Blog 10

     I think using surveys in a classroom is a creative way to get students to participate. Ways I would do this is to ask students questions like "do you feel prepared for the exam?" or "what topics do you need me to review more" because I know some students are afraid to ask for help and this way the responses are all anonymous. This can be useful in high school classes from freshman to seniors and any course that takes exams could ask questions like the ones I listed above. I would also, if teaching a senior class, perform surveys to ask students what their favorite senior activities or class assignments they have completed so far.

    I have noticed a lot of my classmates have said similar things I have written in blog posts. Some things that have been surprising is some students have used a couple of the platforms introduced in this class that I have either never heard of before or never used. I thought it was interesting to see each person's different experiences in the classes and how they approached different assignments. I also found some students list features they either used in PLN or different projects so far that I did not know about or consider doing for my project.

    A technology tool I would like to use next is how to create practice quizzes for students.  I think this is an important tool because it allows students to practice for exams and gives them a study tool in order to see what kind of questions will be on the exam and receive a better grade. One way I could learn to do this is to use Kahoot or Quizlet and learn how to navigate across these websites. Then, I can see how to format different questions, include diagrams and have different choice answers like multiple choice, graphs, true and false, etc.

Blog 9

     Distant learning is so embedded in our lives during this pandemic and it has had both positive and negative outcomes. Honestly, I prefer to learn in class rather than remotely because it's hard to group projects remotely, asking questions over email can be difficult, and if I don't understand I can ask questions in class since it is easier to communicate. I find that I need to teach myself rather than being taught more in remote classes. I think it would be better for teachers to get straight to the point instead of getting off-topic since I have experienced classes where professors spent more time talking about unrelated material and less time about what we are learning and do not really offer time for students to ask questions. When teachers go off-topic I get distracted and for me, it's harder to piece together material depending on the class.

    Open educational resources are public resources that can be used by teachers, students, or anyone for education or resource purposes. The OER example I decided to use was on oercommons.org about mini-lessons regarding creative narrative. These mini-lessons are short so students pay attention longer and give tips about different writing techniques. I think these mini-lessons would be good to teach to an English class since it covers tips regarding character development, setting, dialogue, how to create strong endings, etc. and some of these tips can be used in non-creative writing classes.

    One skill I learned while completing the first Powerpoint project was how to use lecture notes and how to record a lecture. Since classes are online now I think this was an important tool to learn if interested in education since you can add your lecture to a class website and students can watch it remotely. I also learned in the second Powerpoint project how to add action buttons and create a nonlinear presentation. I struggled with adding hyperlinks because every time I added one and double-checked it worked, later I would go back to make sure again and it would say my file is corrupt and I could not figure out how to fix it. I have attached pictures below of my two projects.