Friday, June 18, 2010
New and Emerging Technologies Reflection
At my school at least, I hope to change this. I am fortunate that we have some newer technologies that many other schools do not, such as laptop carts and SMARTBoards. Since the adoption of the latter however, our district (particularly in the elementary schools) have not been on board with spending money on new products. The digital gaming that I have learned about, in particular Kinetic City has so many benefits and potentials for use that I would hope I can convince the PTO, and administrator, whoever to let me test it out with a small population. I certainly understand the hesitancy of administration and parents to test out so called “video games” in school. I have learned however that good digital games are not video games, but an interactive learning experience that can work right alongside the existing curriculum (Deubel, 2006).
I would love to be able to show this to the powers that be, and let them see how amazing and interactive, and especially educational digital gaming can be. If money is an issue (which it always is), I am glad to say that I have found several digital games that are free or cost a nominal fee. This would help me convince people, I’m sure that digital games can belong in school.
I will also stay abreast of the Horizon Report (Johnson, Levine, Smith, & Smythe,2009) and Eduoptia (George Lucas Educational Foundation, 2010), two sources I know that are constantly searching for and reviewing emerging technologies. Staying on top of what is out there may be able to help me show the staff at my school exciting and educational ways to enhance our curriculum.
Deubel, P. (2006). Game on. T.H.E. Journal, 33(6), 30–41.
George Lucas Educational Foundation. (2010). Edutopia. Retrieved June 18, 2010, from
http://www.edutopia.org/
Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., & Smythe, T. (2009). The 2009 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). New and Emerging Technologies. Baltimore: Dr. Thornburg.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
6714 Week 8 Reflection
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFgtMzZzUXl4NEczYVJUbFA4R0Z2OEE6MA
Differing instruction for our students can be made so much easier by incorporating a bit of technology into our lessons. Something as simple as projecting images on the screen as we talk to our students makes a world of difference! Teachers can use textual information as well as supplementing it with pictures, audio, and movement. By using assistive or adaptive technology we can more easily reach our learners (Rose, D., & Meyer, A., 2002a). I will ensure that I also give my students choices of presenting information in different ways to reach their strategic mind. From experience, I know that many of my students also benefit from being shown how to manage their time effectively and plan their goals. A specific tool I would use to help me in this is the CAST Strategy Tutor (2008). It is geared more for third grade and up, and would greatly help my students in our research assignments. The website allows for students to plan and do web research all while being guided. This site is extremely helpful for students who want to do web research but are not sure how to start, or need assistance in summarizing and synthesizing their information. I will also be using VoiceThread for digital storytelling in our upcoming Colonial Times Unit. By using technology to help meet the needs of all students in content, process, and product I am setting my students up for success in our current society.
References
CAST Strategy Tutor. (2008). CAST. Retreived April 13, 2010, from
http://cst.cast.org/cst/auth-login
Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002a). What brain research tells us about learner differences. In
Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Reprinted by permission of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development via the Copyright Clearance Center. Located at http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/chapter2.cfm
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Reflection-Final Posting
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Using the GAME Plan Process with Students
References
National Education Standards for Students (NETS-S) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007.htm
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Revising Your GAME Plan
My progress is going slowly. With all of the other work for this class, my own classroom, and the fact that I just got a student teacher I haven't played around much more with my pretend wiki. I have however discussed the topic with my class to see if they thought next year's students would be interested in creating a wiki. I figured if they said no it would open up a dialogue and get me to rethink my goals, as I don't want to spend time creating a huge project with little to no enthusiasm from my kids. Luckily, my class thought it sounded like a lot of fun, and wanted to know if we could try one later this year (oh dear…). I'm still looking around for more examples of class wikis in elementary school to guide me, but I am not ready to change my initial goals. I think my project is a good one, and I need to just keep going with creating my pretend wiki as a model for my class. Next time I try to improve my learning, I will do just as I have done, set up a model, have a conversation with my class to gauge their interest level, and tweak as needed.