Experiencing Group

I worked with three other students for our Sedu 183 research project. We researched the changes in education from the 18th century to the 21st century. We split the the topic up so that each member researched one century. To record our research and ideas we used Google Docs. Google Docs is similar to microsoft word but it is online and more than one person can see the document. When one member of the document changes something or adds to the document every other member can see this change being made. Google Docs was a very helpful tool for this kind of project because it was so easy to see what our group members were working on and what kind of information they were finding. We then could use this information to assist in finding additional information for our research paper.

After we had researched our topic we had to present our findings. We chose to use Prezi, an online presentation creator. Prezi is sort of like powerpoint but is more like a timeline. The template we chose was a path with footsteps going through it. It also had big text bubbles throughout the path to put pictures or text in. We used these bubbles to place pictures in our presentation of education in

Powerpoint (Almost Terrific)

For our powerpoint project we had to choose a grade, subject, and topic. I choose first grade reading comprehension. From this category I then chose the topic "making inferences and drawing conclusions citing evidence from the text to support answers".

I used to powerpoint to conclude my "pretend" lesson. I created a game which asked a specific inference question about the provided text. I included narration since I was working with first graders and some of the wording was lengthy at times. I also included a hyperlink to another similar game at the very end of my powerpoint that my students could also play.

To begin with I felt confused about this project and really did not think that I understood the  guidelines but after more explanation and actually working on creating my powerpoint, it was more clear as to what was expected. Overall, I thought my powerpoint turned out well but there were some issues when I went to present it. My narration did not work on the computer I used in class and some of the hyperlinks were dead. I had trouble with the hyperlinks when I was creating the powerpoint and thought I had fixed them but they did not work when I went to present.

I really liked that we presented to our peers in small groups. I personally thought that it was less intimidating than presenting to the entire class and it gave us the chance to work more closly with our peers and share ideas more easily. I thought that the others in my group really did an awesome job creating their powerpoints and had great ideas to use in future powerpoints.

From this project I learned more about powerpoint and how to use different features of the program that I did not know how to use before, like the hyperlinking between slides. I also learned that powerpoint is not just for lecturing and direct instruction but that it can be used in other ways too. Finally, making a powerpoint takes a lot of time and this was very clear to me when working on this project.