Friday, April 1, 2016

Digital Blog Post #E

Video in the Classroom
Online content continues to grow and grow- social media has exploded and just when you think the programs that are popular right this minute will forever be the king of online space, another social media trend sweeps audiences to their feet.
A newer social media trend that has continued to grow is YouTube. YouTube initially began as an idea between three friends to better share video content online with acquaintances (YouTube, n.d.), and has turned into an explosive blogging, advertising, and informational staple of the internet.
Teachers began catching on to this trend and used it to their advantage. By incorporating videos that instructors can “hook” students with, and have the ability to pause and rewind as much as desired, instructors valued these new video options as unique learning experiences and their popularity grew (Maloy, 2013).
As online videos progressed and YouTube has become so easy that anyone can do it, teachers have begun to create their own videos tailored to their classroom of students and the subjects that the instructor is providing.

Here is a demonstration of how easy it is to create and upload a YouTube video:


(S, 2016)
 


PowerPoint in the Classroom
Our text this week points out some very interesting, thoughtful information about PowerPoint presentations. PowerPoint presentations are something that college students are very familiar with. PowerPoints can be very informative and easy to interpret, but I bet every college student remembers one particular, prominent thing about any PowerPoint they have seen in a classroom: they can be undeniably boring.
Even if a speaker is riveting, usually the PowerPoint presentation that is running in their background is less than interesting. Many people use a “less is more” tactic to creating a PowerPoint which sometimes begs the question: why even have a PowerPoint?
Adult minds generally have an element of automatic respect to them. Adults in a classroom or business meeting where a PowerPoint presentation is being used make it a point to stay engaged out of respect and self-discipline. I think that PowerPoint presentations in a classroom should be avoided primarily because students don’t yet have the maturity to lock themselves into a series of minimalistic screens and give them any value.  I think these students will tune out very quickly to a PowerPoint series of slides.  If some educators insist on using PowerPoint as a tool in the classroom, I think they should liven up their PowerPoint presentations with GIFs, discussion questions and bold, attention-grabbing arrangements on the slides.

Lesson Plan Development and Integration of Technologies
I had never worked on a lesson plan prior to our previous group assignment to create an inquiry based lesson plan. I honestly could not believe the amount of time spent on putting together a thorough lesson plan could take. I certainly have value in the organizational tool of a lesson plan, but I really did not think they were that in-depth.
Our text this week outlines not only how lesson plan development flows, but also how to incorporate technology into the year’s plans. One of the biggest components to incorporating technology into the lesson plans is the internet. The internet has such a wide range of options available, a lot of which can be flexible enough to fit into majority of the lessons that may be planned for that year.
Many lesson plans have the ability to easily be enhanced by adding a technology component to them. Programs through the internet are one of the easiest things to incorporate, and offer thousands upon thousands of opportunities for students to interact with them material they are learning.

Resources: 

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc

S. (2016). EME blog. Retrieved April 03, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgvy0_PZSkI

YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved April 01, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube 

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