This week we had the opportunity to experience a video conferencing session with the Royal Tyrell Museum. I had my apprehensions about video conferencing; I've experienced Skyping for personal communications and in the classroom, which was interesting, but have frequently encountered technical problems with this media such as the video image freezing or going black, not being able to hear clearly, and having significant delays. Forunately, I was pleasantly surprised and so impressed by the quality of both the presentation and the technical competence of the equipment used!
For the first several minutes I had a hard time coming to grips with the idea that the conference was being held in real time and was truly interactive; I would forget and feel as though we were just watching an educational video, and then the presenter on screen would make a comment about the class ("You're all just staring at me so intently right now! Yes, sir in the back row with the green hoodie, you have a question?") and it would recall me to an awareness of the present. I was impressed that he was able to hear questions so clearly that were directed to him from the back of the audience, and able to identify raised hands so easily. I was also impressed by how aware he was of what WE were seeing on our screen and how he was able to manage the technical aspects as well as the interactive elements of the presentation simultaneously and seamlessly.
I believe video conferencing, especially of this quality, would be a powerful tool in the classroom. The interactive nature (dialogue between the presenter and the students, the students able to play games on the screen, etc) personalizes the experience and will help to engage the students in the lesson. It would be a great alternative to field trips that may not be feasible, and it really opens up the world inside the classroom. Students can not only video conference with institutions within their own city, province, or even country; students would be able to personally interact with people, cultures, and resources around the globe. I will definately make a point of ultilizing this media where possible in my future teaching career, providing adequate equipment is available.
Another interesting resource that I browsed today was the simulated pig dissection. While disgusting, I can see the value of this tool. Personally, my major deciding factor in high school against taking biology was the desire to avoid dissecting dead animals. I ended up taking Physics, which I really struggled with, and listening to my friends talk about how interesting and practical biology was. I have always wondered if I made the right choice not taking bio? Maybe if there had been an option when I was in high school to simulate the dissection, see the organs and systems and how they connected without having to actually touch (and smell!) the body, I would have been more inclined to take the class and discover a science that was more accessible to me.
In light of this weeks module I would like to further investigate options for simulative and interactive experiences using technology in order to broaden the learning possibilities in my classroom and appeal to my student's different learning preferences through a variety of approaches.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Search Engines, the Internet, and Educational Activities
For this week's blog entry I have included a brief description of a learning activity/lesson that could be used in an elementary school Language Arts class. I searched Google, Google Video, Dogpile, and Education World specifically for activity ideas relating to Language Arts and verbs, adjectives, and nouns. I found fewer results than I expected, but using techniques from the articles (booleans, quotation marks, etc) helped find more relevant results.
TITLE: Mad Lib Activity
ONLINE RESOURCES:
Dinesh, A. (1998). Parts of Speech: Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives Game. Retrieved Oct. 11th, 2010, from www.ezschool.com/Games/PartsOfSpeech.html
Price, R., & Stern, L. (N.D.). Mad Libs Junior. Retrieved Oct. 11th, 2010, from www.funbrain.com/brain/ReadingBrain/ReadingBrain.html
GRADE LEVEL: Grade 5 Language Arts
ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION:
Teacher will review definitions and examples of verbs, adjectives, and nouns with the class. Students can then test their understanding of these concepts using an online game that requires them to identify given examples of each. When students feel confident that they have mastered the concepts and can demonstrate (via their score in the game) their grasp of the grammar terms, students are invited to create a "Mad Lib" story on the Fun Brain website. They can print off their finished stories and at the end of the activity students will have an opportunity to read their Mad Lib stories aloud to a partner. Students will also create an illustration using Windows Paint (or similar) to accompany their story. Follow with a brief class discussion about how adjectives, nouns, and verbs contribute to communicating ideas. Discuss how the Mad Lib strategy was or was not effective for telling specific stories.
GENERAL LEARNER OUTCOMES:
#4 - Students will listen, speak, read, write, view, and represent to enhance clarity and artistry of communication.
SPECIFIC LEARNER OUTCOMES:
4.1 - Expand knowledge of language.
4.1 - Experiment with words, phrases, and sentences and multimedia effects to enhance meaning and emphasis.
4.3 - Use effective oral and visual communication.
4.3 - Demonstrate effective listening and viewing.
RELEVANT ICT OUTCOMES:
- C1: Students will access, use, and communicate information from a variety of technologies.
- C7: Students will use electronic research techniques to construct personal knowledge and meaning.
- F6: Students will demonstrate a basic understanding the operating skills required in a variety of technologies.
- P1: Students will compose, revise, and edit text.
RATIONAL FOR COMPUTER INTEGRATION:
Using the two websites required by this activity will enhance student learning by engaging them interactively. They will practice skills in reading (directions, stories, word choices), writing (nouns, adjectives, verbs), listening and speaking (class discussion and sharing stories), viewing and representing (illustrations that accompany stories). In the course of their learning they will be entertained by the Parts of Speech game and enjoy using the Mad Lib game to compose their stories. They will practice basic and essential computer skills such as navigation, manipulating computer programs, saving and printing work. The teacher will save time and effort by using the websites to create the formats and check answers, and the students will help save paper by only printing their finished products instead of tossing away discarded ideas.
Go ahead and check out the Parts of Speech and Mad Lib game for yourself, see how fun they are!
Happy Thanksgiving readers.
TITLE: Mad Lib Activity
ONLINE RESOURCES:
Dinesh, A. (1998). Parts of Speech: Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives Game. Retrieved Oct. 11th, 2010, from www.ezschool.com/Games/PartsOfSpeech.html
Price, R., & Stern, L. (N.D.). Mad Libs Junior. Retrieved Oct. 11th, 2010, from www.funbrain.com/brain/ReadingBrain/ReadingBrain.html
GRADE LEVEL: Grade 5 Language Arts
ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION:
Teacher will review definitions and examples of verbs, adjectives, and nouns with the class. Students can then test their understanding of these concepts using an online game that requires them to identify given examples of each. When students feel confident that they have mastered the concepts and can demonstrate (via their score in the game) their grasp of the grammar terms, students are invited to create a "Mad Lib" story on the Fun Brain website. They can print off their finished stories and at the end of the activity students will have an opportunity to read their Mad Lib stories aloud to a partner. Students will also create an illustration using Windows Paint (or similar) to accompany their story. Follow with a brief class discussion about how adjectives, nouns, and verbs contribute to communicating ideas. Discuss how the Mad Lib strategy was or was not effective for telling specific stories.
GENERAL LEARNER OUTCOMES:
#4 - Students will listen, speak, read, write, view, and represent to enhance clarity and artistry of communication.
SPECIFIC LEARNER OUTCOMES:
4.1 - Expand knowledge of language.
4.1 - Experiment with words, phrases, and sentences and multimedia effects to enhance meaning and emphasis.
4.3 - Use effective oral and visual communication.
4.3 - Demonstrate effective listening and viewing.
RELEVANT ICT OUTCOMES:
- C1: Students will access, use, and communicate information from a variety of technologies.
- C7: Students will use electronic research techniques to construct personal knowledge and meaning.
- F6: Students will demonstrate a basic understanding the operating skills required in a variety of technologies.
- P1: Students will compose, revise, and edit text.
RATIONAL FOR COMPUTER INTEGRATION:
Using the two websites required by this activity will enhance student learning by engaging them interactively. They will practice skills in reading (directions, stories, word choices), writing (nouns, adjectives, verbs), listening and speaking (class discussion and sharing stories), viewing and representing (illustrations that accompany stories). In the course of their learning they will be entertained by the Parts of Speech game and enjoy using the Mad Lib game to compose their stories. They will practice basic and essential computer skills such as navigation, manipulating computer programs, saving and printing work. The teacher will save time and effort by using the websites to create the formats and check answers, and the students will help save paper by only printing their finished products instead of tossing away discarded ideas.
Go ahead and check out the Parts of Speech and Mad Lib game for yourself, see how fun they are!
Happy Thanksgiving readers.
Monday, September 27, 2010
21st Century Learners and Technology Integration in the Classroom
This week's food for thought was a consideration of the nature of the 21st Century Leaner (who are students will be and what will be important for their learning) and how technology could be applied to effectively teaching this and future generations of the digital age.
A brief summary of what I learned about 21st Century Learners;
- It is critical to teach and develop skills in the following areas in order that students may be successful not only in school but in their adult lives and future careers as well;
- That 21st Century Learners must understand the relevence of what they are learning and be given opportunities to practice applying what is taught
- That the skills and information learned in the classroom must be recognized as tools used to prepare students for the social, political, and economic realities they will encounter
I have also been considering the incredible saturation of modern society by technology; obviously technology is a very important aspect of daily life, considering its huge prevalence and influence. It is crazy to try and ignore such an important part of culture within the classroom, particularly when technology has the potential for excellent classroom application. It has been stressed that students need to feel their education has practical relevence and also that education needs to be engaging if students are going to take an interest in their learning; incorporating technology in the classroom can solve both of these issues. Technology can be fun and interactive, and students will learn and develop important skills for use outside of school.
Lastly, I want to mention that it is a good idea for teachers to stay up to date with new technology. Not only is it going to make lessons that much more applicable to the present, but lots of new technology is just simply more efficient for teaching than the old, and that is WHY it is developed in the first place. One of the assigned articles (Presenting Effective Presentations With Visual Aids, http://www.osha.gov/doc/outreachtraining/htmlfiles/traintec.html) actually made me think of this. While the article was useful in stressing the importance of using visual information in presentations to make information more comprehensible and memorable, the technology discussed in the article as presentation supplements really dated the article. It mentioned flip charts, VHS tapes, slide projections and transparency projectors; it also discussed issues with these technologies that are eliminated in more modern presentation technologies such as a powerpoint presentations. Such issues included trying to transition smoothly between sheets of transparencies, the time and effort needed to produce slides, the unwieldiness of transporting large posters or charts, and the expenses involved in producing all of these types of presentation supplements. Modern presentation software such as powerpoint can transition smoothly between "slides" at the click of a mouse (or even automatically if a timer is set), requires only as much time to create as it takes to select what you would like to include, can be transported on a cd, USB drive or simply accessed through email, and cost nothing to produce.
A summary of these ideas is available at the link below, in a presentation I created using Prezi (another handy presentation software, and my first attempt using it):
P.S.
After this first encounter with Prezi, I have to say I did not find it to be a very flexible or user-friendly program. I felt it was very limiting in terms of what I was able to do with my presentation and what it looks like. Next time I would preferentially use Power Point or Google Documents.
A brief summary of what I learned about 21st Century Learners;
- It is critical to teach and develop skills in the following areas in order that students may be successful not only in school but in their adult lives and future careers as well;
- Literacy (ability to understand and manipulate) when it comes to Information, Technology, and Media
- Critical thinking, innovation, and self-directed learning
- Life and Career Skills (which include the above mentioned skills as well as interpersonal skills, accountability, flexibility, time and resource management, etc.)
- That 21st Century Learners must understand the relevence of what they are learning and be given opportunities to practice applying what is taught
- That the skills and information learned in the classroom must be recognized as tools used to prepare students for the social, political, and economic realities they will encounter
I have also been considering the incredible saturation of modern society by technology; obviously technology is a very important aspect of daily life, considering its huge prevalence and influence. It is crazy to try and ignore such an important part of culture within the classroom, particularly when technology has the potential for excellent classroom application. It has been stressed that students need to feel their education has practical relevence and also that education needs to be engaging if students are going to take an interest in their learning; incorporating technology in the classroom can solve both of these issues. Technology can be fun and interactive, and students will learn and develop important skills for use outside of school.
Lastly, I want to mention that it is a good idea for teachers to stay up to date with new technology. Not only is it going to make lessons that much more applicable to the present, but lots of new technology is just simply more efficient for teaching than the old, and that is WHY it is developed in the first place. One of the assigned articles (Presenting Effective Presentations With Visual Aids, http://www.osha.gov/doc/outreachtraining/htmlfiles/traintec.html) actually made me think of this. While the article was useful in stressing the importance of using visual information in presentations to make information more comprehensible and memorable, the technology discussed in the article as presentation supplements really dated the article. It mentioned flip charts, VHS tapes, slide projections and transparency projectors; it also discussed issues with these technologies that are eliminated in more modern presentation technologies such as a powerpoint presentations. Such issues included trying to transition smoothly between sheets of transparencies, the time and effort needed to produce slides, the unwieldiness of transporting large posters or charts, and the expenses involved in producing all of these types of presentation supplements. Modern presentation software such as powerpoint can transition smoothly between "slides" at the click of a mouse (or even automatically if a timer is set), requires only as much time to create as it takes to select what you would like to include, can be transported on a cd, USB drive or simply accessed through email, and cost nothing to produce.
A summary of these ideas is available at the link below, in a presentation I created using Prezi (another handy presentation software, and my first attempt using it):
P.S.
After this first encounter with Prezi, I have to say I did not find it to be a very flexible or user-friendly program. I felt it was very limiting in terms of what I was able to do with my presentation and what it looks like. Next time I would preferentially use Power Point or Google Documents.
Monday, September 20, 2010
First Blog - Technology and Education
Testing 123, testing...
Here we go.
In high school (several years ago now) I had a Livejournal account that I used as a personal diary; since then I haven't used or cared for blogs, and it had never occurred to me until last week that blogging could be used as a classroom tool.
Going into this Communications Technology class I was excited to try and catch up to all the new technology being used in schools, partly because there's some really cool technology that's gained popularity in schools since I graduated (such as the Smart Board), and partly because I want my students to see me as savvy and competent, not dated and SO five years ago. :)
After reading through the articles posted for the class I feel much more aware of and intrigued by the potential of blogging for classroom use. I like the idea of blogs being used as a tool for students to share questions and thoughts with instructors, a forum for discussion with peers, and a tool for reflection. I like the idea of blogs being used just to encourage the students to write more and express themselves whether the content is school-related or not; I think the options of usernames and privacy settings will stimulate student's freedom and willingness to write. I also think that since students are growing up in the digital world, the internet and technology will continue to be such a big part of their lives; since the primary purpose of education is to prepare students for their futures it makes sense that education should embrace the reality of technology today and in the future and embrace it by incorporating technology in schools.
My biggest concerns with using blogging in the classroom would be students divulging personal/identifying information online, and using blogs as a tool for bullying their peers. I appreciated the article that recommended discussing internet safety and rules for blogging with students; it will also be interesting to see if student's being able to read and respond to each other's blogs will build a tighter-knit classroom community and have a positive impact on the problem of bullying rather than facilitating it.
More to follow, thanks for reading :)
In high school (several years ago now) I had a Livejournal account that I used as a personal diary; since then I haven't used or cared for blogs, and it had never occurred to me until last week that blogging could be used as a classroom tool.
Going into this Communications Technology class I was excited to try and catch up to all the new technology being used in schools, partly because there's some really cool technology that's gained popularity in schools since I graduated (such as the Smart Board), and partly because I want my students to see me as savvy and competent, not dated and SO five years ago. :)
After reading through the articles posted for the class I feel much more aware of and intrigued by the potential of blogging for classroom use. I like the idea of blogs being used as a tool for students to share questions and thoughts with instructors, a forum for discussion with peers, and a tool for reflection. I like the idea of blogs being used just to encourage the students to write more and express themselves whether the content is school-related or not; I think the options of usernames and privacy settings will stimulate student's freedom and willingness to write. I also think that since students are growing up in the digital world, the internet and technology will continue to be such a big part of their lives; since the primary purpose of education is to prepare students for their futures it makes sense that education should embrace the reality of technology today and in the future and embrace it by incorporating technology in schools.
My biggest concerns with using blogging in the classroom would be students divulging personal/identifying information online, and using blogs as a tool for bullying their peers. I appreciated the article that recommended discussing internet safety and rules for blogging with students; it will also be interesting to see if student's being able to read and respond to each other's blogs will build a tighter-knit classroom community and have a positive impact on the problem of bullying rather than facilitating it.
More to follow, thanks for reading :)
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