Kristin Ward's Electronic Portfolio

Samantha Hermez did a podcast on technology in English and presented the infomation through setting up a radio show and then doing a rap. The rap talked about how bringing technology in the classroom can be expensive, inapproiate things on the internet, and plagerism can be more of a problem. Yet, she discusses that students can expand their knowledge and learn about other authors, blog their thoughts, and use databases. I did not learn anything new too much but it did remind me of the problems other teachers and parents might have with technology in the classroom.

When comparing the ways to reserach for a paper vs. a podcast/screencast it becomes clear to me that both involve the same process. The big difference comes in presenting the reserach found. I enjoy doing the podcast more than doing a paper because I have trouble putting my thoughts down on paper even if I do throughly understand the topic I am researching on. I felt by doing the podcast I could present the information clearly and demonstrate what I have learned effectively by being able to talk about it rather than write about the topic. I do believe I covered the topic approiately using this form of assessement and I as a future teacher feel this would be a great way for students the present information they have learned and/or researched.  

The article, 'But I don't want to Teach my Students How to Use Technology' by Trent Batson discusses the importances and reasons for teachers to acknowledge the technology innovation occuring in our world today. I agree with the article that this technology innovation has drastically changed the world we live in and continues to change the way we view and percieve many aspects of life. Even if teachers themselves avoid using technology their students do not necessairly and it is important that teachers are aware of how to use technology with their students because it is an intricate part of their world and to ignore this fact is to ignore the world around us. Teachers need to think about the best way to reach out, teach, and relate to their students which includes using technology.

As I look at the word cloud formed from the script of why I want to be a teacher I notice several words that stand out. The word 'people' is the largest word on my word cloud. I did not realized I used this word the most, but people is the reason for my excitment of going into education because this career involves working with people and this is what I believe life is about. The other words that stand out are students, teacher, and history which did not suprise me because these words are part of my digital storytelling project.

The video that I chose was Fifty Nifty United States. I chose this video because in incorporates music and social studies for teaching the names of the states therefore this can be applied across the curriculum. This could fit into a lesson on learning about the different states that are comprised within our country. I could use the song in the video to help the students learn the names of the states.

VoiceThread could be incorporated into the classroom through several different activities. Using VoiceThread would be great to use for an activity within the first week of school. Students can introduce themselves and give information about themselves to help me learn something about who they are. Another activity could be showing what activities we do for the 100th day of school, then this can be sent to parents to show them what their kids are doing in school. Digital Storytelling could be used for students to record a book on tape, they could use this to listen to by themselves or share with other classmates or maybe to help younger students read.