This week in our Educ 422 class, we focused on creating a group presentation about some tech tools that may be useful for our classrooms.
After a short activity in which our class explored our different collaboration styles, we split up into our groups.
This short introduction to the way we work in a group was very helpful for all of us. We were suddenly quite aware of our strengths and weaknesses as a group partner. We were also able to be aware of and appreciate our group-mates’ strengths and weaknesses. This relieved much of the tension that can naturally occur when six students are trying to attain the same goal from different viewpoints.
We were given a specific list of tech tools to choose from. (Find that list HERE.) I chose to explore a tool called Flipbuilder. I’m always attracted to publishing platforms. Kids, and I, can create our own magazine style or picture-book style books online. What makes this publishing platform unique is that the pages can become interactive. Using PDFs, photos and video, the user can embed interactive objects into the books they create. Also unique, the program will actually read aloud the words written on the pages. This is such an exciting thing for elementary students who create their own books. They can encourage their peers to “read” their books even if their friend’s ability level is not the same.
The group work process was interesting. We got the majority of our technical and organizational issues ironed out before leaving the classroom on the night we were given the assignment. Google products make collaboration easy in that one can see changes being made in real time. All of us had access to our project. We all added our material and then I designed and formatted our slide presentation. Our classmate, Hailey, formatted our Assessment using Google Forms. We all went into each document and tweaked them. This was a very satisfying way to work remotely as a group!
Please click on the slideshow below to view our team’s Google Slides presentation in outline form. We reviewed 6 tech tools with an eye towards how they would be used in the classroom.
Here is our Google Slide Presentation
Following the presentation we submitted a Google Form for our classmates to evaluate their understanding and assimilation of the information of the products presented.
Please participate in our Google Form here
The collaborators for this project are:
The Education of Roon Brown 