Wednesday, October 21, 2009
PPT
My partner and I have had a rough start to this project. Our PPT was erased over the weekend and we're having to start over. Our topic is Integrating Technology into classrooms. I'm finding it difficult to find time that both I and my partner can work together but other than that we are working fine together and hopefully we can get through these few hiccups as smoothly as possible! I find that when we work together we can get things finished in a timely fashion and with luck and hard work this weekend should produce much progress.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Week 7
The book makes a great point about the dangers of neglecting technology in schools when it states “doing so risks losing the attention, motivation, and interests…of students.” I think it’s important for educators to realize that this new generation is moving at such a speed that in order to keep up we need to even the playing field. The key to intergrading technology in the classroom I believe is monitoring and regulating what is being used and for what purpose. Entertainment devises shouldn’t be used in the classroom however I think that blog postings can be a great way to bring students together and form study groups or curriculum ideas for projects. I think answering this question isn’t cut and dry. With each type of technology comes a different list of questions including advantages and disadvantages. I think an educator can only decide on “how far” they should go when the technology has been rendered usable or harmful to the classroom at large.
While there are some advantages to online chat in classrooms I believe it can prove itself more harmful than anything else. Yes, students can communicate quickly and non verbally but teachers can’t control what is being said at all times and regulating instant messaging would be very difficult for someone with complete attention let alone while they are lecturing or giving instructions to a student. In the end I think it would be distracting to the students.
Our book gives several reasons why asynchronous can benefit us over face to face communications. The first is we can have discussion with a collected group of people or those at a distance. I think an example this might be useful is language course. Students can converse with other students from across the world who speaks in the language they are trying to learn or vice versa. The second advantage is our ability to think over what will be said. Unlike in person students can revise what is to be said. The last advantage the book gives is that different kinds of thinking can be scaffold.
I think information can be passively delivered in any format. Lecture, actively, podcasts…whatever is being used has the potential of being useless. It’s not the format that is important; it is the learning style of the students that should be key in the delivery. Certain students will find podcast very effective others won’t therefore this question is relative to the student involved.
In the journal we were asked to read there were several reasons arguing for the use of video games. This article claims that they can motivate students, they help build conceptual knowledge and improving content knowledge. While I think video games could be useful I am a skeptic about them being used in schools. I guess someone could convince me if they are being used in moderation and to its full advantage. My only fear is that they would be abused and students wouldn’t learn anything. I don’t hold much failure is sitting in front of a T.V. all day. I am not a parent but if I were I wouldn’t allow my children to play video games. There a far better activities for children to be involved in and normal video games does nothing to better a child’s life in my opinion. I might change my mind however if the video game was part of the curriculum and was geared towards learning.
While there are some advantages to online chat in classrooms I believe it can prove itself more harmful than anything else. Yes, students can communicate quickly and non verbally but teachers can’t control what is being said at all times and regulating instant messaging would be very difficult for someone with complete attention let alone while they are lecturing or giving instructions to a student. In the end I think it would be distracting to the students.
Our book gives several reasons why asynchronous can benefit us over face to face communications. The first is we can have discussion with a collected group of people or those at a distance. I think an example this might be useful is language course. Students can converse with other students from across the world who speaks in the language they are trying to learn or vice versa. The second advantage is our ability to think over what will be said. Unlike in person students can revise what is to be said. The last advantage the book gives is that different kinds of thinking can be scaffold.
I think information can be passively delivered in any format. Lecture, actively, podcasts…whatever is being used has the potential of being useless. It’s not the format that is important; it is the learning style of the students that should be key in the delivery. Certain students will find podcast very effective others won’t therefore this question is relative to the student involved.
In the journal we were asked to read there were several reasons arguing for the use of video games. This article claims that they can motivate students, they help build conceptual knowledge and improving content knowledge. While I think video games could be useful I am a skeptic about them being used in schools. I guess someone could convince me if they are being used in moderation and to its full advantage. My only fear is that they would be abused and students wouldn’t learn anything. I don’t hold much failure is sitting in front of a T.V. all day. I am not a parent but if I were I wouldn’t allow my children to play video games. There a far better activities for children to be involved in and normal video games does nothing to better a child’s life in my opinion. I might change my mind however if the video game was part of the curriculum and was geared towards learning.
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