September 2023 – December 2023.
This course taught by Anneke Nussbaum provided me with great tools, resources, and ideas.
Dec 7th, 2023.
What I didn’t know, was just how powerful some of these tools could be.
We started off with a Flight Plath assignment. I chose to record a 6 minute snippet about where I saw this course going. For the most part, I feel my vision was realized. I was able to gain a lot of knowledge, with prompts on how to apply it. I discovered that with the grade 8 core French classes that I taught over practicum, a lot of the engaging Menti, and other gathering or presenting/brainstorming tools, weren’t viable options. The French was not at that level yet.
I found that other than quiz apps like Blooket and Kahoots, a successful approach to teaching french was with paper worksheets and games that involved speech, acting, moving around, and social based. An example was Guess Who. The social aspects meant everyone was able to engage, helping each other out.
With my future growth in mind, I hope to receive a practicum with older students and english, math or history focused. This would provide me with opportunities to fully explore how these tools can provide insights and benefits to my classroom. I have seen that these tools are powerful assessments tools, and would like to explore that avenue further.
Educational technology excels with intent.
No matter the case, you can’t expect students (or teachers) to know how to use these tools, or to fully grasp or understand their value and place in a classroom setting.
Every student and teacher needs a clear intent. With good reasoning and clear goals, the buy-in is increased. With higher buy-in comes bigger benefit.
I look forward to having a subject and class that I can experiment and explore these avenues further.
I
Used
To THINK
But now
I see
I used to think that games and tools like Blooket and Menti were intuitive and easy for everyone to grasp. While that may be true, I ignored the important aspect of intent. Without direction, these tools carry less educational weight.
Now I see that there needs to be a clear reason behind these tools, and everyone needs to be on board. Carefully designed quiz games, and intentional brainstorming leads to highly engaged students. Now I see that in order to get the most of out educational technology, you must understand your purpose in using it, as well as take advantage of all the metrics you can, even if that means paying for the software.