This week we had a lot to accomplish!! We spent time looking at and creating VoiceThreads, learning about the six principles of presentations, and continuing to take pictures for our Posterous.
It was really great to learn about VoiceThreads. I had heard for VoiceThreads before this class, as we had a small presentation done on them at a staff meeting last year. After getting a chance to play with this application, I definitely see the benefits of using it. The one benefit that I saw from it was the ability to create a presentation and reaching homebound students or sick students. Unfortunately there are those cirrcumstances where sometimes kids cannot come to school due to illnesses. VoiceThreads would be a way to reach them while they are home and allowing them to still be able to learn the information. I also thought they could be used if I had a sub one day. Often, I plan "simple," for a lack of better word, assignments when I have a sub. It just seems easier because I don't know what their background knowledge is. Creating VoiceThreads of all my presentations and having a worksheet to go with them, would be a great way for students to learn information without having to count on a sub to deliver it.
After looking at the six principles of presentations, I learned that not only will I always need to continue to enhance my presentations, but these six principles really do make a presentation great. From now on, my goal is to focus on creating presentations away from my computer and trying to apply all of these principles to make truly great presentations.
As we continue to take pictures for our 28 Day challenge, I am truly enjoying every aspect of it. I find that I'm really learning a lot about myself. This activity has allowed me to stop and embrace the moment of a day, for just a minute, but it's also allowing me to see how much I really do throughout a day. It definitely is a really fun activity, one that I might apply in the classroom.
In the next few weeks, I'm excited to see what we continue to learn and hopefully have time to tackle everything as the days get nicer...well hopefully get nicer!!
I never really thought about using voicethreads as a lesson plan for a sub, but that's a great idea! Though it would take some time, it would be great to be able to tell the sub where to go on the computer and then have the students do an assignment based on that. You would probably have to make one that is of considerable time though and as you probably noticed when you made your own, it would take a lot of time to make a really good one.
ReplyDeleteWhile you are applying the six principles of presentations away from your computer, do you think you have a preferred way to do that? The book gave several suggestions, did any of them jump out at you?
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