Blog Post #6

Students who go to Martin County High School have access to their teacher’s class page on the school’s website. Most teachers have the content section divided by each class period because the teacher sometimes teaches multiple subjects. I looked closely at Mr. Hornberger’s class page. He has the content divided by period. On each classroom period page Mr. Hornberger has assignments and resources to study for upcoming test and quizzes. The individual period page is organized by chapter. Once a student clicks on the desired chapter there are assignments, pictures of the text book, and other helpful resources pertaining to that chapter. Mr. Hornberger’s class pages are designed for students ranging from 9^th to 12^th grade.

http://mchs.martinschools.org/pages/Martin_County_High_School/Classes/2015003100001451

I envision myself using technology to accomplish my professional responsibilities more efficiently and effectively. I will do this by having all my lesson plans on word and PowerPoint so that way I can update them and add to them whenever I want. The Word processors also check grammar and spelling, which is a great way to make sure all my documents are grammatically correct. I will also use Word processors to make test, monthly newsletters, and assignments. Software Evaluation Rubrics will be useful to evaluate and grade student assignments. The online rubric makes it easier for teachers because all you must do is click how each student did in each category and then it calculates the grade. This will save time as a teacher by not having to calculate each grade by hand and I can store all the grades digitally.

The Promethean Board is a piece of technology that could be used in the classroom. With the Promethean Board teachers, can display virtually anything seen on the computer screen on the board. Teachers can use the board to write notes on, display videos, and so much more. The Promethean Board is an interactive whiteboard. It even comes with a student pen where teachers can program that pen to only have certain abilities. The Promethean Board also comes with access to a website with tons of lesson plans and games designed just for the board. For example, there is jeopardy for just about every subject. The jeopardy game is a great way students can interact with the board and review topics in a fun way. I hope that when I become a teacher that either the Promethean Board in my classroom.

ILP “Participation” – FSU Tech Sandbox

The FSU Tech Sandbox tour was a great experience. During the tour, we learned about different technology that could one day be in our classroom. We started off in the 3-D room where they had a 3-D printer and a 3-D pen. Both objects allow you to make three dimensional figures that can be useful when you are trying to explain to your class how something is made. For example, with the 3-D pen you can show your class how a cube is constructed. When many students look at a cube on a piece of paper they think it only has four squares because they cannot visualize it. With the 3-D pen you can draw out the cube and show your class that it is made up of 6 squares. Next we moved to the SMART Board and the Promethean board where we learned the differences between the two. There was not many differneces and both boards function similarly. A unique feature about the SMART Board was the Mixed Reality cube. With the cube under the Smart Document Camera lens you can move an image on the SMART Board all around with the cube. We also learned about Osmo. Osmo is an interactive game system that connects to an iPad. The Osmo works by using a reflector over the camera to see what pieces you have chosen. We also went over many other technologies that could one day be in our classroom. This field trip was so much fun and I enjoyed getting to learn more about technology. I will definitely be visiting the FSU Tech Sandbox in the future.

My favorite activity while at the Sandbox was using the Promethean board. On the Promethean board, I practiced writing my name to see how the pen worked. I also decided to pull up my blog to see how it looked on the big screen. A feature that I noticed while using the board was how accurate the pen was compared to the SMART Board. The pen on the Promethean board instantly wrote what I did and was very accurate. After using the Promethean board and the SMART Board it made me excited to one day be a teacher and use this technology in my classroom. Both boards have a lot of resources that come with them like premade lesson plans which I thought was a major bonus. These boards are a great way to have an interactive classroom. With either board, students can come up to it and write. A unique feature of the Promethean board is that there is a student pen that teachers can program to allow the pen to only can do certain things. Another tool I enjoyed using was the 3-D pen called the 3Doodler. Although I did not have much time to use it, it was awesome to see something I drew become 3-D.

Blog Post #5

One possible web 2.0 technology I think is useful in the classroom would be blogs. If I were to teach in a high school I would try to incorporate blogs as part of the curriculum. Blogs are a great way for a teacher to post assignments and homework on. Students can interact with one another on the blog and make homework more of a group project. I would also use YouTube to show the class videos. YouTube has many educational videos that my teachers would show me in high school. The videos offered by YouTube are another great resource for teachers. I do not think that social media like Instagram is appropriate to use in a classroom setting. Instagram would not support teacher professional development because all you can do on Instagram is post pictures and in a classroom setting that could be hard to monitor.

A web 2.0 tool that I would use when I am teaching would be Google Classroom. Google Classroom allows the teacher to distribute assignments, communicate, and work with students over the internet. I find this web 2.0 tool very useful because when I was in high school my teacher would use it all the time to distribute assignments students could easily access their homework. Also, if you missed a day of class it was very simple to make up that assignment because it was all online. With Google Classroom students also have access to Google Docs so assignments that worked on in class can easily be worked on at home. https://classroom.google.com

The technology advancement in chapter 12 that I believe holds the biggest promise for education is cloud computing. Cloud computing holds the biggest promise because it allows students to access their work from any computer or device. So, for example, say a student is working on an essay in class they can save the essay to some form of cloud computing and finish the rest at home. The use of cloud computing allows students and teachers to bridge the gap from assignments at school and at home. Teachers can also use cloud computing to post the daily agendas and course work for students who must miss class.