PLE Week 11

Bookends of War - http://etec.hawaii.edu/etecvideos/videos/bow/
Inside Kapunahala - http://etec.hawaii.edu/etecvideos/videos/kap/

A main idea that I came away with from watching these videos is that students are capable of much more, with regards to technology, than I probably assume they are, and many types of technologies can be enjoyable and interesting to work with.

In the video "Bookends of War" students seemed to particularly enjoy working together to make their class website. They made remarks indicating that they enjoyed the collaborative aspect, and they seemed to understand what they project would be useful for. It seemed that this kind of collaborative project allowed them many opportunities to problem-solve amongst themselves, and thereby explore different possibilities. From this video I learned that technology can be successfully incorporated in a unit or lesson when students are genuinely interested in it and can recognize the benefits, and it can be helpful and enjoyable when they are able to work in groups or partners.

I found the video "Inside Kapunahala" to be very informative in that it showed not only how technology skills and media literacy can be taught in stages in the different grade levels, but also how many different standards can be met in a project like this one. Areas that are strengthened include communicating ideas through pictures, writing, and speaking clearly, as well as simply how to use technologies like video cameras. Students in this video obviously enjoyed the chance to "be on TV", but they also seemed to take other responsibilities seriously. They also seemed to understand the different skills they were learning and how those would be helpful for them in the future.