Digital Storytelling

I really enjoyed this project. I think I can see myself using this tool more so in my professional development than in the educational setting. I feel like when I go to interpreting seminars, trainings, etc, I can use this tool to emphasize points and details. The video that I made was more used as a teaching tool to educate hearing people on the Deaf community. I think this would also be cool to have a student do to educate others on their passions.

Digital Diagram

I thought the Inspiration project would be a great way for my Deaf students to have a more visual experience. Because Deaf people are usually very visual learners, I think it would be very beneficial to have the digital diagrams ready for new or troubling lessons. I like how this could be used as a support to teaching a lesson, and also a way to evaluate the students. By having the student make a digital diagram, the teacher would then know how much the student was understanding. This would be a great tool used while peer teaching as well.

Blogging in the Classroom

I think blogging in the classroom is a great idea. I feel like this helps the student to get a better understanding of the material. It would also give the teacher a better understanding of how their students are understanding. This gives another option of assessing the material without always giving tests. I really like that the blogging would increase their writing abilities as well. I think it was neat writing on the different topics that we did throughout the semester. I liked one of my classmates ideas of having a choice of the topics. One of my classmate's ideas was to have us actually do it before we leave.

Interactive White Board

I can definitely see this project working really well with deaf students. Lectures are usually not as successful with deaf students. Due to deaf individuals being visual learners, the Interactive White Board would be a great way for them to learn through hands on learning. Actually most of the classrooms at Tennessee School for the Deaf. This has proven to be a great resource for deaf children to use. I think this would also be a great way for the teacher and interpreter to work together and come up with the optimum way of helping the students to learn. I actually really enjoyed making this project. Aside from the educational uses of the Interactive White Board, as an interpreter, I can also see myself using this in other interpreting as well. Interpreters also hold and travel to seminars; I can see these coming in handy in keeping up on new interpreting information.

Picasa and Google Presentation

I really enjoyed these projects. I think that this would be great to be used in the classroom where the students can individualize the lessons. This would be great where students are able to really be creative and teach the rest of the class about something they enjoy. Because some students are better at expressing their knowledge through art, this would be a great alternative to simple papers or assessments. I can see myself encouraging the teacher of the classroom to incorporate this into the classroom. This could really help some of the deaf students. American Sign Language and English have very different grammar, and due to this difference, some deaf students have a hard time expressing themselves through the English language. This type of project would give them the opportunity show their knowledge through more of a visual representation.

Scavenger Hunt

I think the scavenger hunt would be a great tool to use with my deaf/hard of hearing students. Because deaf students in a public school setting are more likely to be isolated due to the language barrier, working in groups for this project would be a great idea to get everyone involved. I like that we were in a group and worked together to get all the pictures into the Dropbox. I feel like this would not be a very good project for younger children, simply because it was very technical. Because we had to re size the pictures, use Dropbox, as well as other tools, I feel like this project might be better for upper elementary to post secondary. I did like the fact that this could be personalized to the individual lesson or even left up to the student's own ideas.

Inquiry Based Learning

I think making an inquiry based learning activity would be a great way to get the class involved. Being an interpreter, I think it would be great for students who are deaf as well. My only concern with an activity that would be mostly on the internet would be that some of the things on the internet would not be deaf friendly. For instance, if part of the activity was watching a video or listening to an audio recording, the deaf student would be at a disadvantage. With the inquiry based learning activity that I created, I think it would be a fun way for everyone in the class to learn. I would like to work hand in hand with the teacher of the classroom to create an inquiry based learning activity that everyone could use. I can definitely see the usefulness of an inquiry based learning activity.

Website Evaluation

I have never had to evaluate a website as closely as I had to during this assignment. I can definitely see the value in doing this. Although it was easy to find some of the information, such as the author; it was harder to find some of the other information and judge if would be a good site to use. On the particular site I reviewed, it was somewhat hard to find the editor. This site also did not have readily available contact information. The viewer would have to email the creator first to obtain the contact information. I think knowing how to evaluate a site is going to help me and my students to obtain correct and most current information. I think this is very important in my profession. There are a lot of websites on ASL and deafness related topics that need to be evaluated before I can use them with my students.

Course Expectations

As for my expectations for this course, I hope to gain knowledge and experience in the technology field. Because I am an Educational Interpreting major, I hope that I can bring new and better ways for my students to learn into the classroom. I hope that I can help my students to feel more confident as they are learning. Because I am not a tech genius, I hope I can become more confident in my skills as well.

Welcome

Hey, welcome to my blog. This will be my reflections of my class, TPTE 486, throughout the semester.