Virtual Tour

Here is a link to the virtual tour
Virtual tour

Here is a link to the activity sheets:
Activity sheets

Week 8 PLE Post

Some of the problems with learning TPACK skills are that they are something totally new to all teachers and so it would take them a while to get used to them. Also, it takes more effort on the teacher's part to integrate different technologies into their lesson plans. The main idea of the article is that technology is a good pedagogy and can enhance student's learning. Technology needs to be a regular part of a teacher's lesson plans. Some of the ideas in the article that led to my main idea were that there should be a comprehensive list of technologies that corresponding to the curriculum for the teacher's use and just the importance the whole article placed on using technology in the right context. This article might be important to me as a teacher because it cites important studies and research that has been done that will help me become a better teacher.

Week 7 PLE

The role of technology in creating dynamic experiences for students is that it can show them things they wouldn't be able to see or experience otherwise. Also it can make more dry subjects seem more exciting and interesting. Technology might detract from student learning by them concentrating less on the content and more on the special effects or the technology. If a student uses a technology to learn something, they might only remember how to use the technology rather than what they learned from the activity. Three examples of effective technology that I have used or experienced would be computers, a Promethean board, and videos.

Week 6 PLE Post Continued

I viewed three different virtual tours and found them all to be very well done. The first one I watched was the one about volcanoes. I thought that it asked good questions and used a good variety of photos and videos. The second one I viewed was about WWII. I thought it focused on the important events and locations of that time and also asked good questions. The last one was about different ruins around the world. The activities and questions done at the different sites were thought-provoking and interactive. The good things about implementing a virtual tour in the classroom would be that the students would be able to see things that they wouldn't be able to otherwise. Also, it is very visually stimulating so it would keep the students interested. The bad things about a virtual tour is that it takes time and careful planning to put it together. Also the teacher would have to learn how to use the program and that also takes time.

Week 6 PLE Post

When a virtual tour is used in the classroom, there are other things that can be used simultaneously to help the students learn more. The teacher could play music that is appropriate for the location or time period being studied. Another thing that could be done is the students could draw something that is related to the content being studied. The students could also bring in things from home to share with their classmates. The students could read or listen to stories about the subject matter. One last thing they could do is make things out of clay of what they learned.

Digital Storytelling Project

Here is a link to the storyboard:
Storyboard

Digital Storytelling Technology

A pro is an argument that supports something and a con is an argument that is against that something. Some pros about the technology we used to make the story was that it was very visually-based so it was easy to see exactly what was being done to our video when we were editing it. Another pro was it that it was easy to upload and use our own photos and music. A con about it was that we were not familiar with it and it took a little while to figure it out and get the hang of it.