Prezi: A Hike Through the Jungle

Prezi is a great program for creating in-class presentations in a more interesting format than the overly used Power Point. While Power Point is an excellent program, Prezi is more spatially oriented and serves to create a more effective platform for students to express creativity. Prezi is a relatively new digital tool that will add variety to presentations and spark student interest.

I have created my own Prezi which I may use as an example for my future students. The Prezi that I created could also be used as the backbone of a Spanish learning activity. The creation of such a presentation with a new and innovative program shows “effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning” (5.c.).

My Own Website

This is the “Home Page” to the teaching website that I have made for myself and my future classes. By creating my own website I have shown a desire to “participate in local and global learning communities” and “to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning” (5.a.).

In the creation of this website I have learned a great deal about Google Sites and its many applications. Through using Google Sites I have also gained some general insight into web design which will be useful in the future if I am to have my students work on building a page on the web, or if my colleagues would like help in developing their own websites.

Internet Use Policy

My project here was to create a site that made the policy for classroom internet use clear. I would obviously plan to go over such a policy with the class in person, however; this page would serve as a constant reminder to my students as to the appropriate use of the internet in my class. This would be a sort of digital agreement that I could refer to and that would serve to diminish student confusion in regard to my expectations.

This on-line list of expectations would aim to “promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information” (4.c.). In creating this page I have thought about the use of the internet in my classroom and worked through how I will try to enforce responsible use such a powerful tool.

In my future classrooms I will refer students to this site in the beginning of the year so that they will know how to reference it later in the semester if they have any questions on the specifics of internet use policy. I will plan to edit the site so that it will fit the internet policy of the school at which I am employed.

Plagiarism Webpage

This is a web page that I created to address the issue of plagiarism with students. It should serve as a general guideline to make students aware of the serious consequences that may await people who decide to take the chance of plagiarizing. In the creation of this page I have considered the inevitability of plagiarism and the methods that I will employ to deal with it in a fair but serious manner.

This web page should serve to “advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property” (4.a.). I will plan to use this page as a reference and a reminder for students in regard to plagiarism.

On-line Survey

This is a survey that I created to assess my tenants’ contentment in the Woodland Park Apartments in the middle of the winter 2011 semester. This project meets the third NETS-T standard because it will be a useful tool with which to “collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools” (3.b.).

Through this assignment I have learned how to make an effective digital survey which will be helpful in assessing the concerns of students’ parents. I may also use surveys in the classroom to get a good feel for the honest opinions of my students.

Educational Philosophy Video

This is a video outlining my basic philosophy of education. I integrated footage into the video of enthusiastic high school students from a Renewable Energy Summit that I attended in Washington DC as well as some creative footage of a hike I took in the Marquette area.

This video “demonstrates fluency in technology systems” because I relied on my technological fluency and knowledge of video editing programs (such as Adobe Premiere) to create a video of my teaching philosophy. This goes above and beyond a simple written document and shows that my skills are “representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society” (S3).

Through the making of this video I augmented my editing skills and learned about some new features in the Adobe video editing program. I hope to use this video in the future to introduce students and their parents to my educational philosophy.

Valuable Links to Spanish Websites

I thought that in a Spanish class it would be of utmost importance to provide students with engaging resources that would supplement their language learning in the classroom. Therefore, I created a web page with numerous links to valuable Spanish learning resources.

The creation of this page meets the second NETS-T standard because it utilizes technology to allow student to “pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals” (2.b.). It also personalized their learning activities by giving them the option to explore Spanish on their own with different on-line resources. The page addresses students’ diverse learning styles by allowing them to access real-world audio and visual learning resources (2.c.).

Creating this web page prompted me to explore on-line Spanish learning resources. I became acquainted with numerous sites that will be useful to me in the future. I plan to integrate these sites into my classroom by using them for various assignments and by encouraging my students to take advantage of their utility.

Creative Poster

This is a project that will be meant to stimulate student creativity while getting them to practice their Spanish and introducing them to a very useful program – Microsoft Publisher. As a Community Advisor at Northern Michigan University I have used Publisher on countless occasions to create fliers for my residents and to advertise planned events. I think that Publisher is an extremely useful tool that students will be glad they gained experience with.

This project will meet standard one in the NETS-T standards because it will “facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments” (S1).

This activity was an excellent review of Publisher and it gave me useful material to use when trying to creatively integrate technology into the classroom.

In the creation of a poster the students will practice and learn the Spanish language, create an original piece of work, and innovate to make an interesting advertisement. They will also become acquainted with a valuable program, Microsoft Publisher. Lastly, the posters will be excellent prompts to engage in face-to-face activities in the classroom (comparisons, discussions, games, etc).

I will look forward to integrating a similar activity into my future classroom and using the final products to decorate the classroom and to create a more student-centered environment.

Capture Yourself

This is an assignment template that I adapted from my ED 231 course with Dr. Punchocar. I liked the idea of creatively integrating photography into the classroom. The idea of this assignment is to have students take a picture of themselves that will relate to their life story in some way. I think that this is a great way to get to know students while simultaneously engaging them in a creative, open-ended and digitally oriented activity.

This assignment meets the first standard in the NETS-T set because it will “promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness” using the internet and the prevalence of modern digital photography as technological tools (1.a.). I have also tailored this activity to my future classroom by weaving a language component into it. The students will finish the assignment by completing a brief description of their picture in Spanish.

By creating this assignment I have furthered my web development skills and learned to think about useful applications of technology that do not need to be overly complicated. I would love to use this as a starter activity for my future classes.