I feel as though there is no choice on my part whether I can use technology in my classroom or not. I think I HAVE TO use technology in my classroom. "Students must be technologically fluent and able to use technology to solve problems with various sources of information, create new representations of their knowledge, and enhance their learning through the diverse strategies afforded by technology. Students without these skills are at a decided disadvantage in terms of future educational and employment opportunities in our global, technological, and information-based society"(Swain p.15). If this statement is true, and I believe it is true, then how could I remove technology in my classroom. And for those students that do not have access to technology outside of the classroom, they will be at an even bigger disadvantage if I do not use technology. I think I would be doing them a huge injustice if I decided they did not have to use technology.
"An important aspect of adopting a framework of social justice when using technology in the classroom is for the educator to be reflective about how it is used in the classroom" (Swain p. 16). The way I will approach social justice in these terms is by making sure that I use technology inside my classroom walls as often as I can. For those students that do not have access outside the walls of my classroom, I will try to give them more in class time on the computer, and I will have opportunities for them to do their work on the school computers outside of class time.
But even the students that do have access at home, they need a lot of computer time as well. "We might question whether students are really as techno-savvy as popular media often portrays or whether they merely have a positive attitude toward technology systems and a broad knowledge of various basic technologies" (Greenhow p.17). Of course they will be more advanced than the students without access, but they will not be to the level they might need to be to make it to the next level (college or career). As teachers, it is our job to get our students as ready as possible, to push them to be as capable as we can. So both those who don't have access at home and those that do need teachers to require them to work with technology.
References
Swain, C., & Edyburn, D. (2007, March). Social Justice: Choice or Necessity? Learning and Leading with Technology, 14-18.
Greenhow, C. (2008, September/October). Who Are Today’s Learners? Learning and Leading with Technology, 16-17.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
The Day of Powerpoint
Wow, there were some amazing powerpoints today. Every person brought something to the table today, and it was good.
-Kristin had some great color combos.
-Mikey had the best sounds, for sure!
-Andy's pictures correlated really well and the color combination worked really well.
-Ian did some amazing things with arrows! And I was especially impressed by his smart art-making Optimus Prime rotate the opposite way as the outside arrows... very cool.
-Alison put together a very organized powerpoint, and I especially liked the lines pointing to the vocab words. And nice find on the video!
-Paul's backgrounds were fantastic... definitely my favorite backgrounds. I also really liked the red cirles that he used to compare traits of birds. I really liked the video too, especially the song. And how did he do that with the moving animals??? Too cool!
-Amy had some really good pictures and good background colors. She totally got me excited to learn about probability. I need to know how the birthday stats work!
-Trevor had a really good picture of two cats which correlated perfectly with his topic. Plus, the Numonic device was used quite well.
-Ibrahim used the powerpoint perfectly to set up his question about the table salt.
The least engaging thing I saw was when people would would look at the smart board and read directly off of it. I think I did that once or twice, but I tried to make it flow. Ibrahim might try printing off some notes so that he doesn't have to read directly from the board.
I thought I put a lot of hard work into my own powerpoint, so I was surprised to find how much better my classmates did on their powerpoints. I knew that I wouldn't have the best, but I didn't think I would be so far from the rest of the group. I think I would have had more lines and circles, like Paul and Alison. I think my color combination was pretty basic, so it did not enhance the powerpoint like it did in Andy's, Paul's, and Kristin's. Additionally, and most importantly, I would have had more movement. And when I learn how to, I will start adding sounds.
I do like using PowerPoint as a lesson presenter. Sitting in as a student today, watching my classmates powerpoints, I thought they did a good job to enhance my learning experience. They kept me enganged and kept my attention. However, in order to make a PowerPoint work, you need to put a it together well. Putting my PowerPoint together took a lot of time, and it was only mediocre. So the pro is that it has the potential to keep the attention of the students, but the con is that it might take too much time to be worth it.
-Kristin had some great color combos.
-Mikey had the best sounds, for sure!
-Andy's pictures correlated really well and the color combination worked really well.
-Ian did some amazing things with arrows! And I was especially impressed by his smart art-making Optimus Prime rotate the opposite way as the outside arrows... very cool.
-Alison put together a very organized powerpoint, and I especially liked the lines pointing to the vocab words. And nice find on the video!
-Paul's backgrounds were fantastic... definitely my favorite backgrounds. I also really liked the red cirles that he used to compare traits of birds. I really liked the video too, especially the song. And how did he do that with the moving animals??? Too cool!
-Amy had some really good pictures and good background colors. She totally got me excited to learn about probability. I need to know how the birthday stats work!
-Trevor had a really good picture of two cats which correlated perfectly with his topic. Plus, the Numonic device was used quite well.
-Ibrahim used the powerpoint perfectly to set up his question about the table salt.
The least engaging thing I saw was when people would would look at the smart board and read directly off of it. I think I did that once or twice, but I tried to make it flow. Ibrahim might try printing off some notes so that he doesn't have to read directly from the board.
I thought I put a lot of hard work into my own powerpoint, so I was surprised to find how much better my classmates did on their powerpoints. I knew that I wouldn't have the best, but I didn't think I would be so far from the rest of the group. I think I would have had more lines and circles, like Paul and Alison. I think my color combination was pretty basic, so it did not enhance the powerpoint like it did in Andy's, Paul's, and Kristin's. Additionally, and most importantly, I would have had more movement. And when I learn how to, I will start adding sounds.
I do like using PowerPoint as a lesson presenter. Sitting in as a student today, watching my classmates powerpoints, I thought they did a good job to enhance my learning experience. They kept me enganged and kept my attention. However, in order to make a PowerPoint work, you need to put a it together well. Putting my PowerPoint together took a lot of time, and it was only mediocre. So the pro is that it has the potential to keep the attention of the students, but the con is that it might take too much time to be worth it.
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