Digital Learning Inventory |
|
In our online course, TGC had us do an informal inventory of our digital learning environment. Part of global competence is the ability to investigate the world and to communicate ideas effectively to diverse audiences. Being literate or even fluent in digital tools must be part of that competence. Below is the informal inventory I undertook for my site, and the template someone could use to do an inventory at their site.
While I still have a long ways to go in infusing the latest technologies into my instruction, I increased my use and awareness of a few tools and sites. The tools or sites I've gotten some great use out of are:
1. www.wordpress.com ~ unveiled the mystery behind blogs! It was not as hard as I thought it would be. I especially liked the mobile platform--I did at least one blog post from my phone. Very handy.
2. www.wordle.net ~ It's great to make word clouds and add them to your lesson or work. It adds an attractive, interesting touch. Students have fun playing with it.
3. www.weebly.com ~ This site--great for making websites. Again, so much easier than I thought it would be.
4. www.snagit.com ~ Lets you capture images and video from websites. Kind of like "print screen," but easier to manipulate. Great to add visual content to lessons. They have a 15 day trial period for free. I really like it though, so I may pony up for the paid version.
5. www.ted.com ~ The TED talks online. We viewed many of these in our online course, and I found them so useful for showing students short provocative clips. Many if not most of the talks come with a transcript and the ability to show captions--so incredibly great for my ELLs. You can do a "flipped" classroom and have students view something before class and then work with the ideas in class (although many of my ELLs still really need to watch something with me to help with comprehension). We watched a TED talk in a unit on re-thinking Columbus to develop debate skills. My students were captivated by the video and asked to watch it again (http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_huey). Having the interactive transcript readily available was a huge help.
While I still have a long ways to go in infusing the latest technologies into my instruction, I increased my use and awareness of a few tools and sites. The tools or sites I've gotten some great use out of are:
1. www.wordpress.com ~ unveiled the mystery behind blogs! It was not as hard as I thought it would be. I especially liked the mobile platform--I did at least one blog post from my phone. Very handy.
2. www.wordle.net ~ It's great to make word clouds and add them to your lesson or work. It adds an attractive, interesting touch. Students have fun playing with it.
3. www.weebly.com ~ This site--great for making websites. Again, so much easier than I thought it would be.
4. www.snagit.com ~ Lets you capture images and video from websites. Kind of like "print screen," but easier to manipulate. Great to add visual content to lessons. They have a 15 day trial period for free. I really like it though, so I may pony up for the paid version.
5. www.ted.com ~ The TED talks online. We viewed many of these in our online course, and I found them so useful for showing students short provocative clips. Many if not most of the talks come with a transcript and the ability to show captions--so incredibly great for my ELLs. You can do a "flipped" classroom and have students view something before class and then work with the ideas in class (although many of my ELLs still really need to watch something with me to help with comprehension). We watched a TED talk in a unit on re-thinking Columbus to develop debate skills. My students were captivated by the video and asked to watch it again (http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_huey). Having the interactive transcript readily available was a huge help.
|
|
“This website is not an official U.S. Department of State website. The views and information presented are the grantee’s own and do not represent the Teachers for Global Classrooms Program, IREX, or the U.S. Department of State.”