"Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments."
Iroquois Midwinter Ceremony Website - Weebly
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I created this website as a class project for Clarion University's online Library Science 540 course, Multicultural Sources and Services for Educators and Librarians (Dr. Buchanan - Fall 2011). The project called for students to "develop a web page that provides ideas, reading lists, links, etc. for celebrating or commemorating" a holiday or event that is related to a specific culture. I chose to select a culture that many individuals often overlook, Native Americans (in this case, the Iroquois). Once selected, I did some basic research into Iroquois celebrations and holidays and chose the Iroquois Midwinter Ceremony as my focus.
The website primarily offers visitors with information regarding the Midwinter Ceremony. Also included, is basic information about the Iroquois, a reading list that includes books dealing with the Iroquois for various age groups, and links to external sites that provide much more information on the subject. Overall, the website acts as a digital way to present information that I have learned through various research methods.
Designing a website to present information is a wonderful learning experience, and would greatly benefit students. There are a lot of different tools available for quick and easy publication of information online, but the tool of choice for this particular website project was Weebly.
Students are constantly using the internet in a number of different capacities. By allowing them to use something that they are already familiar with in an educational manner, classroom projects can become fun and exciting. Weebly is a great tool for the creation of student projects because of its ease of use and low cost (free) web hosting.
The website primarily offers visitors with information regarding the Midwinter Ceremony. Also included, is basic information about the Iroquois, a reading list that includes books dealing with the Iroquois for various age groups, and links to external sites that provide much more information on the subject. Overall, the website acts as a digital way to present information that I have learned through various research methods.
Designing a website to present information is a wonderful learning experience, and would greatly benefit students. There are a lot of different tools available for quick and easy publication of information online, but the tool of choice for this particular website project was Weebly.
Students are constantly using the internet in a number of different capacities. By allowing them to use something that they are already familiar with in an educational manner, classroom projects can become fun and exciting. Weebly is a great tool for the creation of student projects because of its ease of use and low cost (free) web hosting.
Digital Storytelling - Prezi
This product was designed as my submission for an assignment in Clarion University's ED 620 course, Internet Applications for K-12 Educators (Dr. McCullough - Summer 2011). The course offered a lot of really great, practical uses for technology in the classroom that will help keep students engaged while allowing teachers to apply content in a multitude of ways.
This particular project involved telling a story digitally through the use of text and pictures (and/or sound and video). Our assignment was very broad, and allowed us to create a story about any topic, but a similar assignment with a particular focus could be very effective in the classroom. Normally, students would probably approach a project like this by opening up PowerPoint on their computer. However, ED 620 presented me with a variety of new web-based tools to create more dynamic and interesting presentations. I was really drawn to the potential of one particular tool called Prezi. |
Prezi is a web-based presentation builder that allows its users to stray away from the monotonous flow from one slide of information to the next, and so on. To quote the Prezi website, "Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software that opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides. The zoomable canvas makes it fun to explore ideas and connections between them. The result: visually captivating presentations that lead your audience down a path of discovery."
For my sample Prezi presentation, I chose to share a brief look into a topic that I know a lot about due to my assistantship with the Jefferson County History Center: Historic Brookville. My presentation focuses on major historic landmarks along Brookville's Main Street, and shows how this web-based technology can offer a fresh take on sharing information in a presentation format.
I have the full intention on utilizing Prezi, and other similar web-based tools, in the classroom for both instruction and student assignments. Tools like these offer new perspectives into how students can gain and share learned information with their peers and will hopefully lead to higher quality student work and achievement. Only using technologies that are familiar and feel safe does not allow for growth, both academically and personally, and I will continue to seek out new ways to present instruction and promote students to discover new ways of learning and sharing understanding.
For my sample Prezi presentation, I chose to share a brief look into a topic that I know a lot about due to my assistantship with the Jefferson County History Center: Historic Brookville. My presentation focuses on major historic landmarks along Brookville's Main Street, and shows how this web-based technology can offer a fresh take on sharing information in a presentation format.
I have the full intention on utilizing Prezi, and other similar web-based tools, in the classroom for both instruction and student assignments. Tools like these offer new perspectives into how students can gain and share learned information with their peers and will hopefully lead to higher quality student work and achievement. Only using technologies that are familiar and feel safe does not allow for growth, both academically and personally, and I will continue to seek out new ways to present instruction and promote students to discover new ways of learning and sharing understanding.
Federal Bureaucracy - Non-linear PowerPoint
While student teaching, I was placed in an instructional role in a 12th grade Political Science class. One of the topics that I was covering with my students happened to be bureaucracy. I had been experimenting with the classroom's smart board at the time and decided to design a non-linear PowerPoint presentation that could be manipulated and navigated by touching various buttons on the smart board. This approach offered a new spin on the classic "lecture accompanied by a presentation" because the navigation through the PowerPoint was more varied. Similar to a website, I was able to navigate to different pages whenever necessary to review information with the class. I had a lot of positive reception after completing this lesson with the students.
For many of the students, this was the first time that they were exposed to PowerPoint in this capacity. Most of them had the impression that slides had to be navigated in a particular order. A few of the students even asked me to show them the basics of setting up a presentation using the "non-linear" approach so that they could design future classroom projects in the same way.
For many of the students, this was the first time that they were exposed to PowerPoint in this capacity. Most of them had the impression that slides had to be navigated in a particular order. A few of the students even asked me to show them the basics of setting up a presentation using the "non-linear" approach so that they could design future classroom projects in the same way.
Bureaucracy PowerPoint by Nathan Pearce | |
File Size: | 663 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
Teen Law - Informational Brochure
While on my block student teaching experience, my block partner and I had the opportunity to instruct an elective class entitled "Teen Law." This class was based around student interest in legal issues that relate to their age group. At the beginning of the course, our cooperating teacher had students choose legal topics that they felt most connected to (underage drinking, bullying, "sexting," etc.) as an individual focus for the rest of the class. Each week, the students were given various tasks (finding court cases, analyzing political cartoons, conducting surveys, etc.) all based around their individually chosen issues. One product that the students were asked to create while my block partner and I were teaching was an informational brochure that educated readers with facts and statistics related to their issues. To help the class, I created a sample brochure dealing with the issue of "juvenile justice." The students were able to use my work as a model to base their efforts off of to better visualize how a proper brochure is made.
Anytime that it is possible for a teacher to model a finished product for students, I feel as though it is a necessary step that must be taken, especially when it comes to working with technology. Students sometimes learn best by being guided through a process, and technology really presents itself to be taught in this manner.
If I were the primary instructor for this assignment, I would have spent some class time presenting to the students the various tools and resources available to them when it comes to designing a digital product like these brochures. It would be very simple, yet effective, to show students on a smart board or projector, in real time, some of the basic principles of using the technology as well as some of the shortcuts that will allow them to work more efficiently on their final products.
Anytime that it is possible for a teacher to model a finished product for students, I feel as though it is a necessary step that must be taken, especially when it comes to working with technology. Students sometimes learn best by being guided through a process, and technology really presents itself to be taught in this manner.
If I were the primary instructor for this assignment, I would have spent some class time presenting to the students the various tools and resources available to them when it comes to designing a digital product like these brochures. It would be very simple, yet effective, to show students on a smart board or projector, in real time, some of the basic principles of using the technology as well as some of the shortcuts that will allow them to work more efficiently on their final products.
Juvenile Justice Brochure by Nathan Pearce | |
File Size: | 1925 kb |
File Type: | docx |
© 2011 Nathan J. Pearce