Technology Reflection Assignment
Description/Experience
In my last seminar class, the technology that was used was Edmodo. Almost like facebook, edmodo allows a teacher to add their students and post assignments and give grades to these assignments once the students have submitted them through Edmodo. This allows the students to ask one another questions if they are unsure how to answer a part of the assignment. After using Edmodo in class and relating to subjects taught in school, I believe this could be a very useful tool to use as a teacher, especially if I were to teach a middle school Math or Science class.
Application
The students will be able to better communicate with their peers, and also have a better understanding of the subject that has been taught by mentor teacher. Using Edmodo for 6th grade science, the students will be able to click on the website that is posted through Edmodo and then will post their answers to the questions that are found at the end of the website.
This website I feel is geared more for middle school students. The reason why is because I do not feel that younger children (below the age of 12) would be able to use the site and still gain something from it.
After the students have all posted their answers to Edmodo, have them do an exercise that tests whether or not the online site was helpful or not.
Reflection
Pedagogy-Content:
Clearly explain to the child the lesson of what you are teaching them before they go online to Edmodo to complete the assignment. This should cease any confusion before it starts in the classroom.
It is important to find out what the children think they already know about this material and to also find out what is falsely understood. Many middle school students may think they have a good understanding of something when in reality, they could be completely wrong.
Technology:
Students must be able to use a computer in a basic sense. Such as typing, using a mouse, and knowing how to search the internet. They also may need to know how to save to the desktop, once the assignment is completed.
As far as Edmodo, the site is very easy to find. The hard part is being able to navigate once you are signed into the site that may cause problems.
Technology-Pedagogy:
The activity would be posted on this website, where the students would have to find it and be able to answer the activities questions.
I would use the technology as a guide, seeing how well my students understood something once I have taught it to them. If all the students struggle on the same question, I will then be able to correct their mistakes and hopefully keep it from happening again.
I would need to manage the classroom time a little bit better. The reason why is because some students are not as quick when working with a computer so it may take them longer to navigate on the website
Technology-Content:
The activity would hopefully provide the students with more background on the website then what I would do in the classroom. This would force the children to do more discovery learning on their own and figuring the questions out on their own.
This technology would hopefully make the students become more independent in their work and make them work on their own. Working by themselves is a great way for students to figure out their own strengths and weaknesses.
Technology-Pedagogy-Content:
The content would still come across as if I were teaching it by mouth to the entire class. This technology forces the children to work on their own and to understand the material in their own words.
Again, this technology works because it helps the students learn things on their own, and reviewing it as a class, I will then be able to help to students with any misconceptions they may have.
I believe that I do a great job in explaining things to children. Since I know this to be true, I would explain the lesson to the students one time and then let them complete the assignment through Edmodo, letting them figure things out on their own. Once the assignment is complete, I will try to figure out what is not understood, and teach these difficult concepts over again, in a different way.
After reading your blog, I would completely agree that Edmodo can work much better in an older classroom in a middle school or high school. This website would be very appropriate for a science or math class. There are so many valuable resources on the internet and students should be exposed to them in the classroom. I liked when you talked about how sometimes students believe they understand concepts but when they have to apply them, they do not understand them as clearly as they thought. This is very true and I think taking extra time to explain the material will be very useful and you will be very glad you did it later in the lesson. I think the idea of children discovering more on a website then taught sitting in a classroom. This is the key concept when using Edmodo. You really emphasized that idea and I agree with you that it is very important and that is how children are going to get the most out of this assignment.
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