Blog #4: Wiki's and WebQuests

I have learned much over the past two assignments. The first one that I would like to discuss is the Wiki page that we had to create.  I feel like a wiki page would be an interesting assignment for the students to use during the class.  I felt like this assignment was a unique way of including the class and a very good way of engaging them.  If you made creating a wiki page a project the students would enjoy it because it gives them something else to do as opposed to copying down notes off of a PowerPoint.  I feel like many history classes today get involved with death by the PowerPoint and it bores the students who actually want to learn. 

The other tool we used was the WebQuest.  The WebQuest is something I may end up using in the future in my classroom.  It was an easy tool to use while giving directions and it makes it easier for the students because it is on the Internet.  If a student wanted to work on a project while at home they would not have to worry about a piece of paper with the directions on it because they would be able to access it on the internet whenever they needed it. I enjoyed this assignment and thought it was the best one if the class.

Blog #3: Making Movies and PowerPoints

So far I have found this class to be the most educational out of any of the Ashland classes I have taken thus far.  I believe that the technologies that we have used and been shown how to develop have been fun and interactive for me as a student. I believe that it will be even more fun for students if we as teachers are able to get away from PowerPoint teaching.  One of my favorite activities we did this time around was the movies for the classroom activity.  I really get into the movie making ideas and I believe that it would be fun to let your students participate as well.  I think the students would enjoy making their own classroom movie on a certain topic.  It could be used as a project for the students to teach one another and make things a little different then a typical classroom.  I also liked the PowerPoint activity.  I am still getting used to how to effectively use PowerPoint in the classroom so this activity gave me a much better grasp on how to use it.  Although, I would not consider myself a PowerPoint wiz by any means, being shown how to insert different things into a PowerPoint to skip to certain slides was a tool I will most likely use in the future.  The one activity I did not get much out of or really think  I would use is the Google spreadsheet.  It had some good functions such as setting up a grade book but I think I would probably stick to Microsoft Excel when it comes to doing my grades.  It wasn’t a bad activity I just don’t believe I would get much use out of it.