One technology class down, a lifetime of learning to go . . .

I am finishing my technology class this week, and as I have been sorting through all my completed course work, I can’t help but be proud of what I accomplished this semester.


I have never felt at ease with computers or any other technology for that matter, and yet after just four months, processes I used to feel were completely beyond my abilities are now practically second nature. While there is still much I don’t know, I think the most important thing that I have gained form this class is my new found feeling of technological competence.


Admittedly, this semester I spent more time tinkering with and exploring new technologies than I spent actually completing my assignments. With little prior experience with these tools, the unfamiliar language and processes required a lot of trial and error. However, this exploration of the programs resulted in me feeling much more comfortable with their use, and while this was time consuming, it was definitely not a waste of time. Going to the wrong menu for a command helped me learn more about where the various functions were located, and what functions, beyond those required of my assignment, the tools could actually provide.


As new technologies are created everyday, the tools teachers will have available to them are also going to be expanding. Teachers will have to stay informed about new technologies and how they are used. Knowing this is the future I face, I am glad that my university required an instructional technology class. I would never have taken one by choice, and not only would I have missed out on how to create many wonderful lessons, but I also would have retained my fear of technology. I now feel that it is extremely important to incorporate technology into my teaching, and I plan to continue to stay current on new methods by taking technology classes throughout my career.


While I know this class couldn’t possibly provide everything I need to know about technology tools for the classroom, it has served me well by encouraging me to overcome my discomfort with computers. The willingness to play with an unfamiliar tool without fear that I’m going to cause irrevocable damage is a huge change for me, and I truly believe that this sense of technological competence will be vital to my teaching career. As the technologies themselves will change with time, my willingness to learn and adapt my teaching to the current technologies will be the most important skill I will take from this class.

Technology allows teachers to teach beyond the classroom

On my classroom website, I have included a page of learning opportunities for students and their families to take part in outside of school. As I am planning to teach science and social studies, it occurred to me that just about any city in the country would offer activities that would reinforce these subjects.


After a bit if brainstorming, I was able to come up with several planned outings for families to participate in during their time together. For example, for a history-oriented outing, I included a trip to our downtown history museum, a self-guided downtown walking tour of historic places, and either a meal at one of our downtown restaurants that capitalize on their historic past, or a picnic in a nearby park. For science, I encouraged families to visit a local nature center and either hike or bike the nearby trails or greenway. In order to provide options for different family budgets, many of the activities I included offered free options and suggestions of nearby picnic spots.


I also included links to the websites for all the places I suggested, and suggested parents help their students research the sites and develop their own planned visits. I think it is important to encourage parents and students to look through the websites together, as each will learn something from the process. This would give parents an opportunity to guide their children on how to responsibly use the Internet, and to convey how they expect their student to use modern technology. Parents will probably be surprised at how much they too will learn from watching their students interact with the websites.


In my experience, children like to show adults how much they know about computers and modern technology. Using websites to plan an outing together would also show parents how computer savvy their children already are, and could initiate more active monitoring of their children’s computer use. This could help them better protect their children from dangers and misuse of the technology they can access.


I had a great time developing the outing ideas for my future students, and I hope that one day these resources will be of use. I relocated to Knoxville, and was not aware of most of the city’s educational offerings. I hope my website will help new families in the area discover some of our town’s amenities, and I hope all my students’ families will take advantage of my ready-made activities and enjoy them with their children.


I know teachers really have no control of what happens in their students’ home lives. However, by providing activities outside the classroom, I think we can show that we truly care about all aspects of our students’ lives by providing meaningful educational experiences that promote family interaction.

Classroom websites create classroom communities

My final assignment in my technology class was to create a classroom website using Google Sites. I was relieved to discover that this process was fairly simple and straightforward, and all I really had to do was to pick a website template, my colors, fonts, and then create a few pages. Once the pages were completed, all I had to do was to add my text, links and images.


While my new website is supposed to mimic my future classroom website, it also is a place to showcase all the technology projects I completed in the class, and to maintain the collection of web resources I plan to use in future lesson planning. I am relieved to have a sound location for these documents and resources, where they can be easily accessed in the months and years to come, without having to recall a file name on my personal computer. As an added benefit, students, parents and other teachers can also use my website to find pre-selected websites and activities.


The website also gave me the opportunity to practice building a classroom community.
As it was created with student and parent use in mind, it was important to provide personal information about myself, and my professional experience on the website. While links to my resume, and a short biography were included, the link to my blog, and my collection of technology lessons will give parents more insight into who I am and what my capabilities are.


In my future classroom website, I will also include a classroom blog to keep parents, students and other school staff informed about my class and our progress. By following me on Twitter, parents and students can also receive homework and assignment postings and reminders. I will encourage my students and their families to be regular visitors to the website, and will probably even assign homework that requires the use of the resources available on the site.


I feel fortunate that I am learning to be a teacher at a time in history when technology can assist me in creating a classroom community. The accessibility of a classroom website will make it much easier to maintain communication with my students and families, and therefore will help me create closer and more cooperative relationships with them. I think classroom websites are a wonderful tool that I definitely look forward to using.

Digital movies take student presentations to new levels of creativity

This week I had my first experience working with movie making software. I used iMovie, which was not the easiest to figure out, but in the end I was convinced that it would be a useful tool for classroom use.


With iMovie, you can time narration to moving photographs, which makes still photos more interesting and provides a presentation format that works for visual and audio-based learners. Adding a soundtrack further enhances the message of the presentation, and makes the movie seem more like a real documentary.


I also experimented with the web-based GoAnimate animation maker. After simply signing up, I was able to access ready-made animated characters and settings. The site also lets you create your own characters, and admittedly I spent over an hour dressing and trying different hairdos for the animated me.


The wide variety of options for character and scene development might pose a time-management issue for classroom use, as it is easy to be distracted by all the different possibilities. However, since GoAnimate is web-based, students can access it from any computer. Students could work on choosing their characters and backdrops as homework outside of school, and then could focus on putting the project together in the school computer lab. This would make the homework portion fun, and would still allow the real work to be done at school where the teacher could offer technical and academic assistance.


Despite the difficulties I had with iMovie, I ultimately enjoyed creating something from old photos I had scanned. This activity really inspired me to think about the creative presentations I could create for my students, and the projects they could create themselves with this application. Having students create their own digital movies will allow them to incorporate their creativity, their own learning style, and fun into their schoolwork.

When technology fails, learning doesn't have to stop

As a student, it's still a common experience to watch professors struggle with classroom equipment. In their attempts to show PowerPoint presentations or video clips, they often go through the exact same motions of checking wires, turning knobs and mumbling under their breath while their faces steadily redden and their composure quickly melts away.


Since I'm studying to be a teacher, this is worrisome to me. It's hard enough to stand in front of a group of people and try to keep my calm and their attention at the same time, without having the technology fail me. While these difficulties can happen to anyone, no one likes to be embarrassed, and I don't relish the idea of my students perceiving me as incompetent.


Furthermore, when technology fails, it costs more than just the teacher's pride--it also costs time. Teachers are under considerable pressure to ensure their students are learning and performing well, and often have limited planning and class time with which to accomplish this. I'll admit that I'm concerned about planning activities around technology, because if it doesn't work, I either have to spontaneously adapt my lesson in class, or need to have an alternative lesson already planned. As I'm already being told that I won't have a lot of planning time, the idea that I will have the time to create backup lessons doesn't seem realistic.


However, I ardently believe that it is important to include technology in instruction, and will do so despite any glitches I might encounter. If malfunctions are part of the use of technology, then at some point our students will encounter these difficulties themselves. Just as I have recognized the frustration in my own teachers, I know my attitude toward failing technology in class is going to be conveyed to my students.


However, I have also learned a lot from teachers who have explained what is happening, and what to do about the equipment problems they encounter. If I use malfunctions as an opportunity to demonstrate to my students how they can go about rectifying a technological difficulty, then at least some learning will occur, and class-time will not be wasted. I just need to remember that as a teacher, I am always teaching with my attitude, my actions and my words, and therefore any problems I encounter with instructional technology are also opportunities to teach my students how to overcome them.

Is learning more fun in a technological age?

Learning to use spreadsheets in the classroom reminded me of a math class I observed recently. I left the observation with the impression that today’s students are enthusiastic about any activity involving a computer. During my visit, students were divided into groups to play a game. The objective of the game was to get a point by finishing a problem faster than the other groups, and the team with the most points at the end of the game would get stickers.


I played similar games throughout my education, and received similar rewards. However, when I was a young student, scores were recorded as marks on the chalkboard. The math game I watched used a computer-based horse race graphic to keep score, and as a team correctly answered a problem first, their horse would move forward toward the finish line. While the game was no different than ones I had experienced, I was amazed at the difference in the students’ response to the game.


All the students were eager participants, and they alternated rushing to solve the problems, with frantic hand raising in hopes that their team would be called on first. When a point was scored and a horse moved forward, some students actually cheered. While growing up I might have enjoyed some of the games, but I don’t remember anyone cheering when another chalk line was drawn on the board. What a difference a computer made.

Spreadsheet-based interactive materials increase student engagement

I recently learned how to use spreadsheets to make interactive materials for students. While it made sense that spreadsheets could be used for math or graphing exercises, I was impressed to learn that they could also be used to make interactive worksheets for practice activities or even quizzes. I included an image of the simple worksheet I created to help fifth-graders practice the planets at right. Since students seem to embrace activities involving computers, they might find these activities more engaging than their paper counterparts.


I like the idea of being able to create my own worksheets, especially as this will enable me to tailor the material to my curriculum. Since these worksheets tell the student if they gave a wrong answer, the feedback is immediate and allows for multiple attempts to supply the correct information.


I am also impressed that clip art and images can be added to spreadsheets. This has the potential to help students who struggle with text-based activities, have reading difficulties, or respond best to visual images. Digital images can also serve as a visual reminder that can help students recall the correct answer. With the variety of images available, they can be specific to the focus of the worksheet. For example, a music lesson on the composers could include faces of the composers, and an unlabeled graphic of the carbon cycle could help remind students of the different elements of the cycle during a quiz.


Regardless of the content areas, computer-based interactive materials have the potential to make learning more exciting, engaging and more accessible for all students.

Making diagrams can be fun with a little knowledge and Inspiration

Today I had my first experience creating a teaching aid with Inspiration 9 software, and I have to say I am extremely impressed. I was able to present the information from an entire unit of a fifth-grade science textbook into one web diagram, while having fun in the process.


I chose to create a diagram featuring animal adaptations to their environment, and I was able to demonstrate physical and behavioral adaptations, and how some of these adaptations are caused by climate. I was even able to link the diagram to a relevant online game. This project was part of a technology class assignment, but it did not feel like homework. When I was done with my diagram, I even found myself playing with additional features of the software. I’m now looking forward to using the map feature in future lesson plans, and will being using the outline feature to organize my next paper.


As I am a student myself, I feel I really should take advantage of Inspiration to create my own study guides and outlines. After all, my first-hand knowledge of the software will also help me guide my future students through its features. Since the software is interactive and has visual and auditory applications, it can also help me meet the needs of a diverse student population. Inspiration is also sufficiently simple and user-friendly to make it a realistic tool for students.


I have never thought of myself as “technologically savvy,” but Inspiration was so easy to use that I had no difficulty creating my diagram, and I felt a great sense of accomplishment and competence when I viewed my completed work. The program allowed me to organize the information in a personally meaningful way, and to use my creativity to design the layout, choose my colors, and find my graphics from provided libraries and external sources. It would work for a variety of academic subjects, but is especially useful for explaining scientific concepts and cycles.


I will admit that I have often had difficulty interpreting some of the visuals offered in science textbooks. I typically get lost trying to follow the multiple arrows linking unlabeled illustrations. Thanks to a lifetime of being confused by graphics, I was especially thrilled to have an opportunity to organize scientific information in a way that made sense to me personally, and I think many students will find the Inspiration software useful for the same reason.

Can Kroger's website teach Geography?

I was recently searching for Geography WebQuests, and came across one titled, “From Sea to Shining Sea WebQuest,” which took students on a trip across the country to learn US Geography and History. I was intrigued by this quest because it allowed students to use travel websites, including Expedia and the Greyhound Bus website, to gather information for their trip.


When I was studying Geography myself, I was encouraged to use creative methods of finding the information I needed, and this WebQuest reminded me of the Geography projects I worked on in college. For a class on US culture, I developed a simple project that used the movie website, Fandango, to compare demographic and cultural differences around the United States.


I looked at a variety of different sized cities around the country, and compared what movies were playing in each. I then analyzed the differences to make my conclusions about each city’s population. For instance, since theaters in Miami and Corpus Christi, Texas offered many more Spanish-language films than most of the other cities I examined, I concluded that they had larger than average Spanish-speaking populations. This was a very simple project, and it could easily be tweaked for classroom use, especially if the findings were then compared to the Census information on those populations. I think lessons like this could provide a fun way for students to see real world indications of cultural and demographic variation, while encouraging their use of technology.


Remembering this project inspired me to think of other websites I could use to teach regional differences. Job sites would be a good source for information about regional industries, and could also be used to research differences in cost of living by comparing salaries. Real estate and grocery store websites could be other fun resources.


Now that so many of our grocery stores are countrywide chains, it would be easy to use their websites to compare food prices and availability across the country. I looked at Kroger’s website today, and by plugging zip codes into the “store locator,” and looking at the different weekly sales, I was able to compare food prices in two different cities.


In just my brief experimentation with the Kroger comparison, I was surprised that chicken in Houston was cheaper than chicken in Knoxville, Tenn., despite Knoxville having a lower cost of living. Surprising findings like this could be a great way to start discussions about other factors that bring prices down, such as distances from ports and distribution centers.


While sites like these may be more distracting because of ads or, even movie clips, I feel they are still great resources, and are an opportunity for students to learn how to responsibly sift through distractions to get the information they need. I am thrilled at the thought of having my students use common everyday websites to do Geographical research. Not only will it demonstrate how to creatively use our web resources, but it will also give students experience with websites that are practical for their own lives.


High school students would really benefit from learning about variations in salaries, food and real estate prices as they prepare for lives in college and beyond, but all students would benefit from gaining greater understanding about the practical matters of life. I think developing lessons with websites like these will help me to simultaneously teach my students their curriculum and technological competence, and will demonstrate how both apply to the world outside the classroom.

Wikis open the door to more efficient classroom interaction

This week I was introduced to the concept of wikis, and used one to complete a group project in my Special Education class. The idea of the wiki, which allows a group of people a common workspace to compile and edit information, was immediately intriguing to me. However, it wasn’t until I used one that I really understood how efficient and time-saving a wiki could be.



As my role in the group project required that I have every group member’s research to work with, the benefit of having all the sources available in one place was immediately evident. Instead of being on the receiving end of multiple emails, I was able to “one-stop-shop” our wiki for all the information I needed.



The wiki also enabled everyone to add and edit slides to our PowerPoint, which prevented one individual from having to copy and paste everybody else’s slides or information into one PowerPoint presentation. Compared to past projects, which often involved ricocheting emails, re-writes, and a very late night of finally compiling everyone’s contribution, I was struck by how quickly and efficiently this project was assembled. I am now a believer, and plan to use wikis with my future students.



While thinking about how I could incorporate wikis into my instruction, I decided to check my PLN on Twitter for ideas on other ways to increase efficiency in my classroom. Eric Sheninger, Principal of New Milford High School in New Jersey had posted his experience using Skype in his school. I was familiar with Skype, and have used it to talk with friends over seas, but I had never considered using it in the classroom. However, one of the New Milford teacher’s uses of Skype to host a speaker from Israel in her Holocaust class really demonstrated the potential benefits of using this technology with students.


The ability to interact with people around the world presents incredible opportunities for instruction. Students can be connected with leading experts in a field without the need for travel, or any great expense. As even local speakers can join a class from the comfort of their own office, Skype eliminates commuting and thus requires a shorter time commitment from busy professionals. I think this could greatly increase a professional’s willingness to speak to my class, as they wouldn’t have to sacrifice half a day to do it.



Both wikis and Skype are so effective at increasing efficiency because they can connect multiple individuals to one easily accessible space. Their ability to allow people to communicate and collaborate in a more effective manner, make them both excellent tools for the classroom.

Turn off the phone, and tune in to life

This weekend I could not escape children with cell phones. Like landmines, everywhere I went, I had to veer to avoid near collisions with kids either texting or talking on their phones.


Today I was eating lunch, when I noticed a boy and his grandfather sitting at the next table. The boy got up to make a call on his cell phone, and to give himself a little more privacy, he stepped away from the table (and directly into the walkway) to make his call. For the next five minutes he paced back in forth while pleading into his phone to be picked up because his grandfather was so boring. From his ashen face, I had to assume that the boy’s grandfather was just as aware of the conversation as the rest of the restaurant patrons, and I felt heart broken that the boy couldn’t value time with his grandfather. I was also irritated that the boy was completely unaware of the effect he was having on the people around him.


A NYMetroParents website article, “Should Kids have cell phones?” recommended that parents inform their children about cell phone etiquette, and mentioned that children should be made aware of the potential for eavesdropping. However, the article’s reference to phone manners really focused on students’ conversations in public, and places where students should have their phone off. Yet I feel the bright screen from texting is just as disturbing in a movie as a phone ringing, and I think that the incredible focus employed while texting has the potential to create more socially inappropriate and more dangerous behavior than talking on a phone.


For example, yesterday, I was nearly run over by a girl texting while driving, and after leaping back to the curb, I watched as she slowed to a stop in the middle of an intersection while the light was still green. However, while most of us are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of driving and texting, we don’t seem as concerned about phone use during less life-threatening activities like walking. Yet, as I was leaving a bathroom stall yesterday, a young girl texting pushed me back into the stall while trying to enter it before I could leave. I actually physically had to brush against her to escape the stall, and yet she never made any indication that she knew I was there.


As teachers are asked to teach and promote appropriate social skills, I feel that understanding how technology affects social behavior is extremely relevant and important. I fear that as technology gets more personal, portable and entertaining, face-to-face social interaction amongst strangers will become increasingly rare. Due to our car-centered culture, few American children experience pedestrian activities outside of shopping malls and festivals. I notice that fewer children and young adults know how to walk within a crowd, or how to be physically polite by holding doors or letting someone move into a space first.


I tremble at the thought of a generation ambling through life without an indication of their effect on the world, because they are too focused on a device in their hand. I chose to be a teacher because I wanted to help future generations become responsible, productive caretakers of our society and our world. Yet children can’t be expected to learn from people they can’t see, or a world they don’t notice. Nor can they be expected to value a world they are not aware of or connected to. Therefore, part of my job as a teacher who seeks to promote the beneficial and responsible uses of technology, will be to teach my students when to turn that technology off.

Faster can be better for learning and assessment

I was recently reminded about a YouTube video posted by @ShellTerrell, which featured an interview with best selling author Seth Godin. While I didn’t agree with Godin’s statement "school is a complete failure," I was intrigued by his view that testing is not the way "out of" the problems with our education system. Instead he said we "need to essay our way out of it . . . debate our way out of it."



These words brought to mind my own final years of high school in Ireland. At my Irish school, assessment in almost all my subjects was essay based. All my class lectures involved discussion, and contribution to new ideas, and this ensured that we had explored various angles before even getting to our essay assignments.



This, interestingly enough, was the Irish way of teaching to the test, as the government-issued final exams for college placement were essay questions. As the essays were timed, an ability to write legibly at high-speed was very important. This resulted in scores of Irish seniors hitting the local stores in search of pens with the fastest flowing ink and the most comfortable grip. After all, it didn’t matter how much you had learned if you couldn’t get it down on paper in time.



Last week, I was reminded of my Irish exams, when a timed writing assignment in a history class left my hand aching and the last few paragraphs of my essay almost illegible. It made me wonder how different an essay test would be if one could type instead of write the answers out by hand.



I have often heard students in my college classes comment that they take notes on their laptops because they can type faster than they can write. For proficient typists, this is usually the case. According to customtyping.com, a website for typing tutorials, a good typing speed is three to four times faster than your handwriting speed. Typing three to four times faster than my ability to write would allow me to record three to four times the amount of information in the same amount of time. The ability to record my thoughts immediately as they occurred, would have allowed me more time to organize my exam essays, to compose them, and to edit them once they were complete. Needless to say, the neatness of my handwriting would not be an issue either.



I feel as access to computers becomes increasingly common, that students should be required to learn how to type, just as they are required to learn how to write. While the importance of being able to write by hand goes without saying, the ability to record ideas at a faster rate offers tremendous benefits, and should not be overlooked in assignments and assessment.



As more students have computers and online access, homework assignments could consist of a timed debate or discussion in a chat room. This type of activity would enable students to make new connections to the material, while practicing persuasive writing skills in a pressure-free and informal context. Chat responses would also be a more complete assessment of each individual’s contributions and personal progress than simple, fill-in-the-blank worksheet answers could ever hope to provide.

Do the benefits of teaching with technology outweigh the challenges?

There are tremendous benefits of using the Internet for instruction, as search engines make research faster and more accessible, and interactive software makes individual learning more engaging and fun. However, this requires that teachers add instructing students on how to properly use the technology to their existing job of teaching the subject matter.


In his blog “Free Technology for Teachers,” Richard Byrne demonstrated that teaching about the Internet could be seamlessly integrated into teaching the subject matter. Byrne shared an exercise where his students had to compare the information on Wikipedia to that in their textbooks, thus instructing the students on how they could evaluate the site as a source.


However, there is also the potential for technology interfering with students’ learning their subject matter. Another teacher blogger, Hadley Ferguson, described in her blog, “Middle School Matrix,” how her assignment to make a movie about the subject matter resulted in so much distraction that learning was compromised. However, while the assignment will be tweaked, she still intends to keep the movie project as part of her instruction.


Ferguson’s experience reminded me that technology based lessons, are just like traditional lessons in that they will have to be evaluated for their effectiveness in teaching the material. Though it might take a lot of sifting through various websites to find the right one to use with my class, I would have to do the same searching and evaluating of paper sources.


I think it is important to keep in mind, that while technology-based teaching presents new challenges, it doesn’t necessarily present more challenges than traditional methods. The added benefit of creating technologically competent students is all the incentive I need to dig in and learn how to use the technology safely and effectively so I can help my students do the same.

Sexting, Blogging, and Jail! Oh My!

Teachers and students need to be aware of the challenges and legal ramifications of using information technology in the classroom.

This morning I was introduced to the world of “sexting,” on a morning talk show, and wondered why it never occurred to me that children might be using their phones to send sexually explicit text messages and images. Apparently I am not the only one as, according to Lori Getz at momlogic.com, many parents are also unaware of this phenomenon. I was also shocked to learn that 44% of teenagers have participated in sexting, and they can be charged with a felony for doing so. Having sexual images of other children in their phones constitutes possession of child pornography, but few teenagers know this, or that sexting can lead to their being registered as a sex offender.


I also couldn’t help thinking about how sexting could affect teachers who are using their personal cell phones to communicate with their classes. The consequences for just being on the receiving end of a student’s sexting could have devastating legal and professional consequences for a teacher, and serves as a reminder that technology can pose as many dangers as benefits when we aren’t fully aware of how it is being used.


As I am a newcomer to the world of integrating technology into the classroom, I am daunted by how much I don’t know about the technology my students are already using everyday. However, it is for this very reason that I feel it is so important to make technology a regular part of instruction. As so many parents also struggle to keep up with children that are increasingly more techno-savvy than they are, I feel that there is more pressure to make the classroom the place where children learn to use information technology safely and responsibly.


In order to keep students safe while using the technology, teachers themselves must be aware of what the dangers are. Almost anyone exposed to major media knows about web use by sexual predators, and the dangers of putting drunken pictures on Facebook or MySpace. But while most people are now able to publish a blog, I imagine few of them are aware of the laws concerning what constitutes libel or fair use. If teachers are going to incorporate blogging or web-based research into their instruction, they need to know what is legal, what is not, and need to share this information with their students.

Using digital Images can enhance learning of content and technology

Using images is a well-recognized way of supporting student learning of curriculum content, but having students provide images in their projects has the added benefit of requiring they learn to use a variety of technologies.


Teaching students to learn how to collect images from other sources allows them quick and easy access to images that can meet all their curriculum needs. CD collections of digital images like clip art can be easily copied, or images can be downloaded from the web. Students can also learn how to capture information and images on their computer monitor by taking a screenshot.


However, requiring images in student projects is also an opportunity for students to exercise their own creativity in making images themselves. Scanners allow students to convert their hand drawn materials into digital images. This technology has a wide variety of useful applications, as it can be used to simply reproduce notes or can be used to provide all the original illustrations for a student’s project.


Leaning how to use a digital camera will allow students to capture relevant images themselves, while practicing how to manipulate the camera’s features to create the best photographs. The desire to create the look a student wants can encourage the student to increase their competency with the camera and photo editing programs.


I think that teaching students to use digital images and the technologies that support their use can benefit all students, and can greatly enhance student learning and the products they create. I am a fan of any lesson or activity that allows students engage their creativity, and I think using digital images is a wonderful way for students to have fun creating and personalizing their work. I plan to teach my students how to use digital images, and look forward to seeing the work they produce with them. I imagine that once they have the tools to use these images, that I will be astounded by the variety of uses they’ll find for them.

Example of a Digital Movie for Classroom Use

Here is a digital movie I recently made for a technology class assignment. Its purpose is to inform my students about why I decided to teach Geography, and to show why the subject is important and relevant to their lives. It also demonstrates to students and other educators how digital movies can promote interest and provide engaging instruction while also accommodating diverse learners.

Collection of Digital Images