DTLR Project Reflection

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TeacherWeb was a very frustrating experience because of it's poor user interface. There were too many mouse clicks to get anything done. The lack of a "log in" feature was particularly frustrating. I think it is useful, however, the templates it offers.
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I think the class wiki is a great way to have students interact with their learning environment. If students take charge of their learning, they learn better. Some students are particularly tech savvy and could demonstrate their skills. Other students could learn new skills that could lead to further interest in technology, because a wiki is a very nonthreatening medium.
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I think I'd like to add my own podcasts or links to iTunes U to add more interesting and personal elements.

Emerging Technologies in the Classroom

http://education.apple.com/itunesu/

http://www.virtualclassroom.org/

iTunes U is a great resources for teachers and students to view AND make educational podcasts. This could be great for using in a teaching/learning setting in two ways. First, viewing these videos would be a great way to supplement lessons in class, or for homework. Second, it would be really great to MAKE podcasts. Students would hopefully learn more by DOING and TEACHING themselves, rather than just passively watching.

Global Virtual Classroom is a free online program that allows classrooms to connect online to other classrooms across the world. This would be great to give students global perspectives on the topics we are studying. It would also be useful to have students create the content themselves, again forcing them to DO rather than be passive.

I feel like this would take a little more preparation time, but would be worth it to give my students a richer experience. It would be especially helpful for students with different learning styles.

Learning Styles and MI Activity

1. The learning style instrument: Memletics Learning Styles Questionnaire
2. URL to "Memletics learning styles questionnaire"
3. A short description of what it measures: This is supposed to measure what your dominant learning styles are, out of 7 styles, and is roughly based on the theory of multiple intelligences.
4. A discussion of what you “learned” about your learning style from it: The scores are out of 20 possible points, 20 indicating frequent use of that style. According to this inventory, I learn most verbally and socially, but I also learn well visually, physically, and solitary. Either this is not a very accurate quiz, or I just learn differently in different situations. I think the answer might be a little bit of both. To give the test some credit, I would say that I do tend to like mixing it up quite often, depending on the environment or material I need to learn, not only to learn better, but also to prevent boredom.
5. How you could incorporate this new understanding about your learning style into your future teaching: This will help inform my teaching by helping keep me aware that just because one student's dominant learning style isn't being catered to in class, doesn't mean that they won't learn well. Students can have several preferred learning styles. It is also important to be aware that using multiple teaching strategies can prevent boredom.

6. Discuss how you might incorporate student learning styles into your teaching and classroom activities and on your preparation to teach (lesson planning): I read the surfaquarium page about "Jaime." This was a great example of how to incorporate different learning styles into teaching toward standards. Incorporating learning styles in English would be pretty easy. For example, I could teach a unit on a Shakespeare play that could incorporate brainstorming with concept maps for visual learners, dramatizing certain scenes for kinesthetic, rhythmic, and linguistic learners, group work for interpersonal learners, and a research project for existential learners.
   

7. Discuss the value you would see in having your students complete a learning style inventory and having them use that info to adjust their own learning. This would be helpful so I can be aware of what my students need to learn best. It would also be helpful so that students can be aware of their own needs, and hopefully communicate that to me.
   

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