week 12 and 13

This weeks reading talks specifically about how to use videos in teaching and learning. It makes the point that making videos can be a very motivating task for students and one of the best ways to encourage group work. This makes sense when we look at the class activity that we did in which we shot videos outside of the education building.

The chapter also gives some tips about how to do video editing. This has already been covered in class. It also shows ways of using concept maps while designing video projects.

Generally it is a helpful chapter when it comes to making a big video project but is not that applicable in our situation (where we will make a 2 minutes video)

The next chapter is about using technology for students with special needs. I personally know of a professor who uses assistive technology like audio books and computer magnification softwares and this helps her a lot. Now there are many disability softwares both in windows and MAC, which be know about and the chapter discusses. It also makes a point that use of a crutch can slow learners down. While I agree to this, I think that these technologies are very helpful to learners. Further funding should be dispersed to make them better.

week 11

The chapter talks about the use of digital portfolios for students. It focuses on what decisions to make in order to use the portfolio for assessing the students. Also it talks about how to share the contents of the portfolio what kind of technologies to use within the portfolio.

It seems as if it is quite an outdated article. Technology has improved quite a bit since this article was written. I have some useful suggestions. I think a good way to share the material of the portfolio with students and parents would be to use secure databases. A good way to publish the contents would be to use websites. (pretty much what webct is doing).

I do agree to the fact that using a portfolio is a very useful way to represent the students' performance. I personally have a digital portfolio