Week 5:
How technology is making young children lifelong learners!
The video “Beginning the journey Five-year-olds drive their own PBL projects” was very inspirational. This video was able to show me that even the youngest learner can use technology and even become more engaged by doing so!
The students in this video are energized, interested and engaged because they are able to apply what they are learning to real life situations. The students were able to plan a trip to Brazil by using the Smart Board. They could access the internet and see where Brazil was, how they were going to get there, and what they could see when they arrived through online fieldtrips.
The students in the video were also able to use the Smartboard independently to learn about writing letters. I really thought the showing of how to tell the difference between the letters b and d was great. For the student to actually move the letter b on top of the letter d. The students could visually tell the difference. The touch screen on the Smartboard also enabled them to learn in front of the class with hands on learning and the teacher is there to teach and problem solve with all students together.
All the examples in this video show how technology can help launch young children in to becoming lifelong learners. Students are now able to use the computer to go all over the world, experience new ways of completing assignments and make or invent new technology can change the world.
This has inspired me to use technology in the classroom. We have Smartboards in our school that I could use, but until now I never really thought that my students would benefit from or be able to use it. It has simply amazed me how useful and engaging this technology is!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Week 4 Reflection
Week 4 Reflection
Chapter 5 and 6
I found these chapters to be very beneficial. Chapter 5 focused on specific characteristics and tools, while chapter 6 focused on specific interactive media or hypermedia.
I have used some of the interactive tools, I really enjoyed the lists and charts of specific sites that can help me in my classroom. The district already provides us with an electronic grade book, this is very helpful and beneficial. I will also be an electronic lesson plan page this year, but I have not found the right one for me to use this year. I am going to look into the websites listed in chapter 5. Being a special education teacher, I also use an IEP generator, now thanks to this chapter I am able to make and use the IEP generator make worksheets and tests to identify progress on particular goals. This chapter along with the lists and charts are going to beneficial to me. It really helped me find out what is on the internet and where I can look for specific tools.
Chapter 6 introduced me to hypermedia. I have always used this in my classroom, I just didn’t know the term for it. I love using the read along book sites and just last year the district introduced us to intellitools. This has been a great benefit for my students and myself. My special needs students are able to use computer programs and I can produce new materials for my students from this site. I look forward to trying out some of the websites that this chapter has provided. It is amazing to learn that so many websites out there can do so many things. I also use digital resources such as a digital camera, scanner and video inputs. All of this technology can do wonders for improving our students education!
Chapter 5 and 6
I found these chapters to be very beneficial. Chapter 5 focused on specific characteristics and tools, while chapter 6 focused on specific interactive media or hypermedia.
I have used some of the interactive tools, I really enjoyed the lists and charts of specific sites that can help me in my classroom. The district already provides us with an electronic grade book, this is very helpful and beneficial. I will also be an electronic lesson plan page this year, but I have not found the right one for me to use this year. I am going to look into the websites listed in chapter 5. Being a special education teacher, I also use an IEP generator, now thanks to this chapter I am able to make and use the IEP generator make worksheets and tests to identify progress on particular goals. This chapter along with the lists and charts are going to beneficial to me. It really helped me find out what is on the internet and where I can look for specific tools.
Chapter 6 introduced me to hypermedia. I have always used this in my classroom, I just didn’t know the term for it. I love using the read along book sites and just last year the district introduced us to intellitools. This has been a great benefit for my students and myself. My special needs students are able to use computer programs and I can produce new materials for my students from this site. I look forward to trying out some of the websites that this chapter has provided. It is amazing to learn that so many websites out there can do so many things. I also use digital resources such as a digital camera, scanner and video inputs. All of this technology can do wonders for improving our students education!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Digital Natives
Our schools need to incorporate more technology into the classrooms. After viewing the videos Digital Youth Portrait: Sam and Schools Use of Games for Learning and Assessment and reading the article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants I have come to the following conclusions: This is the age of technology and as teachers and schools we must provide opportunities for students where they can learn and experiment; also we need to approach education in a fundamentally different way than how we learned and were taught.
As teachers we must focus on the what are the needs of our students . There are schools in the United States that focus only on technology in the classroom such as the McKinley High School in Washington DC. This school focuses on teaching students how to learn and develop new technology. They create games and develop ways to teach students how learn through virtual reality such as showing how your body fights viruses and also this teaches the students outside the box by asking how well the games work was is complicated and how the students believe the game could be improved. This is what students need to learn. We no longer as teachers should focus only on reading out of text as stated in the article today's graduate only read a total of 5.000 hours reading, but more than 10,000 hours playing video games. Computer games, email, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives. This is proven in the video about Sam ,who has incorporated technology into every aspect of her life. She has been exposed to o much technology and is easily able to learn teach and complete assignments that we as technologically challenged teachers could never imagine possible.
This is why we must approach education in a fundamentally different way. As teachers we need to look at different ways to teach using technology. A great example of this is the research that was done at University of Wisconsin. They researched the game Civilization, having students play this game, not only revealed to them the hidden world of technology, but every student that was involved in this research ended up being getting an A in social studies because they were able to apply what they learned in this game to real life and historical events.
After viewing these movies and reading this article it has really inspired me to look into al the technology that out there and available for me to incorporate into my classroom. what a great experience to learn so much n such a short period of time.
As teachers we must focus on the what are the needs of our students . There are schools in the United States that focus only on technology in the classroom such as the McKinley High School in Washington DC. This school focuses on teaching students how to learn and develop new technology. They create games and develop ways to teach students how learn through virtual reality such as showing how your body fights viruses and also this teaches the students outside the box by asking how well the games work was is complicated and how the students believe the game could be improved. This is what students need to learn. We no longer as teachers should focus only on reading out of text as stated in the article today's graduate only read a total of 5.000 hours reading, but more than 10,000 hours playing video games. Computer games, email, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives. This is proven in the video about Sam ,who has incorporated technology into every aspect of her life. She has been exposed to o much technology and is easily able to learn teach and complete assignments that we as technologically challenged teachers could never imagine possible.
This is why we must approach education in a fundamentally different way. As teachers we need to look at different ways to teach using technology. A great example of this is the research that was done at University of Wisconsin. They researched the game Civilization, having students play this game, not only revealed to them the hidden world of technology, but every student that was involved in this research ended up being getting an A in social studies because they were able to apply what they learned in this game to real life and historical events.
After viewing these movies and reading this article it has really inspired me to look into al the technology that out there and available for me to incorporate into my classroom. what a great experience to learn so much n such a short period of time.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
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