Using digital storytelling in education is a technology that I believe is highly underutilized. By using digital storytelling, educators are able to control what content is within the videos they show in their classroom rather than slaving over hours of YouTube videos to find that "perfect one". Teachers are also able to include quizzes within the video, and in doing so testing students knowledge as they go on and while saving paper. (Yay environment!) Students can also use it for presentations and prove their knowledge by including the information they've learned. It is by far a much more fun way of proving knowledge than writing a research paper or giving another boring PowerPoint presentation. I believe this technology is a cutting edge innovation that should make its way further into education and I fully intend to use it to educate in my future classroom.
An example of a way to use digital storytelling to teach a lesson can be found below, this lesson is over the life cycle of a butterfly.
The Life Cycle of a Butterfly on PhotoPeach
Monday, February 27, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Twitter in Education
Over the past months, Twitter-a social networking site primarily known for being a source of celebrity updates-has become something more, it is slowly being introduced for use in the classroom as an educational tool. This new resource has sparked quite the debate of whether or not it is truly educational, whether it has a place in education, and whether or not it is more entertainment than education based. In this posting I plan to give my input to the debate, and address some solutions to the nay-sayers out there.
Is there a place for Twitter in education? If you ask me, I say there is and why it has taken us six years (Twitter was created in March 2006) to bring it in to the classrooms of the world? Teachers could use this tool for so many things: announcements, school closings, parent/teacher meetings, field trip reminders, etc. They can also use it to communicate with teachers not just in their district, but around the world. For example, let's say a teacher is wanting to do a lesson plan on any given topic but is unable to find a new and creative way to present it to her class. By using Twitter and making a tweet about her dilemma they now have an entire user interface able to bring solutions to her by replying to her tweet. This, in my opinion, is extremely beneficial; it gets ideas out there and helps them continue to grow.
People who say it is more suited for entertainment are looking at the most popular feeds on Twitter, but of course the celebrities are going to be more highly followed than an educators page. However, it is us who is feeding this, we are the ones following Ashton Kutcher and Leo DiCaprio instead of helping those teachers' pages rise to the top of the ranks. So try not to look at it as solely entertainment based; by doing some research it is possible to find those education based pages educators are looking for.
Is there a place for Twitter in education? If you ask me, I say there is and why it has taken us six years (Twitter was created in March 2006) to bring it in to the classrooms of the world? Teachers could use this tool for so many things: announcements, school closings, parent/teacher meetings, field trip reminders, etc. They can also use it to communicate with teachers not just in their district, but around the world. For example, let's say a teacher is wanting to do a lesson plan on any given topic but is unable to find a new and creative way to present it to her class. By using Twitter and making a tweet about her dilemma they now have an entire user interface able to bring solutions to her by replying to her tweet. This, in my opinion, is extremely beneficial; it gets ideas out there and helps them continue to grow.
People who say it is more suited for entertainment are looking at the most popular feeds on Twitter, but of course the celebrities are going to be more highly followed than an educators page. However, it is us who is feeding this, we are the ones following Ashton Kutcher and Leo DiCaprio instead of helping those teachers' pages rise to the top of the ranks. So try not to look at it as solely entertainment based; by doing some research it is possible to find those education based pages educators are looking for.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Beneficial Blogs and Resourceful RSS Feeds
One helpful blog I stumbled upon through research for this week's assignment was the "Topics in Early Childhood Education" blog through Blogspot; this blog posts articles that provide a broader view of the many pressing topics in Early Childhood Education. Topics as broad as the core standards and how to work those into lesson plans and use them in a way that is the most beneficial for our students and as narrow as various lesson plans such as this one on things to do with the fall season. For me as a teacher, this blog is helpful because it provides me with a broader sense of things within the classroom and gives me ideas of things to bring in to help with development.
A RSS feed I found that proved helpful to me was the A to Z Teacher Stuff Lesson Plans feed; this is because it is easy to see a few possibilities on my feed rather than go searching for new ideas every other week or so. Another great thing about this website is it sorts the lesson plans by grade level and subject so if I do have time to go to the actual website it is still fairly easy to find what I am looking for.
A RSS feed I found that proved helpful to me was the A to Z Teacher Stuff Lesson Plans feed; this is because it is easy to see a few possibilities on my feed rather than go searching for new ideas every other week or so. Another great thing about this website is it sorts the lesson plans by grade level and subject so if I do have time to go to the actual website it is still fairly easy to find what I am looking for.
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