Wrapping Up ICT 362

ICT 362 provided TONS of great information and resources to take into our classrooms and teaching careers. I would have said that I was pretty up to date on most of the new apps out there but I learnt in ICT that there is a whole world I didn't know about that will definitely enhance activities in my classroom.

https://www.virtuallibrary.info/digital-citizenship.html

We started off the course talking about digital citizenship and the importance of being mindful of what you are putting on the internet using different apps or platforms. I think that we all know that technology is only going to continue becoming a bigger part of most peoples lives in many areas, it is important for students to understand early on digital citizenship and the consequences that can come with it, when you are not mindful and using the internet or social media with care and caution.

We then spent time through the entire course being introduced to different tools to incorporate ICT in the classroom. I enjoyed gaining resources for all these programs. I especially enjoyed being introduced to Lumio. I had never heard of it before and after spending some time playing around with it, there are so many options for how it can be a useful tool in the classroom and for a wide variety of ages. I had the chance to use it in my Kindergarten placement and it was a fun way to get the kids engaged and

https://www.smarttech.com/en/lumio

moving around while they were coming up to the SmartBoard to answer questions and move things around. I liked that I could customize the different options(games, activities, etc) for different subjects and use my own material. I will definitely continue to explore Lumio and use it in my classroom, I know I will be able to use it in some capacity for any grade that I am teaching.

Another resource I enjoyed exploring was Plickers. I liked that it was a different way to assess students quickly and anonymously. Traditional ways of writing tests as a paper/pencil task can bring unsettling feelings for students and doesn't always give a fair representation of their knowledge and understanding. Plickers offers a way for it to be a fun and engaging way for students knowledge to be tested in a different way. I liked that students would answer questions as a group and could not see responses linked with names, only a graph of the answers. When I used Plickers in Grade 3/4, it was a game for them! They loved it, they were all engaged and paying attention and you wouldn't have thought they were doing work. This provided them with a fun, comfortable way to answer questions and display their understanding.

I thought it was interesting to learn about the different ICT frameworks, and where these different programs and apps in the ICT world fell. I felt it was easiest to understand and connect most to the SAMR Model. During my presentation to the the ICT class, I was able with my partner to evaluate where Plickers fell within this model, below is our summary of each level of the SAMR Model.

By taking this class it opened my eyes to the resources I would have been missing in my classroom and my students would have missed out so moving forward it will be important to me to do research and continue learning and staying up to date on new apps and programs that my students will benefit from!