Prezis can be used by the instructor as part of the lesson for the same types of things that you'd use other presentation programs (though with more pizzazz) or by the students, either individually or collaboratively, for projects. One drawback to Prezi is that it is not ADA compliant at this time, so students with certain disabilities would be at a disadvantage.
From Prezi, we moved onto GoogleDrive, which houses Google's cloud based storage and productivity programs for it's users. The sky's the limit on the many ways GoogleDrive can be used in the classroom, but I'm particularly fond of the collaboration aspect (the way a file can be shared and worked on by anyone simultaneously) and it's easy integration with other sites/programs (ex. an Edmodo user's ability to access and share his/her Google files within the Edmodo site itself).
This was a nice lead into the presentation on Edmodo, one of my personal favorites in educational resources. Edmodo is most simply described as the Facebook for education, which is a good description. It allows teachers to interact with their classes in a virtual setting in a variety of ways. I like being able to share resources with students at any time and even answer their questions outside of regular school hours. Edmodo is an ever changing site, so I'm constantly finding new features or new uses for it within my classroom and I anticipate great things with it next school year when Chesterfield introduces Chromebooks for all middle schoolers.
The next presentation was in theory a bit more simplistic as it was on the use of laptop carts in the classroom. While there's such a huge push for using technology in the classroom, the logistics of making that happen can be very difficult. Often teachers find there's no time the computer labs are available, so they're left with figuring out how to bring technology to their students. One solution some schools have found are laptop carts (or even the newer alternative of iPod/iPad carts), that bring the computers directly to the classroom. I've still personally had issues with finding time with the carts within my school (or at times finding working carts), so I've tried having tech days in class where students BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), which I then help them set up to access some of the resources available to them.
The final presentations were similar in nature in that they both relate to interactive whiteboards. One group focused on the SMART Board brand, while my own group focused on the Promethean brand of products, with a focus on the ActivSlate. All interactive whiteboards take the "old school" whiteboard to the next level by allowing the user to use it for all the traditional whiteboard purposes as well as working with virtual manipulatives, interactive websites, etc. I feel that the ActivSlate takes it up another notch by allowing the user to be anywhere in the room and still access the board.
The afternoon was spent working in groups on our final lesson/unit presentation. My group has come up with a general outline for all of the components and we've each been working on our own pieces as well as collaboratively brain storming on the ideas. This lead to one member (Heather C., one of my Davis colleagues) recalling a site we'd just learned about at the end of this school year. The site, Kahoot!, allows teachers to easily integrate a simple classroom response system using almost any device. Heather then shared the resource with the entire class before presenting her Prezi on how to start using Google Apps. The day ended with us going back to working in our groups.
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