Prove It

I listened to the conference about primary access. Primary access is a web based digital video editor designed for social studies curriculum. The teachers select pictures from different places on the internet, then the students write on the website descriptions of the photos. Those descriptions will then serve as the captions during the movie. Once the videos are finished, the teacher can then go back and leave comments that the students will be able to see. The authors of this blog feel that digital media is the future of education. Because it is relatively new, it is almost unknown the amount of benefits it could have on education. As new methods of implementing digital media in the classroom are developed, I think that the amount of learning involved with it will go up substantially.

Kicking it up a Notch

I listened to the article about the Monster Bloom. This was a collaborative project between a two teachers who connected their class by computer labs. They classes communicated to each other through wiki's. The basis of the project was to design monsters and then to describe them. This was the first time that the students ever used Microsoft Office. They also had to be extremely detailed in their descriptions of their monsters. The idea behind the project was to see how well the other class would be able to re-create the monster without ever having seen the original. This was made possible by the fast sharing of information on a collaborative wiki.

I felt like this was a very good integration of technology for the students. They were able to use computers in ways they had never used them before, all the while they were learning and practicing their language art skills through descriptions.

Video Conferencing

After watching the video "Video Conferencing: Its Free, Easy, and Powerful" it is clear to me that video conferencing can be a very important tool that can be used in the class room. One of the students that the man in the video had could not attend class due to medical difficulties, so they used Skype to bring her to class through a video conference. The children in the class seemed to respond very well to this. There are also many instances where a class can bring in a speaker that may be hard to reach. They can then get permission from that speaker and record their presentation then share it with others through a video or audio conference. Another very interesting thing that the teachers students did was create collaborative stories. They did not just collaborate with the other students in their class, but they had video conferences with other students on the other side of the country. This was great for the kids because they could get ideas that no one in their class may have come up with. This video has shown me a lot about what can be done with video conferencing. I hope that I will be able to incorporate some of these techniques into my own classroom.

Teachers Reading Blogs

I think that it is important for educators to read other educational blogs. I think that it is important for a teacher to stay current on what is going on around them in the educational world. A great way to do this is to see what other teachers in other school districts are thinking. Reading blogs can create an almost endless source of information. I like to occasionally read the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vickie Davis. It has a lot of good information on it. Here is a link to that page :

Another blog that I like to read is one made by Dr. Scott Mcleod. It is called Dangerously Irrelevant. Here is a link to this page:

More Technology in the Classroom

Through the class I am currently taking, I have learned about new ways to use technology in the classroom. Through high school, we occasionally used Power Point presentations in the classroom, but that was it. I now realize how many more things there are that can be used for education. One activity that I have learned about that I like is the idea of a scavenger hunt. This can be useful for students because it can make them get used to searching for information on the internet while keeping it tied to what is going on in class. It is also safe because the teacher will be able to provide the list of websites that the students are able to use.

Another interesting thing that I have learned to do is use a movie maker program. These presentations are a lot more interesting than the traditional slide shows of a Power Point slide. I felt like I was able to incorporate a lot more multimedia in to the movie maker program.

Technology is Important for learning

As our society progresses in technology, the classroom needs to progress right along with it. For students to be only literate with the traditional reading and writing is not enough to make it in today's society.
Teaching mathematics is just another area that so much can be done with technology. There are many different websites online that are great for teaching things such as geometry. Teachers can also have their students make different types of graphs on the computer. Activities like this would not only help the students learn what graphs can show, but prepare them for the future. There will most likely be many times in the students future that they will need to give a presentation involving a graph of some sort.
It is important for teachers today to try to keep themselves as up to date as possible when it comes to technology. Even though it is constantly changing, it will really benefit the student to be as well educated in technology as possible.

Using Technology in the Classroom

Technology is being used more and more in the classroom not only as a learning tool, but as a communication tool. In today's world, it is essential for children to know how to use computers for communication and information gathering.


Gabcast! Teaching Math with Technology #1