Technology Inventory

So unfortunately for the students in the class that I interviewed, technology is not being implemented in very effective or engaging ways.

I interviewed a second grade teacher at Farrer Elementary. In her classroom, there were 3 computers for student use, a laptop for the teacher, a TV, DVD player, VCR, and CD player, an overhead projector, and a microphone/audio enhancement for the classroom. Additionally, the school has two portable computer labs which contain enough laptops for each child and is wheeled into their classroom with the computer lab teacher every Tuesday and Thursday.

Although there is a fairly decent amount of technology available to these students, I still felt like the class was disadvantaged when it came to technology. I say this because it seems like the teacher only used technology to assess. They take math tests on the computer, literacy tests on the computer, reading comprehension tests on the computer, etc. As I talked to the teacher, it seemed like there wasn't anything done to enhance the learning or engagement of the students. Just assess, assess, assess. Hopefully this will not turn children off to technology in the future. The teacher said she also used technology in the class by using teacher websites to find ideas for lesson plans and to find more worksheets for extra practice.

One thing that the teacher did seem very excited about was the Prometheum boards that the school will be installing in each classroom soon. I'm not sure what a Smart Board is, but she said it's like that for any of you that are familiar with Smart Boards. Apparently it replaces one of the white boards in the classroom, it projects things from your computer, you can make presentations with it, you can also use a special pen to write on it so it's very interactive, you can type on it, or you can write on it and it will type out what you wrote, you can pull up pictures, information, flags, etc. with it. I didn't actually get to see a Prometheum Board but it sounds like a great technology. I would love to learn more about it and utilize it in my classroom!

My Animal Habitat Virtual Tour

Well it took me forever, but I finished! The link to my Google Site with my virtual tour is now in my link section. I hope you like it!

My Virtual Tour

I chose to do my virtual tour on the different habitats of different animals.

The content for this lesson is to learn about different animals and their habitats. This addresses 2nd grade core content, standard 3, objective 1. Specifically, I would like the children to break up into small groups, investigate the four animals highlighted in the Google Earth tour, use the placemarks and links to learn about different animals and their habitats, and then to choose one of those animals or another one featured in National Geographic's Creature Feature to look in-depth at one animal, its habitat, and how this animal is adapted to survive in their particular habitat. The group will then decide how they want to present their learnings to the class. They can use art, drama, technology, discussion, etc.

The pedagogy of this lesson is engaging because the National Geographic website is interesting, they have the freedom to choose their own animal and to decide what they want to learn about it, and they also get to choose how they would like to present their findings to the class.

The technology in this lesson mainly comes from the internet, specifically National Geographic's Creature Feature. Google Earth is used to introduce the project to the children, with four animals highlighted and links to their information included. They will then have the opportunity to use links to learn more about a specific animal on the web.

My Virtual Tour

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1. The grasslands of Africa	learn about cheetahs	picture and link to read more about cheetahs on the National Geographic website
2. The tropical rainforests of Costa Rica	learn about tree frogs	picture and link to read more about tree frogs on the National Geographic website
3. The swamplands of America	learn about alligators	picture and link to read more about alligators on the National Geographic website
4. The bamboo forests of China	learn about pandas	picture and link to read more about pandas on the National Geographic website
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:	there are images of all 4 animals included in the placemarks

Using Technology in Science and Math

TPACK is a really interesting concept. It makes me think back to my Child Development days. Just like children develop cognitively, physically, socially, and emotionally, TPACK is composed of technological, pedagogical, and content components. As children grow in all their developmental domains, it makes them into a whole person. All the domains are important and interrelated but some children develop better in some areas than they do in others. If children make good progress in all their developmental domains, the value of their being will equal more than just the sum of their parts. And so it is with TPACK. Some teachers will be stronger in content areas, some stronger in pedagogical areas, and other is technological areas. But as we grow and develop in all three, we will give our students an exponentially better learning experience. It's not enough just to teach content, to foster a natural and interesting learning environment, or to integrate useful technology in the classroom. We need to let all these areas enhance one another to make our classrooms that much better. It will make learning more meaningful.

One of the technologies I explored this week was Stellarium. I loved it. I don't know how early we can start using it in schools but once kids start learning about constellations, stars, the night sky, etc. I highly recommend using Stellarium. It allows you to see what the night sky looks like anywhere in the world at anytime. It looks just the same as if you went to a planetarium or went camping and looked at the stars outside. But it has some really cool features. My favorites had to do with the constellations. First I went to the current night sky conditions for my hometown. Immediately I felt happy because I felt like I was close to home. Then I used the feature that outlines the constellations so you can see what stars make up each of the constellations. You can also get it to put the names of each constellation on the screen. But my favorite was adding the artwork. After looking at the weird stick figure shapes and seeing the names of each constellation, it was really neat and helpful to see the artwork that showed the picture behind the stick figure. It really helped the constellations pop out and I could see the image conveyed in the name. It was really cool.

Week Two Fun

Wow! What a busy week this has been! But it has been good because I learned so much and joined some groups that I really believe will help me as a teacher. I'm excited about del.icio.us and Goodreads. What great resources they will be to me as a teacher...internet links and books...they're so essential. Plus it's fun to see what other people are looking at and reading.

RSS seems like such a cool idea. I had never even heard of them before this lesson...but how cool. "Really simple syndication"...and it really is really simple. I look forward to having a one stop place to get all my updates. And as I get my own class it will be awesome to have the blogs of my students and other teachers right there for me in one place.

Also, I never even really considered copyright laws when it came to teaching so it's good to hear that I have rights to use things and it's even better to know what my rights and limitations are. I guess that's why it's so important to be educated.

My Technological Background

Well. This is exciting. My first blog and my first blog entry.

I don't know what to say. I'm definitely not technologically savvy. But I'm not an idiot either. My first experience with computers was probably when I was in 9th grade and I had to take a keyboarding class. I think shortly thereafter my family got a computer. I'm probably older than most of my peers in this class so that was probably when you were all still in elementary school. I don't think my family is that far behind the rest of the world. =)

I've never really taken any computer classes or anything. So I'm actually really excited for this class because there's a lot I need to learn. I took the online section because I can read and follow directions and because I can probably figure this out as I just do it and get used to it. I figured out Facebook and email and the internet on my own so I'm sure I can figure out blogging and all that other good stuff too. That's my background. Just playing around with different applications. I know the basics of Word and PowerPoint and Excel and I can do a search on the internet and send attachments in email and play on Facebook. The rest I'll just need to be exposed to. So here I go.