Technology

The past few months I feel I have grown in looking at some pieces of technology. First, I feel I am more knowledgable in regard to compass learning (https://www.thelearningodyssey.com/). I spent time creating some activities and assigning quizzes for students to complete. I also have spent time aligning learning paths with student's MAP scores. I also have a student who struggles with comprehension so I found a comprehension quiz, assigned it to the student, and had the student take it. It automatically assigned activities to the student that he did not master. It also provides a report on his progress within the various components of comprehension. I am hoping to use this as data to track his progress. The past few weeks, the student has been working on the activities to build his comprehension skills in addition to the work we have been doing in class.

Another piece of technology in which I have had a new learning experience is using Prezi (prezi.com). I began to create my presentation for my action research. It was a bit frustrating at first, but it did not take long to learn as well as add my ideas to the presentation. I have a rough draft version of my plan and I am hoping to revise it in the coming days. Now I am just hoping that it works for me when I present it to my colleagues. I feel there is more to learn in using this piece of technology to help share information with others as it is a great way to visually share information with others.

This past week, my students have spent time learning Microsoft Word in which they learned a few things about it. Next, students took their reports that they wrote in writing for LEAD 21, and they typed them. They were also able to add one picture to support their report. Students greatly enjoyed this project and are already asking to be able to publish their writing using technology again. However, one of the problems in doing this is time. It takes a few students a long time to type their writing along with the fact we only have 35 minutes of computer lab once every six days. It is my goal to allow students to attempt this again later in the year.

I have also spent time within Microsoft Word and learning how to review documents while adding comments and tracking changes. It has been a relatively easy process but I have never used this feature until working with my action research paper. I have enjoyed giving feedback to other colleagues as well as having them provide feedback on my paper. Is this feature compatible with other versions? Is there a certain version one needs in order to track and view the changes? I am assuming verisons newer than 2007 have this feature but I am uncertain as I have not worked with it in prior years.