Thursday, December 6, 2012

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

What specific technologies I learned about and why I think they will be valuable







Through the course of the semester I learned many new things about technological tools and their use and I am excited that I managed to use them properly and create examples of activities that I will later be able to use in my teaching. 
The tools that I value the most are productivity and non-linear multimedia, from PowerPoint presentations to creating spreadsheets and newsletters, I believe that the use of non-linear multimedia promotes non-linear thinking. That is not to be interpreted as bouncing from topic to topic and being distracted, but rather being abstract yet learning to connect the pieces of information one finds useful for his or her own learning.

Although linear PowerPoint presentations can be very useful to transmit a fixed message, they do have some limitations. For example, the whole message must be presented even if someone already knows most of it. In some cases, it is nice to allow a person to choose only those parts of the message that are of interest.
 There are many benefits about non-linear presentations and using them as part of the introduction and instruction. 
Nonlinear PowerPoint presentations can present you with slides that have many links to explore, and you decide which links you want to explore first. In other words, you can be more interactive with a nonlinear PowerPoint than you can be with a linear PowerPoint.
Through the non-liner presentations you can teach your students to THINK in a non-linear manner. 
Why is this important? Thinking in a non-linear manner basically implies that one can think "multidimensionally".  Being able to make connections to various resources and having the freedom and autonomy to access the information you are looking for from various places, be it on the web or in your brain, especially the later, helps promote your mnemonics and higher-level cognitive skills. It also encourages thinking critically and assessing the value and relevance of pieces of information from various sources and compiling them together to form you own and unique opinion allows you to apply your acquired knowledge for various purposes. And that is a much desired effect as it enables us to find real-world applications, becoming more creative and insightful, to keep growing personally and professionally.