The first concept I want to discuss from our textbook: "Transforming Learning with New Technologies" is "learning assessments." According to our textbook, "Transforming Learning with New Technologies", "learning assessments occur before, during, and after teaching lessons and enable teachers to evaluate student knowledge, understanding, and performance. " (Maloy, Verock-O' Loughlin, Edwards, 77) I believe learning assessments are crucial to a student's learning. Without assessments, teachers would not know where their students were in terms of comprehension of information. Although, I do think that students do not simply just have to be assessed by the "old fashioned test", but also in other more creative ways.
The second concept I want to discuss from our textbook: "Transforming Learning with New Technologies" is the "PowerPoint." According to our textbook, "Transforming Learning with New Technologies", "PowerPoints are multimedia presentation software packages, that are a standard feature on many of today's computers. (Maloy, Verock-O' Loughlin, Edwards, 220) The reason I chose to talk about "PowerPoints" for this concept is because I believe they are one of those tools in education that can either really help a student's learning or really hurt a student's learning. If used properly, "PowerPoints" are an excellent teaching aid, that really helps a student visually see the information being taught. Used improperly, "PowerPoints" can be a student's learning nightmare. What I mean by "used improperly" is when teachers use "PowerPoints" every single day, so overuse, or when they improperly make a "PowerPoint," such as too much text on a slide. Basically, PowerPoints are great teaching tools as long as they are used effectively.
The final concept I want to discuss from our textbook: "Transforming Learning with New Technologies" is "alphabet books." According to our textbook, "Transforming Learning with New Technologies", "alphabet books can be made by students and can be used as a way to practice spelling patterns, letter sounds, vocabulary words, and reading skills."(Maloy, Verock-O' Loughlin, Edwards, 230) I thought this was a very creative way to allow younger students to learn some of the basics. It is creative and able to be used for multiple topics in the same lesson.
References:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Schwarz, G. (2015, June 14) "Assessmemts". Created with toondoo.com: http://www.toondoo.com/View.toon?param=9066238
Great comic strip! :) It well represents some of the thoughts teachers should have whenever they assess student learning. It is a tough change for many, though, as they are so used to doing what they've always done...and it doesn't help that the standardized tests have been promoted as the way to assess in the last decade or so. Truthfully, I rarely see PP being used as it should, i.e., support as a presentation tool, but there are some great design principles that could be used instead of the usual bullet points. In fact, in the past, I had an assignment for this class for students to create a Pecha Kucha PP (if you are not sure what that is, Google it) just to help them 'think outside the PP box' :)
ReplyDelete