Multi-Modal - Final Reflections

Hello everyone,

It's been a great semester where we've been able to learn a lot of great ideas and tactics for teaching. But unfortunately, like all good things, this semester must also draw to an end. So, this shall be my final Multi-Modal blog hitting the blogosphere. I will conclude our cyber communications with a final reflection of our Multi-Modal class.

The first aspect that I would like to discuss is the different multi-modal forms that I liked and why I will consider using them in my future classroom. the first thing we learned in class that I really liked was the blogging. I like this activity and will consider having students in my classroom maintain prompted blog entries because I like how it is one more way of getting students to expound upon ideas that are being discussed in class. I also that it is good for getting students to interact with and react to eachothers ideas. I also liked the Wiki assignment that we did this year. I don't believe that I will have students in my future classroom create Wiki's, but I will definitely come back to the one that we created this year for lesson ideas and supplemental materials if I end up teaching any of those books in my classroom. I am also a big fan of the video assignment we are currently working on. It can be kind of difficult to get everyone's schedules alligned, but the project is a lot of fun to work on.

I feel that this course has helped to teach me a couple of new ways to interact with people. I've realized that technology can be a great way to communicate what you are trying to teach to students in different audio and visaul ways. For students who may be visual or audible learners, technology can be a great resource for helping them learn the materials. Also, just through sharing ideas and opinions in our class discussions I have gained more confidence in my ability to speak in front of a group.

After reviewing my blogs throughout the year I can see that I was very intimidated by the idea of using technology as a teacher at the beginning of the year. Thankfully, though, as the semester progressed I noticed that my blogs started to seem more like critical reflections on the technologies that I did and did not like, instead of rants about how I don't like technology. So, I would say that this semester has done a great deal to improve my confidence and comfort in the idea of incorporating technology into my future classroom.

Well, it's never easy saying goodbye. So, I'll leave you all with this: You don't have to go homepage, but you can't stay here!

To all of you, I wish you safe and happy summers! And, as always... Keep it classy Kent State.

-Sam P.