Author: Kristen Garcia

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A Little Obsessed with Hippos

As I already have experience with OneNote, I decided to explore Google Keep to record my notes for this assignment. I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to use! I chose to look at hippos and their environment for this assignment because they are one of my favorite animals.

Google Keep was very user friendly and easy to navigate. You can also customize the layout to be a grid of posts or list in order to fit your task. When uploading an image, it automatically recognized the link and attached it for quick access on each post. I thought that was convenient because you don’t even have to open the whole note, but can quickly select the link below the title. The notes are fun because they can be highlighted in different colors for organization or just a pleasant appearance. You can also make checklists, set reminders, and pin important notes to the top of the page. I prefer the grid format as it makes me feel like I’m creating my own Pinterest board. You can also create links on posts that connect to other note pages you have created.

For students or teachers, it seems like Google Keep would be great for sharing ideas and collaborating because there is a quick button to add anyone. I also believe this would be great for students researching for a project. They could save images or notes with quick links to the online source to refer to. They could pin a checklist of the criteria to the top and check things off as they find the information as well. Overall, Google Keep is user friendly and could be incorporated into the classroom for both students and teachers.

 

Image: Hippo by Noel Reynolds link

Feature Image: Hippo by Andrew Mason link

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I used to have high hopes for technology in the classroom but…

When starting student teaching in the fall, I had high hopes for using technology as a resource in my classroom. At first, we used computers several times in the classroom for research, interactive labs, and other types of activities. I originally thought using computers would be an easy way for students to work at home if they needed to, but it turns out there were too many students who didn’t have access to computers outside of school. I also started to notice how computers were affecting my students’ abilities to engage and learn from the activities. With technology, my students seem to get off task easily, and they do not gain much content knowledge from the activities. They are all really good students who can focus on an activity in the classroom, but as soon as I give them a computer they basically just stop learning. Since this time, I’ve been focusing on only using technology for my slideshow presentations, and I’ve just been letting my students perform hands-on activities to learn. I haven’t given up on technology in the classroom, but I’m stumped as to how I can use it to help my students without losing their engagement in a lesson. This is what I’d like to get out of the edtech pilot course. I want to find reliable and engaging uses for technology that students can use in the classroom.   It would be great to find tools for students to use outside of the classroom, and I’m sure those will be helpful in the future, but at the moment I have too many students without access.

Personally, I’ve been using Google drive for my slideshows and for communicating with other teachers. For each unit, we share possible activities and handouts in a folder to access, as well as share links to videos or short clips to show students. As a school, we use Google spreadsheets to record low grades of students with other teachers who have the same student. This way we can see if they are only performing low in a single class, or if they have a behavioral issue that is affecting their grade in all of their classes. Teachers can also share strategies to help a student, or at least ideas they have tried. This way all of the teachers of a student who is struggling are communicating to help them get back on track in school. We also use Synergy for reporting grades so that both students and their parents can see how they’re doing online at anytime. Students with internet access at home can check regularly check their progress and see what they are missing as well. One nice thing is you can add a comment to an assignment if a student turned it in late or incomplete so they understand why points may have been marked off.

As you can tell, my use of technology in the classroom is minimal, but I would love to find ways to expand my use if it will really benefit student learning in my classroom.

 

Image: Science Class by Lokesh Dhakar link