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Online Translation
Breaking Language Barriers
Computers have come a long way overtime and with advancements in technology came advancements in communication. With the help of computers and other electronic devices people all over the world are able to freely communicate with each other without the worry of a language barrier, because of applications like Microsoft Translator people all over the world can understand each other.
Benefits of Translation Applications
- No need for human translators
- Easily accessible translations
- Ideas from people all over can be spread and understood
Translator applications are the future of communicating with one another. By utilizing these applications the language barriers people have all over the world will never be a problem again. Ideas can be spread and understood by all without a human being having to rewrite and article or have a translator speak along with someone in order for them to understand what is going on. Translator applications are the future and the future is all that awaits us.
Microsoft Forms: An Easier Way to Recieve Feedback
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is one of the most popular programs to use for so many different reasons. Microsoft offers an abundance of different applications to use for school or regular daily tasks. I’ve been using Microsoft 365 for as long as I’ve been in school and using computers. They offer so many great programs for everyone, but students and teachers are what we’re here to discuss today! I’m here to tell you why Microsoft Forms is a great resource.
Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms is an appreciable resource for receiving feedback, giving tests or quizzes, and new ideas from those answering the form. Microsoft Forms is super simple to use, allowing anyone to answer open-ended or multiple-choice questions.
- Collect data
- Learn
- Use polls
- Add videos to the questions
- Quick feedback
- Grade tests/quizzes quickly
Above, I listed some features that come with using Microsoft Forms. It is super easy to navigate and with some quick learning, you can also use all of these features. Not only does Microsoft Forms collect data, but it can be easily synced to other Microsoft programs. For example, after collecting data from a form, you can sync those results into Microsoft Excel. It is appealing to see online programs be able to work together to make the user’s life a little bit easier.
Classroom Usage
For a teacher to see all of these features, it seems like it would be very considerable when trying to find a program to use for class. As stated previously, Microsoft Forms offers many different features that can help teachers all over the world benefit from. From making grading easier to being able to see quick and immediate results, it is a no-brainer to use! As a student who has used it before, and still uses it, I can confirm that is it a very easy resource to use.
Conclusion
Microsoft Forms is a convenient and accessible program for people all over the world. It can be used for so many different reasons, but in this case, it can be a great resource for teachers and students to learn.
Thanks for reading!
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Using Minecraft to Communicate
Minecraft is a game released in 2011 that involves you controlling a character and exploring a blocky world using different tools and items to create things with blocks.
It is one of the most popular games of all time and challenges people to be creative and build things with what they are given.
After reading chapter 2 of “Sail the 7 Cs with Microsoft Education,” I realized how this game allows people to improve their communication skills.
The game supports creativity and teamwork, as multiple players can play together and navigate throughout the game while communicating with each other. In the book, Monika Limmer who is an educator from New Zealand, talks about how she used Minecraft to help out her nonverbal students by using this game.
She explains how the reserved students started sharing ideas, techniques, and projects with each other in the game. They helped each other with tips and boosted their self-esteem.
One reason for this would be the in-game chat feature that Minecraft has. This feature allows people to communicate with each other, so non-verbal students who would otherwise not talk had a chance to speak with other people in the chat and communicate with them.
In this picture, you can see people communicating with each other and working on building and completing goals.
Minecraft is a great way for students to collaborate with each other on projects and communicate with other people to help each other build and complete projects. This game fosters creativity and collaboration and will be a very effective way for students to work together on projects and improve their communication skills.
Microsoft Sway and Communication
After reading chapter 2, titled “Communicators,” in the book Sail the 7 Cs with Microsoft Education by Becky Keene and Kathi Kersznowki, I found a fantastic tool everyone should learn about! Microsoft Sway is an effective tool that lets students tell their stories, design presentations, and demonstrate their understanding of a topic. Educators can also use it by showing their content and as another way of teaching. It is designed to make creating and sharing engaging, multimedia-rich content accessible without advanced design skills.
What Features Does It Have?
This tool can allow students and educators to incorporate various media types like images, videos, and tweets. Sway will help you arrange them in a visually appealing way. It is a more flexible and modern way to present information, especially when you want to make an impact beyond a traditional slideshow. Try to look at it as a tool that lets your content flow and adapt to different screen sizes and orientations!
How Does It Represent Communication?
Sway can enhance communication by providing a visually engaging and interactive information-sharing platform. A few ways it connects to communication are:
- Storytelling: Instead of presenting information in a linear, slide-by-slide format, you can create a flowing narrative that engages your audience. This can make your communication more compelling and memorable.
- Collaboration: Multiple people can work on the same Sway, creating a collaborative team communication and content creation platform.
- Shareability: Sway presentations can be easily shared through a link. This makes it convenient to communicate with a broader audience, whether a team, clients, or the public. In addition, you do not need to have specific software installed; you can access the presentation through your web browser!
Overall, Microsoft Sway can contribute to a more interactive, engaging, and collaborative learning environment, whether it is in a classroom or a workplace. It aligns well with modern teaching methodologies that emphasize multimedia and digital tools.
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Crushing Your Presentation!
PowerPoints can be really boring. It does not matter which side you are on. If you are a viewer, the presenter can make it, or break it. The one presenting may literally be reading the slides word for word, and in a monotone way. There is usually no emphasis involved.
As the presenter, it is not easy also. From my own experience, I would always want to give a good presentation, but I just do not know how to. So then I would just abandon the idea and look over it once before class, and then read from the slides without looking at the class. I am sure many other students can relate to that experience. This would obviously lead to me not caring about the presentation itself, but more so the content.
That is a big factor to your whole project, but the actual presentation is just as important. After reading the second chapter in “Sail the 7 Cs with Microsoft Education: Stories from around the World to Transform and Inspire Your Classroom” by Becky Keane and Kathi Kersznowski, I learned of a great tool to help anybody with presenting a PowerPoint to your class.
The tool is called Speaker Coach, formerly called Presenter Coach. Speaker Coach is an AI based tool specifically made to help you practice your presentations. This is directly built into PowerPoint, which is amazing. Most schools recommend you use Microsoft tools like PowerPoint, Word, Excel, etc., and give you access to it. Having this built into PowerPoint makes it much more accessible to all students. The fact that it is built in also makes it easier to use. It will be smooth because there is no need to run another program and have another window open to use. It is seamless.
Once you hit that button, it will have you present. There will be another button to start recording your voice and an option to “Show real-time feedback.” I believe you should always have that option checked because it is such a great feature. As you are speaking and presenting, the coach will give you tips. These tips may be about:
- Pacing
- Filler words
- Correctly reading the slide text
- Inclusive language
I believe this is essential to practicing. I know my mind tends to go on autopilot when presenting to the class and I do not really consider what exactly I am saying and how quickly. Having someone, or in this case something, give you advice in real time will make you think about how you’re presenting a lot more. This will in turn make you get better each time you practice.
The coolest feature, in my opinion, to Speaker Coach is the report that it provides you with at the end of your recording.
The report provides you with information about:
- Duration of presentation
- Originality
- Pace
- Sensitive phrases
- Fillers
This is a great tool for visualizing how your practice went, and seeing what you have to work on. The most useful statistics from this to me is the duration and the average pace over time.
I never heard of this feature up until I read the chapter. I am genuinely surprised because this is a great tool for both students and teachers. It will help you get a great grade and help entertain your audience. This is something I plan on using in the future.
Childhood Education International Review
I chose Global Schools First – Childhood Education International because it is a resource for global education in grades k-8. I never really heard about this tool and decided that it would be good to learn about a new tool. This tool focuses on diversifying schools and implementing it into clubs, the learning curriculum, the school culture, etc.
One of their main focuses is sustainable learning. Sustainable learning “refers to educational practices that contribute to a continually evolving, healthy learning ecosystem in which knowledge is co-created and shared in a community.” This is especially important to me because my goal for my global goals project is quality education. Sustainable learning is one of the steps towards improving quality education because it works towards bettering education for everyone.
This tool also has a section in their website dedicated to courses. The main purpose of these courses is to help educators better their way of teaching and look at their students through a new light. Some of their free courses include “Webinars & Workshops Archive,” “Understanding the Impact of Trauma on Early Childhood,” “Integrating Social and Emotional Learning,” etc. There are a variety of courses that focus on very different topics, maximizing the number of skills that teachers can acquire. In addition, this is a global tool so there are courses in many different languages, improving quality education worldwide.
Exploring Diversity in Youth Narratives with the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature
Today, we have experienced numerous global educator tools that represent innovation and connectivity. In an era where borders dissolve in the wake of digital advancements, educators find themselves equipped with diverse tools designed to foster a truly global learning experience. One tool in particular would be the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature.
What Is the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature?
The Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature (CSMCL) is a leading education research center in multicultural literature. It has a collection of recent and historically significant multicultural children’s artworks, books, and manuscripts. These resources provide a culturally diverse list of books for students in K to 8. Their mission is to keep the diversity of cultures alive in children’s and young adult books. With this, students, teachers, and faculty staff can experience reading different stories and perspectives throughout the different cultures in the world.
Why Is It Essential?
I picked this global educator tool because it is essential to everyone in and outside the classroom. Everyone must read as an avid reader because it can improve your mental health and focus, memory, empathy, and communication skills. In addition, it allows you to learn new things and can help you succeed in school, work, and your relationships with others. Reading culturally diverse books opens up new worlds and helps us understand people who might be different from us. It broadens our worldview and helps us appreciate the richness of human experiences. CSMCL is helpful because it provides information about why multicultural children’s books should be in a classroom and why it is essential to engage with different cultures. I love that CSMCL wants to start sponsoring activities for libraries and other committee services worldwide so children and young adults can experience what it is like to learn about others and their upbringing. In addition, every year, this educational research center uploads a “best book” list for the year, which is worth checking out!
How Would I Use It In My Classroom?
Using multicultural books in a classroom can be a powerful and enriching experience. Some ways that I would use it in my classroom include the following:
- Have discussion circles
- Build a diverse classroom library
- Assign creative projects
These three practical ways to incorporate multicultural books in my classroom let students connect with each other and discuss their thoughts about what they are reading. It would be fascinating for students to create a project or presentation about their culture and family traditions and share it with their peers. A project incorporating this information will allow everyone to represent their origin and encourage students to express their understanding of cultural themes.
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Discovering the Power of Education: A Deep Dive into Discovery Education
A brighten path to gain knowledge about the world.
Education has always been a cornerstone of human progress, and in the 21st century, it is evolving at an unprecedented pace. One of the pioneers in the field of education technology is Discovery Education, a global leader that has transformed how students learn and teachers teach. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at Discovery Education and its significant impact on modern education.
The Birth of Discovery Education
Discovery Education, part of Discovery, Inc., was founded with a simple yet revolutionary mission: to ignite students’ natural curiosity and inspire them to explore the world around them. It all began in the early 2000s when Discovery Communications leveraged its vast media resources, including the Discovery Channel, to create digital content for the classroom. This initiative marked the birth of Discovery Education.
A Wealth of Digital Resources
At the heart of Discovery Education’s success lies its extensive library of digital resources. These resources cover a wide range of subjects, including science, math, social studies, and more. Whether through videos, interactive simulations, virtual field trips, or engaging assessments, Discovery Education provides educators with a treasure trove of tools to captivate students’ minds and make learning come alive.
In addition to resources for students, Discovery Education offers robust professional development opportunities for educators. Teachers can access a wealth of training materials, webinars, and workshops that help them harness the full potential of the platform. By empowering educators, Discovery Education indirectly benefits millions of students worldwide.
(Grammar checked by GPT4 & Grammarly)
National Geographic K-12
Global Educator Toolbox
A picture of what is usually featured in this tool- the nature worldwide and how to protect them. This is useful when teachers try to teach students about the different environments.
WHY?
I chose this because, in my education, I always referred to this tool. I always believed it was beautiful how National Geographic’s photographers and those working for them do so much to educate the world. I thought it would be a brilliant idea to continue with my college degree and hopefully my teaching progress.
FINDINGS
I found that National Geographic helps to promote science, discovery, and geography in a classroom. It would be beneficial as a teacher if I could incorporate hands-on activities after or before watching an episode or reading a magazine. There are many things for kids that N.G promotes, such as all kid’s magazines, specific puzzles and computer games for children to play, and stories.
HOW TO USE
Before a lesson about history, animals, science, or discovery, I would find an episode or a part of a story, a game, or a magazine from National Geographic that fits into my lesson. Hence, it offers children multiple different sources. This could give students numerous references to refer to. All of the many other things that this tool covers would be perfect in any classroom!
THANK YOU!
Gianna Taylor
Global Collaboration for Young Learners
Importance of Collaboration
Collaboration is a huge factor in young student’s social and academic growth. Learning from a young age how to collaborate gives students a chance to learn from others, and share their own ideas with others. Students gain a lot of confidence in their social skills from working with groups in school. I chose this tool to research because I believe it is a huge part in student growth!
Global Collaboration
Empatico offers a program for students to collaborate with other students from all around the world. Young students who are introduced to this program can learn so much about other countries and how they learn and what they’re going through. It can teach students about empathy through these digital exchanges. More than 23,000 educators in 131 countries have used this platform for over 2,000,000 students all over the world. It is a great program to get introduced to different schooling and different cultures.
It is a very easy way to communicate with students and educators from different countries which I find so interesting. It is not common to be able to do these things in school so it’s very exciting to learn more about this program. I would love to utilize this program in my own class, and teach students the importance of being able to empathize and to learn about other countries and cultures. I would allow my students to do it once or twice a week so they can keep in touch with their penpal, and hopefully build a friendship with them. I would listen to my students opinions on the program, whether or not they liked it. If it is something they really enjoy, I would pass the word on to more teachers so they can give their students a fun learning experience as well.
Empathy
This program was made to teach students how to show that they care for others, and learn about self-awareness. Being able to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, or understand someone else’s feelings can be a huge factor in socially and emotionally growing up. Behavior also plays a huge role in this program because what students do for others makes a huge impact. This program can help those students learn these skills.
What Does Empatico Offer?
Empatico offers many different tools. Here is a list of what they offer:
- Empathy centered activities
- Being able to explore the world and make connections
- Messaging and scheduling
- Live exchanges
All of these tools can help students not only gain emotional and social skills, but they also will learn about many different countries and cultures, as well as learning how to message others and schedule live meetings.
Thanks for reading!