My first exposure to teaching with technology came when I was a sophomore in college.
I suppose that's not entirely true. My professors used PowerPoint during my freshman year. My high school teachers used overhead projectors. I even watched the occasional video in elementary school. But this was the first time I was aware of experiencing teaching with Technology, capital T.
I was visiting a friend at her house, and saw her 5 year old son, in the next room, learning about religious traditions at a laptop. An older, Yiddish-accented voice came from the computer, telling him to press one if he understood the "very special thing about Shabbos," and to press two if he didn't. Intrigued, I asked my friend what this was. She explained to me the basic concept of distance learning. I was amazed. I never thought it was something I would be involved in.
Fast forward about ten years. My class has been asked to create a webinar about a technological tool of our choice. Upon assembling a team of brilliant classmates, I suggest Skype as our tool of choice. Between the three of us, we discover that there is much more to teleconferencing in the classroom than I had realized. There are entire webpages dedicated to using Skype for educational purposes. Of course, one of these sites was created by Skype itself, and it's logical that they would talk themselves up, but upon scrutiny, many of these activities seem like ones I would legitimately use in my classroom. The one that most intrigues me: virtual field trips.
Fast forward a few months. I'm at the MACUL conference in Detroit. A couple of hours after the presentation I talked about in Part I (I'll talk about the one in between, and the final presentation I attended, in Part III). The theme: Virtual Field Trips. Obviously, this is the session for me. Readers, I was not disappointed.
I have already typed up my notes about this session in the "Reflections" shared Doc that Tahani suggested (and also created? I'm not sure if she or Rory created it. In either case, thanks!), so I'm not going to post everything again here. However, I'll mention the highlights:
1. Virtual Field Trips are much cheaper than real live field trips, and may be the best option for some schools.
2. Virtual Field Trips don't have to be far away. In fact, if they're nearby, you can spark students' interest and awareness of their own community.
3. The best formula the presenters found was creating a video with an expert before the VFT, then give students time to generate questions, and then hold a video-conferenced Q&A session.
4. Most of the equipment needed for the above is precisely the equipment we use in this grad program.
5. Editing shots together in a non-choppy way is not as difficult as I thought it would be.
If anyone wants the more detailed notes and can't access the Reflections Doc, leave me a comment and I can send them along!
To be continued...
I suppose that's not entirely true. My professors used PowerPoint during my freshman year. My high school teachers used overhead projectors. I even watched the occasional video in elementary school. But this was the first time I was aware of experiencing teaching with Technology, capital T.
I was visiting a friend at her house, and saw her 5 year old son, in the next room, learning about religious traditions at a laptop. An older, Yiddish-accented voice came from the computer, telling him to press one if he understood the "very special thing about Shabbos," and to press two if he didn't. Intrigued, I asked my friend what this was. She explained to me the basic concept of distance learning. I was amazed. I never thought it was something I would be involved in.
Fast forward about ten years. My class has been asked to create a webinar about a technological tool of our choice. Upon assembling a team of brilliant classmates, I suggest Skype as our tool of choice. Between the three of us, we discover that there is much more to teleconferencing in the classroom than I had realized. There are entire webpages dedicated to using Skype for educational purposes. Of course, one of these sites was created by Skype itself, and it's logical that they would talk themselves up, but upon scrutiny, many of these activities seem like ones I would legitimately use in my classroom. The one that most intrigues me: virtual field trips.
Fast forward a few months. I'm at the MACUL conference in Detroit. A couple of hours after the presentation I talked about in Part I (I'll talk about the one in between, and the final presentation I attended, in Part III). The theme: Virtual Field Trips. Obviously, this is the session for me. Readers, I was not disappointed.
I have already typed up my notes about this session in the "Reflections" shared Doc that Tahani suggested (and also created? I'm not sure if she or Rory created it. In either case, thanks!), so I'm not going to post everything again here. However, I'll mention the highlights:
1. Virtual Field Trips are much cheaper than real live field trips, and may be the best option for some schools.
2. Virtual Field Trips don't have to be far away. In fact, if they're nearby, you can spark students' interest and awareness of their own community.
3. The best formula the presenters found was creating a video with an expert before the VFT, then give students time to generate questions, and then hold a video-conferenced Q&A session.
4. Most of the equipment needed for the above is precisely the equipment we use in this grad program.
5. Editing shots together in a non-choppy way is not as difficult as I thought it would be.
If anyone wants the more detailed notes and can't access the Reflections Doc, leave me a comment and I can send them along!
To be continued...
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