Its time to overcome your technophobia was the webinar, I chose to watch for the Literature/Webinar Review. I have a number of technologies in my life, I have a smart phone, I use a computer quite regularly. I was familiar with Goggle Docs, I use a Goggle Calendar to manage my schedule and my sons schedule. I am able to reduce having to remind my soon to be ex husband of the boys activities by sharing the boys calendar with him. This has been a huge stress relieve in our lives. Prior to watching this webinar, I did not think of my self has Techphobic. However, after watching it I realized I was Blog Phobic.
I was afraid of posting and making a mistake or not embedding something right or appearing like I didn't understand the material we were presented with. It has gotten better since correcting my first blog post, working on Week 4's Post. Hopefully by the end of the course, I will be comfortable with this technology and be able to apply it to my future class room. Here are two examples of why blogging in the Classroom can help students master the subject matter better and begin to become World Citizens.
Symptom 2 "What if something goes wrong?" The cure that was mentioned in the Webinar was practice, Practice, Practice and Don't be afraid to ask questions. Learn to collaborate with co-workers or even students. They suggested using http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/ to help students who missed school to access to a test review. This could also be used for messages to Substitute Teachers or students when you were going to be out of the class. (I decided if something went wrong, I could ask the professor or my fellow students for help)
Symptom 3 "It is so hard to start" The suggestion was to start small with your students and both learning it together and collaborate with other teachers They suggested using Qwiki http://www.qwiki.com/. They felt this was a great resource to help visual and auditory Learners.(I took the blog post I was most comfortable with and started working)
Symptom 4 "What if it breaks?" Just try it, it won't broke. Collaborate with co workers if you get stuck. If this is really a concern of yours, they suggest trying Glogster http://www.glogster.com. They felt this was very user friendly and hard to break. (This didn't apply to being Blog Phobic)
Symptom 5 "I don't have access (its blocked)" The suggestion was to take responsibility for your students learning, speak with the administration of your school and tell them why this technology might be useful to your students. Also look for as many free or inexpensive resources as you can find. (This didn't apply to being Blog Phobic)
Symptom 7 "Why Change Now?" We ask our students to be lifelong learners. We need to model the same behavior. They felt the cure of this was to envision your ideal class room and accept that technology can help you achieve it. (I felt that if I began to learn about blogging now, I would be proficient at it within the next two years)
Course Learner Outcomes that were covered by viewing this Webinar are as follows. (how is was learnned is in bold, after the objective)
1. Demonstrate the understanding of how technology can effectively promote student learning. Throughout this Webinar is was discussed how our students our digital natives and they learn the most when they are excited about what they are learning. Through the use of techology students are learning new things and faster because they believe it is interesting.
2. Evaluate and use a variety of current technologies to enhance content instruction and to advance students' technological literacy. In this webinar, a variety of free programs were presented to help teachers begin to utilize technology. They were http://vocaroo.com/, http://www.qwiki.com/. , http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/, and http://www.glogster.com
5. Demontrate a comprehensive understanding of safe, eithical, leagal and Moral practices related to digital information and technology. This was discussed during Symptom 5 of the Webinar. It presented teachers with ideas if something isn't allowed in your district and your feel it is useful to present to your administration how it will be useful and how you can teach students digital citizenship by showing them the best use of the technology.
7. Demonstate an understanding of the use of adpative technolgyies and other digitial rescources to personalize and differentiate learning activities for every student. In Sympton 3 It's to hard to start, a great tool was discussed for visual and auditory learners. It was Qwiki http://www.qwiki.com/. The use of technologies such as this will help shorten the gap between the typical student and the educationally challenged student.
8. Evaluate adapt and reflect on emerging tools and trends by participating in local and global learning communities and by reviewing current research and professional literature. By watching this Webinar, I was participating in a Global learning community. I analyzed the information that was presented in this Webinar and applied it to my own experience with techonology in the course
I found No more excuses to be a very valuable Webinar to watch. I have actually recommended it to a couple of teachers I know. These teachers are nervous about using technology in the classroom because they are afraid they have not mastered the skill of using technology. I have set up a bookmark of this video in my Diigo account because I believe when I enter the classroom many of my colleagues may not be as tech savvy as I am becoming. Showing the the video that got me started on training to utilize more technology may help them begin to move forward which can only help them in their professional development and the digital natives they are teaching
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