While quite excited to begin our course project, I have been unsure of how to use the plethora of technology available to me. I am well aware that my students know so much mroe about webtools than I do, but I still know that many would be overwhelmed by having too many or too complicated web toolos available.
After previewing this week's resources, I have found some strengths and weaknesses with the presentation tools shown to me. Prezi was an entirely new resource. As an adult, I enjoyed the freedom to have a limitless space with which to maneuver objects of my thought process. I lied to see how the ideas would flow and then be able to simply mix up the ideas as I saw fit. The two main problems that I forsee witht eh program is that 1) While it is nice that there is limitless space in every direction, havign to constantly scroll back is a big inconvenience. 2) As a teacher, I know some of my students would feel overwhelmed by the abstract and limiltess capabilities.
Webtools 4u2use was a great resourse, but I was reluctant to try out any of the links because they did nto look itneresting. I could see from that site that many kids will have trouble. The site does not having items listed clearly. It would have helped to see a bulleted list that was not embedded in text. The tools I explored were good and fairly easy to use, but I did nto spend as much time at that site as the others.
I completyly enjoyed cool tools for school. The sites were listed were the first thing on the site and were lsited separate from text, so I could easily find what I needed. Pezentit was my favorite tool because it will allow groups ofs tudents to work collaboratively even when they are not together. I think this tools represents what future communication will entail for our yong minds.
I can understand your concerns for some students, but I am sure you will find that the students already manipulate more technology than you think and these types of presentation will only strengthen twenty-first century skills that all jobs of the future are looking for. While many of the sites need some guidance, with a little structure and facilitating they become excellent learning tools for students.
ReplyDeleteI am a little confused though because you say that Webtools 4u2use is a great resource but you thought that the links lacked an interesting appearance. You also stated that you believed that students would have trouble using the site. Does that mean that you would only use this site for resources for personal use in the classroom or that you wouldn't use the site at all? Just curious?
Hi Becky!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comments about Prezi. I think it would be a great presentation tool but it also has its downsides as far as being too abstract and overwhelming for students. It would certainly be fun to try at some point!
Prezentit was also my favorite tool out of all of all of the Web 2.0 tools that I explored. I am attempting to do my course project using Prezentit, but I am also using PowerPoint because of its ease of use and I am very familiar with it; i.e., faster!
Thanks for sharing your comments about Web 2.0 tools - I think we can all learn a lot from each other as we explore and utilize new technologies in our classroom. Its the future of education, and our students are engaged by technology, so it's imperative that we try to learn as much as possible.
Becky,
ReplyDeleteYou are the second post that I visited and both of you expressed how easy it is to use PreZentit. I am going to have to go back and take a look at it. I was originally going with Prezi, but I might have to re-evaluate my choice in tools. Thank you for your great feedback!
Becky,
ReplyDeleteI too had wondered about a few aspects of using Prezi. For me I like a very linear style. Therefore, the abstract nature is rather scarey to me. For someone with a creative mind this program is probably ideal as it allows them to artisticly design a presentation.
I will have to check out Prezentit as it sounds like a good program though.
~Charity