Monday, October 29, 2012

Technology ahead of itself?

Schools these days are implementing such technology as Smartboards, Ipads, Ipods, and other technology to advance students in their studies. Technology is supposed to improve learning and make it easier and more exciting. Then my question is, why are scores dropping at a ever increasing rate? Is technology the answer to our learning problems?

   In my field studies classroom, the teacher was going to use his Smartboard to cirlce and draw on the imformation that he was presenting to his classroom, but he could not find out how to get the pen funcion of the Smartboard to work. Have teachers had the time to cope with technology or has technology been thrust upon teachers and actually is wasting time, resourses, and decreasing the learning of the students??

  How do we measure the effectivness of this already implemented technology?

 Should we already be pushing for more technology having not even fully mastered the present technology? What is the cost?

             Time?

                  Money?

                       our Future?

Turning the Tables

I am very interested in the idea of a flipped classroom. The whole concept of a flipped classroom is that the teacher video records his teaching of his lessons, posts them either online or a cd which students watch at home. Then come to class prepared to do teacher assisted homework assignments or to ask questions. I like the idea, especially for mathmatics, that a student may replay and go over the video many times in order to learn the steps. Then come to class knowing the lesson or with educated questions about the lesson taught. The teacher then is able to assist that child better because the student is not left on his own to figure it out but to ask questions and really comprehend the material taught. I like the idea, but is it only viable for math? or is it a good idea for other subjects as well?

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The Sound of Learning

Silence, that is often the sound of learning. Reading is learning that takes place and can be done silently. Is reading really silent?? We read the way we speak, that is in sounds. They may not be audible, but our minds are still assimilating those sounds to our reading technique. Reading is the mode of learning for both children and adults alike. Reading is not always silent as readalouds and verbal outloud reading is so crucial to the fundamental elements of reading. However, after adolescence the normal mode of reading comes through the reading to ones self. In this scenario silence is a beatiful sound. If reading is learning, then silence is a product of that learning when accompanied with reading. Learning is to be as our teachers tell us "a lifelong process" and if we are to believe our teachers, and reading truly is learning, then the only logical outcome is that we are to become lifelong readers as well. To become this lifelong reader takes time, patience, practice, and silence. It's often hard to obtain silence in our 21st century world of constant input from music, television, cars, elevator music, all of which we consider to be white noise. Some even may say that silence is annoying and awkward. I say that the Sound of Learning is Silence. So sit down, slow down, and embrace silence as you listen to melodic sound of Learning!

                                                                                     LISTEN TO THE SOUND OF LEARNING



"True silence is the rest of the mind,
and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body,
nourishment and refreshment."
Willam Penn

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

smartboard lesson

1. http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html#type=SMART%20Notebook%20dual%20user%20lessons  This would be a great site in order for us to interact with the students and a non messy hands on.
2. http://www.mimioconnect.com/lessons/all/all/all/new   This a great website because the mimeo can be used as an interactive hands on tools.