Blog Post #7
PowerPoint presentations offer a lot of opportunities for students to learn in different ways. In my Middle School Language Arts class, I would probably use PowerPoint to lecture, probably to give background information about a book in class, or perhaps to teach students basic writing tips.
Let’s say that I am lecturing on the Modern Poetry movement in class. To support student learning in the Factual Knowledge Dimension, I would gather information from my Modern Poetry class, taken at FSU, as well as online resources, perhaps from WebQuests or other teachers. Then, using the Conceptual Knowledge Dimension, I would organize this information in a logical manner: I would organize the lesson chronologically by important figures and when they were writing, and insert biographical information, some iconic poems, and pictures of the writers on the slides dedicated to their work. For the Procedural Knowledge Dimension, I would organize the information into a concept map, possibly using Inspiration software like we did in class. I would also perhaps add in videos, or audio clips of the poets reading their work, for the full effect.
Adaptive technologies, such as a voice recognition software for students who cannot type, trackballs for students who have trouble using the mouse, magnified computers, text-to-speak software to read to the student, and braille printers, are technologies I am not very familiar with, but that I have seen in action before. I have seen trackballs in place of computer mice on laptops, as well as tried to text-to-speak software for fun on my home computers. I think the biggest challenge that I would face with adaptive technologies is educating myself on the specific needs of each student, and how best I can adapt the technology they need to cater to them. I will need to know details about their struggles as well as a comprehensive understanding of the technologies available for them, and I will need to constantly check on the effectiveness of the technology in their learning process. Further, I think it might be an issue to not single out such students from the rest of the class, even though they do need some different resources than perhaps the majority of the class.
The website assignment for this week was really fun for me. I am glad that I chose to use Weebly’s education website maker because it was very visually pleasing and easy for me to get the hang of. It was a little bump in the road to add a calendar to the site, but with a minute of research, I found that I could include a Google calendar, which was an easy fix. Overall, making a website was a great experience. My personal favorite part of the process is adding text as well as choosing the design template for the site. I would love to use a Weebly education site for my classes! Here’s the link and a few pictures if you’re interested:
Cmagia 
I really liked the assignment this week too, and I also used weebly! It was a great site to use.
You seem to have a really good grasp on the conceptual knowledge dimension!