My Reflection:
This past week was my first time hearing about Wonderopolis, and after exploring the website and building my own brochure, I believe it is a fantastic tool for anyone to explore and learn about the topics of their choosing. Instead of just reading articles, Wonderopolis includes summaries, pictures, related activities, and links of other websites if you want to dig deeper on a topic. I enjoyed this assignment because it allowed me to research and write about a topic I am interested in, and this assignment allowed me to utilize technology in order to build a brochure, which consists of adding pictures and website links. Not only was this good practice in educational technology, but I was using my creativity, critical thinking skills, and teamwork because I built this brochure with Meredith.
Meredith and I chose the topic, "Why is it important to eat healthy?" because we are both fascinated in the benefits of eating clean, knowing what to snack on, and the healthy restaurants in Athens and what to order. In the ISTE Standards, communication and collaboration is one of the most essential aspects for students. Meredith and I practiced this standard because according to ISTE, "Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others" (http://www.iste.org). Meredith and I worked together on different laptops in order to split up the work effectively. I was in charge of writing the main summary of why eating healthy is important while Meredith uploaded all the pictures, wrote about the three restaurants, and put the links to other websites. This worked well for us because at the end we each checked over each others work! Together, we make an efficient team because we excel in communicating and collaborating together.
While completing this Wonderopolis assignment, there was promise in using technology to enhance learning by supporting authentic learning, critical thinking, research, and problem solving. Firstly, this activity allowed me to research and learn at the same time. As I was researching what to put in my brochure, I was learning so much more about my topic of eating healthy by skimming different articles and choosing what was most informative and what would interest my readers the most. Also, I used my critical thinking skills when thinking of this topic and the questions I would ask and then research. Using technology for this assignment was very useful since the brochure was online as well! Also, the web allows us to have access to a myriad of information. Technology allowed us to work on the project at the same time efficiently. However, there are challenges when utilizing technology for educational purposes. For one, students in this generation will not know what it is like to go to their local library and find books to look up information. There is also the chance of a computer crashing and losing your work. Lastly, there are some websites that are not accurate so when researching and learning authentically, make sure you are using a reliable, valid, and educational sources! According to the article, "6 Technology Challenges Facing Education" by Nagel, "Key among all challenges is the lack of adequate, ongoing professional development for teachers who are required to integrate new technologies into their classrooms yet who are unprepared or unable to understand new technologies" (http://www.thejournal.com). This is an example of a challenge when it comes to critical thinking because in order to understand new technologies, you must enhance your critical thinking skills. But, when authentic learning, critical thinking, problem solving, and researching are sharpened, you can make these challenges your promises!
This past week was my first time hearing about Wonderopolis, and after exploring the website and building my own brochure, I believe it is a fantastic tool for anyone to explore and learn about the topics of their choosing. Instead of just reading articles, Wonderopolis includes summaries, pictures, related activities, and links of other websites if you want to dig deeper on a topic. I enjoyed this assignment because it allowed me to research and write about a topic I am interested in, and this assignment allowed me to utilize technology in order to build a brochure, which consists of adding pictures and website links. Not only was this good practice in educational technology, but I was using my creativity, critical thinking skills, and teamwork because I built this brochure with Meredith.
Meredith and I chose the topic, "Why is it important to eat healthy?" because we are both fascinated in the benefits of eating clean, knowing what to snack on, and the healthy restaurants in Athens and what to order. In the ISTE Standards, communication and collaboration is one of the most essential aspects for students. Meredith and I practiced this standard because according to ISTE, "Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others" (http://www.iste.org). Meredith and I worked together on different laptops in order to split up the work effectively. I was in charge of writing the main summary of why eating healthy is important while Meredith uploaded all the pictures, wrote about the three restaurants, and put the links to other websites. This worked well for us because at the end we each checked over each others work! Together, we make an efficient team because we excel in communicating and collaborating together.
While completing this Wonderopolis assignment, there was promise in using technology to enhance learning by supporting authentic learning, critical thinking, research, and problem solving. Firstly, this activity allowed me to research and learn at the same time. As I was researching what to put in my brochure, I was learning so much more about my topic of eating healthy by skimming different articles and choosing what was most informative and what would interest my readers the most. Also, I used my critical thinking skills when thinking of this topic and the questions I would ask and then research. Using technology for this assignment was very useful since the brochure was online as well! Also, the web allows us to have access to a myriad of information. Technology allowed us to work on the project at the same time efficiently. However, there are challenges when utilizing technology for educational purposes. For one, students in this generation will not know what it is like to go to their local library and find books to look up information. There is also the chance of a computer crashing and losing your work. Lastly, there are some websites that are not accurate so when researching and learning authentically, make sure you are using a reliable, valid, and educational sources! According to the article, "6 Technology Challenges Facing Education" by Nagel, "Key among all challenges is the lack of adequate, ongoing professional development for teachers who are required to integrate new technologies into their classrooms yet who are unprepared or unable to understand new technologies" (http://www.thejournal.com). This is an example of a challenge when it comes to critical thinking because in order to understand new technologies, you must enhance your critical thinking skills. But, when authentic learning, critical thinking, problem solving, and researching are sharpened, you can make these challenges your promises!