Final Thoughts of My Education Technology Journey

This week through the completion of the final exam, my learning journey of EME 5050 is coming to an end.

During this process, I have been adventured so many first times, for instance: to build up online profile, learning how to manage gradebook, creating digital storytelling examples using Prezi, setting up curriculum page, developing rubric, etc.

I am excited for all the things I have got from this course, and I cannot wait to integrate them into my future curriculums. The hardware I will use in my classroom are iPad, Mobile devices and SmartBoard. There are plenty of apps for us to choose, some of them have application value and education significant. Using technology can not only fascinating the curriculum, but also attracts students’ concentration in the mean time enhance their enthusiasms of learning.

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/07/07/10-incredible-ipad-apps-for-education/

http://www.edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/mobile-technology-apps

http://tips2012.edublogs.org/2012/05/07/tips2012-ipad-app-guide-smart-board-app/

As an educator, learning these new things is interesting to me, I enjoyed the concept of integrating technology into curriculum so much. As we seeing in several movies, they all have been telling us, in different areas, about how technology will look alike in the future.  I can imagine how education will grow in tomorrow’s classroom.

Here is a video tells about education in the future:

What will happen to the development of education technology, let's wait and see.

It is just a beginning..

This semester is coming to an end, I am so glad to have this class not only because the informative of the content but also due to its practicality.

This is the last blog entry of our class EME5050, however, it is just a beginning of my education technology journey.

I have learnt a lot though this course, I think the most important one for me is I start to have a digital mind of thinking and have the chance to explore the resources out there in the vast ocean of technology. I have to admit that before I came to this course, traditional education or simple multimedia educational tools narrowed my mind. Using basic presentation tools and basic searching abilities were enough for me four years when I was holding a teaching position in China. Even though, we have education technology training every year, as a music teacher, I did not realize those things are urgent to me. I must say my mind is opened through this learning journey.

American is the leader of technology all over the world; teachers and students here have the advantaged learning environment and equipment, for example: some school district provide the newest devices to educators and students, to name a few: iPad, SmartBoard, ActivBoard etc. Using these devices teachers could integrate more educational apps into their curriculum, create online learning environment for students. As the first topic we discussed in the very beginning of this course, we analyzed whether education is best for students or convenient for teachers. The answer is non-closeable, since the technology trend and digital age forced education become technical innovation. Now interactive technology cannot stop its step, it is a fast growing trend in the world. Every country in the world will catch this trend sooner or later.

It is indeed, visual school, online education and digital technology is still developing in some country, for instance, China, the education system has already realized it. The development of educational technology will become a flood flowing to every village of the earth. 

My Example of Digital Storytelling

This is my Prezi example for my future students to show them how to integrate music into their Digital Storytelling project. My aim class is for grade 6. There are many platforms they can use, such as PPT, Prezi, iMovie, Moviemaker etc. I think the most difficult one would be Prezi. The reason why such a easy operate presentation tool would become the difficult one is because, you can easily embed music, sound and video into your Prezi presentation, however, when you make the music as the background it is a bit complex.

The full instruction will be shown in my Wiki space. Even though I feel a little concern about whether the students can handle this. However, I believe once they follow the detailed instruction and do it step by step, they could come out a excellent work and will be proud of their capabilities.

Please leave your feedback for my Prezi. Thanks!

How to choose music for your Digital Storytelling project?- Integrate music into Digital Storytelling.

It is no doubt that a good Digital Storytelling cannot be attractive without music, pictures, text, language, animation or sound.

I was a music teacher in middle school, when I saw this topic, I was thinking of how to build a bridge between music and digital storytelling could be seamless. 

Sublimation digital storytelling is not so much music, rather they both are closely combined and indivisible as a whole.

Try to think that when you were in a movie theater, a not so good movie is telling a not so touching story, however, you were manipulated by the music, even though you realized that it was a bad movie, you still been effected by the music. That is the power of music. The most interesting thing is that it is a universal language; a good music can bring people to the same emotions. That’s the power of music.

I am planning to design a project for my 6th grade students, letting them tell one of their own stories, which could be happy, anxious, excited, nervous, sad, angry, or even sick. Then, choosing or scoring background music that could demonstrate their feeling properly. Students are welcomed to use visual aids, such as pictures, drawings, or video clips. They can use iMovie, Moviemaker, Powerpoint, Prezi, just depends on their preference. I will provide one example for them using Prezi. Once finished, their work will be commented by his/her classmates, and each of them will be the judge of others, and the purpose is to find out which one has correctly chosen suitable music as well as the overall visual effects.

I think this project is a good opportunity to teach them about how to integrate music into their story as well as a good way to learn how to choose suitable music to their future Digital Storytelling works. 

There are many online example resources for students for instance: online example resources, this is a Wikispace of Storykeepers. In this webpage students can find free music resources to use as well as develop their own music.

For this project I have already create my own Wikispace: My wikispace. I also created a Digital Storytelling example for it to help students better understand the aim of their project. For more examples I will recommend them some of the examples of students who published online for their references. Students examples.

Prezi- Digital Storytelling

digitalstorytelling on Prezi

Photo courtesy of Sergius Quercus via Flickr Creative Commons

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License.

Tablets in Education

The theme of this week is Hardware; I will talk briefly about tablets here in my blog. Tablets become the most popular gadget in the last five years. For instance: iPad, Google Nexu 7, Samsung Galaxy Tablets, Acer Iconia, Amazon Kindle Fire etc. There are tons of brands you can choose from and each of them offers a unique characteristic: such as appearance, function, and connectivity. Their popularity among students is grown at a daily basis. As a cutting edge device, its integration into education will materialize in the foreseen future.

There are some controversy surrounding its Pros and Cons when introduce tablets into education.

Pros:

Improve our education system and allow alternative teaching method in a cutting edge way;

Create immersive learning environment;

Help students organize their school works;

Teach kids about technology;

Save money on traditional textbooks;

Cons:

Potential to be a distraction, especially for some kids in attention disorder;

Connectivity, the Internet accessibility could bring inappropriate information to students and such information will propagate between classmates rapidly;

The cost is very expensive. 

Some of public or private schools have the advanced technical devices such as laptops, Mac, or even Tablets.  “Charlottesville public schools were issued tablets midway through this school year 2012.” “Carmel Catholic High School freshman Nicole Dowd gets a look at the new tablet she will use in all of her classes next year with her mathematics teacher, John Titterton. All Carmel students will receive a tablet next year and all classes will incorporate this technology.”   However, not all of our schools have that accessibility to this new technology since there are limitations in government funding. 

The situation not only happens in K-12 education but also exist in college and universities. In order to truly accommodate the trends of technology and catch up with the digital age, devices are essentially not only for students but also for professors and administers as well.  Is this possible to accommodate such devices college wide to each student and faculty? The answer is apparently no for now.

However, for college students, BYOD is going to be a trend in the future.

So, what can companies do to solve this problem in education? How to win the competition in the market of tablets? Its attractive appearance and fancy features? Those cannot help; the most important thing is the price. One decade ago, computers and laptops were quiet luxury products, but now, almost everyone owns one, simply because it becomes cheaper and cheaper, yet with improved performance year by year. Hence, it can be concluded that tablets will replace computers in the near future. “A new report reveals that most US schools are testing tablet devices, with the aim of having more tablets per students than computers by 2016.”

References:

Eric.S (Aug., 2012) Why innovative hardware is not enough. [Internet Article] Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/05/08/tablets-and-education-why-innovative-hardware-is-not-enough/  

Megan E. D(Apr.,2012) Tablets in Charlottesville schools prove successful. [Internet Article] Retrieved from:

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2012/apr/29/tablets-charlottesville-schools-prove-successful-ar-1878331/

Russell. L(Jun., 2012) Carmel High School to provide personal tablet computers to all students next year . [Internet Article] Retrieved from :http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120430/news/704309742/

Jason. A(Jun., 2012) Pros and Cons of iPads in the Classroom. [Internet article] Retrieved From:

http://info.lecturetools.com/blog/bid/57442/Pros-and-Cons-of-iPads-in-the-Classroom

Doug. D (Oct,. 2012)Schools will have more tablets than they do computers 2016. [Internet article] Retrieved from: http://tabtimes.com/news/education/2011/10/31/schools-will-have-more-tablets-they-do-computers-2016