Merlot Evaluation of Learning Material

Prezi

The learning material I chose is Prezi.  I had a chance to view a few Prezi presentations in my CEP 810 class and really enjoyed them.  I was glad to see it on Merlot and wanted to learn more about it.


Quality of Content: 
Prezi is a high quality developmental tool that can be used not only in the classroom but for any project that you may need a presentation for. It is very attractive and modern. I am very interested in learning more about it and would like to use it for lessons in my classroom and presentations for my CEP classes. Overall I think Prezis quality of content is very high.


Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool: 
Prezi is something that I would use in place of a PowerPoint Presentation. It shows your information in segments but does not have slides. It is not presented like a book but is still organized. It is very effective because you are able to zoom in to any area in any sequence as needed. This feature would be useful when answering student questions about a lesson as well as reviewing material. Not only is it free but it can also be accessed without the use of the internet which is great for students who may want to view it from home and don't have the internet available to them. Overall I would say Prezi would potentially be a very effective teaching and learning tool.


Ease of Use: 
I attempted to create a Prezi and although I didn't spend much time with it, I did find it a bit confusing and potentially time consuming.  After speaking to a few other people about it, I gathered that it's not so difficult once you get used to it.  Prezi has an easy-to-use editor.  According to the Material Detail provided by Chris Guenter on MERLOT, "Prezi allows you to zoom in, slide over, import images, play videos, display pdfs, and animate with Flash files. You can also embed Prezis into blogs and websites. You can create groups, so you can share and collaborate with others."  Overall I would say Prezi is fairly easy to use.

CEP 810 Personal Learning Reflection

Throughout this course, I have grown as an educator.  The areas that I have grown the most are social media.  I have always been interested in Blogging and Tweeting and this class helped me do it.  Also, my favorite thing that I learned in this class that I will definitely use on a regular basis is Google Docs.  I am already using it with my mother as she helps me edit a paper I am writing.  My growth has been supported my my SIG members as well as my professors.  

• What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?

I have learned some effective teaching strategies to use when integrating technology such as:

- Use technology as a means of communication

- Use technology tools to make your life easier

- Use the internet to (Google) figure out to do something

- Use the internet (Google) find creative lesson plans and ideas for the classroom

- Use technology to allow students to learn in multiple ways which meet their individual learning styles

- Use technology to support instruction

• How did integrating the Internet help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?

When I think of technology, I think of the internet.  Integrating some of the things that I use the internet for however has changed my thinking.  Once I started using social media such as Blogger and Twitter, I came to realize that the internet is more interactive than I once thought it to be.  It's not strictly used to find information.

• Which of the assignments that you turned in do you feel really exemplifies good teaching with technology and why?

My SIG assignment really exemplifies good teaching with technology because the project was about technology and we used technology to make it.  My group met on Skype every Saturday.  We used Google Docs to collaborate our work.  Our project was advertising an interactive classroom/teacher website.  All of these aspect include some sort of technology

• How have you met your goals established in your Personal Growth Plan?

The main goals I set in my Personal Growth Plan were to learn how to use technology to improve my lesson plans, parent communication, and my overall skills as an educator.  I definitely met these goals throughout this course.

• Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?

My new goals are to take what I have learned in this course and apply it to my classroom.  In order to do this I will have to ease my way into it.  The first thing I will start with is a class blog.  I will do all the writing and eventually assign groups to write blogs.  I will create a class RSS feed page.  Each student will find one or two topics to use on our page.  Google Docs will be something I will use frequently.  I would also like to use my new knowledge and skills in my next online course.  My long-term goals will be met as I gradually integrate these skills into my classroom and continue to take online technology classes.