My Best Assignment

In our last voice-thread it was encouraged to post a link to our best technology project of the semester. I like the post that I made on copyright laws because I think especially in history it is important to site ones work so that a reader can follow the source to see if the information is legitimate or not. However, if I were to pick my best project I would probably choose my Google Earth activity. I think that it is simple but would be fun for students and can be a productive lesson.

Final Blog Reflection

Now that this semester is coming to a close it is appropriate to reflect back on some of the valuable lessons that I have learned from this course. In my opinion I feel that the most useful technology that I learned is how to set up a website. I think that this can be a very useful tool in teaching. From the website I can set up online quizzes, take a poll about lessons, attach a syllabus or other assignments, and keep parents informed about what we are learning in class. For me, it is hard to remember everything that I am supposed to do once I get outside of class. It is helpful for a teacher to put the daily assignments online where I can look them up in case I forget. Also I love the option of taking a class poll of lessons. I think that it is important to get this kind of feedback from students. It will help me choose better activities and will demonstrate to the students that I am genuinely interested in what they want to learn about. This helps build a stronger relationship with the students which can limit disruptions in the classroom.

I plan on creating my own class website once I have my own class. Even in student teaching next semester I can work with the teacher to add to his website if he has one or create my own so that I can implement these tools in my own class. A blog such as this one can also be used since it is simple and easy to follow. I also love the idea of making video presentations in class. This may be a little more difficult for a student to construct but are great tools for presentations. I think that in the future I will plan on trying to come up with at least one video presentation that I can make and tailor to my class each unit. This way I can start making a few a year that I can save from year to year. I also really enjoyed my Google Earth lesson and think that activities like this will help allow students to be more active learners.

Technology is a great way to incorporate active learning into my lessons. Using the internet in a history class can be a great way to spark inquiry based lessons where students search out their own projects. Also if you teach students to create a video presentation it helps them really internalize the information they are working on. Even simple powerpoint presentations add a visual aspect to an otherwise dull lecture which help students engage in the material.

Weekly find

So this week as I was looking for a good history source with technology I stumbled upon teaching history with technology. This website offers a ton of useful information. On the left hand side there are a links to different podcasts, webquests, wikis, lesson plans and much more. I thought that not only was it useful to have the links to such technologies but each link also teaches you how to use the specific technology. For example if you click on webquests it brings you here. On this link it tells you that webquests were first developed by Bernie Dodge in San Diego State University in 1995 and have grown tremendously worldwide. It then links you to his two websites with webquests and then explains what a webquest is and how it can be applied in a classroom. It is a really great website. Hope this helps someone I know I plan to investigate further to see what it has to offer.