Student Tech Products Reflection

 

• What are your overall thoughts on this course?

            

             I think the course is a good way to learn about technology if you're not familiar with using technology and also a good source of information for resources to use in your classroom that revolves around educational technology.

• What were some student tech products you found useful in your profession?

                The tech products I find useful in my profession are Canva and ScreencastOMatic. Canva is a very intuitive design app that is user friendly and I would recommend it for a beginner to use if they are new to graphic design. ScreencastOMatic is a good free alternative for video recording. The quality could use a boost by some extent but the videos come out okay. I think it gets the job done as a free program.

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of using student technology products/applications for your profession?

                The advantages of Canva is that it is a program that is free to use with many options of templates to look from if you want to design something specific. You can also make things from scratch with many free elements, fonts, graphics and styles to choose from. The one disadvantage I would say is compared to a professional design program like Adobe Illustrator, you cannot fully manipulate elements in your design. Another is the paywall. Because every user starts as a free account, there are some things that canva can offer that you need to pay for to make your experience better. However, because of the educational license, students can get the premium features for free as long as they are enrolled under an instructor that has a premium license.

                The advantages of ScreencastOMatic is that is free and simple to use. It has features that can highlight your mouse for better tracking during the video and exports to your computer. Unfortunately, with this program I find that there are more disadvantages. The quality of the video isn't great and the videos are pixelated (at least with my experience). It is also very minimal with adding filters and graphics that could prove use. One alternative to this program that I can recommend is OBS Studios. It is free and can provide so much more in terms of its recording features. I will admit that it is a harder program to use for newer users of technology.