EME Blog

Independent Learning Project #2  Tech SandBox - Virtual Reality  So today I went to the Tech Sandbox for my second ILP.  I went to the Tech Show case for my first ILP so I was already pretty familiar with the type of equipment they had to offer, but I never had a change to use the Virtual Reality glasses. IN the Tech Sandbox I had it all to myself!  Before today, I had never used Virtual Reality. We really are living in the future - I was able write in thin air and teleport to an entirely different world. It looked so real!  I think it could be used as a cool, educational tool to train students in alternate realities. For example, imagine you're a marine biology course instructor. With various softwares, you could teach your students how to take samples and carry out experiments with no real risk or hazard. While I still think there is value to real-life experience, VR could be an economic and safer way to keep students active and involved in the le...

Data Collection Surveys  Fifth grade was my favorite - you're finally the top dog in you're elementary school and you haven't been exposed to all the drama that's just around the corner in sixth grade and beyond. I've always envisioned myself teaching fifth grade. The kids aren't too cool for you yet and they're at a sweet spot age when they're getting a good sense of who they are/what they enjoy doing. I think data collection surveys could be a really useful evaluative tool to keep students engaged. As a teacher, I would create surveys so that my kids could have a chance to provide feedback -  I liked this about this assignment, I didn't like this, I would want do this again or I would rather do this, etc. I want my students to take an active role in their learning and data collection surveys are a good way to keep them engaged in a limited way.  Blogs One of the most interesting things I read on my classmates' blogs was something Libb...

"The Flipped Classroom" I've only ever taken one online course and it didn't go so well. I was a junior in high school. The class was College Algebra. If you can't tell by now, I'm very much a people person. Not a computer person. All of our lessons and tests and activities were done online... and I failed miserably. Not because I'm bad at math, but because I just can't learn from a computer. The concept of a flipped classroom would have been really beneficial for me in that stressful season of my life when I all too often found myself staring at a blinking cursor in the middle of my screen. The flipped classroom is a type of educational strategy where the bulk of the instructional content is taught online and then the "homework" part or any other kind of related activity is brought into the classroom when students are face-to-face with their teacher and peers instead of a computer screen. For me, actually doing the work is the most import...

Diigo Diigo is a social bookmarking website that allows its users to save, annotate and share bookmarks with the click of a mouse. As you save the webpages, the bookmarks will sync across your devices so you can access them anytime, anywhere. Not only that, but Diigo makes it easy to organize your bookmarks by providing an option to categorize them by subject matter with hashtags. This feature comes in handy when you want to share your bookmarks with classmates, team members or fellow teachers. You can also highlight and annotate any part of the webpages you save- making this webstie even more adapted for sharing.  Bloom’s Taxonomy  Bloom’s Taxonomy is a heirarchal model that classifies six educational learning objectives into levels of difficulty. It starts with creating, then evaluating, analyzing, applying, understanding, and finally, remembering. PowerPoint is a great tool that can be used by teachers to support student learning at each level. The best way to make...

Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/ Pinterest is a great site that can be used as both a personal learning network for teachers and a creative space for anyone else who loves things like crafts, recipes and design. The possibilities are endless. You can go on there and post just about anything and you can also repost and organize other people's ideas onto your own boards. It's especially cool for teachers because they can use the pins as inspiration for decorating their classroom or creating lesson plans in ways that work for them and their students. I'm a huge fan.  Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/ Reddit can best be described as a discussion forum. Although it's not generally thought of as a PLN source for educators, it can certainly be used as one. It's a good space to submit links and images and other content that might inspire or challenge fellow teachers on controversial topics about education. The most popular posts are voted up or down by other m...