Individual Ipads for Students

I think it would be wonderful if all students were able to have a device in their classrooms. Of course, this adds a whole new level of classroom management, but I believe that the positive effects will drastically outweigh the negative, as long as the classroom teacher is able to maintain control over the technology being used.

The students we’re teaching are so tech savvy, they know how to use technology in ways that many teachers don’t. However, students should still be guided in their technology use by the teacher. The biggest issue that comes up with 1 to 1 device use is distraction. Students will be lured by all the possible distractions that come with being connected to the Internet.

As suggested by “For Teachers, Wired Classrooms Pose NewManagement Concerns” I think that making laps around the classroom is important. If students know they are being watched, then they are more likely to be on good behavior. The teacher can then walk around the room, answering questions and working with students one on one, while at the same time making sure students are on task.

In the Journalism class I was working in at SBJHS, many days the students were working individually with ipads to type up their articles or to do research. I walked around in that fashion to make sure students were on task and there were very few times that students were off task. The students felt ownership over their articles and over the fact that they were allowed to check out Ipads. I believe that allowing students to feel a sense of ownership over their work and over the way they do that work (on google drive, or on Word, or on paper) helps to lend a sense of responsibility to the classroom and to the individual students.

I think that with some classrooms, the desktop watching programs are a good solution. I would prefer not to use the program to watch all my students desktops because I would rather instill a sense of accountability and ownership for my students in the classroom. 

"The Innovative Educator" analysis

I am looking critically at the blog called The Innovative Educator. This blog is written by a public school educator named Lisa Nielson. She is a certified teacher and educational administrator. She is passionate about “learning in innovative ways that prepare students for real-world success”.

Her blog is filled with different types of posts. Some discuss questions, for example “Has Google replaced teaching?” The most valuable posts are the ones that offer practical, interesting ideas to be used in the classroom.

I would use her ideas. I don’t know if I would implement all of her ideas, but I would definitely try some out. She talks a lot about the pros and cons of using cell phones in the classroom, it seems to be a big topic for her blog. She has 162 articles that fall under the category “Cell Phones in Education.”

Not only does she have quite an array of different articles, she also seems to have a lot of experience in what she is writing about. Many of her guest bloggers are classroom teachers. This causes me to be more trusting in the advice and the ideas presented in The Innovative Educator.  

Technology tools: Do's and Dont's

Prompt: When should technology be used as a learning tool?

Technology should be used as a learning tool for:

• Cross-cultural communication
• Displaying graphics or videos that demonstrate a concept or help students visualize
• Group work that can be done from home (google docs, prezi)
• Parent-Teacher communication
• Posting homework and links online
• To expand the activities available to students (classroom google maps, literacy maps, creative writing online prompts)

Technology should NOT be used as a learning tool for:

• Think-write-pair-share
• Small group discussions
• To replace parent-teacher communication
• Close reading activities

Technology can be a wonderful tool if it supplements the concepts and lessons being taught or learned in the classroom. All too quickly, however, technology can turn into something distracting or even harmful. Technology opens up a whole new world in terms of communication. Students are able to use twitter, Skype, blogs, etc to connect and communicate with a much larger audience and gain broader and more complex perspectives.  But if used carelessly, technology becomes just another piece of noise distracting the students from learning. Or even worse, technology could take the place of essential aspects of learning.

 The way I differentiate what activities or tasks should and should not be used with technology depends on the relationship and the outcome. For example, while technology can be a wonderful tool to supplement parent-teacher communication, it should not replace face to face communication. While it's helpful for students to be able to work together on a google doc from their respective homes, in class, students should work together verbally and in person in order to gain the most insight into their topic, and also to learn important social skills and speaking and listening skills. Technology should never replace human interaction, it should be a means to enhance/elevate/expand a lesson or concept in the classroom. 

The Giver Assessment - Google Form

Technology as a tool

I would like to evaluate the use of itunes in the classroom. In my 8th grade English class, students struggle with reading and they also struggle with confidence in reading out loud. My CT uses an audiobook version of The Giver to do the reading as students follow along.

I have two opinions about this strategy. I think that for my class, it really helps bring students access to the novel. Being able to follow along while someone else does the reading helps lower the pressure in the classroom and it allows myself and my CT the opportunity to pause the audiobook and make comments or check for understanding as they all listen. This also gives my CT and I the confidence that our students know what is happening in the novel, and we know exactly where they are in the novel, and we can use The Giver in order to create lessons on theme and plot and characterization. 

On the other side, I believe that sometimes students use something like listening to an audiobook as a crutch. They can tune out or literally just listen and not read along with the audiobook. This is troublesome because it gives students the ability to be lazy in their work habits. 

According to the rubric that I created with Caitlin and Riley, using audiobooks would fall under the categories of Reading and Understanding. It doesn't really transform or redefine the idea of reading, but I believe that is does in some ways make an equal playing field for students.

Survey

I am placed at Santa Barbara Junior High School. There is a computer lab with 30 computers in it for teachers to reserve space in for their classes. The Library is open quite often and students use the 20 computers there to check grades, work on homework, or print out their homework.  Every classroom has Apple TV, which my teacher uses for her doc cam and her ipad. There is also a set of iPads that are available to check out to classes.

All of my students seem to know how to use an iPad and how to use google drive. The students in my class all say they have either a computer or a tablet device at home which they use to type, however 9 out of my 30 kids do not have access to a printer outside of school.  

Technology in the Classroom

Technology has the ability to greatly increase learning in the classroom. What most excites me about technology use in a classroom is the new potential  for increased collaboration among students. Using google docs, students can be working on the same subject matter on the same document all at the same time. The teacher can also be involved. Also, communication between student and student, and student and teacher, can be transformed by online forums and classroom websites.  

A whole world of opportunities for visual aids opens up with the internet and a big screen or a TV. Teachers can show videos or photos to demonstrate new concepts or ideas.

I think technology in the classroom becomes a problem when teachers or students use it statically or use it in a way that replaces spontaneity. When technology dehumanizes a lesson is when it becomes a problem.