Final Reflection

Throughout the semester, I’ve learned about so many programs and applications that I’m very excited to implement in my classroom this school year.  I love integrating technology in my lessons because students get just as excited as me.  Some things I was familiar with because I was already using them; however, some were new and although they were a bit challenging, but I managed to learn them.  Throughout my reflection, I’ll mention my favorite, most difficult, and the ones I believe will be the most beneficial to my students in the classroom and in the library.   

The following is all the technology that we used for this class.  As you can see, the majority are new things I learned this semester, and that’s awesome!

1.     Facebook (learned before)

2.    Twitter (new)

3.    Infographics (new)

4.    Blog (learned before)

5.    Bloglovin’ Blog Reader (new)

6.    YouTube (learned before)

7.    QR Codes (new)

8.    Podcast (learned before)

9.    Online Book Communities (new)

10. Creating Comics and Cartoons (new)

11.  Instagram (new)

12. Vine (new)

13. Screencast (new)

My Favorite was creating comics and cartoons using MakeBeliefsComix, Pixton, and ToonDoo. Although all three were great, my favorite was ToonDoo because it had many characters and different backgrounds.

As for the most difficult, I would say was creating the QR code using www.qrstuff.com and www.visualead.com. I had a little more difficulty understanding and navigating through the both websites.  Despite that, I believe that with practice I can use it for many things like to create book trailers, to inform about plagiarism and other information.

Although they were all great programs, I believe the most beneficial for both my students and me was screencast.  I can record step by step screens that allow me to go back to something I’ve learned and in the same way my students can use it to go back to a lesson they missed or need to review.   Librarians and administrators can train others using a screencast, too.  It’s just a great resource that I wish I knew about sooner.

Since students use technology all the time, it makes sense that teachers and librarians use it with them, too. Thanks for all the exposure.  It truly was an eye opener and I’m sure it’s just a little taste about what is out there to be discovered.