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Tag: Inquiry

Week Five

This week, Trevor Mackenzie came into our class and talked about Inquiry. This was interesting to me since towards the end of high school, I started to get tasked with more and more inquiry projects. I love inquiry since it focuses on the students’ interests and builds their intrinsic motivation to learn. I appreciated Trevor’s lecture since he explained all the different types of inquiry, as well as allowing us to reflect on what we already know/would like to know in the future. I also appreciated how Trevor said we could use Bitmojis of all the students to gauge where they are at with the material since I love my Bitmoji (Pictured below).

I also love Trevor’s pool graphic and have been thinking about how he said don’t push students in the deep end since he has come to talk. Whenever I thought of inquiry, I assumed that it was student-led and relied very little on the teacher. However, through Trevor’s talk, I learned that inquiry can still exist if it is guided by the teacher. In the past, I only knew about Free Inquiry. However, I have now learned that there are three other types: structured inquiry, controlled inquiry, and guided inquiry. I will be sure to include these in my future classroom since I know what it is like to drown in the deep end.

have a good week

EdTech Inquiry

A video recording of our presentation!

For our inquiry, Madeline and I decided to focus on learning about different educational platforms. As mentioned in the video, both of us had some prior experience using these platforms from when we were in high school; however, for me, I noticed that they are being used a lot more after I graduated. For this project, our question was: What are the pros and cons of Google Classrooms, Microsoft Teams, Edmodo, and FreshGrade?

Our relationship to education is that many of these sites are starting to be incorporated and used in classrooms, especially since the beginning of the Pandemic. Also, with the increase of technology in the classroom and with students, using these services might become inevitable, which is why we are researching them now.

Most of the pros, cons and risks of these platforms are listed within our video. However, one of the biggest pros that overlapped all of the services is that it connects students outside of school and allows for more diversity in assessments. Since many of these platforms are online and have chat features, they also allow students to connect with each other for projects or assignments. They can also connect with the teacher if students need help. As for different assessments, with technology, students can hand in assignments digitally allowing them to use voice recordings, videos, and presentations. Some common cons are the use of the internet and technology. Although it is somewhat obvious that these websites will need constant access to technology and the internet, some students might not have access to this outside of school. Finally, risks for all of these websites are privacy and who has access to the information.

The strategy I have learned from this assignment is to use technology however I can! It allows students, teachers, and parents to stay connected and engaged with what is happening in the classroom. I am really excited to try one of these systems within my classroom and ready to learn more through first-hand experience.