Best+Examples

__Description of Assignment__


 * The information set forth on this page is a description of two of my best examples of instructional activities with student evgagemtn through technology. //Voice Thread// is a 21st century Web 2.0 tool that I have used in collaboration with other educators. Concerns about internet permissions with children prevented me from using //Voice Thread// as an application in the classroom this year. However when students viewed the tool through a demo lesson, they were entusiastic about using it to enhance project reports.**
 * //Rosetta Stone// is used throughout my school community. It was the inspiration of my principal that the entire school staff, students, and parents, have access to this medium in order to promote communication within our community by having every stakeholder become bilingual.**

//Best Example #1: Instuctional Activity with Student Engagement through Technology//

Title: **Voice Thread** __Voice Thread__ []

Description: **Voice Thread** is a digital photo, video audio, presentation platform that allows users to create presentations using original content, preloaded slides or some combination of the two. Viewers of the **Voice Thread** presentation can be invited through email to make comments, Those comments can be personalized with photos, love audio and/or speech bubbles. Clicking on a picture or icon activates the comment. Responses to comments can also be recorded and uploaded. **Voice** Thread presentations can explore any topic. **Voice Thread** participants collaborate through commentary to complete, adjust, and amend projects and assignments on various subjects.
 * Voice Thread** meets //knowledge,analysis,comprehension,synthesis and application// levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Title**: Rosetta Stone**

__http://www.rosettastone.com__

Description: I was hesitant to include this program since it is currently being so popularly advertised in the media, but I have seen it work both personally and professionally so I am referring to it here. **Rosetta Stone** is a language program that is available in a variety of world languages. At my school, my principal has purchased licenses for every single member of the school community to use the program to learn Spanish. The program teaches language intuitively as you might have learned it as a child. Lessons are reinforced through pronunciation and auditory. Learners must be able to speak, read, and write across a number of formats. Word and phrases are associated with pictures and situations which bring more concrete understanding to language rather than drilling verb conjugations which is how I originally learned a foreign language.One of my teenaged cousins taught herself to speak and read Japanese with this program.


 * Rosetta Stone** meets the //knowledge, analysis, comprehension, synthesis, application and evaluation// levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

The difficulty in completing this assignment is in choosing only two representative best practices to include. As a Technology Coordinator in my school district, I am regularly introduced to myraid technology tools and applications. The sheer volume of information is duanting. Tens of thousands of new websites are added to the internet daily. With so much information literally at your fingertips, it becomes impossible to keep up with all of the trends and innovations at once. Conservation of effort when exploring the web is what I am teaching educators now. I find that when there is so much information to include, time constraints keep teachers from really using any of it adequately. Also, jumping all over the internet during instruction can also be detrimental to the process of classroom management. A thorough familiarity with, and judicious use of, a well chosen selection of internet sites and web 2.0 tools (updated and edited regularly) is far superior to inconsistent use of whatever you happen to find while searching the internet that morning. Most importantly technology usage must be a regular integral part of lesson planning and preparation, not a hasty afterthought to instruction.
 * __Reflection on Assignment__**