Journal Blog 8

With the technological advances that are happening daily, there is no reason that they should not be used in the classroom to facilitate, assist, and augment lessons.  The products that could be used vary from document cameras, interactive whiteboards, student response systems, digital projectors, wireless presentation tablets, and student Net books are just a fraction of what could be used in the classroom.  I envision a classroom in the near future using interactive whiteboards with wireless presentation tablets so the teacher can move freely around the room.  The students would use a response system and enter their answers to questions as they are asked and each would have personal Net books with the newest Educational software installed on them.  I picture the classroom organized into small groups to facilitate cooperative learning and so the teacher can walk between groups to provide assistance when it’s needed.

         As a future teacher, I would like my classroom set up in a very similar way.  I want to use technology within my classroom to augment my lessons.  I would like to be able to use the technology that I mentioned to do this effectively.  My classroom would be arranged in angled rows and divided into sections so that each student will have easy views of both the front and sides of the room where I would want the whiteboard and digital projector set up.  I would want to move around the room so I’m not tied to the front of the class.

Journal Blog 7

Teachers can use virtual environments to educate students.  Here are a few such virtual worlds that can be effectively worked into the curriculum of a class..

1.     1.  Second Life is a virtual environment that was created and accessible through the Internet.  Users create avatars and can interact with others, explore, and socialize.  A teacher could use the Second life Virtual environment to have students visit virtual campuses and take virtual field trips.  More than 700 educational institutions have set up campuses in second life for use as educational tools.  The students can participate in distance learning and socialize with students of other schools or cultures.

http://secondlife.com/whatis/?sourceid=0410-sergoog-slSecondLife-wisl&gclid=CK-l3f-Pg6UCFSMd5wodmlcMNw

2.     2.  Augmented reality simulation is designed to engage people with real life experiences.  Using handheld computers, information is supplied to the participants. In one game setting, the users had to discover the source of a toxic spill using the handhelds and interviewing virtual witnesses.  This would be a good tool to use within a school to get the students involved in discovering something.  They would have to investigate and come to conclusions of their own using the information provided.

http://education.mit.edu/projects/mitar-games

3.     3.  Epistemic Games are games that are designed to get people to learn to think in innovative ways.  I would use these games within my classroom to get the children involved and to think “outside the box” to learn different ways to approach a problem.

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/

4.     4.  Quest Atlantis could be used in my classroom by having the students create their personae and going on the virtual quests that are educational activities. Completing Quests requires that members participate in real-world, socially and academically meaningful activities, such as conducting environmental studies, researching other cultures, calculating frequency distributions, analyzing newspaper articles, interviewing community members, and developing action plans.  The concept is modeled after an online role playing game.

http://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/start/index.html

5.     5.  The River City Project is a multi-user virtual environment for learning scientific inquiry.  The students will use their knowledge of today and travel back in time in a virtual environment to try and solve problems from that time.  The world is based on authentic sociological, and geographical conditions of the time, the students’ work together in research teams to investigate the reason for a town’s illness.

http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/index.html

Journal Blog 5

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to bridging the digital divide for children in high poverty areas of the world.  Believing in the Constructivism ideal that children learn by doing, OLPC wants to provide the tools to every child and promote learning learning.  The organization has successfully donated their XO laptops to thousands of students and teachers in Peru, Rwanda, Uruguay, Israel, Ethiopia, as well as many other countries.  OLPC has also provided laptops for some schools in the U.S. as well.  The progress of the organization’s objective, of providing under privileged children, the basic tools to gain knowledge, seems to be growing.  

I believe that the OLPC could be effectively initiated and executed in the U.S. with great success.  It has already been implemented in schools in Birmingham AL and could be used to provide laptops to many of the nation’s youth for a relatively low cost.   As a way to off-set the costs of the units, the states could apply for grants to purchase the low-cost, durable laptops for each child.  If the nation wants to increase standards and raise the bar of education then the states should adopt the same mission as OLPC and strive to close the digital divide within our own nation.

Journal Blog 3

Lesson plans are necessary for classroom lessons.  A written lessen plan will act as a guide that the teacher may follow to keep the class on task and to keep the teacher where they want to be.  Not all teachers may need to have a fully prepared lesson plan but can use an outline as their lesson plan.  There are many lesson plans that are prepared on the internet but I don’t think that copying one is the best for a teacher.  If they are going to use a pre-drafted lesson plan, then the teacher should take pieces of the lesson that will work with the subject being taught and the curriculum of the school.  The following link is to a lesson plan for a teacher at Springfield Lanphier High school.  http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/downloads/basic/108629/French%20135plans9_27-10_1.pdf

Journal Blog 2

Application software is used to improve efficiency in the K-12 classroom.  With the use of application software the teachers and students have the ability to edit, do multiple layouts, formatting.  The Teacher can prepare a total lesson with the use of application software such as word processor, spreadsheet or Data base applications.  The applications are versatile tools to use in the classroom for the teacher and are fairly simple to use for even novice technology users.  Application software can give users in the K-12 classroom instant feedback on work that they are doing by means of spellcheck, grammar check, sentence structure..etc. 

Students can use application software to write papers and document research or work on spreadsheets of information or do concept-mapping.  This will help to organize and help to understand different concepts.
describe what is the role of application software in K-12 education?  Together students and teachers can use the application software in conjunction to streamline classroom work and perform in a more efficient manner.

Jason

TEP 305A Tech journal 1

Teachers who are considering the use of technology in the question need to address different issues with both the teachers and the students.  Teachers must have at least an understanding of the technology that is being used in the classroom.  Teachers must meet the ISTE National Educational Technology Standards.  Some teachers resist the use of technology even though after the initial learning period, it will alleviate much extra work in the classroom.
Even though most students today have a much greater knowlege of technology than previous generations, each student is from different walks of life and may not have exposure to the same technology that others may have.   A teacher needs to encourage the use of the technology in the classroom and get the students involved in using the technology.