This class has taught me so much about what tools are available to me on the internet. I know students today live and breath technology. Some of us older generation teachers must keep up with them if we are going to be effective educators. My favorite thing we did was make the book trailer. It was so creative! I had the most difficulty with creating the Infogrames. It is a wonderful visual tool, I just found it tedious to create. I showed my 14-year-old tech-savvy daughter the different tools we worked with this semester. Some she was familiar with. I asked her which internet tool she liked the best and she said creating the comic strip. She loves graphic design, as do many students today. She said being able to complete assignments using artwork was right up her alley. She wished teachers used more creative mediums like that in the classroom.
After reading the article linked in the final reflection
explanation, it made me think of something I read on Facebook earlier today. Governor Abbot made a stop at an area elementary
school today to talk about his campaign to have broadband internet available to
all areas of rural Texas. When the schools were closed, and we were forced to
teach online, it brought to light how bad our internet infostructure in the rural
areas is. Students had to park in the
school or public library parking lots to complete their assignments. My point in bringing this up is that without
broadband internet readily available to ALL students, all of the cute comics, and
fun videos we assign might not be completed because students don’t have the
resources at home to complete them. I’m
not talking about just low-income households that can’t afford broadband. My husband and I are building a house in a
rural area. The only internet available to
us is satellite internet. We will use
all of our allowed data just watching Netflix.
Ok, off of my soapbox…
In conclusion, I learned how to use so many useful
tools. This information should be taught
to all educators, maybe a professional development opportunity will present itself
when I have my own library.
I used Nawmal to create a cartoon for my digital story. It was fun, but I did it on a free trial.
Yes the internet issue is here too. They were able to get a company to donate internet to the students and some students even received a mifi box instead.
ReplyDeleteI taught on the part of town that was near areas with poor infrastructure for internet because of issues of poverty and plainly living too far from town. Frequently, I would run into issues with these students not being able to complete an assignment. Now with the issues of the pandemic and teaching online it has big come an even bigger issue.
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