Semester Favorites

Over the course of the semester, I was introduced to a number of fun, useful and interesting tools that are related to education technology. Many of these tools and programs were ones that I had heard of before, but really did not know much about. Similarly, I had never really taken the opportunity to explore their features. By experimenting with many of them in class and understanding their value as a professional resource, I feel much more confident about using such tools and programs in my future classroom and look forward to participating in 21st Century Learning!
The two programs that really intrigued me the most and that I would consider to be my favorites are Glogster EDU and Animoto. Glogster EDU offers students the opportunity to express their knowledge in a creative way, all while being very user-friendly. I especially like the fact that there are different designs from which to choose and that Glogster allows the user to adjust the layout as need be. It’s like creating a poster without the mess of glue and scraps of paper! Additionally, it’s nice that Glogster can accommodate videos from YouTube as well as other images found online or on one’s computer. I think that Glogster would be something that would really appeal to kids – they get to make their own decisions and actually have fun demonstrating what they know. It also serves as a unique – yet effective -- way to assess students’ knowledge and is something that would be fun (for the teacher) to grade!


What I like most about Animoto is that is an excellent tool for teachers to use to engage students or to help piece together nonlinguistic representations in order for students to make connections within a unit. Using a program such as Animoto is quite beneficial for lesson planning; creating videos is an excellent way to help introduce a lesson to students. I also believe that Animoto would serve as a wonderful program for students to use when creating group projects. The process of creating the videos is quite simple and, like Glogster EDU, is a fun way to apply knowledge rather than taking a test or completing another kind of project. Any time a student is able to use their creativity though assessment, I feel that it is a good thing. Having taken DED 318, I have learned that through technology, this can be achieved. I am thankful for learning about a number of excellent tools and programs!