Saturday, July 20, 2019

Picture This

Does anybody remember the 2008 movie Picture This with Ashley Tisdale? It's your basic chick flick/rom-com, but the interesting part is the introduction of the "video phone," oooooo, ahhhhh. Ashley's character gets a video phone to replace her dinosaur of a phone and it redefines her life.

Smartphones have redefined the lives of 2.5 billion people across the world. So, how do I let this piece of technology redefine the classroom? Something that has caught my interest lately are all the websites for people who need some extra help with designing. Sites like, Canva, Adobe Spark, even Google Slides. These websites have made creating visual aids easy. So, what's so important about visual aids?

All of us need visuals to retain information. Images increase information retention by 55%! Not only do these tools enhance my instruction, increasing information retention, but they serve as an amazing tool for students. The best part about these sites, is that it doesn't take hours to make a beautiful visual. Here is a list of the 12 best sites for making an infographic, and most of them say you can make one in 30 min! https://buffer.com/library/infographic-makers#piktochart

My future high school students will spend the majority of their waking day looking at their phones. Although I want to incorporate time face to face with real people, why not speak their language. The use of sites for creating visual aids is just one way I hope to incorporate technology. My knowledge of technology and its potential has touched the surface and I look forward to discovering the news ways of engaging students through tech. Here's to a lifetime of always trying to stay ahead of the curve! 

1 comment:

  1. Video phone! Haven't seen the movie, but I remember those days. Anyways, loved the post. Visual aids have become so much easier to make and can add an extra layer to the lesson and can help reach a much larger part of the class. It's cool to see how this class and our differentiation class co-mingle, as visual aids can also be great way to accommodate different learning needs. Definitely agree that it is important to "speak the language" of the students and meet them where they are at in terms of technology. Great work, thanks for the info!

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