Podcasts and Vidcasts

What? Today we didn't have class so we didn't end up talking about Podcasts and Vidcasts. So, Erica, Chelsey, and I did some research on the brain for a project we have to do for another class.

So What? Technology and the internet are such a helpful thing in education today. We were able to quickly find information on how drugs effect the brain. We didn't have to spend hours reading through books and encyclopedias in the library to do our research. With technology and Google we are able to get the most current information simply by typing in a few key words.

This is very helpful as a student because it saves so much time on projects that could really be time consuming without technology. When I find information quickly I can actually spend more time and learn more about the topic instead of just getting the basics. I can learn more information and it is also more interesting online than the information is in encyclopedias. We found a website where you can interact with cartoon mice that are on different types of drugs. You click on the mouse and it drops it into a machine where you can look at it's brain and see what exactly the drug is doing inside his brain. I found the learning this way is so much more interesting than just reading the information.

Now What? I think my future students will also find learning with technology more interesting than if I simply had them read from a text book or an encyclopedia. As I was researching I started to realize more and more how I like to learn and to be taught and that my students will be much they same way. Fun, interactive websites that allow the students to have some type of control over what they are learning (such as the mice website Chelsey found and WebQuest's) will help my students become interested in what were learning.

Technology will also help me as a teacher because if a student asks me a question that I don't know the answer to I can quickly find it online, or I can encourage the student to look up the answer as well. As a teacher, using technology will be very helpful to quickly look up facts for lesson plans. I realize that not all information online is accurate, but there are different ways to find out how accurate and reliable a website is. Knowing these things will save me so much time as a teacher to not give out information to my students that is not correct or current.

Video: I think letting students blog about their learning is a good thing because it gives them a chance to reflect on what they are learning and it will stay with them longer and they will learn more. It also gives the teacher a way to gauge what the students are understand and what they are not quite getting. It gives students a chance to voice their opinions about the topic. Some students won't raise their how and say what they are thinking but blogging gives them the opportunity to do so. I think it would be a good idea to have a section in the blog where students can ask the teacher questions about something they might not understand from class or things they may need to talk to the teacher about. That way the teacher knows what each student is confused with and can work with them individually on that thing instead of trying to guess what they need help with.