Focus Question:
How can students express their creativity using technology?
The way technology has advanced allows for students to be extremely creative. Not only with their own, non-school related projects, but with school projects as well. With PowerPoint, Youtube, Podcasts, and Photoshop, the possibilities for what students can do seems endless. Students are able to excel in their school work while at the same time expressing their creativity and individuality.Tech Tool Link: Plants-in-Motion
The Plants-in-Motion link is quite fascinating, especially for those plant enthusiasts out there. Students can easily view the process of germination, circadian responses, and cellular response through video examples of these processes occurring in real time. Students can also view flowers blossoming, such as the Star Lily.At the same time, there are links for teacher projects. The links give ideas to the teachers of learning activities they can do with their students, such as the Darwin Project. It goes as far as giving the teacher visuals to help set up the project.
Therefore, I found this website overall quite engaging for both teachers and students. It is visually appealing and easy to navigate.
Summary and Connections:
I found this chapter to be full of useful information describing how useful technology can be to both students and teachers. I found the section on visual learning to be the most intriguing. It is true that most students are visual learners, so technology based learning seems to be best for for them. The internet and all that it entails allows for information to be presented "dynamically." Technology allows us to go beyond the "static images in books" and move on to the images in motion in videos and animations.Many things are presented visually to students nowadays as well. So the visual literacy that is promoted by teachers among their students is apparent. According to the text, "Visual literacy involves giving students the skills needed to critically read color and form and assess many types of possible visual encounters," and "Visual displays increase instructional options for teachers and students." I agree completely with these two statements. With increasing technology, there are increasing ways to engage both teachers and students.
You discovered a neat website - love how your excitement spills into the writing and your image and links certainly enhanced the content, as well!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the impact of visual literacy - I think many teachers are more aware of how they can capture students' attention with increased visuals in presentations, but I wonder if we couldn't do even more with assessments and projects, etc.
Don't forget to expand on reflection and personalization in responding to the focus question, too!