Best Practices In Teaching, Learning, and Technology Integration

Welcome to my Blog! I hope to share innovative information that I learn about technology integration and best practices in teaching and learning. Combined with good instructional strategies, technology integration is the key for creating an engaging and rigorous environment for students. Feel free to join the site and follow my blog posts. I look forward to interacting with you and adding you to my Professional Learning Network. Thank you!





Friday, April 13, 2012

Using Prezi for Student Projects

PREZI is an online presentation software tool with a zoom-able canvas, that makes it fun to explore, and is visually captivating to  your audience. Watch the video below to get an example of what students can do with Prezi for project presentations in all subjects!




Virtual Museum Projects


What is a Virtual Museum Project?  ...basically, a collection of electronic artifacts and information resources - practically anything that can be digitized.  Virtual Museums can be created in Microsoft PowerPoint, with non-linear slides.  A collection may include paintings, drawings, photographs, recordings, video segments, etc.  This "non-linear" presentation gives the viewer the option to "jump" over slides to specific groups of slides.  So, students would create “rooms” where researched information is housed, with links back to the “entrance.” Virtual museums were first presented at the ISTE (NECC) in 2005.  Now, with several ways to "spruce up" Microsoft PowerPoint, virtual museums are a welcome, well-sought-after way to engage students, which creating amazing projects. Teachers from Keith Valley Middle School, in Pennsylvania shared their slideshows, where they begin using these museums to replace traditional art history reports.  Students can easily develop virtual museums from scratch, and use these museums to further their knowledge of curricular objectives in academic subjects across the curriculum.  This project promotes student creativity and engagement.  Below are a few links where you can view additional information on virtual museums.  View the video below to see some student examples.  How could you use VMs in your classroom?  Comment below with ideas or questions.   

Benefits & Purpose:
o They allow for integration of  21st Century Skills into traditional learning.
o They promote cross-curricular integration by having students link ideas.
o The museums provide new, meaningful, and contemporary opportunities to integrate technology.
o They help students gain presentation skills.
o They motivate student learning through high-interest activities.
o Research for the museum and the construction of the museum requires students engage in higher-level 
   thinking.
o They encourage reluctant students to write.
o They appeal to students who are visual learners.

Virtual Museums to teach integrated subjects:
o  Students can create rooms about topics other than history (e.g., math, science, literature, civics, geography).
o  Students can create rooms on a single theme with each room representing a different content area (e.g., If
    studying Galileo, one room may focus on geometry, one about daily living during his time, one with a written biography, and one on the science of his time).
o  Students can present the rooms in the form of an auction with bidding starting at a set amount for each 
picture.
o  Have students use the same pictures in each room, but use different writing styles for the placards (e.g., 
biography, persuasive, descriptive).
o  Use the museums to teach research, notetaking, and writing skills.
o  Have students create museums as portfolio assessments of all content areas from a single semester.
Excerpts Taken From: Educational Virtual Museums Developed Using PowerPoint http://christykeeler.com/EducationalVirtualMuseums.html

Resource Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed5e-HHikGk
http://christykeeler.com/EducationalVirtualMuseums.html