Assignment #3, a review of three sites from my tool box

The first site is http://www.apples4theteacher.com/.  This is a fun little site that provides several tools to teachers such as free printable worksheets for several different subjects that could be used in a variety of grades, from kindergarten to upper middle school.  This site also has some fun interactive games for students.

 The second site is http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/ this is a very helpful site for teachers and has different tools for teachers.  What I noticed most about this, and what I would probably want to use this for is the section on resorces for educators.  This section has everything from back to school checklists to fun ideas for a first day back from summer break.  All in all a very comprehensive looking tool.

The third and final website is http://www.mathplayground.com/.  This is a fun website that has very useful tools to teach math to kids.  I found one game in particular that caught my eye.  It was not so much a game but a tool to model math problems using blocks.  This 'game' (for lack of a better word) has a word problem on the screen and asks the kids to model it out and then asks them questions that lead them to figure out the problem.  This was a really cool modeling tool and can make learning this stuff fun and interactive.

Assignment for Week 10: 3 Questions

Question 1: How do you see technology being used in the future?  meaning, will it be a supplementary tool to aid the teacher in teaching the students or will it be the focus of the education?

Question 2: What are your views on using investigations (group work) to teach subjects.

Question 3: In your opinion, given how many teachers have been laid off in the last year, how will the job market for education look in the next two or so years?

Technology Project

Reflection: Positive and negative effects of tech in early education

I read an interesting article on the positive and negative effects of the use of technology in early education focusing on five year olds.  This was a fascinating article and I was particularly interested to find a negative view on the use of technology in education.  Granted, the negative opinion was at the end and not covered in very much depth but the author made the mention of an opposing view.  The article focused on the positive elements that are associated with the use of technology in education based on several pedagogical theories such as social constructivism and behaviorism.  The positive aspect I believe most worthy of mention are the benefits of social interaction between the kids.  according to the article the benefits of kids engaging in technological activities to help each other solve problems.  Overall its a great article worth further study.

Reflection: Microsoft Surface and SMART Table

I was in the Microsoft store the other day and had a chance to use the Microsoft surface.  This is a really cool piece of tech and has a lot of similarities to the SMART Table.  The Surface is exactly what it sounds like, it is an interactive table and as far as I can tell meant only for business use and not particularly education based as the SMART Table is.  The idea though of an interactive table where the kids learn by doing so to speak is a great idea and the technology is certainly there as most of the Microsoft Surface videos I could find on you tube were at least five years old.  As for the SMART Table, this is a relatively newer technology and is definitely geared towards learning.  The two as I have seen them are virtually the same in tech, but very different in target audience. 

Reflection on stylus as a viable tool for early education

I recently read an article which the option of using a tablet computer in early childhood education (3-6 years) as a viable tool.  The tablet pc's such as an ipad, ipod touch, or other sundry tablet computers.  The article goes through the potential for the tablet in increasing the attention of the child.  The article sites different studies that say the use of technology in the subjects of math and writing make the kids more interested in the subject as a result.  The tablet pc's that they are talking about integrate more than just a touch screen but with a tool called a stylus.  This is a pen that is used with the pc that enables the kids to write as they would on a piece of paper but on a touch screen.  The article concludes that the tablet pc as a tool for early education is viable and would work well based on their findings.  I would say that the viability based on the increased attention span of the learner in difficult subjects that the student otherwise might not enjoy is a very good thing.  Nowadays the different options, and indeed the increasing ability of said tablets, make the use of these kinds of technology in education just as good as a computer and could serve multiple purposes.  Overall a cool idea.

Reflection on the potential for schools without technology

In a conversation with my mother, who is an elementary school teacher in the Gig Harbor area, about technology in education.  I posed a question that had been going on in my mind for a while.  What do you do if the school doesn't or refuses, because of budget problems, to provide adequate technology in your classroom.  While technology in education classrooms is going up and the use of technology by the current generation is certainly going up, out economy is not.  States are having to cut budgets like crazy and while the kids are the future of America what the states have to worry about are debts that are quickly making education back burner issue so to speak.  Huge budget deficits such as the one in Washington which is upwards of 8 Billion dollars rather put a damper on what then seems like unnecessary expense for technology in classrooms.  So what if they stop funding the use of technology in classrooms, stop providing smart boards, document cameras, or even projectors?  What do we do when the only technology in our classroom is the crappy dell computer in the back of the room?

My suggestion is that even though the states technology budget will very likely go through the floor in terms of what they spend on technology (or even teachers), the kids will still very likely have computers at home that you will be able to integrate into your lessons in terms of projects and other online creative stuff such as blogs and websites.  So essentially what we will see is a move back to a few years ago when the library was the biggest repository of computers in the school and classes have a time where they go into a computer lab at designated times.

All of this is to say Be very careful about what you hinge your teaching ability or students learning ability on, it shouldn't be technology, but rather the subjects that students need to learn.  If you hinge your ability to teach or the ability of the students to learn on the expectation of a smart board or any other tool then you will be in for a shock if you end up not having one and the students will be worse off for it.

Refelction on a really cool web site.

I was browsing the web looking for ideas for using technology in education when I found this video and it seemed like a really cool idea.  the video, if you haven't watched it is about using Follettshelf.com.  This is an online resource where there are ebooks for teachers to access and read.  these are particularly good for the interactive white boards and, as the video shows, it works well with the smart boards.  Going to the site itself you can take a look at several different books under a demo account and they are all very good.  This site also has several other features that go fairly seamlessly with the book while you are reading it.  Up at the top of the page, right above the book, there is a dictionary, place to search a word or phrase, as well as a dual page view.  Overall this is a great resource for teachers to use, whether you are looking at a fun book for kids or looking at what butterflies are it has the potential to be very useful in teacher.

Reflection on an observation.

Last week on the 25th I went as part of a group to observe different teachers at Lake Washington HS.  I had the privilege of observing a physics teacher who had a very good grasp of using technology in her class.  She used the active board more in a power point capacity but when it came to drawing diagrams that illustrated her points she was always using the board and very knowledgeably.  It was good to see someone was using those, we were told that every classroom has one of those boards but less than thirty percent of teachers use them for anything more than a screen to project on.  It made the presentation more clear than writing on the regular board, for one thing you could see it better, and for another thing it made it a little more accessible (the lesson I mean) what she was talking about when you could see it clearly.

Assignment #1

The article that I decided to do for this assignment is one about integrating virtual manipulatives into the learning of math.  The article takes a look at the different ways manipulative have been used in the past and how the are evolving to fit today's culture of young people who are so technology oriented.  The article sites several different classes in which students were better able to understand the concepts taught because of the digital manipulatives which are free for teachers and students to use online.  I enjoyed this article, it provided an interesting insight into a tool in which visual learners could definitely learn this sort of thing better.  I would question it being as effective in the teaching of kinetic learners.  In elementary school I was very kinetic, especially in learning math.  Using virtual manipulatives wouldn't have helped me as much as the physical ones, but for a visual learner this is absolutely perfect.  On a computer you can manipulate an object in just about any way you want and this would definitely be a useful tool for that kind of student.  All in all it was a good article and certainly gave me a new tool to integrate technology into a learning environment for some students, but not likely all of them.

Teacher NETS
3B.  collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.
This is a very important guideline to follow especially because it potentially involves the parent in the learning process of the student.  In having a class blog or a website where parents can go to check up on their students and what they are learning is an incredibly invaluable tool for them.  Three ways that I will work on this goal this semester are to 1) find out what it takes to run a website effectively,  2) look at several different examples of well done teacher websites.  and 3) try and create one of my own.

Student NETS
1b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
In the ever changing job market of our society it is increasingly important for students to be able to collaborate and create in a group setting.   as for assignments there are two examples that I can think of in which I would implement this.  In an English project, have the students collaborate and come up with a story that they present using some form of technology such as storybird.com or power point.  or even in a history class have them research a topic and present using power point.

Note to Prof. Adair: I originally posted this earlier but it evidently didn't post so that's why its late.

School Website

I went to Key Peninsula Middle School and I figured I'd look at their website to see how they set it up and so forth.  It was well done, it had the logo of the school on the front, a link to just about anything you would need to know.  Links to teachers websites, as well as a parent portal where parents can check on their students grades, absences and so on.  overall it was good, I couldn't find anything really wrong with it.  A couple of cool features such as the principles blog, where the principle writes about certain things that are going on in the school, such as sports events, I even saw a post about bullying.  This website has about everything I would think to put on a school website and is fairly easy to access.