My Final Project

Ultimately, I learned that I love all this technology! I spend hours working on all these assignments and don't realize how long or how hard I've worked until it's completed and I see how much time has passed, or I look at the final product and realize, "THAT'S what I just did?!" I'm surprised to actually write that - I always knew I liked technology but didn't realize how MUCH, or how addicting it could be. I also didn't realize how easy many of my ideas would be to implement, so that I was able to create more than I originally planned. With all this, I feel that it's even easier to have a better understanding of students today, what they like and why - how they must feel as they're working on something or looking back on something they've accomplished. It's great to be put into their shoes, it always gives me a better perspective to figure out how to teach them better!

When I presented my PowerPoint to the class, many of my classmates complimented my presentation, so that was exciting! I was pretty frustrated that the sound didn't work on Slideshare, but now that I've worked with it a great deal more, I believe you have to download the presentation to your computer in order to hear and see it properly! This presentation was a little bit more challenging because I had so many things to make sure to present information on, AND make it as interesting as possible! To be honest, I am happy with the finished product (one of my newest favorite things is adding audio to PowerPoint presentations), but there are a couple of things I'd like to still learn for next time. There's always more to learn! I'd like to learn how to embed any videos I want to show into the actual PowerPoint so that you're not steered away from the presentation. I feel that makes the presentation a little jarring, and I like (visually) to be able to focus just on the video and not everything else that would be on the screen, from say, a site like Youtube.

Had I more time, I would also like to learn Prezi - it's probably not difficult, just takes some time to learn and get used to. The first time I ever saw a presentation using Prezi, I thought it was the worst presentation I had ever seen! I immediately was dizzy and nauseous from it, and the presenter also was nervous and went way too quickly! Within this class, I could see that it's actually a very cool, very unique way of presenting information that I would actually like to try (and time it appropriately to avoid motion sickness!) The most important thing here, though, is clearly my willingness to try anything new in technology, as now my attitude is one of, "I'm sure I could do that..." rather than, "Wellllll..." Two very different approaches; one of them will make my students way happier! I'll let you guess which one.

I'm not sure that the actual presentation would be useful in a classroom, unless it were a classroom full of colleagues who were trying to learn all about the web-based activities I was teaching. However, the content of the presentation (and the lesson I included): the actual web-based activities are perfect for the classroom as they provide the collaboration, interaction, path to using higher order thinking skills, and the use of technology that students obviously love to work with.