As the semester comes to an end, I am so happy I took this class as one of my first graduate courses at Xavier. Not only do I feel like I gained an invaluable amount of information regarding different technologies that are useful for teachers, but I also feel like much of this information will help me in my next 3 years as I finish up my Master's degree at Xavier. Although I grew up in the age of technology, and was introduced to Web 2.0 as an undergraduate student, I realized that there are still so many untapped resources available online to students and teachers that I have never even heard of.
One thing I wish we could have learned about would be editing music and using music files in more presentations and with more technologies. In special education, music is often used to help students commit different types of information to memory, and I feel like learning more about music technologies available would be helpful to myself and other special education teachers.
Thanks for a great semester, Mr. Becksfort!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Online education
Today, we had a class online through join.me, which I actually thought was kind of cool! It was a lot harder than I expected, though, to pay attention to the chat at all times. Sometimes I would find myself backtracking through the conversations when I got distracted by tv, facebook, etc...
Online schooling: I am not sure how I feel about it entirely, but I have taken one on-line class in college. Personally, it wasn't the best option for ME because I had a really hard time keeping up with the work because I didn't have the constant reminders of what I needed to do by going to class once or twice a week.
Advantages: I think the biggest advantages of online education is the accessibility of it. Anyone with internet access could "attend" class, especially those who couldn't easily make a weekly- scheduled class meeting. Secondly, online education provides information in a different format than traditional education. This format may be better for some types of learners, especially children and adults with disabilities. A third advantage of online learning is that it is taken at the student's pace- they can work ahead if they choose, or plan their work around their schedule, rather than the set-in-stone schedule from the professor.
But I think there are also quite a few disadvantages to this. On one note, many students might find it hard to keep up with the work if they are not being held "accountable" to the course by attending class. Also, I think that sometimes students who learn online exclusively miss a valuable opportunity to have face to face contact and communication with the teacher and with other students. Online communication just isn't as personal...And lastly, online courses give students huge potential to work ahead....and HUGE potential to fall waaaay behind. I know so many friends who took online classes at Ohio State...and come the end of the quarter, they were in the library for days on end, making up the assignments that they "forgot" to do. You would have to be an extremely organized student to learn online!
I think a mixture of online learning and classroom learning would be the best option for most students. It would give them different opportunities and formats to learn new information and collaborate with the teacher and other students. For me, I think I'll just stick to dragging myself to class...
Online schooling: I am not sure how I feel about it entirely, but I have taken one on-line class in college. Personally, it wasn't the best option for ME because I had a really hard time keeping up with the work because I didn't have the constant reminders of what I needed to do by going to class once or twice a week.
Advantages: I think the biggest advantages of online education is the accessibility of it. Anyone with internet access could "attend" class, especially those who couldn't easily make a weekly- scheduled class meeting. Secondly, online education provides information in a different format than traditional education. This format may be better for some types of learners, especially children and adults with disabilities. A third advantage of online learning is that it is taken at the student's pace- they can work ahead if they choose, or plan their work around their schedule, rather than the set-in-stone schedule from the professor.
But I think there are also quite a few disadvantages to this. On one note, many students might find it hard to keep up with the work if they are not being held "accountable" to the course by attending class. Also, I think that sometimes students who learn online exclusively miss a valuable opportunity to have face to face contact and communication with the teacher and with other students. Online communication just isn't as personal...And lastly, online courses give students huge potential to work ahead....and HUGE potential to fall waaaay behind. I know so many friends who took online classes at Ohio State...and come the end of the quarter, they were in the library for days on end, making up the assignments that they "forgot" to do. You would have to be an extremely organized student to learn online!
I think a mixture of online learning and classroom learning would be the best option for most students. It would give them different opportunities and formats to learn new information and collaborate with the teacher and other students. For me, I think I'll just stick to dragging myself to class...
Monday, October 25, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Online Presentation Tools
Even though I just graduated from college, I feel aged when I learn about all the new presentation tools that are online now. I could have used those and gotten some higher presentation grades, now that I think of it..Oh well. I think it really cool that these new websites are so user-friendly. I grew up in the personal computer era, so one would think I'm technologically-savvy. They are wrong...totally wrong. I can do the basics- internet, type a paper, Facebook. But when it comes to websites, new technologies, and the like, I am totally behind. That's why I am so excited to try out these new sites. I started a GlogPoster for the legal brief project in class, and after a few minutes of looking around the site, I realized it was easy AND interesting. We'll see how the rest of the project goes, though, after I am home and can't ask my neighbors a question every 5 seconds.
I have heard of Prezi before, when a classmate of mine at Ohio State used it for a project. We all sat there watching her present, absolutely fascinated by the presentation she put together. I was convinced she was some computer genius. Little did I know- Prezi is actually easy to use for almost anyone!
I think it is great that so many tools are becoming available to teachers and students. I believe these technologies will be of great benefit to the future of education!
I have heard of Prezi before, when a classmate of mine at Ohio State used it for a project. We all sat there watching her present, absolutely fascinated by the presentation she put together. I was convinced she was some computer genius. Little did I know- Prezi is actually easy to use for almost anyone!
I think it is great that so many tools are becoming available to teachers and students. I believe these technologies will be of great benefit to the future of education!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
First blog post!
My name is Lindsey Nieberding, and I created this blog in class on Thursday night. We had to do it, so I might as well make use of it =]
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