Interactive Whiteboards

 Just having an interactive whiteboard in the classroom, does not automatically improve student achievement. Teachers will need to pair the whiteboards with strong instructional strategies to get the most out of them. Some of the uses for the board I listed above have been proven to have positive effects on student learning. It is important to remember that while technology in the classroom is awesome, it needs to be utilized in the correct way!

Interactive whiteboards are wonderful instructional tools that bring technology into the classroom. These boards allow teachers to improve student engagement and achievement in a variety of ways. With this board it is possible to highlight, annotate, drag and drop information, import pictures, use multimedia content, provide feedback, complete shared readings, use student response systems, and so much more!

            Studies have shown that successful use of interactive whiteboards have improved active learning, classroom management, lesson organization, and lesson flexibility. I have seen interactive whiteboards used successfully in classrooms and was impressed with the increase in student engagement as well as classroom management. By increasing student attention, you are also increasing their participation and motivation, which should lead to more success. 

            The interactive whiteboard has features associated with it that can improve student learning even more. One that is statistically linked to achievement is studentresponse systems. These systems are great for formative assessments and knowing where your students are at in their learning. It also promotes student participation, which improves learning.  A twenty-six-percentile gain in achievement was noted when using these response systems in an effective way!

             While interactive whiteboards are wonderful classroom tools, they do have some challenges associated with them. Technical problems can hinder the effectiveness of the whiteboards and teacher training is necessary. It is important that teachers understand what they can do with the interactive whiteboards and what to do if they come upon an issue.

Using Wikis in the Classroom

A Wiki is a website that is continuously “under construction.” This website can be edited by any visitors, making it a great way to collaborate and share information with others. Wikis have mainly been used outside of the classroom to this point but could be helpful in classroom instruction as well. 

Currently, Wikis are primarily used in higher education and when used in the K-12 setting it seems to only be used by teachers.. After learning more about Wikis I feel like K-12 students would benefit greatly from participating in the creation of a Wiki. Students could use a Wiki to create class study guides that everyone could contribute to, or a class website.  A class website could have posts about what the students are doing in class, and even be a space for the teacher, students, and even parents to quickly interact outside of the classroom if there are any questions.

I found a website that explains more about Wikis and how they can be used in the classroom, but most importantly gives examples! The site has various examples of classroom Wikis that teachers have created. These Wikis show how students and teachers can effectively interact when there are questions and shows how the students can work together to compile information. By giving students the necessary tools, they can independently research and add their information to the Wiki, which lends itself to an inquiry-based style of learning. This kind of learning keeps students engaged therefore Wikis could be a great addition to any classroom.

Mid-Term

     Jong H. Chung wrote an article, Integrating Technology in the Classroom, that focuses on the historical background of bringing technology into the classroom and the motivation behind it. He also provides examples of how to use technology in the classroom, as well as his concerns and recommendations for doing so successfully. I will touch on all of these topics as I review his article.
     In the early part of the 20th century, visual aids such as films and pictures became more prevalent in presenting information to students in the public school setting. As far back as 1913, people began to realize that technology would start to become a bigger part of education. Thomas Edison even claimed that books would soon become obsolete, as the information could be taught through other mediums (Chung, 1). While he was right, the forms in which they thought would take over were incorrect. Many believed that radio would become a large part of education but it had little impact. It seemed as if people would become very excited about the various mediums through which they could teach, but in the end each at little impact and the excitement wore off. Computers and the internet seem to be the only exception as throughout the past decade their prevalence has grown and become an integral part of many classrooms.

     The motivation for adopting technology in the classroom comes from 3 sectors: nonprofit organizations, commerce, and education. The nonprofit organizations have been providing guidelines to promote technology proficiency and private industry has been using technology to train their employees, as well as to educate them further. The largest push, though, comes from education. Nearly all educators find benefit in using technology in the classroom, but many disagree on the way that it should be utilized. The two main ideas for using technology in the classroom are incorporating it into traditional lecture style teaching and using it in a more constructivist approach. Constructivism is, "a model of learning that asserts that knowledge is not passively received but actively created inside the mind of every learner" (National Research Council, 2002). This approach focuses mainly on student-centered learning, where the student explores to learn as opposed to the teacher just telling him or her the information. This kind of classroom presents problems in a real-world context which could be beneficial to them even when they leave school.
     Chung provides some examples of using technology in the classroom that include interactive whiteboards, classroom management software, student response systems, blogs, Wiki, and even more. Each of these technologies can keep students actively engaged in class and feel independent and work on becoming technologically proficient. In one of my previous blogs I reviewed an award-winning teacher's blog and it is a great example of how technology can be used successfully even in a first grade classroom.
    While integrating technology into the classroom is a wonderful thing, Chung presents some concerns as well. One of his concerns is unwilling teachers. There may be teachers out there that are not willing to put in the time and effort necessary to use technology successfully in their classroom. They may also be unwilling to change the way that they teach. Another concern he has is that teachers will think that students will become too dependent on the internet and not think about problems deeply enough. Though there are concerns, Chung gives his recommendations on how to successfully incorporate technology into the classroom.

    His first recommendation is to make sure that the change is gradual. I think that this is really important to keep in mind if you are new to using technology in the classroom. It is less likely to be successful if you try to jump all in at once and then confidence will be lost and your students will not be able to benefit from technology. Another one of his recommendations is to "Use technology to help students to visualize, simulate, solve real-world problems, collaborate, research, and design whenever possible"(Chung, 7). I think that it is so crucial to incorporate technology in a variety of ways so that students can see the different ways in which they can utilize it. By doing this they can see that technology is important and helpful in many different settings. The last recommendation I want to talk about its educating the internet users on copyright laws and plagiarism. If students are going to be using the internet and technology they should be able to do so in the correct way. They should be completely aware of the laws in place to protect people's work on the internet and teaching this directly is an important part of bringing technology into the classroom.

Chung, J. H. (2007). Integrating technology in the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.usma.edu/cfe/ 

     Literature/Chung_07.pdf 

Copyright and Fair use

           Copyright and Fair use laws are very important to know, especially as a teacher who references other’s ideas and works often. There are consequences for those who do not abide by these laws. A website from the University of Maryland University College provides great insight into what copyright and fair use laws are and breaks down how we can make sure to follow them. 

Copyright

            Copyright protects the right of the creator of a piece of work or idea to control how it is used. According to the United States Copyright Office there are three different requirements for something to be considered copyrighted: fixation, originality, and minimal creativity. I think that originality and minimal creativity are not necessary to go into detail on, but fixation means that the work is in a set location, like in a book or stored on a computer. Copyright assures that work is not copied, sold, or performed by those who did not create the work.

Fair Use

            The website provides in-depth explanations of what is and is not considered fair use, which is particularly helpful for teachers. Fair use is basically a limitation in the copyright law where if the work is being used for certain uses, like instructional, there are many exceptions and the work can be used. Teachers are able to make copies of work or books, so long as they do not use those copies repeatedly. If you want to use a copyrighted work you should consider the nature of the work, the purpose and character of the use, the amount used, and the effect of use on the market for the work. After considering these four guidelines, you can make a decision on whether or not it is considered fair use and you can use it in the classroom. Permission is still required when using a work in its entirety, it is being used for commercial purposes, or like I said previously being used repeatedly.

This video from Common Sense Media does a great job of explaining copyright, fair use, and giving examples of each.

Award-Winning Teacher Blog

Ms. Cassidy’s Classroom Blog is a blog that shares the experiences of a first grade classroom in Canada. The teacher, Ms. Cassidy, uses her blog to post about her students latest accomplishments and what they are up to in the classroom. The blog is visited by parents, students, and other teachers looking to create ePortfolios and blogs for their own classrooms.

                       

                                                  

This blog is a wonderful example of how to keep parents informed with what is happening in the classroom and a good space for them to see their child’s work. Each child has his or her own blog that can be accessed from the main page. Each student blog includes work that they have completed throughout the year. I believe that the students feel a sense of self-pride when they are able to display their work on their own personal blog.

I personally thought that this blog was amazing! It gave me so many ideas on how to incorporate technology into my future classroom. I love the idea of keeping parents in the loop by showing them what the students are working on in the classroom, like practicing reading stamina, sorting, working in math groups, making muffins, and much more! She adds pictures and videos to the blog to make it personal and fun to look at. I added one of the videos from her blog here so you can get an idea of how fun and personalized her blog is.

Ms. Cassidy continuously updates her blog with pictures of the cool hands-on activities she does with the students. It's fun to not only see how she is implementing technology, but also the fun activities that they are doing. I am leaving this blog with many ideas on classroom activities and blog ideas. I definitely recommend that you check out this blog if you are interested in learning more about how to create a classroom blog or eportfolios.

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Alex Parater and I am currently a senior at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville studying Deaf Education, Elementary Education, and Special Education. I am originally from around the Baltimore area in Maryland, but have loved my time studying in Knoxville. When I'm not studying, I am probably watching Food Network, hanging out with my friends, or exploring new cities. I am writing my first ever blog for my educational technology course this Fall.

I am looking forward to learning about the various topics that will be brought up in this course. In all honesty, I often struggle with technology. I am able to use technology for it's basic functions, but fail to go in-depth and use it for all it can do. I am hoping that with this class I will be able to utilize technology for all of its purposes. This class will be able to teach me the various aspects of technology that can help me to have a great classroom. Learning about all of the Google Apps has been very insightful and will make certain aspects of teaching, like grading, simpler. I hope that I can take all of what I learn in this class and apply it my future classroom!