Presentations

When I was putting together my final presentation it had me thinking about ways to use some of the technologies we have been learning about. I have decided I prefer to use the Smart Notebook over Powerpoint, although I do have a better understanding about Powerpoint. With the Notebook I can incorporate different games and other applications into my lessons to make them more interactive and engaging for students. I enjoyed watching other presentations using the same or similar technologies. Through watching other presentations I was able to look at different ways that the technology could be applied. I also learned some interesting facts from the presentations also. 

Podcats

I am unfamiliar with podcasts. I have heard about them but I personally have never listened to one nor made one. When making one I found it relatively easy, especially using Audacity. I enjoyed how I could overlay different sounds in the background in order for it to work well with the audio track I recorded. I feel as though podcasts could be applied in various ways throughout the classroom. I think it would also be fun for students to create their own and share with other students in the class. 

Websites

I have never known how to create a website before. I knew that there were ways for teachers to create their own websites for their classrooms but I was unsure how to do it or if it would be easy to develop and maintain one. As we attempted to use the Google hosting site I was getting frustrated at having limited control over what the appearance of the site was. In order to have slightly more freedom regarding the appearance I decided to switch over to the Weebly hosting site. 

Weebly was not only appealing to my visual tastes, as far as layout and setting adjustments were concerned, and it was very simple to use. I enjoyed setting up my own website for my hypothetical classroom. I think a website for a classroom or teacher is very helpful for students. Many, if not the majority, of students know how to access websites on the Internet. Therefore, students could use a classroom website as a resource in they have any questions, particularly if the teacher keeps up to date on the website and posts homework and other resources. Although a website can be very useful, it also requires quite a bit of work on the teachers end in order to keep it up to date on what is occurring in the classroom.