I really enjoy using Prezi, even though I don't think it's super intuitive when you're starting out. I like their templates, and think that Prezi's tend to be more interesting to students and more interactive. I hadn't logged into Prezi in quite a while, and I'm intrigued by their new features. I haven't tried Prezi Next or their infographics, but look forward to checking them out in the future. Because I've used Prezi before, I didn't want to spend too much time messing around with it, so I moved on to Emaze.
Emaze has a pretty incredible website. I enjoyed looking through their templates and thought that they offered some great suggestions for how to use their platform. Students would enjoy the interactive design features - I know I did as well. I spent a fair amount of time checking out other people's presentations and thought this one was a great example of what you can accomplish on the platform.
Next, I checked out Haiku Deck. I liked their introduction video, but didn't think that the platform was as interactive as Prezi or Emaze. Then again, as Reynolds (2014) points out (frequently) there's something to be said for simplicity. I can certainly see students and myself using Haiku Deck, but found it to be the least exciting of the four.
Finally, I made my way to Blendspace . I've been curious about Blendspace ever since I heard about it during LIBS 605 last semester. I saw the way other groups utilized the platform to create some really incredible projects and put it on my list of tools to explore. Then the end of the school year happened, and in the midst of all that, I forgot about it. When I saw that Blendspace was one of the tools that we could explore in this week's sandbox, I was glad I'd finally have a reason to give it a shot.
The first thing I did was create an account. I love when websites have the option to link to your Google accounts - huge time saver. So, that was an immediate plus for me. On my homepage, I was prompted to create my first lesson. After clicking there, a tutorial video popped up and explained how to use the platform. Before I got started creating my lesson, I checked out their "help" section. It's extensive, so if you get stuck, I'd encourage you to check that before giving up!
Because Romeo and Juliet is required reading in English 9 (honors and general) and that's all I'm teaching next year, I decided to try to put together a lesson that would support that unit. I typed in "Romeo and Juliet" as the title, hit enter, and got a whole bunch of resources that could be easily linked to my lesson. Some were free, while others cost money.
Using this platform is pretty simple. You can scroll through the resources that are already available and preview them. Anything that you like, you can simply drag and drop into your lesson. You can easily delete, and move pieces of the lesson around.
I started by writing a brief introduction to the lesson. Next, I linked certain resources that I had used in the past.
There are many features of Blendspace that I think are really useful. It's easy to upload your own resources (from Google Drive, Drop Box or your computer). You can also link to resources, search the compiled resources that other teachers have provided, and search Google and Youtube for helpful resources directly from the platform.
As the summer goes on, I'll definitely continue to add to this lesson so that I can utilize it during the 2017 -18 school year. I may also create a board that is full of teacher (as opposed to student) resources so that I have digital copies of everything in one place. Blendspace reminded me a lot of Pinterest except that it's more interactive.
Here's the link to the lesson that I created using Blendspace:
Moore, K. (2017, March 29). TCEA 2016 digital youth. Retrieved June 24, 2017, from http://www.emaze.com/@AFOTWLQC/tcea-2016-digital-youth
Reynolds, G. (2014) Presentation zen design: A simple visual approach to presenting in today's world (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: New Riders.
No comments:
Post a Comment