To be perfectly honest, I haven't really thought about the technology my teachers have used in the classroom until now. I have watched many videos during my years in school and I have seen a number of Power Point presentations. I haven't really ever thought about how these things have affected my learning, but now that I think about it, there have been a couple of times that my teachers have used to technology to enhance my learning experience.
Last semester my Foundations of Education teacher used a Power Point presentation to teach the class about the history of education. He lectured on the history of schools and school houses and then broke the class into groups to do a short group assignment. While we were completing the assignment the teacher left the pictures of old school houses cycling through on the Power Point. While I was doing the assignment, I looked at the pictures cycling over and over again. After the class was over I continued to remember those pictures on the screen in front of the classroom. I still remember them and they remind me of what the school houses of long ago looked like. The pictures even helped me to do better on my test. I really enjoyed those pictures and they really helped me to remember what I learned in class that evening.
Another time that I remember a teacher using technology that helped me to learn, was when I was in High School. My biology teacher used to show the class videos that went into more detail about what he had lectured on that week. We would watch the videos every Friday. They were usually related to animals or whatever else we learned that week. Not only were the videos enjoyable, but I still remember the things the videos covered. That visual stimulation really imprinted on my brain what my teacher was trying to teach me and my other classmates. To this day I really think that videos are a great way to enforce something students have learned, or even a great way to introduce a new subject.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Technology in classroom
One way, and the most recent way that I remember using technology effectively for a class was in my Childrens' Lit class last semester here at Towson. We had a textbook for that class that was very thorough and well written. It was so thorough that there was a website that "accompanied" the book. Every so often there would be a "listen here" marker printed in italics. What one had to do was go to the website and find the code that matches up to the place in the book to listen to sound clips/interviews, watch videos or read articles--all expanding on the text. Our teacher would assign what she called on "read and listen" every week, so that we could discuss our findings the very next week in class. I know this is using very basic technologies, but I think it is ingenious how the textbook incorporated a very thorough website to act as a bridge to help connect and expand/elaborate upon the written text. And I can see using books like these in the future with my students. It is far more engaging than only reading dull texts.
Classroom Technology
One class that i used technology to learn was in my physical science class. Everyday 75% of the class was time for us to do hands on activities. Sometimes we had to use computers for simulations. We were able to use the computer to demonstrate what we would be doing if we were doing it as an experiment. It allowed me to change the values and see what would happen in different situations. One time we learned about gases and used the simulation to learn that. It was worth while to use because you cant see gas molecules changing in any real life experiment. We were able to use the simulation for that. We looked at things being heated and cooled and what happens to their molecules. It really helped everyone to visualize what it looks like when something is heated rather than just writing it down in notes. Everyone in the class enjoyed using the simulations and used them as a way to remember it. We were able to write down the answers to what was going on in a workbook. As well, our teacher made drawings on the chalk board and each group drew what it looked like in the glass on the board. It was a fun lesson and I still remember everything that I did it in.
Technology in my classroom.
Technology in the classroom is a great idea. It gives teachers and students the chance to go beyond the boring textbooks and put their own creativity to learning. I don't recall my teachers using technology in the classrooms until my sophomore year in high school. Then, I was able to take computer classes that taught us how to type correctly. The rest of my years in high school didn't involve too much technology. Every now and then we'd get to use computers for research, but that was it.
When I started to attend Cecil Community College, there was more and more technology available in the classrooms. One teacher that I had at Cecil used technology every class. During my first two years of college I had this teacher for Educational Psychology and Child Growth and Development. These classes had about 15-20 students in it. For every class meeting she had a PowerPoint presentation created to explain the chapter we were studying. She also gave everyone a print out of the presentation so we could take notes on it. I enjoyed this technology because it gave a me a visual view of the material [and not just an old textbook view] plus space to take notes myself. Also during these classes we had many chances to make PowerPoint presentations for different projects, as well as time to research on the school computers.
Without this technology in the classroom, I think the class would have been less interesting because we would have been reading out of the textbook everyday. With the computer in the classroom we were able to see her input on the chapters through the PowerPoint, plus we were able to view videos from the internet. Technology is a great benefit for the classroom and I feel the more technology available for students and teachers, the better.
When I started to attend Cecil Community College, there was more and more technology available in the classrooms. One teacher that I had at Cecil used technology every class. During my first two years of college I had this teacher for Educational Psychology and Child Growth and Development. These classes had about 15-20 students in it. For every class meeting she had a PowerPoint presentation created to explain the chapter we were studying. She also gave everyone a print out of the presentation so we could take notes on it. I enjoyed this technology because it gave a me a visual view of the material [and not just an old textbook view] plus space to take notes myself. Also during these classes we had many chances to make PowerPoint presentations for different projects, as well as time to research on the school computers.
Without this technology in the classroom, I think the class would have been less interesting because we would have been reading out of the textbook everyday. With the computer in the classroom we were able to see her input on the chapters through the PowerPoint, plus we were able to view videos from the internet. Technology is a great benefit for the classroom and I feel the more technology available for students and teachers, the better.
How technology was integrated into my classroom
As far as I can remember technology has been integrated into my classrooms. There is a vast amount of technology that my teacher's have used to share information with their students. Starting with computers to do research, an overhead projector and elmo to communicate with the class, powerpoint presentations to share information and television to show movies or t.v. clips.
There is a specific time when I can remember one of my teachers sharing their information with my class via a powerpoint presentation to help my peers and I learn. After the presentation my teacher then brought in the television for us to view a movie about the discussed topic. I was in my 11th grade, AP environmental science class. At the time my teacher was introducing the topic of pollution and how if humans continue to pollute the earth it could result in serious measures, such as global warming. My teacher introduced to us the basic information about pollution, erosion, and serious world disasters caused by pollution through a powerpoint presentation. The powerpoint was extremely effective because on the slides there were only a few words and my teacher went into more detail about each bullet point to elaborate on the topics. He also incorporated many eye catching pictures that held the class's attention and interest. I thought by integrating this form of technology into the classroom it was extremely beneficial. My reasoning for this is, rather then my teacher simply lecturing to the class he found a way to incorporate technology to make the topic more appealing. The inclusion of the pictures really helped the lesson go smoother over all. Rather then the students asking questions such as, what does pollution look like, or what did some of the natural disasters look like, the pictures the teacher provided on the powerpoint slides answered our questions for us. Furthermore, after my teacher presented us with the written information via powerpoint he allowed us to watch a video on the television that was in the class. The movie he let us view was, The Day After Tomorrow. After viewing this movie I had a better understanding of how important it is to keep our earth clean and free of pollution. I thought his approach towards furthering our understanding of the topic by using technology in the classroom was a fantastic idea. I can truly say that both my classmates and I enjoyed listening to our teacher's powerpoint presentation and viewing the video. This lesson left such an impact on my learning that I can still remember it to this day. Without the technology that my teacher used to get his information across, the lesson would have been less interesting, ordinary, and less creative. I greatly feel that technology has a postive impact on education. -Jenna S.
There is a specific time when I can remember one of my teachers sharing their information with my class via a powerpoint presentation to help my peers and I learn. After the presentation my teacher then brought in the television for us to view a movie about the discussed topic. I was in my 11th grade, AP environmental science class. At the time my teacher was introducing the topic of pollution and how if humans continue to pollute the earth it could result in serious measures, such as global warming. My teacher introduced to us the basic information about pollution, erosion, and serious world disasters caused by pollution through a powerpoint presentation. The powerpoint was extremely effective because on the slides there were only a few words and my teacher went into more detail about each bullet point to elaborate on the topics. He also incorporated many eye catching pictures that held the class's attention and interest. I thought by integrating this form of technology into the classroom it was extremely beneficial. My reasoning for this is, rather then my teacher simply lecturing to the class he found a way to incorporate technology to make the topic more appealing. The inclusion of the pictures really helped the lesson go smoother over all. Rather then the students asking questions such as, what does pollution look like, or what did some of the natural disasters look like, the pictures the teacher provided on the powerpoint slides answered our questions for us. Furthermore, after my teacher presented us with the written information via powerpoint he allowed us to watch a video on the television that was in the class. The movie he let us view was, The Day After Tomorrow. After viewing this movie I had a better understanding of how important it is to keep our earth clean and free of pollution. I thought his approach towards furthering our understanding of the topic by using technology in the classroom was a fantastic idea. I can truly say that both my classmates and I enjoyed listening to our teacher's powerpoint presentation and viewing the video. This lesson left such an impact on my learning that I can still remember it to this day. Without the technology that my teacher used to get his information across, the lesson would have been less interesting, ordinary, and less creative. I greatly feel that technology has a postive impact on education. -Jenna S.
Blog Assignment #1
Technology has been used by my teachers throughout my entire educational experience. I can remember working on computers since the early grades of Elementary school and my professors currently use various forms of technology to teach my classes today. These include using computers for powerpoint presentations, word processing, and the internet for research or communication. My teachers have also used videos, DVDs, and electronic devices that allowed us to respond to the teacher's questions in class. Although I have found these technologies to be interesting and helpful, I can only think of a few instances where technology really helped me understand a concept.
One time that this happened was in my middle school science classes when we would always watch the Bill Nye the Science Guy videos. This helped my classmates and me to understand and learn about scientific concepts that we could not experiment with ourselves. The way that these specific videos are set up allows the audience (the students) to make predictions along the way about what is going to happen when Bill does his experiment and why that would occur, then to watch the actual results and get an explanation of why the experiment went that way. Since this allowed us to visually see the experiment rather than just hear about it, it was a great way to create a deeper understanding of the concepts. It was integrated into the instruction because my teacher would then have us discuss what we thought of the experiment, relate it to previous knowledge, and sometimes have us perform a related experiment.
Another example of technology in the classroom was in high school English, where we were reading The Iliad. Our teacher found a great website where you could quiz yourself on your knowledge and understanding of the characters and events. You could not move on to the next set of trivia questions until you answered the first ones correctly. This encouraged us to go back to the book and look for the correct answers, which led to a very strong understanding of the story. Our teacher would use the game as a discussion point in class where we could talk about what different parts of the book symbolized. This integration of technology allowed us to assess and increase our own learning while having fun, which is always a positive way to engage students. The only problem with this was that the game was assigned as homework, so any students without internet access would have trouble completing the questions. This is something to take into consideration when using technology as an outside assignment.
-Chrissy C
One time that this happened was in my middle school science classes when we would always watch the Bill Nye the Science Guy videos. This helped my classmates and me to understand and learn about scientific concepts that we could not experiment with ourselves. The way that these specific videos are set up allows the audience (the students) to make predictions along the way about what is going to happen when Bill does his experiment and why that would occur, then to watch the actual results and get an explanation of why the experiment went that way. Since this allowed us to visually see the experiment rather than just hear about it, it was a great way to create a deeper understanding of the concepts. It was integrated into the instruction because my teacher would then have us discuss what we thought of the experiment, relate it to previous knowledge, and sometimes have us perform a related experiment.
Another example of technology in the classroom was in high school English, where we were reading The Iliad. Our teacher found a great website where you could quiz yourself on your knowledge and understanding of the characters and events. You could not move on to the next set of trivia questions until you answered the first ones correctly. This encouraged us to go back to the book and look for the correct answers, which led to a very strong understanding of the story. Our teacher would use the game as a discussion point in class where we could talk about what different parts of the book symbolized. This integration of technology allowed us to assess and increase our own learning while having fun, which is always a positive way to engage students. The only problem with this was that the game was assigned as homework, so any students without internet access would have trouble completing the questions. This is something to take into consideration when using technology as an outside assignment.
-Chrissy C
My Teachnobiography
I would say that I have some experience with technology. I was introduced to computers while in elementary school. When I was in the third grade, all the students in third grade were given a free dell computer. Dell workers came to all of our houses and installed computers and many of the classes had computer based work and homework. I was able to create homework and send it to my teachers. Since, I have used technology for school and for recreation. I am familiar with powerpoint and word documents, and researching on the internet. I am also familiar with music technologies like using CD players and radios and I can use and Ipod. I am really not that familiar with using technology to create new things, like websites or digital editing. Technology plays an important role in my life because I feel like I use it everyday and depend on it everyday. I feel like researching items for school would be completely different if I had to go and find hard copies in books of the items I needed to be familiar with, because of how technology has made the task much quicker and easier.
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