Jerome Jones
2nd March 2, 2011
Ck
Etec 424
Blog posting
I think that the types of activates that would make the best use of technology in the class room is, Semantic networks, power points for presentations, and collaborative assignments. These all make good writing activates, because they are mainly fun and students like to do them so you get higher participation which turns into better grades. Collaborative works are the best to me, because it gives your students a chance to work together in groups so that there are many ideas for them to choose from which will make each of the presentations more diverse. The semantic maps are great help when it comes to brain storming for ideas, since you basically just write down whatever pops into your head. Power point presentations are also great because it gives each of your students or groups the opportunity to make their own project from scratch. Their projects will all have great amounts of good information, and they will also show each person individual style.
In order for me as an educator no to let the power point presentation distract my audience, the one thing I would do is give my students a set of questions that have to be answered about every presentation. I would also make each of my students get tell the class what they liked about the presentation, and what they would change to make it better. Yes I do feel that following the pitfalls from the text book would be easy to follow. I would give each of my students a certain number of slides, slide transitions, fonts, colors, and templates. This would help limit running in to all the pitfalls, I would also go through step by step with my students so that they see exactly how I want them to look. I would also go through have each of my students show me their presentations early so that if we run into any problems they can be corrected before the presentation is due.
I think that even though these are all great ways to use the technology in your classroom to your advantage, technology gives you as the educator more responsibility. When it comes to collaborative work your two biggest issues are making sure the groups work well together and they actually get work accomplished, and you have to make sure every group member does an equal share of the work. When it comes to power point presentations you have to make sure that information in the slide is not over shadowed by backgrounds, transitions, too many slides, or not enough information. The best way to take care of this problem take time during class to walk around and check the presentations so that everyone knows what needs to be fixed before due date. At the end of the day even though all of these are good methods you also have to make sure you have enough computer for every one to use equally so no one is sitting around not doing anything.
citation
JONASSEN, DAVID, HOWLAND, JANE, MARRA, ROSE M, & CRISMOND, DAVID. (1999). Meaningful learning with technology 3rd edition . New Jersy,New York: Pearson.