It is sometimes hard to reflect and take away what we learn over the course of a class. Sometimes it isn't until a real life application comes along that we realize what we learned or how it shaped how we handle any give situation.
Education officials like to measure this in Growth and Proficiency, that is unless you're Betsy DeVos and don't understand the difference and try to deflect the question. Of course Proficiency is the measure of a student's comprehension and mastery of material, while Growth is measured by how much a student learns and how many gains they make during a school year. While it may seem similar, I assure it is different enough to split the education community and how they view school.
***Disclaimer: As much as I wish I could spend a post ranting about Betsy DeVos I promise I won't.***
Now one of the facets I found very interesting over the course of my EDUC 407 course was the importance of copyright in teaching. I come from a journalism background and have a pretty good idea about copy right law, fair use, and what is just downright stealing when it comes to materials. But what surprised me is just how fair use comes into play when using items as an educational example. I had always assumed it was free game for teachers to use photos and texts. But now it makes sense why even at the college level teachers only scan sections for handouts. While it may seem like common sense, and most of it is, understanding copyright and how it works in a classroom setting is pretty important.
I think it is really easy for teachers to get sloppy with their implementation of copyright in a classroom. But my argument is this, who will know? A student isn't going to see a picture on a presentation and report it. A teacher also doesn't gain from a photo in a financial way. Now I could see where photocopying whole chapters of new and new-ish books might be a problem, but even then teachers are allowed to use excerpts. As long as a teacher isn't blatant, I find it hard to believe he or she will get in trouble for using Google images or the like.
Another gain I made in my education during 407 was looking more in depth at web tools and how they can be implemented in a classroom.
I really like how Twitter can be used in teaching, especially history. There are tons of "fake" accounts for historical figures that pump out quotes and images. I think these can be used to connect students to the past with 21st century apps. Twitter is something that students can use to craft responses and is an easily tracked way of outside-the-box interaction of students and assignments. Another web-based feature
I also like GoGuardian, which monitors classroom chromebooks or other small school-assigned laptops and allows teachers to freeze out off-task students. While this is very school specific, I think it could be a useful took in flipping the classroom because then any in-class assignments, tests, or other class-directed activities completed by a student in class can be thoroughly watched to ensure maximum attention in school. Which in a flipped classroom format is only fair because the stress of homework is almost completely alleviated.
I'll end this post with this. I'm not a Prezi guy. I see how it could be more interesting to students but I really see it more as a distractor and somewhat gimmicky. I used it a little in college, but now with Google Slides being a roaming (and possibly better) version of Powerpoint, I can't see myself using Prezi. I'll take classic transitions like dissolve, comb, clock, and peel off any day of the week over the more flashy Prezi.
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