Amelia Emery
What Are We Doing? Hardware, Software, and Assignments: Implementing Technology Effectively
Amelia is in her tenth year at Abilene Christian University and manages all the theses in the university. She also teaches composition for the Department of Language and Literature.
ACU emphasizes tech in classroom.
Too much to list.
Some of the new things: all students have an iPad. Encouraged to use iPads in class.
New engineering building going up.
Incorporate tech into f2f semesters
Not super tech, but I like it and it’s shiny.
Intimidating to learn to use tech, particularly in front of other people.
Talk about 3 I use and a rundown of what other people use.
Ppt, Prezi, doc camera, OpenClass, zotero, dropbox, Google Drive –use all of these daily
Prezi students use for presentation, big culminating activity
More like a bulletin board than slides
My students are so much more visually oriented, so Prezi makes more sense to them.
You can search for your images while Prezi is open. That’s great.
Students like that if they have picture sideways, the camera moves.
Mixed reviews from students because know Ppt and want to use it. Others love it and want to do every different thing on Prezi.
First time I used Prezi in English class was 2nd time I used Prezi. Diaster. Couldn’t figure out how to advance.
Problem-solution of something on campus.
Drawbacks:
Easy to get carried away and do all cool stuff, takes away from message.
Too many words.
Good Prezi and good essay, but no coordination.
Google Drive:
Use it all the time.
Use it for just about everything except grades.
Kind of like mini-version of Office.
Can drop in ppt and MSWord docs in.
Easy to share.
That’s what I like.
Class discussion, I type in the notes, then share at end of class.
Make sure you turn off edit.
Don’t use Google Drive to write essays. Lags. Can’t format.
Calendar—very useful
Despite Type A personality, life is chaos.
This way I can give them a paper calendar and I change it online while we are still in class.
Making the homework a different color. Lightbulbs turn on.
Can see sign up sheet and see times. Had students signing up multiple times.
Multiple people can use the doc at the same time. Students can be commenting while showing in class.
Evaluation criteria for movie genres—I can watch them add their criteria and comment as they did it.
Zotero…
Research tool
Lets you add your research from wherever you are into your folder on the Zotero server. Syncs with computer or tablet.
Works best on Firefox.
Searching on library website and come across article you need, just add it to your file, it is in the URL field and it moves it to your Zotero files.
Everyone finds two articles and they write a note about
Assignment: put your name and summarize the article
Then group source.
List of what other people mentioned using:
Dropbox
Turnitin
Notability –she has a tablet and use stylus on their paper and save as PDF and send it back
iMovie
Audacity
JoinMe—class when you can’t be together
YouTube
TEDTalks
PowerPoint
iBooks