As the world changes and students become more involved with technology, we as teachers should bring that into our classrooms. We can go so much further than just showing videos and podcasts to our students, we can have them actually make them.

For me, I would want to have my students use a video making software like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker or even an animation video, to create a video on the subject at hand then post it to the class YouTube channel. For an English class, have them create a movie about a poem that they choose but the movie has to show what the poem means as it’s said in the background of it. Even having to create blog for each student and have them create different sections within it, one poems, one for short stories and ones for anything else we use it for. I would like for my, future, students to be able to post the final drafts of their poems and short stories to and have their peers make comments about their thoughts. Podcasting, as I am new to podcasting and have only made one, I think that I would do a little more research and practice for myself but I can see using it. Having students in groups or even by themselves, same for the videos, and have them share the poem and talk about what it means. Each students will have a different reaction to a poem and having them share it together in a podcast and being able to bounce comments around on their thoughts.

According to the ISTE standards, having students use multimedia and technology allows them to take their existing knowledge about multimedia to create something new and original to identify trends and possibilities that can be found in what they are doing. They can communicate and collaborate in different forms of digital media, they can also communicate their own thoughts and ideas and develop understandings of different cultures and times. Working together gives students the chance to share their ideas with someone else and to create a product that shares both their ideas. In working together and creating something students will have to do research and inquire what they found. They have locate, organize, evaluate, process and report these findings as well as their own thoughts. In conducting research students may have to solve problems that occur and plan the project so it can be done well, so they have to use critical thinking, problem solving and make decisions.

I can’t wait to be a teacher and have a classroom to be able to use these ideas to help educate my students.