Enhancing the Classroom Experience

      Just this semester, I have had a teacher use a technology tool that I hadn't seen before. In one of my 4000 level classes, my teacher always uses SmartBoards, which are also very useful tools for teachers. The tool we used that I was not familiar with before, was using Google Docs. It allows for all of the students in the class to revise, add to, and edit the same document. This class is Rhetorical Theory and Practice, so being able to subtract and add to your ideas and theories is extremely useful and helpful. The use of this technology for this exercise showed the thought our professor put into creating it. She had to take into account our needs as students struggling through the material we were assigned; she had to know we would be changing our minds and used technology that could adapt.
     I believe that, if need be, I could research and find a technology that would suit the needs of students during their assignments. The saying goes here, practice makes perfect. As a teacher, you would have to incorporate technology into many of your assignments, this way you would always be searching therefore always discovering more technology that promotes productivity and creativity in your students.
     Inspiration 8 is the program we have started using in my EME2040 class in the past couple weeks and I have to say, I love it as for completing the given assignments. For creating a concept map, this is the absolute perfect program. It is simple to use while still being appealing to the eye. It allows for creativity with different fonts, colors, images, and tools that give your map a little extra. It allows you to easily convert your concept map into a Word document, which is necessary for teachers who need to put these attachments into an e-mail which can be accessed by practically everyone,The Inspiration 8 program is truly a breeze to operate. If I ever do have to create a concept map in the future, I can guarantee you I will be using Inspiration 8.