Post #10 Final Review

We have finally come down to the 10th and final post! This will be a reflection of the NMC Horizon Report for technology in higher education. It was stated that the easier types of learning technologies have been more beneficial to students such as online reading and writing. It shows how much more technology has been used in highschools since 2013. One part that impressed me was the Spreading the Digital Fluency The article says the technology can be "ineffective or distracting if they are not integrated into the learning process in meaningful ways." I can agree on this topic because I am aware of this statement being true. We were not aloud to have our cellphones our in my high school. No one liked the rule but it was made because we had no way of using our cellphones in class in an educational way. Unless we would use the phones to google for research. If the students in my highschool were aloud to use them they would never get anywork done due to watching Tikoks and snapchatting each other. Some Schools are aloud to use your phones because they have the right technolgy so they can do work from their cellphones. Another topic that is talked about is Improving the Teaching Profession and this section talked about letting students lead a class discussions. This will help students to know the material better by telling each other what they know and they will come together in the end each group tells the teachers what they all found out together. This article is full of great ways to get students and also teachers to be more involved in technology and technological ways.

Post #9 Collaboration apps

This week we will be talking about collaboration apps in the classroom and we're going to start with Pages. With pages you can invite others to work with you on a document in real time by sending them a link to it. Everyone working on the document can see changes as they’re made. By default, only the people you invite to collaborate on the document can access and make changes to it. You can instead allow anyone who has the link to access the document. If you don’t want others to make changes, you can set the document permission to view only. With Wrike Connect with teams across your entire organization. Wrike creates a digital hub where proofing, approving, and sharing assets can be done easily. Wrike’s work management software can work for any team, even those spread across time zones, working remotely or working on site. With Jet Brains you can define a team once and use it everywhere. When you add teams to projects, every team member gets access to all project resources. Add the whole team to a meeting, create a team chat, or include the team with an @mention in chat messages. You’ll et notified in your Chats when a code review or an issue is updated, a document is shared, or you’re invited to a meeting. Respond or react to the notification in Chats, or add it to your to-do list. You can stay focused on what’s important to you with notifications grouped by types and a configurable home view. Finally another great app for your classroom is the Schoolwork app, it helps you and your students more effectively use the creative power of iPad. You can easily distribute and collect assignments, keep an eye on student progress in educational apps, and collaborate one on one with students from anywhere, in real time. It’s easy for students to use, too. Assignments automatically appear on their iPad, organized by due date and class. And Schoolwork helps you keep track of how everyone in class is doing — so you can tailor your teaching to the needs of each of your students.

Post #8 What to Download Next

In todays post we will be going over audio recording and editing apps and screenwriting software. The first is actually one of the most commonly used music apps run by Apple. GarageBand is a fully equipped music creation studio right inside your Mac and includes a complete sound library that includes instruments, presets for guitar and voice, and an incredible selection of session drummers and percussionists. Another great part about using GarageBand is that it is a free app. Next we are going to look at Auria Pro. Auria Pro can add a complete MIDI sequencer, with a Piano Roll editor and real-time MIDI parameters like quantizing and groove templates. Record from external MIDI keyboards, or with third party iOS instruments that support Core MIDI's Virtual MIDI. It can also Draw in tempo changes with Auria Pro's new Tempo and Time Signature editor. This is a really excellent app for audio recording and editing, however, the down side of this app is that is cost $49.99. Now if you are looking for a free, professional screenwriting software you can use right now than you should download Studio Binder. It is a free scriptwriting software and is the option for any filmmaker or writer. It's intuitive, easy to use, industry-approved, and lets you focus on writing instead of formatting. You can also discuss screenwriting software with Final Draft 10. It’s been an industry standard for decades, and has been used by top writers and filmmakers. Its smart type function remembers scene elements like characters and locations, which you can reinsert as you write. Final Draft 10 also includes robust tagging and reporting tools. This means you can break down scene elements (actors, wardrobe, props) to feed into production reports later. It also includes organizational tools like Story Map (for outlining), Beat Board (for beat sheets) and Alternate Dialogue (for storing additional dialogue options). However, a great downside of Final Draft 10 is its cost of around $200.

Post #7 Online Resources

Free online resources can be so hard to find for both teachers and their students, in this post I will be going over five online resources that are free and incredibly useful. The first might be easier to find than you might think, it is simply Google Groups. Google Groups is a great way for students to collaborate with their peers. It is quick and easy and a truly great way to keep students on task on assignments. The next four will be excellent academic websites. First of the four is We Are Teachers, this is a website specifically designed to assist teachers with free resources they can use in lessons or for homework. Another great website specifically for teacher is Share My Lesson. Share my lesson is a very user friendly website, it is organized by grade, subject, and type of activity you might be looking for. Next we have Online Learning Consortium, this is a really nice website for teachers looking for an easier way to put together an organized lesson. This website also has a bunch of take home lessons to share with the parents of an exceptional student. Lastly I want to talk about Common Sense. Common Sense is an amazing website with online resources for teachers, parents, and students. This website hold lessons, games, learning song, and anything to everything a person in an academic field might need. It is an incredibly organized website and is extremely user friendly, with the simple click of a button you can find whatever you are looking for with in seconds.

Post #6 Learning Games

In my studies as an Early Childhood Education Major I have come across a few fun learning games that students can play at home after school to keep there brain stimulated. The first one I want to talk about is Preschool & Kindergarten Games and yes, that is the name of the app. It includes 30 interactive educational games for your PreK and kindergarten students. These games include lessons that are used by millions of parents and teachers to help educate and entertain young children. As your PreK child progresses through these lessons they get to earn stickers to add to their board, rewarding them for learning and playing! This is a perfect collection of educational games for little kids. Another excellent game for your students if TinyTap. • TinyTap is the #1 kids app for parents who want to turn their kid’s screen time into an active learning experience. It is fun and rewarding for both the child and the child's parents. TinyTap turns screen time into learning time and students will not know the difference. In a very similar set up of a game we have Kindergarten Learning Games! Something I noticed while researching learning games for PreSchoolers is that most of the names given to the games are exactly what you put in the search bar making finding these games very easy. With Kindergarten Learning Games! your students can learn ABCs, Numbers, Colors, Shapes, and more. Kids will recieve all essential learning activities necessary to best prepare your child for success in preschool and kindergarten curriculum. This is a fantasic series of fun educational games with little cartoon aliens to captivate your kids, this game is perfect for ages 2-6. Lastly I would like to talk about Thinkrolls: Kings & Queens game. • Thinkrolls Kings & Queens is a game filled with the adventure of logic and some simple physics. Students can practise reasoning, memory, and problem solving skills in this challenging puzzle game that students love playing and learning with. This game has over 200 unique puzzles inside 12 fairytale castles, toothy crocodiles, goofy ghosts and a friendly dragon. The downside of this game is that it is not free, it cost $6.99, however, it is still an excellent brain stimulating game that is great for helping students build memory strength.

Post #5 Let's get creative

Apple has a variety of great apps that let its users explore their creativity and in this post I will go over some of my favorite creative apps and why. One of the apps I probably use most often for choir is iMovie. It gives the users the opportunity to create dramatic but clean cut videos with background sounds or music. In the past I have used iMovie to create advertising trailers for productions at my school. Another really great app to use if you are into recording music if GarageBand. GarageBand gives its users access to try out most common instruments like the piano, guitar, and drums electronically. It has a recording feature so you can record yourself playing one instrument and put it over another recording you made earlier. Essentially a user on GarageBand can make a whole cover album inspired by their favorite artist while only using one app. Probably one of the more underrated apps for creativity is Pages, in pages not only can you share and collaborate with peers and get fresh ideas but you can add in so much more. You can add in recording to your work, images, and if you want whatever you are writing to be private you can even put a password on it. Finally my favorite app for accessing creativity would have Adobe Sparks PhotoShop. When I first opened Adobe Sparks PhotoShop, I will be honest, I had no idea what I was doing. But after playing around with the software I realized it was not that hard to use and photo-shop can be simple and fun. I highly recommend trying any and all of these apps if you are looking to widen your creative abilities.

Post #4 Smartboards

At first glance, interactive screens/white boards don't appear to be much more than huge flat screen TVs with touch functionality. Cool, but perhaps not much more than a flashy gimmick. However, on deeper inspection, most models come bundled with proprietary software tools that, under the right circumstances, open the door to some truly unique approaches to lesson delivery, quiz taking, and collaborative projects, among other things. And many of the teachers fortunate enough to have one in their classroom laud their ability to rejuvenate lessons and revolutionize the way children learn. Because these are web-based applications, you can build lesson plans on your home computer before you get to class, making it easy to take these materials for a spin before you debut them for your students. More importantly, this also means that students can access and interact with lesson materials using virtually any web-enabled computer or smart device. Smart boards provided a unique dynamic to classrooms by incorporating the power of computer technology with the indispensability of traditional blackboards. There are many studies in the literature demonstrating that this mixed technology contributes to academic achievement and that this contribution can be further enhanced. These contributions come in the form of enabling student interaction, having positive motivational effects on students, diversifying instructional materials teachers can use, placing teachers to a more effective position, helping students in reifying the topics in their minds by supporting imagination, rendering lessons more interesting and enabling saving the lessons on the board. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of smart board technology by examining rates of participation by students, and evaluating the students’ ability of completing their work while focusing on students with disabilities. Students with learning disabilities sometimes have a lack of engagement in completing tasks due to inattention. Technology such as the smart board helps students and allows them to learn more effectively. The smart board also creates an opportunity for teachers to differentiate instruction for all of their students. The smart board can increase motivation, offer self-paced practice, and create a high-interest learning environment. Educators should have an interest in the use of this interactive whiteboard and how it can enhance student learning.