Data Collection and New Skills

     Hello everyone! Welcome to my tenth post! We are getting towards the end, and I appreciate everyone taking the time to read! Today we will be going quite a few things, which is my experiences and new skills earned through my PowerPoint interaction assignment, how I will use data collection as a teacher, interesting topics discussed in my classmates blogs, my personal experience with tech flex and digital badges in this class, and finally, a technology skill I would like to learn next. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy! 

    The PowerPoint interaction assignment was fun for me to do. I created an interactive geography lesson for an eighth grade class where they were able to click on each of the seven continents, which took them to a slide that had each of the regions of the continents clickable. Each region listed the names of the countries or territories found within it. One major skill I learned, with the help of a YouTube tutorial video, was making a realistic, spinning globe all through PowerPoint. I also learned how to make each of the slides have buttons that were hyperlinked to other slides, and take away the option to click through the slides without the buttons. It was overall a fun and insightful assignment. 

 

    Data collection can be used by teachers in a variety of ways. For example, the most obvious way I would use it is if I am a stats teacher, as giving any type of survey for the class to take will help teach the process of data collection. For my primary grade focus of first grade, I would use data collection through surveys that would record students self-evaluations of progress, personal opinions, and to help determine the general consensus of the class (such as what the students want the art project to be, or what movie the class wants to take). A more specific example is if I want to determine if my class primarily feels as if they are making progress in their reading skills, I can give a survey giving five options: very poor, poor, average, good, very good. Depending on the students responses, I can know how my class feels about their reading skills and their progress. 

    It has been very nice to read my classmates blogs and see what their thoughts and ideas are. Each of the blogs are very unique and showcase the personality and writing styles of each of my classmates. An interesting topic in particular can be found on Cam's Teaching Corner blog most recent post, where their interactive PowerPoint was on the Florida Aquarium. It's a very interesting and fun topic, and they did a very good job of making an engaging and fun PowerPoint on it. 

    To be perfectly honest, I haven't taken advantage of the digital badges in this class. I may use them for some of the final assignments, but that remains to be seen. They do seem very handy, and they are nice to have the option to use them. I also haven't done any tech flexes, but they do seem like nice ways to expanding my experiences, so I may end up doing some by the end of the semester. 

    One technology related skill I want to learn in particular is Photoshop and how to edit photos, as that seems like a very useful skill. I have some minor experience in it in past classes, but to be able to master that would be nice. One way I can do this is by watching tutorial videos or by asking for guidance on it on others more experienced in it than me. I could also potentially take some classes in it. By learning this skill, I can do more things with images and shape them to fit my needs. A particular task this is useful in is when you are creating a website, or a magazine, as photos are a vital aspect of it. 

    That wraps up this week's blog post, and thanks again for stopping by!