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.