Final Reflection

I have really enjoyed learning about some new tech tools that I can use with my students and their parents. 

I liked how easy using a blog was compared to updating a webpage all the time to share information with parents.  I also liked how it is interactive; this could also become a problem.  It could be fun to have polls on the blog for students.  Then, use the data from the polls in class to teach graphing, etc.  I think parents would like to be able to see pictures of what is happening in the classroom.  Right now I update my webpage about once every 2 weeks.  I feel one of the challenges with a Blog would be an expectation for more updates/information.

There are many other tools I thought I could also use in my classroom.  First, Digital story telling; I think at this stage I would be ready to create some class books with small groups or whole class.  Second, I would use Animoto to create videos to have running at parent-teacher communication hours and to show the class after field trips.  Third, I would use Tagxedo with my class.  I would start with creating some class projects moving towards individual projects by the spring.  The two big challenges I see in having students using these tools are first graders are just learning to write so these projects could end up being really hard to manage with one person running around, and second being able to get laptops for all students to use especially in the spring when first graders are ready to use the computers for writing.