Technology in the Classroom

I have always been one of the people who have sworn up and down that I will never get a MAC computer. I always found them annoying. Even after taking EDU 315 in my undergraduate years, I never thought I would consider buying a MAC. After Wednesdays class, I may have slightly changed my mind towards someday buying one. After going through the computer and learning the different functions it offers, I was blown away. I just recently bought a new laptop last semester; however, it does not have all the functions that a MAC has. I thoroughly enjoyed playing around with Photo Booth. This program is awesome and I would love to have it on my laptop.

            Young children love to take pictures because they feel special when doing it. Instead of having to have a bunch of cameras, students could just go to the computer lab and take pictures of themselves. The program also offers a recording option where they can record a video. Some students are still shy about getting up in front of a class and explaining something. The student can record themselves explaining his or her project or writing sample. This way they are still getting practice with speaking about it but it makes it a little bit more informal because they are talking to the computer screen. This can even be used as a practicing device for students to practice speaking before doing so in front of the class. This way they would have a chance to view themselves and make any changes if necessary. This is great software for the students to use in the classroom because it is easy to use and a lot of fun. Technology is becoming such a huge part of today’s educational curriculum; however, some schools do not have the proper funding for it.

            Another program we explored in class on Wednesday was Xtranormal. This is a website that allows anyone to make video clips with whatever they want in it. The characters could be anyone from robots to small furry bears. They also have a variety of different voices that you may give your characters, along with the setting. All you have to do is pick the items that you want to be in your video and then you just type up the dialogue for each character.  To create an account is free, but it may require a few bucks here or there if you want to use certain items. I believe this would be a great tool to use in the classroom because it is easy to use and it does not cost any money for them to make an account. In every grade, teachers push their students hard to create stories during their free writing time. The schools that I have spent the most time in usually have the students type their stories when they are done writing it. I think it would be a great idea for the students to actually create small video clips that represent their story. I think that this would give the students a great incentive to write stories because they will have the opportunity to turn their story into a live video clip that they can bring home to show their family. This will help students with their typing skills along with taking their story and turning it into something far away from the usual requirements during writing time.