Week 7 Journal

What tool did you learn this week to assist you in 

differentiating the learning process for students?

 I learned Screencast-O-Matic and 3D Writer to differentiate the learning process. With ScreencastOmatic students can create a tutorial for any topic they choose. If they were instructed to do online research, they could simply walk through the resources they found and summarize each one. If you were interested in how various students used a certain program, they could summarize their use of it. Students could do a technology introduction of themselves, simply showing the websites and tools they are interested in.

3D Writer can be used in differentiating the Writing process, along with using technology and word processing. Students can easily write and revise their pieces, adding links and pictures. 3D Writer is simple enough to avoid some of the distractions of having too many features. Even younger students can understand how to use it and will see their work published in a browser without needing a blog or other resource. I would use this in the classroom as an introduction to online writing with hyperlinks.

Here's my very unpolished intro screencast for 3D Writer!

http://youtu.be/pQUuSo2flcw

I keep neglecting to mention my PLN! This week we have been trying to get our group project going. I have signed up for an Edmodo group with several other people. We are discussing ways to meet as a group and what to focus on for the project. I'm relieved to see that we're all leadership oriented and not afraid to put our ideas out there! There are tons of ways to use Edmodo to differentiate the process; we decided to explore some of these tools and create a resource for other people to learn about them. I am looking forward to learning a lot and being able to share it.