SPRING II WEEK SIX DISCUSSION (DIS 01 & 02)

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Permalink Reply by adfasedf asdfadsfa on April 18, 2014 at 8:37pm

           

            The post I chose was entitled "5 Tools for teachers to create and publish apps of their own." The post discussed how smart phones and tablets continue to dominate consumer markets, and that education needs to embrace apps to reach and engage students. The problem is, however, that diverse groups of students require custom-made applications. The post challenged educators to create their own classroom-specific applications to help promote meaningful learning in their classroom. The post also acknowledged that educators have very limited time, and that most are not familiar with coding. To help remedy these obstacles, the post highlighted five different app creation tools that educators can use to easily construct their own classroom applications. Some of the tools presented required a basic knowledge of coding, while others allowed individuals to use a friendly "drag and drop" interface to create applications. Many of the featured application editors listed were free, although some had paid versions which would unlock advanced features or an ad-free experience. One program in particular, Appery.io, allows the user to create apps in the cloud and publish them directly at app stores. The tool that stood out the most to me was called eclipse Classic. It allows the user to create applications that work with multiple operating systems (even Windows, Linux, and Mac). It's flexible compatibility, advanced options, and zero dollar price tag make eclipse Classic my top choice. Coding, however, is required for this tool.

            I think that there are many reasons why educators should embrace app-creating tools. First of all, they can design applications that fit perfectly with their students and curriculum. Secondly, they can also have students use these app creation programs to demonstrate their understanding of class content. These types of assessments allow students to develop technical skills while engaging in higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (by using their acquired knowledge to create a finished product). Additionally, when teachers create their own applications, they have a greater chance of engaging students as they adapt their curriculum to be more accessible to modern youth. Large time investments and a lack of coding knowledge may initially deter some educators, but the benefits of teacher-created application greatly outweigh any cons. Finally, I think one of the best ways to keep up with emerging technology trends is use social networking tools to subscribe to a variety of developers and experts in the field of educational technology. Receiving updates and notifications of exciting new technologies helps educators stay informed of tools that they might be able to integrate into their classroom.

Blog: http://www.teachthought.com/technology/5-tools-teachers-create-publ...

Permalink Reply by Aaron Curley on April 20, 2014 at 8:34pm

Andrew,

I have to agree that the best way to keep up with technology is to have the articles and information about emerging trends sent to you so that you can sort through and read them as applicable.  Connecting to experts through social media is also a great use of technology to save us time.  I will have to add these sites to my resource list because I would love to revisit this topic in a year or two.  Once I have a set of classes that I regularly teach I would love to build some apps that would engage and push my students to achieve a higher level of mastery.  Appery and eclipse classic are being added.  I will have to take a look at the article to get the other three.

Aaron

Permalink Reply by Mary Tippett on April 22, 2014 at 5:52pm

The blog I'm focusing on is "10 Tools for Student-Centered Creative Expression" http://www.teachthought.com/technology/10-tools-student-centered-cr...

I really enjoyed this blog post simply because it discussed a variety of ways to encourage student creativity and self-expression through multiple technological resources. Sometimes we use these new digital tools and websites to show our students new information, but forget that almost all students learn best by creating things themselves using the content at hand. I thought it was great of the blog's author to point out that using these tools is only beneficial when the student is given room to create. A "rigid rubric" will strangle any creativity that these new tools could encourage!

Another pro to this article is that out of the 10 tools the author listed, I had only heard of two before. Just reading this post gave me 8 new possible tools to use with my students in order to help them create digitally. It's always a good idea to have back up plans in case the lesson doesn't work so well with one website, or the students don't really get the hang of a site's layout. As a visual learner myself, I think the only bad thing about the post is that it could use some help from screenshots of each link. I'd be more inclined to try the new site out if I got to see a quick thumbnail of it first.

My hope is to always stay current with new resources and tools throughout my teaching career. Sometimes life intervenes and this is not always possible! I feel that my own curiosity and interest in new technologies will encourage me to keep up with the numerous emerging trends. 

Permalink Reply by Christian Reynolds on April 26, 2014 at 3:59pm

http://www.teachthought.com/learning/50-inspiring-ted-talks-teacher...

I choose the 50 inspiring ted talks for teachers.  The reason for choosing this blog is because I love watching the ted movies I have watch a lot of inspiring movies.  I watched a few of these movies and plan on watching more of them.  What I love about Ted.com is that there are movies for just about everything.  These movies are also made by people who know a lot about what they are talking about.  When reading I the introduction on this page this quote stood out to me that I completely agree with.

     "Using TED Talks to convey an important message or spark creativity might be more effective in teaching students than an individual agenda or preconceived notion of what should be said. Furthermore, TED Talks challenges educators everywhere to think differently and encourage the same in their students."

I enjoy getting new ideas from where ever I can and being able to watch movies of people that have studied or researched in the field can give great ideas that I have never even thought about.  What I don't like about Ted.com is that some of the movie that I have watched are very hard to understand, and sometimes the subject isn't always what you think it is going to be.  For instance, I watched the school cloud video from this blog as shown below. 

"2. School Cloud

Sugata Mitra won the 2013 TED Prize for his idea: Build a school in the cloud. After quite literally putting a computer in a wall in impoverished areas of India, he proved that children, people, are capable of learning without an agenda or even a teacher. Given the proper tools people will group together and teach themselves. They only need encouragement and positive reinforcement as a teaching mechanism."

After watching this video I very much enjoyed the video but thought that the video was going to be able putting classes in the cloud to be able to teach from there.  I wasn't really about that at all though it was enjoyable and enlightening it wasn't what I expected.  

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