Educational Technology 678- Final Blog
After completing this course I found the tools we learned about were easily integrated into the classroom. I felt that a lot of these tools could have also been used by my students. There are two assignments in particular that I found interesting and have used one in my classroom already.
Flipped Learning is something that took me a while to warm up to. While it creates independence in our students and their learning, my concern is that it would take away from the communication and interaction with one another. What is advantageous in flipped learning is that students can learn at their own pace, rewatch a tutorial or lesson that is being presented, and if they're absent, they can easily be caught up. In my flipped learning lesson, we were learning about figurative language so I chose three components and provided examples.
Link to Flipped Learning
Another part of the coursework that was new and easy to integrate into my classroom was a PBL. I chose a topic that was coming up which was “Watery Earth”. I introduced our science unit with the PBL to engage students by having them choose a water crisis they were interested in reporting on. I kept the question very general so the students could use the 4 C’s: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication to research and present their information with others, to the class in a creative way. While in traditional PBL students are given one guiding questions, I felt that wasn’t enough for my 4th graders and so they needed more questions to make sure they were presenting all of the important parts of the water crisis. In addition, students were so eager to jump on the computer and start the tech part of their project without taking the time to do the detailed research. This was after I had presented them a paper organizer to use while they were researching. Due to students working in groups, I was able to meet with more students each day and even leave comments with suggestions on their project. We begin presenting next week so I’m excited to see the final product.
Another part of the coursework that was new and easy to integrate into my classroom was a PBL. I chose a topic that was coming up which was “Watery Earth”. I introduced our science unit with the PBL to engage students by having them choose a water crisis they were interested in reporting on. I kept the question very general so the students could use the 4 C’s: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication to research and present their information with others, to the class in a creative way. While in traditional PBL students are given one guiding questions, I felt that wasn’t enough for my 4th graders and so they needed more questions to make sure they were presenting all of the important parts of the water crisis. In addition, students were so eager to jump on the computer and start the tech part of their project without taking the time to do the detailed research. This was after I had presented them a paper organizer to use while they were researching. Due to students working in groups, I was able to meet with more students each day and even leave comments with suggestions on their project. We begin presenting next week so I’m excited to see the final product.
In addition to a Google Slide, these students are also going to pretend they are scientists and create actual models of what is happening in Mexico City.
Link to student example
Reflecting back on this course, these are just two assignments that I feel made an impact on my learning and growth as a teacher. It will also make an impact on my students and who they are as they navigate curriculum.
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