Chapters 8 & 9 Reflection

Both chapters focus on communication, but in different forms.  How can teachers and students communicate electronically is the key question answered in Chapters 8 and 9.  Teachers and students use the Web everyday to share information, but utilizing it the classroom is significant.  I had to present a lesson in one of my other education courses on Wednesday evening.  I was teaching students how to create a "Character Collage" based on characters in a novel.  After students finished creating the character collage, I explained how I would digitally scan each collage (image) into the class Web site where it would be a published piece of work.  My classmates acknowledged how important it is for students to see their own work.  I completely agreed with my class because I feel just as good as my students when I see my work posted on a Web site or blog.  People gain a sense of identity or ownership in viewing his or her published work.

Email has come a long way from when I first started using it in 2001.  If you don't have an email address these days, then you may be literally lost to both the digital and real world.  I've noticed how my father not having an email address has caused him to ask me for my email address in order to have paperwork sent that can no longer be found in stores, public libraries, or in the mail.  Email is also a good way to have students and parents contact me with questions pertaining to class or assignments.  I also noticed from teaching and having my own personal email address that it was much easier to communicate with students and parents due to different schedules.  Students, as well as parents are unaware as to how to write a formal email.  Most students write informally in emails, blogs, wikis, or instant messages that the standard forms of English are forgotten in the digital and real world.  Do schools have to start creating programs for students on formal and informal writing in the digital and real world?  I do like the idea of holding online office hours with my students.  There are positive and negative repercussions, but it's an efficient way to allow students time to ask questions that they may not one to ask in person during class.

Multimodal learning enhances the classroom for diverse learners.  The Smartboard is a great tool to use for multimodal learning because it allows various forms of media to be presented to the class.  When I was teaching the topic of photojournalism to my Journalism class, I used the Smartboard to display images from the covers of Time Magazine, National Geographic Magazine, The Daily News, etc. for students to interpret their own understanding.  The students had so many different perspectives based on images that I was able to present with a tool of technology (Smartboard).  After the students provided their own interpretation, I then played the audio version of the photojournalists' interpretation of the images.  The students were able to see the images and interpret them in their own words and then listen to the actual interpretation from the photojournalists.  Students were able to see the similarities and differences between their own interpretation and the photojournalists.  As a follow-up assignment, I had the students create their own cover of a magazine or newspaper with an epic photo (a photo that the student used with his or her own digital camera) and then present it to the class.  The assignment was effective because the students were engaged during presentations and they had many questions to ask the photojournalist (student).  If given the opportunity to teach another Journalism class, then I would definitely involve video-making in the classroom.  Videos in the classroom allow students to be creative in thinking and organizing the information to be presented to their audience.  I learned so much from making my own video that I can be positive in saying that students will have the same affect.

Questions:

1.  Has anyone ever developed their own PowerPoint Learning Game, or anything similar in the class?  If so, what were the positive and negative effects?

2.  Do you prefer a Teacher Blog, or Class Blog?  Why?

3.  How have you utilized podcasts in your classroom?