A bit thing this week is that I would definitely feel more comfortable searching for useful educational software now than before. It is good to have some guidelines to narrow your search. It is also very useful to have a breakdown of the different types of software available, so you can mold your software choices to fit what you are trying to accomplish by using the technology. It is also interesting to see that there is software available to assist teachers with their daily activities. I would definitely be interested in looking into that when the time comes.
There are obviously many applications that can be applied through the use of software in the classroom. Simulation software can give students a chance to do or experience something that they would not be able to do otherwise. This presents them with a unique learning experience. Another application is regardless of what you are using the software to do is that students are always excited to work with technology and computers. Software would be a great way to motivate students and keep their attention.
Working on the assistive tech projects are any of the tools provided by the school in order to meet the least restrictive environment?
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Language arts
An interesting thing that I have been finding throughout this class is that many of the technologies available are transferable across many subjects. For instance, podcasts and digital stories are useful in every subject. However, it seems that podcasts would be especially helpful in developing fluency and literacy. Another thing that I thought was neat was the programs available to make concept maps and worksheets. In my teaching experiences I had always wondered where these well designed activity sheets were coming from and how I would make them once I was on my own. Also, the fact that blogs are available in a more student friendly format makes that seem like much more of appealing technology due to the added control features for the teacher, sorry blogger.
Some educational applications that I thought were particularly good was the use of the podcast. It covers so many important parts of literacy instruction; writing, revising, reading orally, etc.
I also thought that using blogs would provide a good assessment opportunity similar to exit cards in the classroom. You could have the students post what they learned and any questions they may have had.
A question that arose was how open are schools to the concept of blogging due to the fact that students may not have computers or access to the internet?
Some educational applications that I thought were particularly good was the use of the podcast. It covers so many important parts of literacy instruction; writing, revising, reading orally, etc.
I also thought that using blogs would provide a good assessment opportunity similar to exit cards in the classroom. You could have the students post what they learned and any questions they may have had.
A question that arose was how open are schools to the concept of blogging due to the fact that students may not have computers or access to the internet?
Monday, April 9, 2007
A cool thing I found this week was the wealth of examples and instructional strategies available on the online instructional strategies glossary. It provides a ton of detailed information and ideas for presenting information to the class. I also enjoyed better learning how to use primary access. We had talked about it in Prof Grimes' class but I did not recall exactly how to use it or access it. A third thing I found beneficial this past week is how to access and use Google Earth and all the features it has. I had heard about it but never gotten a chance to see it utilized.
The educational applications for everything we talked about a pretty vast especially primary access. That is a really neat tool because it is very similar to photostory but students can access it from any computer and do not need specific software which means that it could be given as a long term project for students. I also think that time line constructor online is a great tool for documenting events and giving a student a concept of how to use a time line and the elapse of time with regards to different historical events.
One question that I have from this past week is how to make nonlinear power points since we did not get a chance to cover that. I had seen them used before in the classroom to make games and exploratory tools and they seem like they would be very useful.
The educational applications for everything we talked about a pretty vast especially primary access. That is a really neat tool because it is very similar to photostory but students can access it from any computer and do not need specific software which means that it could be given as a long term project for students. I also think that time line constructor online is a great tool for documenting events and giving a student a concept of how to use a time line and the elapse of time with regards to different historical events.
One question that I have from this past week is how to make nonlinear power points since we did not get a chance to cover that. I had seen them used before in the classroom to make games and exploratory tools and they seem like they would be very useful.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Math and Science w/ Tech
I thought the amount of resources online for teaching math and science were very impressive. The playing with time website would be great to show a class and could work in to many different science lessons. It also provides the students an opportunity to observe changes like that of a forest over a year that they perhaps would never see. The smart board also seems like it would be helpful to use in a classroom, but it seems that interacting with the smart board may be kind of difficult for kids in lower grades. The board does not always write exactly where you are depending on your positioning in relation to the projector. This could be frustrating for small children. Also the capability to make your own time lapse videos with a web cam and a movie editor. This also presents some exciting possibilities for the classroom. The videos would be personal to the students and it would also serve a good review/refresher tool.
The smart board has numerous applications for the classroom. When I was doing my 488 lessons last semester we used the smart board to go over worksheets as a class and had the students come up and write their answers on the worksheet that was projected on the smart board.
Another application from last Tuesday was the video capture program that takes photos at specific time intervals this could be useful to document the growth of a plant in the classroom for a science lesson. The students would be able to watch the plant grow as the year progressed. However, after the plant was fully grown the students could watch the video and see the various stages the plant went through in close succession.
One question I have is for the science sites that require a subscription fee; do any schools buy a school wide subscription that they make available to all teachers?
The smart board has numerous applications for the classroom. When I was doing my 488 lessons last semester we used the smart board to go over worksheets as a class and had the students come up and write their answers on the worksheet that was projected on the smart board.
Another application from last Tuesday was the video capture program that takes photos at specific time intervals this could be useful to document the growth of a plant in the classroom for a science lesson. The students would be able to watch the plant grow as the year progressed. However, after the plant was fully grown the students could watch the video and see the various stages the plant went through in close succession.
One question I have is for the science sites that require a subscription fee; do any schools buy a school wide subscription that they make available to all teachers?
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