Being a person who uses technology on a regular basis with plenty of ease, it was very humbling to be on the creator end vs the user end of many of the tools that we dove into during this course. More sobering yet is the idea that students can be guided to learn how to be creators as well. All students should be given the opportunity to see the full potential of the tools they may take for granted.
All the tech tools we worked with in this course were important for different reasons. As a foreign language teacher the one that I believe had the greatest impact was podcasting. It's a tool for listening, speaking, differentiating, flipping a lesson, sharing with students and for students to share with me. Most of my students would be surprised to hear me narrate a story for them instead of some unknown person! It would definitely feel more personalized.
The ones I found most difficult to use were the comic strips. It felt like all of them, to some degree, were somewhat restrictive in what you could create due to limited amount of images and space in each box. Students would likely love to work with them and experiment with pictures and color, but I felt it took too much time to get them where I needed them.
All the tools we used in class had merit. I dare say they all are beneficial when used appropriately and match a desired learning outcome. Sometimes students will have to present orally so a podcast might work for them to produce a recording. When their work involves pictures and oral components, a YouTube video might be a better tool. Social media on the other hand will always be attractive to students, easy to use and fast to upload and share. In the end, any tool the students can successfully produce with is a great one.
Taking this class made me a little more bold and less fearful at the thought of handing over the reigns to students, which is where they belong. I am excited at the idea of one day being the librarian who makes teachers feel excited about technology tools, just as I felt during this past semester.
