Inspiration Web

Web 2.0 and Inspiration

Prezi is a tool to help diversify a lecture. Since it has a different structure than the standard PowerPoint, Prezi is a way to differentiate my instruction. Also, I thought this tool might be a way to begin the first day of class by making a presentation introducing myself to the students (I saw an example of this on the Prezi site).

I think that Animoto, Smilebox, and Picasa are great tools to use but I could not see myself applying them to my future Mathematics classrooms. It might be a great way to share field trip pictures, wedding pictures, or laboratory slides; however, I do not see an application I would implement in my classroom.

Google Forms are a great way to have students do a short quiz or fill out a survey for feedback on themselves/the teacher. I can get quick scoring through the spreadsheet feature and even share the results with parents or the students if applicable. The tool seems fairly easy to use and something I will try to use in my future classroom in a myriad of ways.

Voicethread would be a way for me to tutor students outside of classroom. For instance, if I have any special needs students and I know they are struggling with a particular concept, I could record a short video, email it to them, and let them listen. Then, the students could complete extra practice problems maybe for some extra points to re-teach the material without having to use class time. Since many students have disabilities or problems in Math, I will try to use this tool or something similar to help differentiate my teaching.

Inspiration has been a difficult tool to use in relation to Mathematics; there are not many concepts than can be build into webs. This tool is more likely to be applicable for English or History classrooms; therefore, I might show this tool to my students to use as a study tool or a practice for other classes. I would probably use this tool sparingly if at all in a Mathematics application.

Scavenger Hunt

This scavenger hunt activity required me to collect pictures that related to a certain theme which my group picked as Verbs. We went outside and acted out many different verbs. Then, we took pictures of each and added captions for what verb the picture is illustrating. Uploading the pictures and compiling the slideshow was an easy task. It was exciting to see the finished project especially since it was a fun activity!

A teacher could use this sort of activity in many ways. Students could borrow a camera from the school or use personal cameras at home to complete the activity for any central theme. For example, a Mathematics teacher in a Geometry class could have students take pictures of shapes in daily life. In general, this is a fun and easy activity where students can learn technology skills while gaining content knowledge through a hands-on assignment.

Picasa Mountain Collection

This slideshow is similar to the scavenger hunt activity except the pictures have been gathered through various methods. During this assignment, I picked a central theme of mountains and collected pictures through different modes such as online collection, digital camera, and scanner. Then, I complied the photos using a tool in Picasa, an online photo tool.

This activity is great for having students explore and use different technology skills. They must obtain the pictures using various modes and then import them into a slideshow online. The only disadvantage for using it to learn general education content is that the requirement of so many methods may take too much time. To make this assignment more time effective and educational, I would probably require students to use any method of obtaining the pictures they liked and base more of the grade on the actual content. However, this assignment is great for a pre-teacher education class since students can learn various methods of collecting pictures to use later in their classrooms.