Today in my Instructional Technology class we spent time researching technologies that could be useful in the classroom. Each student created a PowerPoint describing a technology they had researched and would a viable resource for their students one day. There were so many imaginative, interactive websites that I had no idea even existed! it was very exciting to go around the room and get a short tutorial on all of them.
My favorites included Vorbeo and Photo Peach! Vorbeo is a website that allows you to create polls that you can use in your classroom. This technology would allow your students to answer fun and interactive questions about lessons or post their own poll questions. It is also a great too to check for students' understanding about a lesson you have just finished. It can also be easily embedded into a class blog or website!
Photo Peach is a simple slide show application that allows your students to upload photos and add music. This is a great way to learn about what your students did over their summer vacation! You could also have your students upload photos pertaining to a historical figure that you wanted them to research; there are many possibilities!
Although all of the technologies were interesting, there were some that I wouldn't use for educational purposes. For example, Slimber is an incredible online drawing tool that allows the user to draw beautiful pictures using their mouse but it is not really a technology I would formulate a lesson around or use to enhance learning. However, I would certainly recommend Slimber as an free-time technology to play around with or a resource to consult during an art lesson for students who struggle with fine motor skills.
For me, the most fascinating technology is the SmartBoard. The large, interactive whiteboard has endless possibilities for enhancing lessons. One of my favorite features of the SmartBoard is being able to paste in photos off of the Internet onto a Word page. My classmate inserted photos of different parts of the respiratory system onto a Word document and made key terms appear on the page. The students then had to click on the picture that corresponded with the key word. The SmartBoard kept track of how many the students got correct and which ones they missed.
There are so many options available on the SmartBoard that I don't know all of them yet! I would really love to learn more about how to use the SmartBoard to its full potential.
All in all, this was a very instructive class period that made me really think about what role technology is going to play in my class someday. I can't wait to try out some of these incredible applications with my future students!
"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." -Alexander Bell
