Author: Megan Bromley

1. What did you learn about the intersection of technology and instruction? What was your progress on becoming a “tech-savvy” teacher?

This class provided an opportunity for me to learn about a wide range of technologies and how to incorporate them into my lessons. I knew technology was an integral part of education, but I didn’t realise that technology could be used to such a great extend to promote engagement in a classroom. It was also interesting to see how not only teachers can use technology but how students can also use it. For example, I love how students can share sites like Google MyMaps with each other so they can work on a collaborative project. Technology can often seem like a distraction but if used correctly, educators can enhance their teaching and students can enhance their school work through using different sites or apps. Before this class, I knew roughly how to use technology, but now I know so much more. I have learnt about multiple apps or sites that I will use as a ‘tech-savy’ teacher!

1. This class was driven by mini-projects instead of test and papers. How did you respond? What does that tell you about student motivation?

I really liked the layout of this class and having a small thing due each week! This meant that we could play around with a new piece of technology each week and put it to use by creating something new. It also meant that we could constantly apply the new skills we learnt each week and it wasn’t just a ‘one off’ thing. I learn better through hands-on activities, especially with something such as technology. It makes sense to focus on the practical component of this class as it is technology. If we had to take tests and write papers, I would not have learnt as much as I did in this class. I think student motivation can be increased in a classroom through the use of technology and more hands-on learning experiences. It tells me that as teachers we should be doing more formative assessments rather than summative assessments such as tests and papers. Perhaps students will be more interested in school and may actually learn more!!

By Amy Huang and Megan Bromley

The target audience of our final project is grade five. This is because we believe this technology is better suited for a higher elementary or middle school grade. In saying this, it could be modified to suit a younger grade. The subject of our lesson is landmarks. We will use in our project; Padlet, Google MyMaps and Google (to research) to involve students in a collaborative lesson designed to create engagement.

We are using technology in our lesson to enable students to see visually the landmarks they are researching, on a map. Students will work in pairs during the lesson to research their randomly given country and create their own MyMaps. At the end of our lesson, students have the opportunity to share their findings with their peers and have a discussion about the interesting landmarks they have found.

Link to create your own Google MyMaps: Google MyMaps

I was part of the group that looked at Edpuzzle and I really liked it. I loved how you could add questions for students to answer throughout the video. I also liked how there was a wide range of videos to choose from including Youtube, Crash Course and Ted Talks.

I chose a video from Crash Course about the Moon. This video is designed for older students as the video is technical. I thought it was very interesting and informative, despite not knowing much about space initially. The video could be used as an introduction or as an ending to a lesson or series of lessons.

Overall, I think this is a great tech tool to use in the classroom. I would use it to make my own video with questions and then get students to watch and answer them as they go.

I did a screen cast for landmarks, which is the topic I am doing for the final project. I opened up a few websites before I started doing the screencast which made it easier whilst I was doing it.

Audience and purpose – The audience for this screencast would be anyone who is interested about landmarks, what a landmark is and landmarks around the world. This could be beneficial for students as well when they are learning about landmarks in class. The purpose of this screencast would be to teach people about landmarks.

How could you integrate it into a lesson – We could use this screencast as an introduction for a lesson about landmarks. It could also be used in our final project about landmarks before students create their own MyMap.

I used Tour Creator to create a quick tour of some places I would like to visit one day. I liked Tour Creator in the sense that you could type in a destination and it would pop up, with it’s surroundings too. You can then add text to different sections of the tour or images.

I think Tour Creator is good however it is limited in a way, as you can only see a limited view of the destination and can only move in limited ways. I think it is a nice first step for students if they needed to search for places around the world and to see how they look.

I didn’t get to play around with ThingLink much but that looks like a great tool for students to use as well. Both tools can be used in a classroom effectively at the discretion of the teacher.

I created an Adobe Spark Page about some things that I love and some thing I do not love. This was really simple to do and I felt comfortable using Adobe Spark Page. I would recommend Adobe Spark Page above Sway because of it is easy to use and user friendly. I did not use one in my page but I like how you can add a photo grid as one of the options. I added on my page a glideshow and a split layout. These were both simple to do and did not take much time to complete.

I liked the theme options in Adobe Spark more than the ones offered in Sway. The layout options given were varied and offered a range of different ways to go with your story.

I think both sites would be accessible for students to use however in my opinion, Adobe Spark Pages is easier to follow and navigate. It took me less time to figure out how to use this site than Sway. Students could use this site to create their own personal story, to re-create a story they already know or to complete a project.

This is a blog post about where I am from. I included general things about Australia and specific things about where I live/about me. Sway was pretty easy to use to create this story. It was easy to add images and text and create a story this way. I like how you can change the style of the story by either changing the colour scheme or layout. This gives a great range of creativity to the site and would give students the chance to create something unique.

Students could use Sway to create their own story about themselves or they could create a project about a particular topic. I think students would be able to use this technology with ease and could also work in groups to collaborate on something.

If I was to use Sway for another project, I would play around with it more and try out the different layouts that you can use!

I created an Adobe Spark Video about how to make Oobleck. This is a science experiment you can easily do with students. I used this website to make the video because it was easy to navigate and it was also easy to use the narration feature on it. You can add images, change the font and size. You can also edit the format, colour and timing of each ‘slide’.

I think Adobe Spark is a good way to create videos for students. Students can follow along with the video or listen to it as an instruction for a future activity. It would be easy for students to create their own video using this site for any topic, such as science. Overall, I think this is a simple website to use to create simple videos with narration.

This was created by using Padlet. Padlet was pretty easy to use in comparison to Popplet. You can use a variety of different templates or create your own template. I made a KWL chart all about Tigers by using the template they provided. For this chart students can state what they know, what they want to know and what they learnt. Additionally, I added another two columns which are interesting facts and questions you might have. I added the last column for students to ask questions about Tigers or even about using Padlet itself. Teachers can use Padlet to show information about a topic or to demonstrate to students how they can use it for a project. I think this is a great tool for teachers and students to use.

This is the first site I have ever published! I think it is pretty cool to be able to create a site and it was super user friendly. This is great to know for the future and is something I would use to teach students about all different topics. It could also be used by students to create individual or group projects.

This site includes HyperDoc Lessons about 2016 Rio Olympics, creating a US road trip and the 2017 Solar Eclipse. Additionally, it includes a Google MyMap of the Natural Wonders of Australia and a quiz about Australia/Australian life. It also has an instructional video for students about the five senses.

This is a map of the natural wonders of Australia. I did it a map about Australia because a) I know more about Australia then I do about the US!, b) I thought it would be a good example of what students could do for the country they do live in. Additionally, students could use this example and create their own of a country of their own choosing. If you click on each icon, there are pictures and videos about the natural wonder. I think this is a great concept and use of technology. I did not know this existed before today but I plan on using it in the future to possible teach Geography and locations around the world. It is also a great resource for students to learn and use.

This could also be used to plan local field trips, visit local historical sites digitally and explore the local area. If being used to plan field trips, parents could be sent the map and they can see exactly where their children are going.

This activity is a quiz students can complete individually or as a class about Australia. This was designed to be used as an activity for students in 5th/6th grade who study Geography and other countries. It could be used as an introduction or concluding activity about the topic of Australia. The objective/goals of this activity is to help students broaden their knowledge of another country and give them worldly knowledge. Although this can’t be directly monitored by the teacher if students complete this individually, the quiz tells students if their answer is correct or incorrect. This allows students to find the correct answer. The concept of a quiz such as this can be applied to many other topics in Geography, History, Mathematics and even English.