck with your future explorations and thanks for posting!

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  2. Safety matters! You have chosen a few of my favorites to explore! Sadly there will be no Shelfari after May! I will have to give in to goodreads!

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