Final Reflection

Well, we've come to the end of this semester and it is time to think back to all that we have accomplished since September! My, what an adventure! We have discovered new and amazing things, some of them, of course, we already knew about and maybe had even tried before, but I believe that we have all reached a new level of understanding with most of these technology-rich resources! Let's recount our many explorations:

• Social media like Twitter and Facebook
• More communication with Blogs and especially how to keep track of them!
• How to create an awesome infographic - again communication
• Using video to share information - one of my personal favorites!
• Creating book-trailers and other awesome means of (guess what) communication!
• Making cartoons and comic strips to summarize a book or to tell an original story
• Producing a podcast - not nearly as fun as a video, but it still has its uses
• and finally, we had a fine discussion over whether or not media (of any kind) helps, hinders, or has no effect at all on our students' learning

I enjoyed digging into these assignments and taking the knowledge I started with to a more satisfactory level. The assignment I had the most fun with and got the most out of was when we created videos using Adobe Spark and Screencasts. I had seen the final products in several of my classes, and was fully able to see how these great products could help me in my classroom and library. I had just never had the time or instructions to be able to try them out for myself. Both of these products will enable me to communicate with my students and their families much more efficiently than in the past. Instructions that need to be accessed multiple times by multiple students are more effective and efficient on a Screencast than either verbally or described in text on an instruction sheet. 

As for what I think my kids will benefit from the most would be the ability to create book-trailers, cartoons, and comic strips. These forms of presentation will give a whole new outlook on book reports and they will eventually be able to transfer these skills from book reports to board reports - and isn't that the whole point? To give them the tools they will need to be successful in the real world - after their school careers!