Reflection for EDLD 5366

After been in this program thus far, I hold my passion for technology use into the classroom to be a vital part of education.  I have been one of the few people on campus to be receptive to using technology in the classroom.  I understand the amazing potential the students had at a moment’s notice.  I think I have felt I have been on the right track.  It is difficult to be a lone wolf, knowing how we can explore options for best practices with technology.  As I currently talk with a few of my colleagues and administrators, they are slowing warming up to the idea of technology’s effectiveness.  We see our students become engrossed into their devices daily.  Why not tap into that captive attention for curriculum?  

Andrew Churches published an article in 2008 discussing Bloom’s Taxonomy in a new way.  (Churches, 2008)  I was really excited to see how the technology skills were incorporated into the Bloom’s Taxonomy.  I was very excited how some of the things we may do as teachers with our students (blogging, online responses and critiques to other students) were making it into the HOTS level.  So often, we find it difficult to create a lesson where we can easily incorporate the HOTS levels.  Some subjects have a more difficult time than others.  I began sharing this article with my colleagues and administrators.  

From the Horizons Report, a few of the technologies projected to infiltrate education are already here from my view point. Mobile devices and apps and tablets are enormous with the students.  (2012) I see many students bringing in tablets to use.  I have begun to apply what I have been learning about different technologies in my classroom, trying to show other teachers ways to implement the technology.  I really want to demonstrate and mentor my colleagues into stepping towards technology for education.  

Citations:

Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Cummins, M. (2012). Horizon Report: 2012 K-12 Edition. Retrieved from     

     https://luonline.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-1026609-dt-content-rid-

     7021990_1/courses/EDLD_5362_ENA_2013_90_AP2/2012-horizon-report-K12.pdf

Churches, A. (2007, April). Bloom's digital taxonomy. Retrieved from 

     http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670

"My personal story" reflection

This assignment was interesting.  I used powtoons.com to create my video this week.  The challenge of this program was to time my voice recording with the video.  It was not as simple as I first thought.  The first thing was to script out what I wanted.  That proved the most difficult.  Given only 2 minutes, what was I to show about my life?  What was interesting about my life?  I combed my computer and normal places for my files.  

I ended up showcasing my story as a teacher and my pets.  That is where my passion was.  Teaching was my chosen profession since I was a kid.  I always tell my students stories of Bella, the demon child, and Panther, the "special" cat.  

It was simple to import the pictures into powtoons.  The hard part was to edit it with near perfect timing.  After I had the timing down.  I watched the video and recorded different times where I needed my narrating.  I tried several times to record in order to eliminate ghost static.  I will need to look into how to edit audio to help with the quality.