Thursday, December 6, 2012

My Experiences in EME 2040

          During this semester, my self-contribution to the class was in different ways. These ways were applied mostly in group projects, by sharing different ideas and completing my section necessary to build a potential project. During the Collaborative Project, I contributed in sections like the ELL/ESOL strategies, the rubric to evaluate the required websites used in the lesson plan, and the description of each of the multiple intelligences. For my Power Point, I believe that my class collaboration was to teach my classmates about the use of Apple Devices as assistive and adaptive technologies for learning disability students. During the WebQuest, I used the topic of heredity and reproduction to create a lesson plan for it and teach any online learner. Through this lesson plan, students will then be able to figure out their future offspring through the use of punnett squares. During my Teacher e-Portfolio, I contributed to the class by making my own page as a special education instructor and revealing each one of my teacher experiences. From all of these projects, there was one that was further analyzed because of heavy use of technology, and it is Instructional Strategy Wiki.
                                video credit to wwwinsanelygreatmac

                My strategy for this Instructional Strategy Wiki was the Independent Study strategy. As a group, I believe our Introduction page was well described, as we included a good definition for instructional strategies and each one of its strategies. According to effectiveness of our strategies, I believe each classmate showed signs of researching its proper use and accuracy in class. To analyze and critique our Wiki, we used different examples of teachers applying these strategies in their classrooms. In terms of visuals, we used a variety of them, except for the use of tables. The uniqueness of this project was about using cyber messaging to complete this project; and unfortunately, I believe we weren’t proficient enough on it.

                Just like this Instructional Wiki, I went through different processes to create my assignments. My processes began by first learning how to use the different technological techniques like hyper linking in my paper, posting visuals like photos and videos, and using the creative commons photographs to complete my assignments. My blog and discussion posts served me as a practice to then be able to complete the larger projects like the ones mentioned initially.

                There are many negative and positive experiences lived while working on these large projects as a group. Some of the negative experiences were the coordination of time, the last minute unfinished independent work from each student, and dealing with the different efforts and personalities in the group. Some of the positive experiences were the sharing of ideas in between each other, the motivation we give to each other to make this project the best one, the corrections that I receive to make my future projects better, and the delight you feel together as a team after finish your wonderful project.

                There are also some differences and similarities when working on these collaborative projects  on the process and on the product. One of the first similarities is visioning the product of your project throughout the process. I believe that this is one of the best feelings for any student who is working on a project and he/she is loving what they are doing. If you don’t see the end from the beginning, it might be difficult for you to accomplish a great product. Another similarity is planning out the steps to accomplish the product you want to obtain. On the other hand, there is also one difference. One of the differences is that the product usually ends up looking differently than the way you though it will look. Even though you are always planning on making one specific product, your process is always changing, causing your product to change.

                In my future as an educator, there is one assignment and activity that I will be interested in using in my classroom. The activity that I will apply was the finding of the sips of paper through the GPS tracking device. This activity really expanded my knowledge on technology and made me grow a stronger interest on it. The fun part about this finding was that these pieces of paper had questions regarding our lesson in class. The assignment that I will be interested on using was the Digital Story Telling activity. For this assignment, I used a website called Prezi, next to my classmate Jessica, and  created a lesson on the developmental process of the butterfly. I will call this website “The newer way of powerpoint,” with fun zooming and visuals for your presentation. This assignment gave us the capacity to enjoy the voyage on the internet and use it on what we love the best.  
photo credit to stevec77
Resources
Adorama (2012). Bushnell BackTrack D-Tour Personal GPS Tracking   
     Device, Green. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
     gclid=CMvhtuzmhrQCFQixnQodJicA_w
Lawson, Eric (2011). iPads, iPod Touches, and iPhones as Assistive
     Technology in Education. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
     touches-and-iphones-as-assistive-technology-in-education/47768
Prezi (2012). Retrieved December 6, 2012. http://prezi.com/
 

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