Friday, June 13, 2014

Week 3 Reflection (Spotlight on Tools)

This past week was an exciting one.  I discovered SOOOO many online tools.  Out of the ones that I reviewed, I will most likely incorporate blubbr and Pow Toon.  For the Peer Review assignment, I was assigned Teams Ocean Blue and Aqua.  I was very impressed with the way each group was able to synthesize all of the tools they researched to serve a specific purpose.  I was ESPECIALLY impressed with a blubber-Pow Toon combination trivia game that was featured on Team Aqua's site http://rek298.wix.com/etec672-teamassign1.  I was mind-blown because this is exactly the type of media students respond to.


Towards the end of last school year, many of my students were obsessed with an online, worldwide trivia app called QuizUp.  To be honest, I became obsessed with it too because I wanted to see how much I know about topics like Medicine, Math, World Wars, and so on.  In each of us there is a competitive spirit and we are always wanting to challenge others and test our ability to score big.  Educators should take advantage of this.  Actually, many of us already do.  We incorporate games like Jeopardy, Deal or No Deal, and the $100,000 Pyramid Game Show.  Trivia games are not only a fun way to learn and review, but a way to build students' self-esteem and confidence.  Who doesn't feel awesome when he or she gets the right answer?   It can be said that getting the wrong answer could break down a student's confidence, but we could use that as a teachable moment.  We can reiterate the importance of studying and preparation.

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