Tech Blog #2

Reflecting on last week's smackdowns, I learned about many different web tools that can be used in the classroom. One that stuck out to me was Edmodo. Edmond is a networking website for students and teachers to keep in touch.

Look familiar? Probably because one way of describing Edmodo would be simply "Facebook for the classroom." It can be used as an extremely helpful tool for teachers to keep in touch with students and their parents.

Teachers can send updates and reminders to students and their parents. Parents can contact teachers with any questions or concern and vice versa.Students can submit assignments directly to Edmodo. Also students can get into contact with classmates that they may not be able to reach otherwise. For younger students it can be very exciting to use this kind of "social media" setup. 

Edmond can also be very useful for teachers aside from sharing with students and their parents. Edmodo has learning communities for teachers that spread across the world. Teachers can share ideas, articles and teaching strategies with each other and compare results with each other. I believe Edmodo is a very good option for teachers to create networks with their students and other educators and I intend on trying it out when I have a classroom of my own.

Smackdown #1 - Prezi

It can be very difficult for teachers to engage their students in lesson plans and it can definitely be difficult to keep them engaged throughout an entire lesson. Slide shows, although seemingly necessary to convey information, can become monotonous and students tend to lose interest in lectures. There needs to be some sort of alternative and luckily there is. Prezi offers a way to create a new and different kind of presentation.

Prezi has all of the feature that PowerPoint has, but leaves room for little more creative thinking. Prezi offers many different layouts for you to chose from and you can also create your own. Prezi presentations allow you to essentially create a picture of the topic you want to teach.

They are interactive and allow you to zoom in and out of the big picture to make your smaller points. Videos, pictures and music can be added to presentations spice things up a bit. You can jump from branch to branch on your tree with a clear picture of what you intend to teach.

Students love the interactive pictures and teachers love the simplicity of creating one. The website has three versions to chose from. There is a free option that includes all "core features" and 100 MB storage place. The Enjoy Upgrade is just $4.92 a month and includes private presentations, premium support, the use of your own logo and 500 MB storage space. The final option Prezi offers is called Pro Upgrade. Pro allows you to work offline and gives you 2GB of storage. For less than $5 a month you can take Prezi with you anywhere!

Tech Blog #1

YouTube! The land of music videos, sports clips and cute cat videos...right? Wrong! 

Okay, well maybe that is right, but it's also so much more! If used properly, YouTube can be a great tool in almost every profession. 

As an aspiring educator, I see YouTube as a website to be used to educate both students and teachers. Educators can use YouTube to find new ways to teach certain lessons that they may be struggling with. They can also use videos to spice up a boring lesson. 

One of the newest uses of educational videos is the idea of the flipped classroom. Flipping classrooms is the idea of "lecturing" the student at home through the use of instructional videos and doing the "homework" in class with the teacher there to help out with any questions a student might have.

 Since the idea of flipped classrooms has come about, there are now many instructional videos on YouTube. This way, even if a teacher doesn't use a flipped classroom, students can benefit from the idea. If a student struggled to grasp a concept in class and cannot figure out their homework there are plenty of options on YouTube for them to scroll through.

YouTube can apply to any profession if you know what videos to look for, but in my opinion it is really changing the landscape of education. As children become more and more enamored with technology it is very important to try and bring it into the classroom.