Student+Engagment

What is Instructional Technology?__** It is my belief that instructional technology is the utilization and continued development of tools that will help both educators and students to learn in ways other than the conventional textbook pedagogy that has been used for so many years. Instructional technology helps students to become independent learners who are prepared for other courses and the real world because the technology they have learned can be utilized and implemented in areas other than the confines of the classroom. To read my best examples summaries look here. To listen to the podcast summary of one of my best examples listen here! media type="file" key="Best Example of Student Engagement.mp3"
 * __Best Examples of Student Engagement
 * __Process for Determining Examples:__** To be completely honest, prior to the technology courses I am taking for this master's degree I didn't know how to implement a lot of technology into my class. As a result, I didn't honestly have a lot of choices when it came to my best examples. However, I am lucky in that the example that I have actually used is extremely beneficial to the students because they can use it in just about any course (or in their personal lives). Movie Maker was a natural selection for me because I have used it so often in my class. I always introduce movie maker to my freshman when we work on student presentation tools. They really enjoy using it to present culminating projects at the end of a unit because they get to add slide transitions, music, video clips, etc. I also selected Smartboard because I think it is a fantastic tool to use in the classroom. It's interactive, has a touch screen, and as a teacher I think it would be great to have a piece of technology that is so student friendly-they can interact, collaborate, and draw on the screen. I think this is such a great way to teach the students new tools while making learning fun at the same time.
 * __Reflection:__** This assignment was a nice way to assess what technology tools I already have at my disposal and am comfortable using. The first is one I have used several times already and think is a fantastic presentation tool. Smartboard is something that I hope to have one day soon, as I think it would be an innovative way to enhance my lessons. I think this forced me to take stock of what technology I already have at my disposal to see whether it was quality or not. It also forced me to look for other high quality tools that I might like to use in my class.