Friday, October 5, 2012

Week 4

Activity 4.3 Where Am I Now?

Philosophy of Teachnology


1.      What is one of the least effective ways I have seen teachers use technology in the classroom and why was it so ineffective?

I haven’t had too many experiences where technology use was completely ineffective; the worst part is usually when the teacher has no idea how to use it or set it up and it wastes time and loses our interest really quickly.

The least effective instance for me was always videos. A teacher would put up a movie or video and we as students would sit back and watch. Now the video wasn't the main issue, many of them were great to watch, it was how the teacher used them. “I am going to throw on this video and just assume that you will understand why it connects to what we are learning right now”. Put on the video – watch – class is over. Many of the teachers did not connect back to what we were learning, or talk about the video at all. So, to the students, the point of showing the video was mute and the only thing we got out of it was not having to do work that day.

2.      What is one of the most effective ways I have seen teachers use technology in the classroom and why was it so effective?

The most effective use for me was always using technology for games.  Two instances I remember very clearly and even remember some of the info!
First instance was the use of an iclicker type technology where you answered questions with a hand held remote. This was effective to me because you got to answer questions (anonymously) and it told you whether you were correct or not based on your remote number so you also got feedback. This created a stress free testing environment where there were no penalties just learning.

The second instance was the use of a Smartboard. It was set up sort of like a jeopardy board for review of the unit we working on. We were split into groups and each turn a group member would go up and throw a very squishy ball at the board, where ever this landed opened up a question. There were a few reasons why this was effective:

1. It was fun,
2. You used your body not just your head, MOVEMENT
3. You were in groups so that you could collaboratively learn if you didn't already know the answer

Way better than simply replacing a white board with a Smartboard, they aren't just for writing on!

TPACK


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