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Final Reflection

• What do you feel is the most useful technology (or teaching approach) you have learned this semester?

  It is difficult to say that there is one "most" useful technology that I have learned this semester, simply because I have learned so much. I value what I've learned, including google reader, google sites, google calendar (I now use it), blogger, prezi, and wikis. Perhaps the most useful, however, was in my personal technology project, learning about online, self publishing. I am very excited to take that technology into the classroom! Perhaps it is because I am an English major, and I love books unabashedly, but learning how to use and publish a book on that website was particularly enthralling.

I also am really excited to use google sites in the classroom. I had no clue about that stuff, but now I can totally use it like it's nothing. It is a tool in my hand I intend to use.

• How do you plan to use this or other technologies in your future teaching?

  I plan on using the self-publishing site, wordclay, in the classroom to create student anthologies. I also may have students create their own, personal anthologies of what they've written in class, especially if the class has them write a lot. I love writing, and teaching writing, so I hope that will be a part of what I do in the future.

• How can you use technologies (the ones we learned or others) to engage your students in ACTIVE learning?

 Students are engaged when they feel like the work they do is valuable. Knowing that other people (besides myself, the teacher) will read what they've written makes it more important to them that what they create is quality stuff. Having a class website, blog, and using self publishing give that to students in a way that I would not be able to create on my own as their teacher.

When it comes to wikis, I was really excited by the possibilities I saw in it. Depending on the class being taught, and the students in it, I believe that wikis could make classes more interactive, valuable, and engaging for students. Personally, I am taking a teaching grammar class right now, and a particularly valuable resource is the class wiki. It is a lexicon of grammatical examples. I intend to use it in planning lesson plans like monks used feathers in writing Bibles. Wikis can be so valuable. Doing something like that, with the wiki examples, or creating a class study guide wiki for whatever class it is, could really enhance students' learning!

Wordclay

Here is a link to an anthology I assembled of poems and short stories that I have written. I published this book using wordclay.com, a self-publishing website.

It is, as Derrida would say, textually fabulous!

Personal Technology Project Proposal

One of my teaching teachers, Brenda Burr, loves to tell stories. She told us many stories about her experiences as an English Teacher, and she gave us good advice. Once she said, "Students love to feel like their work is important. Why not publish student works? It could be online, or through a writing contest, or you could compile your students' works in class. They love having their stuff be important -- not only to you, but to the outside world."

That is why I've decided to look into the self publishing websites for my personal technology project. I think it could be very useful to have a knowledge of how to use one of these websites in an English classroom.

I looked at both of the websites suggested, and I think I prefer wordclay. It looks more professional, and it seems easier to navigate.

There are a couple of things that I would use this technology for in the classroom. The first, is for ambitious student writers (especially in a writing class). For some classes, I will have big projects that students can self-publish here. They also can publish their portfolio here, compiling all their work from the class into one book. They also can compile their works into small group anthologies or class anthologies. I am most interested in students putting personal projects together and publishing it that way, and classroom anthologies for the entire class.

I will be putting together an example of a student's personal anthology. I will pretend that I have been taking a creative writing class, and this project will be the sum of all my work in that particular class. Students will be able to design it themselves, including the cover, layout, and illustrations or photographs.

It is a very exciting project! I have never used anything like this before, and I am excited to learn all about this technology. It is so cool.