Project Based Learning Approach

     When I signed up to take this course in project-based learning, I didn't fully know what to expect. I had done some projects in high school and during my time teaching at the high school and middle school level but I was not sure how the course would improve my teaching. I envisioned looking at several examples of projects and how they worked or looking at a variety of different technologies (such as smart boards, etc) and becoming educated on using these devices. While this would have been a useful course to take, I'm not sure that it would have benefitted me terribly in my present teaching since my school doesn't have a lot of resources or money available for such pieces of technology.
     However, once we began to delve deeper into the course and I found the the class was designed so that we could become more familiar with technologies and resources that were already available to use through the internet, I got excited. Many of the activities that we designed and readings that we did, dealt especially with things that I can use tomorrow. I instantly saw the benefit of the course.
     One of the technologies that I learned about was website building. I hadn't really thought of ways to use these in my classroom and I didn't know that there were tools available to me that would allow all of my students to create their own product. Since learning about site-building, I have already used Good Sites and Weebly in my classroom in mini projects that my students have done.
     There are many other technologies that I have used that I find to be extremely valuable to my teaching in the future. A number of these resources - such as podcasts and screencasts - allow a teacher to show a skill or give information and not have to repeat themselves over and over again! It makes assigning and creating projects that much easier.
     Through this course I was able to create a project that I will use in the very near future. However, the more valuable part is that I gained skills with new pieces of readily available technology that will help students becoming more interested in history and help me become a more effective teacher.

Using Surveys

     For this project, we were required to use a survey as part of the learning process. At first, when thinking of a survey, I thought of all the surveys that I have taken in my life. Most of these surveys are just asking for my opinion on a product, event, or lifestyle and really have not asked me to display anything that I have learned. Yet, after some time thinking about and creating my own survey for this project, I have come to realize that surveys can be an interesting and useful tool for teachers to you in assessing student learning.
    I have realized that surveys can be a great way to assess how the class as a whole is learning. While other forms of assessment - paper/pencil tests, essays, speeches - all have students show what they have learned while being held accountable for what they get right and wrong. However, a survey can be used to assess all students and get a broad view of how the class is doing as a whole while not having students take a test with the accountability and pressure that other assessments pose.
     Even though the accountability to students is a valuable part of the education process, students often either don't perform well in pressure situations or choose not to perform at all in those situations. This makes it easier to get students in a comfortable environment. Also, an anonymous survey also allows a teacher to get honest opinions from their class about the topics that they enjoy learning about, aspects of projects that worked for them, and things about activities that they really don't care for. Even though teachers are not always going to take this information and design lessons around it, it may help them design lessons or units that appeal to students better.

The Usefulness of Screencasting

   Last week's assignment was to create a screencast about a portion of our project and then post it onto our project webpage. I didn't know a whole lot about screencasting before last week and had certainly never created one but after doing the assignment I can see many of the benefits to screencasts and the variety of ways they can be used.
    For the screencast assignment I created a screencast to show my students how to create websites using Weebly. Through the screencast I was able to show my students where and how to log in and my students could see exactly what the page they would be logging into would look like. I was also able to show my students around the website and highlight some of the tools that the website offered. I also liked that I was able to show my students directly how to use the tools on the website. The ability to show students HOW is important in teaching and having a tool like screencasting is extremely valuable. One of the best things about screencasting is that it allows me to show students how and those directions can be given over and over and over again without me having to repeat myself. Students can simply watch the video and review important instructions.
     I did have some trouble uploading my screencast to YouTube and to the website but after a couple tries I found some success. I definitely plan on using screencasting in the future to give directions and help students develop skills using certain Web 2.0 tools.