Dr. Alice Christie's Website
The section on Dr. Christie's website titled Educational Technology would be very helpful to anyone teaching K-12. It is a list of different resources that teachers could utilize in their classrooms with links that lead to definitions of the subject and different explanations of how it works. This site helps to educate teachers about the technology that is available and shows them how to put it to good use in their classroom and gives them a reason why it would be useful.
The portion on ePortfilios is especially interesting. This gives students a place to publish their work and helps the parents to be more easily involved in their child's progress at school. She makes a point to say that the importance of the portfolio is the involvement of parents, teachers, and other students in that child's growth in the subject matter.
iTunes University
iTunes University has a lot of material that is useful to me both as a student and a future educator. As a student, I can make use of the podcasts uploaded by teachers in order to brush up on some things or to learn new things. I subscribe to free Spanish and Korean podcasts on iTunes. I want to refresh my Spanish for a mission trip I am taking over spring break. I subscribe the Korean podcasts because I want to challenge myself by learning a new language. My sociology textbook has an iTunes component. You can purchase the podcasts so that you can listen to the chapters on the go or while you read the book to help the material to stick in your mind.
In the literature section, iTunes U has a bunch of material available to teacher and students. You can download The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for free! This is helpful for auditory learners or for students who lead a busy life and don't have time to sit down with a book and read, but who do have time to multi-task. They can listen to the books while they're cleaning or making dinner or driving. It's such a great idea!
Duke's iPod Experiment
Duke's experiment with iPods in the classroom for first year students is a fascinating study about how iPods can be used as an educational tool. Duke spent $500k on purchasing 1600 20G iPods with voice recording capabilities for their first year students in 2004-2005. The experiment was successful. Students used their iPods to record lectures and comments on papers and flashcards. They of course used them for entertainment purposes too, but that's not a big deal considering the benefits of the devices. Some reports of students recording lectures for their friends so that they could skip class where noted. Duke decided to only issue iPods to students who were enrolled in classes in which they were most used the following school year.
This is the link to the paper about the actual experiment: http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf. This is a link to a very interesting article about the Dunk experiment: http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2005/06/Bravo-for-the-Duke-iPod-Experiment_633573772543619027.aspx?Page=1. This article sees the experiment as a success and doesn't mention any downsides. This next article carefully mentions some downsides to iPods in the classroom: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-13-voa3.cfm.
Wikispaces: Tech Literate Teacher
Dr. Strange asked us to answer two questions on his wikispace. I posted my responses on his site and here on my blog. Something that I didn't like about Dr. Strange's wikispace is that in his explanation, he states that his students come into the the class tech illiterate and will probably not be tech literate by the time they leave. I found this very discouraging. What is the point of this class if we aren't becoming tech literate during the semester?
What is tech literacy for a teacher?
I think tech literacy for most teachers at the moment includes a basic understanding of the internet and how to use powerpoint and word. I think we are moving slowly towards blogging and podcasting becoming more important, but we're not to the point where they are essential.
Should all teachers be tech literate?
I think that teachers should be as technically literate as is useful in their work. Right now a lot of teachers don't really need to use that much technology in their classroom to get the material across. They do have their students use word and powerpoint but it is not a necessity for students to know how to blog and podcast. I think that this is fine for some classes. Maybe using too much technology in them would end up being more of a hinderance than a help depending on the teacher and the type of students they are handling. Certainly, we are moving towards times where technology is going to become more important. Teachers should be willing to change with the times, but there is no point in changing simply to change without any specific benefits being gained by making the switch.
Comments4kids
This week I posted on a video of a student reciting a limerick that she wrote. You can find my comment at this link: http://pesteam2.blogspot.com/. My student was Gloria.
iTunes University has a lot of material that is useful to me both as a student and a future educator. As a student, I can make use of the podcasts uploaded by teachers in order to brush up on some things or to learn new things. I subscribe to free Spanish and Korean podcasts on iTunes. I want to refresh my Spanish for a mission trip I am taking over spring break. I subscribe the Korean podcasts because I want to challenge myself by learning a new language. My sociology textbook has an iTunes component. You can purchase the podcasts so that you can listen to the chapters on the go or while you read the book to help the material to stick in your mind.
In the literature section, iTunes U has a bunch of material available to teacher and students. You can download The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for free! This is helpful for auditory learners or for students who lead a busy life and don't have time to sit down with a book and read, but who do have time to multi-task. They can listen to the books while they're cleaning or making dinner or driving. It's such a great idea!
Duke's iPod Experiment
Duke's experiment with iPods in the classroom for first year students is a fascinating study about how iPods can be used as an educational tool. Duke spent $500k on purchasing 1600 20G iPods with voice recording capabilities for their first year students in 2004-2005. The experiment was successful. Students used their iPods to record lectures and comments on papers and flashcards. They of course used them for entertainment purposes too, but that's not a big deal considering the benefits of the devices. Some reports of students recording lectures for their friends so that they could skip class where noted. Duke decided to only issue iPods to students who were enrolled in classes in which they were most used the following school year.
This is the link to the paper about the actual experiment: http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf. This is a link to a very interesting article about the Dunk experiment: http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2005/06/Bravo-for-the-Duke-iPod-Experiment_633573772543619027.aspx?Page=1. This article sees the experiment as a success and doesn't mention any downsides. This next article carefully mentions some downsides to iPods in the classroom: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-13-voa3.cfm.
Wikispaces: Tech Literate Teacher
Dr. Strange asked us to answer two questions on his wikispace. I posted my responses on his site and here on my blog. Something that I didn't like about Dr. Strange's wikispace is that in his explanation, he states that his students come into the the class tech illiterate and will probably not be tech literate by the time they leave. I found this very discouraging. What is the point of this class if we aren't becoming tech literate during the semester?
What is tech literacy for a teacher?
I think tech literacy for most teachers at the moment includes a basic understanding of the internet and how to use powerpoint and word. I think we are moving slowly towards blogging and podcasting becoming more important, but we're not to the point where they are essential.
Should all teachers be tech literate?
I think that teachers should be as technically literate as is useful in their work. Right now a lot of teachers don't really need to use that much technology in their classroom to get the material across. They do have their students use word and powerpoint but it is not a necessity for students to know how to blog and podcast. I think that this is fine for some classes. Maybe using too much technology in them would end up being more of a hinderance than a help depending on the teacher and the type of students they are handling. Certainly, we are moving towards times where technology is going to become more important. Teachers should be willing to change with the times, but there is no point in changing simply to change without any specific benefits being gained by making the switch.
Comments4kids
This week I posted on a video of a student reciting a limerick that she wrote. You can find my comment at this link: http://pesteam2.blogspot.com/. My student was Gloria.
I found the information about Duke University very interesting. I love my iTouch, but I never thought iPods would ever be used in the classroom. I'm not sure why it surprised me, though. It's crazy how much you can do with one of those!!
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