Well the term has come to an end! My first year as an education student is complete! Its crazy how quickly the semester as well as the year went by.
Over the course of the semester in ICT, I have been taught so much about technology. I have learned many different tips and the amount of programs I have been introduced to is amazing!
I had always known that integrating technology in the classroom was important, but it wasn't something that came easy for me to think of what KINDS of technology to use. Mike has taught us some pretty neat programs that I think will be very engaging for the students. My favorite program that Mike had shown us was Prezi, this is such an awesome app! Instead of your standard boring old PowerPoint presentation, prezi allows the presentation to come alive. I have never really realized how much you can integrate technology into the the room with simple little activities. I know for myself, technology is going to be something I will try and work with for my students as I can remember going to elementary school and how cool it was when we got to use the computers or lap tops!!
This class has been very helpful for myself, since I wasn't always the technology geek! Since we will be applying for jobs in approximately a year, and technology is becoming an even bigger thing within the classrooms year by year, it is important for the Faculty of Education in universities to be keeping the future teachers up to date with technology changes and advances. Once I receive a job in teaching, I know I will keep my technology up to date by taking some professional development courses!!
This week we were able to view our classmates videos they had made. The videos were hilarious and we could all tell that we had a great time making the videos. As I mentioned in my last blog posting, videos are very engaging and make a fun activity for students in the class. I can only imagine the types of video and the amount of fun they would have making them, plus its a bonus teaching the students different ways to use technology to tell stories.
We had also shown the class our final group projects for the term. These presentations were very informal and allowed us to learn new apps and programs to help us integrate technology into the classroom. My favorite presentation was the one about using prezi to teach social studies. I have never heard about prezi until Mike had shown us, but I think this is a great program which has much more affect than your standard powerpoint presentation. I definitely know that I will be trying to make more prezi's in my class to get the students more engaged.
I also really liked the skype idea, I use to use skype a couple years ago when I was going to school in the states to talk to my friends and family back home and had never really thought of it as being useful in the classroom. Skype is a simple calling program that allows you to video chat with anyone across the world. This would be very useful in the classroom especially when learning about social studies since we look at all parts of the world.
Our group had done our presentation on activties on the smartboard, there are soo many templates that are simple to use and alter to your liking. I love using the smartboard when teaching and I know the students enjoy it as well. I have never really thought of using a smartboard for physical education classses but I had found many templates that are easy to use and can be integrated into the gym class quite easily.
Since I am an ipad user, I enjoyed learning about the different apps that are out there for teachers to use for many different purposes such as recording lessons, this is a helpful tool for kids that are away and need the notes and even if I'm away!!
Since technology is ever so changing, it is important for us as teachers to keep up with the advances!!
