Discussion1:
- Describe the effective integration of technology with teaching and learning.
- How have your ideas about this changed thus far in the class?
Describe the effective integration of technology with teaching and learning.
In order to effectively integrate technology with teaching and learning, the instructor must be willing to make a mistake in front of the class. Part of the learning and teaching experience is beign able to make mistakes "teachable moments". Sure, it stinks to have the computer or the program put up a dialog box that says you messed up, but it's also really cool to be able to demonstrate for your class, via a computer projection, a digital image of how to disect a frog.
On the other hand, being able to do "cool stuff" on a computer should not be the only accomplishment from the integration. The students should learn some sort of skill in the process that is applicable to the real world, is a valuable workplace skill and (bonus) can be helpfulin other classes.
How have your ideas about this changed thus far in the class?
Before taking this class, I would have said that technology integration was accomplished if the students wrote their reports on the computer and then emailed them to the professor or used the computer to do research or if the professor used a power point presentation. Now I see that using a power point is unfortunately being seen as a modified projection of slides to be copied, the research is not peer reviewed journal articles but wikipedia and writing reports and emailing them is the digital version of handing in your homework.
Obviously, my perception of effective technology integration has matured to say the least.
Discussion 2:
Consider the information from Anderson, Grant, & Speck's Excerpt from Chapter 2: Technology Tools to Support Literacy (as well as the other reading material in this module) and describe 3 different strategies you could use to integrate technology with teaching and/ or learning in your class.
Review the ideas of your classmates and consider the possibility of using or adapting their strategies in your classroom. Discuss your thoughts as appropriate.
In order to effectively integrate technology with teaching and learning, the instructor must be willing to make a mistake in front of the class. Part of the learning and teaching experience is beign able to make mistakes "teachable moments". Sure, it stinks to have the computer or the program put up a dialog box that says you messed up, but it's also really cool to be able to demonstrate for your class, via a computer projection, a digital image of how to disect a frog.
On the other hand, being able to do "cool stuff" on a computer should not be the only accomplishment from the integration. The students should learn some sort of skill in the process that is applicable to the real world, is a valuable workplace skill and (bonus) can be helpfulin other classes.
How have your ideas about this changed thus far in the class?
Before taking this class, I would have said that technology integration was accomplished if the students wrote their reports on the computer and then emailed them to the professor or used the computer to do research or if the professor used a power point presentation. Now I see that using a power point is unfortunately being seen as a modified projection of slides to be copied, the research is not peer reviewed journal articles but wikipedia and writing reports and emailing them is the digital version of handing in your homework.
Obviously, my perception of effective technology integration has matured to say the least.
Discussion 2:
Consider the information from Anderson, Grant, & Speck's Excerpt from Chapter 2: Technology Tools to Support Literacy (as well as the other reading material in this module) and describe 3 different strategies you could use to integrate technology with teaching and/ or learning in your class.
Review the ideas of your classmates and consider the possibility of using or adapting their strategies in your classroom. Discuss your thoughts as appropriate.
My answer:
In biology we sometimes are limited to the uses of technology and it other ways we have been blessed! Due to the religious attitudes of many and the verocity of our population towards legal action there are now several programs that allow you to do a Digital Dissection. This program allows the students to get all the real-world experience of doing a frog dissection, without the gross out factors including the smell of fermaldihyde. (sp?)
Another fun one for me is Google Wave. If you are not on a wave and would like to be invited to mine, just message me in "real" email at rkannady@gmail.com This program allows you to send "waves" to a person or a group of people and you can follow the wave and see what they do or where the articles or other digital materials go. It's pretty cool.
Using the google wave program, I would send an article to my class. Assigning each of the kids a day in the wave, their job would be to read the article (from a reputable, peer-reviewed journal) and then find something that was of interest to them to then send the next part of the wave. At the end of the wave, we would have 30 (1 for each student) articles. They could then pick an article to either write a 5 paragraph essay on or share in some way with the class. (poster or presentation). Whatever response method they chose would be added to our wave series.
The really fun part is that you can covert the wave to a blog posting ( or series of postings) and that you can start a new wave with each new topic of study in the class.
Finally, I think it is important for kids to understand their environment and the impact that their choices have on the world around them. Using a geopost the kids can track the movement of waste as it is collected and eventually deposited in a landfill or sent out via liquid waste disbursement etc. They can then digitally do a time-sped model to see how the waste will effect the environment at that same rate continued over a period of time.
Also, have you guys seen the new sun chips bags? They are supposed to be compostable. How cool would it be to take a digital picture of a sun chips bag compost and see if different composts will speed up the degration of the bag?
For a science experiment a student could use a series of glass compost boxes. put the bag up against the glass and in each compost use different materials of waste. Each day they would take a picture. Then they could use a computer to create a slideshow (or imovie) to show the degration of the bag over time in a side-by-side comparison of which goes faster.
Also, I intend for each of my classes to have a blog where either daily or weekly or as frequently as possible. The students discuss what they thought of the different classroom exercises, what they learned, etc. Hopefully, over time, they'll get a better understanding of what we're doing in class and I'll get to see how they're liking what we're doing. It can alsobe a way of keeping the parents informed of what we're doing in the classroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment