Interactive Whiteboards

I think interactive whiteboards are a very important tool for teachers to have in their classroom. They are fun and easy to use once you get the hang of them. Most importantly they allow for the students to have an opportunity to get out of their seats and manipulate different items. It is boring to sit in your seat all day. Interactive whiteboards can make learning fun for some of the students.

I would definitely want a SMART board of Promethius in my classroom. I would be able to come up with so many different lessons that would involve the students and I would probably even create some that only involve me. Interactive whiteboards are not just about entertaining the students and getting them involved. It is also for the teachers entertainment as well. I would like to have one for my classroom because I believe that as teachers we need to be able to be just as fluent in technology as the students are and having interactive whiteboards is one of the ways to do it.

The advantages to having these boards in the classroom, is that it allows for students to be actively participating though manipulating items. Interactive whiteboards allow for students to see and move items that they would never be able to do using an old fashioned projector. These boards open up a whole new world when it comes to teaching and how we teach lessons.

Students would definitely be more engaged, because it would be like we were speaking their language. The younger students are very technology proficient and I believe that they respond best when we use what they know and love to teach them.

PSA Video Project

The PSA project was a great experience. I had a lot of fun with it. When it came to working with the technology behind it, I found it more difficult than I originally anticipated. I had worked with video cameras before, but not to make a PSA and also not in a few years. I learned quickly how to do the basic functions of the camera so that the PSA could be filmed. Ann and I had to take quite a few video shots before being able to proceed to the next step. Once we had all the video footage, it did not take us long to realize that the plan we had developed may be to long for the amount of time allotted. We were definitely glad that we had already found the music and made it so it would fit with the PSA. Luckily I had worked with audacity in my Senior Seminar class senior year, which made it a little easier to use when we needed to. I think that the hardest part had to be cutting the video to make it work. This part took up the most time. We were constantly cutting and shortening in order to make the video not only fit in the allotted time but also so that the video would look good. There were other times when we had to take the video section from scratch again because we messed up the scene. Another part that seemed to be a little challenging was trying to get the voice overs completely perfect when it came to certain scenes. In some spots it wasn't exactly where we wanted it to be, but it turned out to work great.

I definitely would like to incorporate some sort of video in the classroom when I become a teacher. I think that it would be a lot of fun and that the students would learn a lot. When a person has to make something themselves I think it makes them retain much more about the project and also makes them appreciate it more because it was their time and effort that made the project possible.