Social/Legal Issues of Technology in the Classroom

I think one of the main issues with using technology in the classroom is making sure that, as educators, we find a balance between when to use technology and when the "old fashioned way" would work better. For example, in the book it talked about using virtual field trips as a supplement for the real thing. I think that this could be beneficial to students as long as they are able to still experience field trips outside the school as well. I do not think that teachers should assume that just because students are more involved in technology these days that using a virtual field trip could replace the experience that they would get out of the classroom. This is an important issue because as educators we need to be aware of the various resources that we have that can enhance student learning, however we don't want to be so caught up in using those resources that we lose the use of the more "old fashioned way" teachers used to do things.

Distance Education

A pro of using distance education would be that it allows students the flexibility or structure that they need in order to be successful. In a distance education program where the student is not required to be online at a certain time, it would allow the student to work during "normal" school hours. This is a benefit to using a distance education program because it allows students to obtain their education during non-traditional times. Another benefit to using distance education would be a program that requires students to sign on during certain hours and complete assignments by certain dates. This is a benefit of distance education because it allows students flexibility as well as structure for students who would otherwise procrastinate.

A con to using distance education would be that is doesn't allow for student interaction. This is a very important life skill that children learn throughout their school careers. They learn how to work in group settings and they also learn how to listen to authority figures other than their parents. I think that distance education would hinder a students' ability to interact later in life especially if the parents were just relying on the program. There are some situations where students who are involved in distance education get together to interact with each other, however it takes parent involvement and dedication in order to make these situations happen.

In order to determine if a student was ready for distance education I would need to be sure that they were very self-motivated students. This would be essential for students to succeed in distance education programs because they would need to have the skills to self-manage their time as well as motivate themselves to complete tasks on time and do their work. I would also need to make sure that, if the student was young, their parents were devoted to the work they would have to put in outside of the program requirements. Parent involvement would be something that I would to make sure was essential in the eyes of the parent before I let a student participate in distance learning.

In order to teach in a virtual school, I would need to be extremely creative and time efficient. I would need to be creative because I would have to make the material we cover that much more exciting because the students are not in an interactive classroom with visual stimulation and other student's excitement. I would also have to increase my time efficiency because I would have to plan out lessons and then be able to transfer them onto the computer. This is something that I think I would find especially difficult because I think a lot of teaching comes from spontaneous teachable moments inside the classroom.

Emerging Technologies in the Classroom

A web camera is a digital camera that streams video over the Internet. The images that are streamed over the web camera can be picked up on other web cams across the country or the world. Web cams allow people to pick up videos on current weather conditions, animals at the zoo, teacher's lectures, and much, much more. The great thing about web cameras is that they allow people to communicate face to face over the Internet. This is beneficial to users because it is much more personal than using Facebook or E-Mail. Web cams are great for teachers because they can allow their class to collaborate with another class across the state and the teachers can speak face to face to discuss the unit. A web cam would impact my teaching becuase it would let me show my students see, with their own eyes, what is going on all over the world. If we were doing a unit on natural disasters, the students would be able to watch a web cam broadcast the images from that area into our very own classroom. A web cam would impact student learning in a positive way because they woudl have the opportunity to see the events we are talking about in class and it would make the unit more realistic.

A SMART board is a large, interactive white board that involves using a projector and a computer. SMART boards allow users to draw with digital ink, manipulate applications on the computer's home page and use their fingers as a mouse. The great thing about SMART boards is that they allow teachers to manipulate items after they have been projected up onto the screen, unlike powerpoints or other traditional projector-friendly applications. A SMART board would impact my teaching because it would allow me to have more flexibility with my presentations. I would be able to work through corrections and editions with the students without having to tell them what corrections they need to be doing. A SMART board would impact my student's learning because they would have the opportunity to see and do corrections on the board in a real word document instead of a overhead film copy. This would be great for students because it would give them practice working in a word document and doing editions.

Second Life is an online, virtual world that allows users to communicate over the Internet. Users are represented by self-created avatars that can accumulate property, travel the world and interact with other user's avatars. Second Life does cost money, however there are free trial versions that are more limited than the real thing, but still allow the user to get a feel for the game. Second Life would have a limited impact on my teaching because it is more geared towards older children ages 13 and up. It could affect my teaching because it would allow me to meet other educators and potentially communicate and come up with new lesson plans or fun ideas for my students. Second Life could impact my student's learning because it would potentially give them a virtual world that they could express themselves if they felt to uncomfortable to do it real-life. However, they do not yet have a Second Life world for children younger than 13.

Web Cam: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech100.shtml
Second Life: http://secondlife.com/
SMART Board: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_board

Engaging Students With Concept Mapping

Here is an example of a concept map.

1) One of the ways that teachers could use Concept Mapping in the classroom would be to assist students in organizing their thoughts before starting an essay on their summer vacation. A concept map would allow students to organize their activities before they begin writing their essay so the ideas are chronological. This would help students because they could visually see their ideas down on paper and it would make the actual writing of the essay much easier. A concept map would also be useful during the WASL. There are essay portions on the WASL where students need to organize their thoughts before beginning a section. A concept map is something that I used during the WASL and I think that it would really help students.

I would teach students to organize their thoughts in a concept map for the WASL because it would end up saving them time during the writing process. Since the WASL is timed, this would help them greatly to organize their thoughts and make them more fluent. Another idea that I explored on how to integrate concept mapping into a classroom would be to have students create a concept map of their families. I think this would be a great way to start off the school year because it would give the teacher insight into the students’ lives. For example, one stem off the map could be grandparents on mom’s side of the family. This would be an easy way for students to create a family tree without getting as confusing as some family trees can be. Then after creating the concept map, they could write a story about all the members of their family or their favorite memory with their family.

2) I think that concept mapping would have a positive impact on student learning because it gives the students a chance to organize their ideas and make them flow. This would increase student learning because they would be more successful writers and their stories would make sense. Another way that concept mapping could impact student learning in a positive manner would be through initial assessment. A teacher could use concept mapping to gauge where his/her students are before beginning a lesson. This way, the students would not be expected to learn information that was beyond their capabilities or information they have already learned. I think that this would increase student learning because you would be able to start students in a correct zone of proximal development where they can still be challenged but not so much as to frustrate them.

3) Some criteria that I would use to determine whether or not to use concept mapping would be whether or not it would benefit the students to do a concept map. For example, I would not expect students to concept map show and tell; however I would expect them to concept map a book we read in class. By doing this, it would help the students to retain the information better on subjects that I would determine to be more important (not that show and tell isn’t important). Some other criteria that I would have when determining if concept mapping is appropriate or not would be whether or not the concept map would be used again for their benefit. I would not want to the students to do a concept map at the end of a lesson after a test. This would not be beneficial to the student because it wouldn’t affect the future of their learning and I wouldn’t want the students to create something that neither of us would be using again.

Blogs and Wikis in Education

One interesting way that blogs and wikis are being used in classrooms is through posting videos on the blog or wikis. I found videos of children working together on a project as well as a video of students performing at an assembly. Another way blogs and wikis are being used in the classroom is through creating a space just for students in a specific subject. For example, there are wikis for students who are in economics who might need help or if teachers wanted to visit the site and put in their thoughts or corrections, they can do that on this wiki. Another interesting way blogs and wikis are being used in the classroom is that they are being used as announcement pages instead of sending kids home with notes on upcoming events. The announcements are posted on the teachers’ blog and therefore, the parents can be sure that they are getting the announcements on time.

 

A teacher could use an RSS reader in the classroom, that way they wouldn’t have to rely on the parents to navigate through all their class pages. For example, if a teacher had a blog, a wiki and a teacherweb, they could show the parents how to set up an RSS reader so the parents would get the updates or announcements sent to them instead of trying to navigate through all the pages the teacher has. You could also use an RSS reader for students use. If a teacher did have all the online resources, as described above, the students could use an aggregator to get the information sent to them instead of searching and wasting time navigating through all the teachers different pages.

 

Some of the cons of using blogs and wikis in education is that there is always the question of whether each student has access to a computer. If each student does not have access to a computer it puts them at a disadvantage because they won’t be getting the same information as the other students. Another con of using blogs and wikis in education is that if you don’t have a password to access the site people could get onto it and put false information on there. A pro to using blogs and wikis in education is that it allows students and parents to get information outside the classroom. This would provide teachers a better way to communicate with parents and get announcements out, assuming families had access to a computer. Another pro to using blogs and wikis in education is that if a teacher had a wiki page that was a place for students to go after school to look over what was learned that day, it would allow the student to clear up some questions on subjects they may have been confused about. 

Teacher Web Project Critiques

Student Learning: A class website might impact student learning in a positive way because it would allow students to revisit the information after school was over. If they were unsure about a topic that was covered in class, students could go onto the class website and visit links that were posted intended for increasing student learning through play. I also think that student learning would be impacted positively by a class website because the students would be able to go home and show their parents the hard work they did on a project or presentation. This might increase the students’ feelings towards school and learning if they got positive reinforcement from home as well as from school.

Student Engagement: A class website could impact student engagement in a positive manner because having a place on the internet that is just for them might get students excited about learning, especially if you have fun, interactive activities for the students to do while they are online. Although there would be mostly a positive impact on student engagement from a class website, there might also be a negative effect. A class website might negatively impact student engagement because not every student may access to a computer and the internet. So, if a teacher were to post homework questions or assignments that not every student was receiving, it could have a negative impact on the students’ willingness to participate.

Communication with Students and Parents: A class website would allow improved communication between parents and students, assuming that each student had access to a computer. A class website would allow parents to email and communicate with the teacher through emails. This way, if the parent was on the website and they had a question about the material, they could immediately send an email instead of navigating through other pages. A class webpage would also allow the teacher to post important upcoming events that the students and parents would need to be aware of. This would allow for an increase in participation because more people would be reminded of what’s going on.

Advantages: One advantage of using a classroom website within teaching activities is that the website would increase parent-teacher communication. It would increase communication because parents would be able to access information regarding their child without depending on their child to deliver the notes from their teacher. Another advantage of using a classroom website would be that it would increase student involvement in their schooling. It would do this because the students would be engaged in the information outside of the 6-hour school day and they might find something, through links, that would interest them more on a specific topic and would therefore increase their interest in the subject.

Disadvantages: One disadvantage of depending on a classroom website would be that not everyone has access to the internet or a computer. Therefore, if you posted reminders only on the website, not every parent would get the information. Another disadvantage of having a classroom website is that teachers might get so wrapped up in updating their website and making it perfect, that they forget about making the actual classroom experience stimulating and exciting.

Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom

1) After taking the multiple intelligences survey, the results showed me that I have strength in kinesthetic and rhythmic areas. Some of the core characteristics of kinesthetic intelligence that best describe me are that I am a tactile learner in the fact that I demonstrate well-developed gross and/or fine motor skills. Another characteristic that describes me is that I am task oriented and I strive to learn by doing the task. Some of the core characteristics of rhythmic intelligence that best describe me are patterning, which means that I seek all kinds of patterns not just in sounds.

2) Students with kinesthetic intelligence enjoy hands on activities and can concentrate on these activities for long periods of time. They also enjoy group games and active learning tasks. It is important to note that students who have kinesthetic intelligence are different from hyperactive kids. Students with rhythmic intelligence are especially drawn to sound and like to move to rhythm. They also pick up on terms and phrases in foreign language easily. 

3) In order to support students with kinesthetic intelligence in my classroom I would need to keep kids physically moving throughout the school day as well as including interactive games when reviewing content. It would also benefit students with kinesthetic intelligence to be engaged in hands-on science projects. In order to support students with rhythmic intelligence in my classroom I would need to allow time for working with pattern blocks, moving to rhythm and teaching foreign languages. It would also help students with rhythmic intelligence to learn to read music and listen to symphony music. 

4) Kinesthetic intelligence is supported by having the opportunity to work with physical education equipment, pulleys, construction tools, a mouse, a joystick, and other types of technologies that require students to manipulate objects with their hands. Rhythmic intelligence is supported by being allowed to do puzzles, work with pattern blocks, play musical instruments, work with tape players, and record and listen to digital sounds. 

5) By being aware that there are multiple intelligences that students have that will affect their learning, teachers are able to adjust their lesson plans and activities to benefit a larger population of their students. Although it would be hard to have an activity that would benefit all areas of the intelligences, different stations can be set up to stimulate different students abilities and still reach the desired learning goals. Another important thing for educators to keep in mind is that although students may have a dominant intelligence area, they are not just one intelligence or another. There is a lot of overlap between the intelligences and this can work to an educators advantage due to the fact that lesson plans don't have to adhere to all intelligences in order to keep every student engaged and interested. By acknowledging the fact that students learn in all different ways and have different strengths, I will be able to try to appeal to many different types of intelligences and consciously try to hit a characteristic of each intelligence every day in order to keep students engaged and learning at their best.