The Final Post...For Now

 This past week we did another PowerPoint assignment for our EME2040 course. This time the assignment was to create an interactive PowerPoint, such as a classroom game. This was a bit of a challenge because we focused on using hypermedia programming, which is where the click to the next slide is disabled and each slide has a link (pictures or words) that take you to specific slides on the presentation. For this, I created my own jeopardy game that is directed toward high school level ELA students (since this is the level I plan on teaching). 

What I liked about this assignment:

• This is a great tool to know how to utilize as an educator, especially before an exam or test for students to review information! 
• The assignment was engaging (if you make it that way!). This aspect is important for educators to achieve in order to better connect with their classroom. Most students don't want a boring game after all right?
• While the start was a bit rough, once I got my first few slides in, the process went fairly quick.
• Creative range. I always am drawn to assignments that allow creative freedom.

What I want to challenge for this assignment:

• This assignment was time-consuming in order to get the high pass, which normally isn't an issue but when it's the week after spring break... yikes! I think that had the assignment required fewer slides to be a high pass, such as 20 slides instead of 25+, this could have made a world of difference.

Overall, this assignment was worth putting the time and effort in because of how useful it can be within a classroom. 

*Screenshot from my PowerPoint interaction game.

Data, Surveys, Reviews, Tech-Flex Challenges, & Next Steps

  This week as a class we also discussed what it meant to collect student data through surveys. For me, surveys will play an important role in my classroom (hopefully 9-12 grade levels). I plan to use surveys to collect anonymous data on how students are understanding the material, what they enjoy reading, and what resources they have available to them outside of school so that all assignments are accessible. Since each student will have different home lives and technology access, surveys are a crucial tool I can use that will help create equality in the classroom without singling out anyone. 

    With the semester coming to a close, I went back through several classmate blogs to see what they covered over the last 13 weeks. I found it interesting to see when a classmate put what they enjoyed versus what they did not like on different assignments. If I were to have my students utilize blogs for reflection, this feedback would be great to collect and review for areas of improvement. The overall perspectives showcased through these blogs have been interesting to look through and I hope others keep their blogs once in the education field. 

One of the added bonuses of this class is that we had the opportunity to do tech-flex challenges. These weekly challenges gave us additional practice with technology and the subjects we covered in class. My personal favorite was the digital detox because it was much needed. The issue I found with the tech-flex challenges is that after a certain point, I stopped doing them because my other classes got a bit intense. However, I still think they are fun and could be implemented in my classroom down the road. Below are the badges I collected this semester:

Not too bad on badge collecting

Overall, this semester I've learned about so many technology resources. From Diigo to PowerPoint Interactions, to copyright material and hyperlinks, there have been some great resources gained. As for what comes next with technology, I think I am going to work on figuring out ways to incorporate social media technology into my classroom. Especially with wanting to go into English education, I think it's important students have a variety of options available to them to explore. And if students are anything like they are currently, social media is going to need to be included in that exploration. As for how I'm going to go about learning more about this technology, most of it is going to be hands on learning (and a whole lot of YouTube tutorials 😉)

Until next time!

À bientôt!

-Renee Brady