Emerging Technology Exploration

 I found the Emerging Tech list interesting and helpful to think outside the box for how to better teach content material in my First Year Seminar class both online and face to face. It also gave me some ideas on how to better engage high school students while they are engaging in college and career exploration. Before watching the different videos on how to engage students using QR Codes, I never would have considered using them. I am now working to develop an activity utilizing the QR codes for students to explore famous people and celebrities on their success and failures.  

To execute the Success and Failure lesson in the online environment, I would create a word document. For the first part, students would need to watch Denzel Washington’s commencement speech on YouTube. The second part is where students would scan QR codes to learn about different famous people who had failures before they had success. Students would be able to read about several different people (Michael Jordan, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, etc.). Part 3 would have the students reading an article or watching a video about success and failure. For Part 4, students would then create a discussion post in Moodle to reflect on what they learned and how it made them feel. Students would then need to respond to two classmates to get the discussion point. 

To alter this for a face-to-face class, I would show Denzel Washington’s speech to the whole class. After viewing the video, students would then engage with the various QR codes placed around the room and gather information on famous people and the failure before success. Once they completed the required amount of viewing of people, students would then review articles for reading, and we would engage in a class discussion for all to participate in (or maybe small group discussion first and then bring it to a large group discussion.) 

I would love to find a way to bring augmented reality or virtual worlds and virtual reality into my classroom. This is going to require a bit more exploration for me and evaluating the content already in my First Year Seminar class, but I am excited to find other ways to engage students and create an experience.