T.S. Eliot | Microsoft Sway
Microsoft Sway is a great resource that you can use to create interactive webpages for students and present content online in a creative way. To create a Sway, you go online to Microsoft Office, click the plus button on the top-left-hand menu, and scroll down until you see the word "Page" with "Sway" under it. Once you click on this icon, you can add a title to your Sway and a background image. My page is about T.S. Eliot, so I added a picture of him. Sway allows you to search for copyright free images on the web and also upload content from your device. Then, to add content to your Sway, you click the green plus button right below your title. This button gives you the options of adding headings, text (can be linked, emphasized (bolded), or accented (italicized)), images, videos, audio, embedded content, uploading content, or grouping content (automatically as vertical sections, grids, comparisons, stacks of flashcards, or slideshows). I chose to add a stack of flashcards and wrote on added text sections within that group of content. Then, I added another title and the video as a part of another group, that was formatted automatically. Once you have put in your content, then you can customize the design by clicking on the "Design" tab on the top left hand corner of the page and the paint palette icon with the word "Styles" next to it to customize the style of the page. In "Styles" you can select a webpage style of horizonal, vertical, or slideshow. You can also click through and select the different templates of typography and colors to see which look you like the best for your Sway. This process is similar to selecting a template for a PowerPoint presentation. Finally, you can share the Sway using a link (enabling viewing or editing through it), a visual link, on social media, or with an embed code.
Sway falls under Domain 1: Planning and Preparation of the Danielson Framework for Teaching, specifically under Component 1e: Designing Coherent Instruction. Sway allows teachers to quickly and efficiently create online web content for their students. It is a very easy program to use. Teachers can simply plug in content from a PowerPoint or their personal notes to create a professional looking and organized space for learning. Teachers can use Sway in class instead of a PowerPoint to present information. This technique mixes it up for the students. In addition, Sway provides more interactive resources for students and can be assigned asynchronously. The ability to link text easily to resource websites and plug in content such as videos makes it an ideal format to present content to students and guide them through the learning process independently. Sway also corresponds to Danielson Doman 4: Professional Responsibilities, Component 4e: Growing and Developing Professionally. By learning to use Sway to present content to students, teachers are expanding their knowledge of the Microsoft Suite and growing their technology skills. They are also testing out a technology tool that they might be able to incorporate as something that they could assign to students to create to organize notes or develop a personal learning webpage in the future.
I would like to use Sway in my future classroom. I love how easy it is to use and how organized it makes your content look on the page. Another great feature is that you can easily link text, search for copyright free images, and insert videos. Another benefit is enabled sharing within the Microsoft Suite or embedding the project into a webpage. Sway does have pretty limited capabilities for its text. I wish there was a way to underline text and make headers emphasized in the way that you can make them bold in other Word products. In addition, it can also be difficult to position a background image in relation to the set position of the header text. Sway allows you to put focal points in the image, so that the right part of it shows in the header, but sometimes the design styles do not put their header text over the most clear part of the picture, making it difficult to see. However, Sway's simplicity definitely works to its advantage because it is very easy to manipulate and organize content. I hope to use Sway to conduct asynchronous lessons on the background of authors or present homework, just as I did above. Sway would work nicely to present grammar concepts as well. I could also use the grid, comparison, and stack features to create a review guide for students or share the document with enabled editing so that they could create a guide together. A final idea for Sway is to use it as a way for students to create a mini portfolio of their schoolwork to show their parents!
Sway falls under Domain 1: Planning and Preparation of the Danielson Framework for Teaching, specifically under Component 1e: Designing Coherent Instruction. Sway allows teachers to quickly and efficiently create online web content for their students. It is a very easy program to use. Teachers can simply plug in content from a PowerPoint or their personal notes to create a professional looking and organized space for learning. Teachers can use Sway in class instead of a PowerPoint to present information. This technique mixes it up for the students. In addition, Sway provides more interactive resources for students and can be assigned asynchronously. The ability to link text easily to resource websites and plug in content such as videos makes it an ideal format to present content to students and guide them through the learning process independently. Sway also corresponds to Danielson Doman 4: Professional Responsibilities, Component 4e: Growing and Developing Professionally. By learning to use Sway to present content to students, teachers are expanding their knowledge of the Microsoft Suite and growing their technology skills. They are also testing out a technology tool that they might be able to incorporate as something that they could assign to students to create to organize notes or develop a personal learning webpage in the future.
I would like to use Sway in my future classroom. I love how easy it is to use and how organized it makes your content look on the page. Another great feature is that you can easily link text, search for copyright free images, and insert videos. Another benefit is enabled sharing within the Microsoft Suite or embedding the project into a webpage. Sway does have pretty limited capabilities for its text. I wish there was a way to underline text and make headers emphasized in the way that you can make them bold in other Word products. In addition, it can also be difficult to position a background image in relation to the set position of the header text. Sway allows you to put focal points in the image, so that the right part of it shows in the header, but sometimes the design styles do not put their header text over the most clear part of the picture, making it difficult to see. However, Sway's simplicity definitely works to its advantage because it is very easy to manipulate and organize content. I hope to use Sway to conduct asynchronous lessons on the background of authors or present homework, just as I did above. Sway would work nicely to present grammar concepts as well. I could also use the grid, comparison, and stack features to create a review guide for students or share the document with enabled editing so that they could create a guide together. A final idea for Sway is to use it as a way for students to create a mini portfolio of their schoolwork to show their parents!