Learning from Fiction

Is there value in learning from fiction? Absolutely. Many life lessons have been taught using fictional stories in order to make a point. Students are often taught through fiction either in book or movie form. One movie that comes to mind is Ben-Hur, which I watched in my sixth grade social studies class. It taught on everything from culture to forgiveness. So yes, there is value in fiction. It just depends on how the educator responsible for the class presents it to his or her students.

Portfolio Assessment

What value is there in evaluating my portfolio? Well, it’s just like anything else we do. It’s testing our knowledge of what we learned on a project. If I didn’t learn what I needed to learn, then I’ll find out during the assessment. There’s always value in being tested. If we weren’t tested periodically in life, then how would we be sure we have a complete education?

Critiquing myself

To be honest, I hated critiquing myself, but it needed to be done. I think we all need to do it once in awhile or we’ll just end up missing an opportunity to do our jobs better. It’s never east, but I appreciate the opportunity to reflect on what I need to improve on.

Click here to read my assessment: Presentation Strengths and Weaknesses

Video Editing

I’m going to be honest here and say that video editing is nothing more than a means to an end for me. I didn’t enjoy learning it in class, and I’d definitely dread teaching it to my students. However, it is a valuable teaching tool, and I’ll be sure to make myself more comfortable with it.

Incorporating Technology into My Lesson

I did three things with my lesson: I used Prezi, inserted photos from Creative Commons, and used a video on Chernobyl that I found on YouTube. I used Prezi because it’s just cool. I’ll admit it. The program is just more fun to use, and if it’s more fun for me to use, then it’ll be the same for my students. The photos were needed to add color to the presentation, so I put them into the lesson. Finally, I used the video to drive home the tragedy that took place at Chernobyl in 1986. Overall, I thought it went well.

Web Pages in the Classroom

There are only two web pages I would create for my classroom. First, I’d definitely want a blog for my classes to find notes, updates, and specific information important to the class. I like how Mr. Becksfort uses his blog to communicate with his kids and that’s something I want to emulate. If a kid has questions about a project that’s been assigned when I’m not available, there would be a good chance the child will find the answer on the blog.

The second webpage I’d create is a Wiki. I’d love to create a specific one for each unit we go over in class. I’d assign each student to fill in the Wiki with three to five important facts they took from the unit’s lesson per week. That way they’d have ready made notes to study with and open resource with readable information at their finger tips

Creative Manchester United!

This was taken from Wikimedia Commons (with permission). Its hard to really understand copyright laws as they stand now. As far as I'm concerned, as long as I wrote it or took the picture, it's mine. However, I would like more clarification from the U.S. Government on this issue.

The Role of Technology in the Future

Keith Courville’s “Technology and its use in Education: Present Roles and Future Prospects” identifies how technology is and should be used in the classroom. The article was presented at the 2011 Recovery School District Technology Summit in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in an attempt to argue for the continued use of technology in the classroom. The only problem that I find with this article is that it makes a case for a subject already generally agreed upon in academia. Basically, it “speaks to the choir.” 

Courville focuses on two mediums to make his point: distributed learning and electronic databases. He notes throughout the article how these particular subjects are the two trends in Educational Technology that need to be further developed in the classroom for both students and teachers. The abstract is broken down into nine topics that address the overarching issue including distributed learning as a means of professional development and electronic database and their effect on education. Courville concludes that further development and use of educational technology would be a worthy investment for the future of educational achievement.

I agree with his assessment, but as I noted earlier, it seems like he’s getting to the party a bit late. There is already a need for improved technology in the classroom, and most school districts are aware of this and taking advantage of it.

You can read the full journal article here: Technology and its use in Education: Present Roles and Future Prospects