The results of this interactivity were truly amazing. Personally, I would never have even thought that we would come up with such an extensive list that gives examples of not just the "traditional" calculator and SmartBoard but also of manipulatives, computer software and presentation aides.
This list will prove useful in not just READ411 and CURR314, but also my methods course and potentially Teaching for Learning I. When I begin to plan lessons, I can easily look to this list for ideas on what technological resources are available to aid in increasing student understanding. There is so much out there that I had no clue about, and this interactivity and the list it produced has greatly educated me.
Before this interactivity, I had never dealt with Google Docs (or online collaboration) before. It went very smoothly and was definitely an overall enjoyable experience. I hope to make use of this form of collaboration in any other group work I may encounter in the future.
Justin, I think we are all amazed with how many different technologies we were able to come up with. I have never even heard about most of them. At first I was a little skeptical about this assignment, because our group is so big I wasn't sure if we are going to be able to give everyone a chance to contribute something, but when I saw how many we ended up getting I was pretty much speechless. I think it was great that we could work as a group and didn't have to meet even once. I think that brings a totally new idea of online group work and collaboration. I am sure that one day we may be able to use it in our classrooms.
ReplyDelete~Karolina
Yes Justin I think we worked great as a team and it was amazing how it was all done through online. When we first started this assignment I wouldve never thought we would come up with such an extensive list of technologies. I believe working with new technologies you learn from the experience. For instance, in my case when using google docs I had forgot to sign in before I contributed my part to the group, but now going foward when using google docs in the future I now know I have to sign in before contributing or making a spread sheet. Doing a group project like this gave me a new idea that I can use in my classroom, while still having the students work together collaboratively, but yet they wont have to meet.
ReplyDeleteJustin, I very much agree with you. These resources will definitely help us in the future, whether it be for our upcoming classes or as a teacher. I also have never used google docs before, or any type of online collaboration. There are many positives and a few negatives I experienced with the overall concept. I like how everyone was able to input their ideas on their own time and it was not necessary for such a big group of busy students to meet at ONE time in ONE particular location. This is very convenient for the working world as well as future classrooms. I remember hating group projects in high school because I had in-school activities like Marching Band and so many out-of-school activities, I would never have time to meet up with anybody, therefore having to finish all work in class and then separately at home. This allows students to easily share their ideas without really sharing personal information like a telephone number or screen name. The teacher can make a spreadsheet for each group or even the whole class and just share each student to the document by e-mail. I think this can be a great resource. One negative I experienced was timing. The way the schedule of creating the spreadsheet and everyone adding their comments just conflicted with my personal schedule. When working with a group in google docs in the future, I hope to stop being a procrastinator and have contact with all members early on so that each person has ample time to complete the task.
ReplyDeleteJustin I definitely agree with you. Our whole group came together and came up with some great ways to integrate technology in a math class. It's great to have a list because when I teach in the future I can pick and choose which technologies I can use during a lesson. Before we did this list I didn’t know which technologies would fit in my future classroom. We also now have an idea of what different types of technologies we have at hand, so now we know what to add to it when future technologies come about. Even though we can try to integrate specific and more complex technologies into the classroom, we basically already use simple technologies in a math course almost everyday. For instance, we use a board to teach, a calculator to check answers, and much more. However, if we want to use more complex technologies, we now have a list, and we can again continue to add to it. If these technologies are used by the teacher the right way, then it’ll benefit the students not only in the short term, but the long term as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I figured that since I was a late contributor, how the heck would I find any technologies? I could only think of 5 or 6 from my head, and if 8 people already contributed about 3 each, I would not be able to help the group out. By researching different technologies through google, I was surprised to find so many that our group hasn't used. I mean...we did come up with about 70 technologies! I have the URL to our spreadsheet saved as most of these technologies are free and are really good.
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