Feeling a bit frustrated and depressed.
Would it be awesome to have all my lessons backed up by amazing world-class Pezi’s? Do I wish I could design and make awesome computer games that would make my students engaged learners? – yes and yes
The simple fact is that I cannot make these amazing things (yet) - AND the time it would take to:
a) learn how to make them
b) actually make them
would mean that I would have to leave the classroom (and all the behind-the-scenes duties that being a teacher entails) in order to do them. While on that topic – I think that this side of teaching is often being overlooked in this whole Web 2.0 education hype. Teaching is more than just being in the classroom. Perhaps if I only had one class and no other duties (marking, reporting, assessments, competitions, yard-duties, meetings, programming, supervising…) I could have the Web 2.0-based class to end all classes but…
My Impressions on the Tools
- Prezi looks good – about to have a play with it
- UPDATE on PREZI - now I've seen a few I have to say that it's getting a bit tiresome. Yes, the ability to pan in and out to show the audience the structure of the presentation is a good idea (and there are some pretty clever artistic things you can do with it -I'm thinking of stuff on Hungry Beast, assuming that it's Prezi). BUT all the jumpring, spinning around and zooming in and out crap reminds me of sitting through a presentation by a PowerPoint newcomer who had just discovered the slide transision and custom animation functions so every freaking click saw stuff flying around everywhere = annoying and detracting from the presentation. If your purpose is to bamboozle your audience into thinking you have something to say then it seems Prezi is for you. That being said - I'm sure there are expert users who have something to say and use it VERY effectively. I just still not impressed by the idea that Web 2.0 tools are the panacea for, well, *everything*.
- Bubbl is b-b-boring
- Glogster is being used in my yr 8 & 9 classes for me to see if it is a more effective medium than Powerpoint for students presenting simple research. The fact that it is going to be ‘on the web’ seems to be motivating some.
BTW here are the links to my Bubbl and Glog
 |
| To Bubbl |
 |
| To Glog |
On to Module 6
Tristan,
ReplyDeleteYour blogs are very entertaining. I totally agree with your comments. Some of these tools look great, however the key issue with Web 2.0 in the classroom, is finding the time to familiarise myself with the tool and then put it into practice by linking it to the syllabus. Very frustrating to have new resources and not have the time to explore and use them effectively and not just for the sake of using them.