Technology Tools in the Classroom

Blogs:  

Blogging in education is a great way to allow students to interact with other students all over the world. My class can partner with another class on the other side of the country and our students can read and comment back and forth across the country. This would be a great way to share state specific learning. I could ask my students to blog about what they learned about North Carolina while a class in Iowa could blog about their state. For homework my class could then go and read 2 blogs from the Iowa class and comment about similarities and differences between their own blog and Iowa's. 

Blogging is also a great way for students to reflect on things they have learned as well as practice their social writing skills. My students will be aware that their writing may be read by people outside the classroom so they will be motivated to do well. They can practice sentence structure, grammar, spelling and content while integrating another subject. 

Each student will have their own personal blog and it will give them their own sense of entitlement and accomplishment. This will be one of the first things to build their digital citizenship as well. Along with learning academic things, they will learn responsibility and internet safety. 

Digital Storytelling: (Go Animate, iMovie) 

In my classroom I want my students to have fun and not dread every day. I want learning be inspired and even discovered. I want my students to feel like they are teaching themselves through opportunities that school provides. I think digital storytelling is one way to accomplish this. It allows the students to be in charge of their projects and it gives them room to be creative. They can use Ipads with iMovie or online sources such as Go Animate. 

Students will have to do the research to decide what to put into their creation as well as understand how the information relates to the real world. This is better than testing the students because it involves the student to do more than simply memorizing facts. Making their own movie will help move the information from their working memory to their long term memory so they will remember it longer and be able to use the information later in life. 

In addition, movies are a fun and exciting change of pace. Lecture gets boring and elementary students like getting up and out of their chairs. Being able to watch a short movie in class will keep them on their toes and keep their attention focused on the topic being learned. 

Timetoast and Infographics: 

I enjoyed using Timetoast and making Infographics because I could take pride in my finished product. These resources made what I did visually pleasing. Using these made me want to go the extra mile and work hard on whatever I was doing. When using a simpler or more bland resource to create a presentation project I often work just enough to "get it done." With these resources that is not the case. I work until it is something I can be proud of.

Technology makes editing and creating easy and very user friendly.  It is also easy to present because it can be projected from the computer. I can have my students research a topic and use one of these resources to organize their information. Once they have their final project I would like to have them present it in front of the class. This will teach them how to talk in front of people and present information in a smooth and clear way. The infographic or timeline will help guide their presentation and give the audience something pleasing to look at. 

Video Games:

As I discussed in my last blog, I have recently become a fan of video games in the classroom. I like how they use challenge and rewards to increase motivation and focus. Video games are something that will get my class excited about being engaged in school work. It is something that be used over and over for practice, but it is also easy to use the same game for another lesson. I especially like the idea of using the stats from Wii games for math. 

I think the reason I most like the idea of using video games is not because of the new tech savvy aspect, but instead, the way it interacts with the brain. I like to see kids excited about learning and this will do it. Video games use the workings of the brain to keep people encouraged and engaged. That is what will make education a success. 

Connections for Future Ideas:

I want to continue to learn as a teacher and always be engaged with new findings in technology. To do this I plan to use Pinterest and Twitter to get new ideas and to communicate with my PLN. So far both have done me well and given me some great ideas and advice. Both allow me to communicate with other educators around the world and positively support others. 

Image courtesy of Alec Couros. Used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Everything I have mentioned are things that will help me create a 21st century classroom that will be prepared for the future world of digital citizenship. They all will enhance my teaching in a way that will keep students engaged and excited to learn. 

Education Innovation via Video Games

I was never a "gamer" growing up. I never owned an xbox or a ps3. I saw it as a waste of time and something that killed brain cells. I would hear kids talking about it at school and how they spent their entire Saturday playing some game and how they spent days trying to slay one dragon. When they finally killed that dragon, boy that was a big day. When I heard about teachers using video games in education I couldn't find a reason as to why that would be a good idea. I thought, "I will never be one of those teachers." Until now.
One day in my ECI 296 class, Jennifer LaGarde came and spoke to us about how she used video games in her school to boost math scores. My mind was blown. Video games have something that positively affects the brain. It totally makes sense. Why do people spend so much time on one thing in a world full of short attention spans? How do video games motivate people to try over, and over, and over despite their failures? How do video games keep people's attention for such a long time? The Ted Talk by Tom Chatfield explains all of these questions.

In short, video games provide just enough challenge in relation to rewards to keep people motivated. They aren't so hard that people give up, however its just easy enough to keep people engaged. Implementing this idea into education is probably the most brilliant thing I've ever heard! 5 million students play 45 plus hours of video games a week. If students spent half the time they do playing video games, working on math and reading skills America's education program would sky rocket through the roof. So why not combine these two things to give students a way to learn and enjoy it at the same time. 

It requires some work on the teachers part, but it is possible to take a video game that students already enjoy playing, and make it educational. Ms. LaGarde used Wii games and had students calculate percentages and ratios using bowling and basketball stats. There are also educational games already made for teachers to use such as: Lemonade Stand, Carmen Sandiego, and Oregon Trail. 

After being enlightened on the benefits of video games and how they can can be implemented into education I am so excited to use them in my classroom. I want to inspire my students to learn and if video games make them eager to learn I will give them that opportunity. Video games may get them excited to come to school and give them something to work for. This will trigger something in their brain that helps them to stay engaged and motivates them to learn and attain their goals. Part of teaching includes meeting the students where they are. We have to inspire them and give them a reason to work. We have to try to make it fun and exciting. It's our job to do our best to find what it is in them that motivates them to work hard, and ignite that with a passion to learn. I think I just found a new way to do this.