What technology is more important in the classroom?

Today in my TE 401 class we talked about incorporating technology in the classroom. My professor asked if we had the option of having a smartboard or a laptop cart for our class which would we choose. I think that I would rather have the laptops available for each student. I feel that laptops have a lot more to offer than a smartboard would. I have only used a smartboard to project an image from the computer for students to see and I have never seen a smartboard used to its full potential. I also have heard to actually use a smartboard it take a lot of preparation to make a lesson out of it. With laptops students can use Google docs to peer edit, they can fill out assessments on Google forms. Students can play educational games, read the newspaper, learn about the weather. Of course the laptops would have to be set up on the internet but the internet allows unlimited learning to happen. I think it would be great for every classroom to have laptops for every student, the student could learn so much! I know that most college students are on their laptops a majority of the day so why not start kids out on computers at a young age?

My first experiences with the ipad

Yesterday I finally was able to use an ipad. I loved it and I almost instantly wanted to get one for myself. Some of the downfalls of the ipad was that it does not support everything like a computer. For example, flash based systems (java) and google docs were not working on the ipad. Even though there are areas of improvement for the ipad I thought this would be a great device to have in classrooms. They do not take up a lot of room, they are not as expensive as MacBooks and they are pretty easy to use. This would be great for students who have a hard time writing with a pencil, instead they could type up all their notes and draw in a sketchpad any diagrams they may have. The ipad would go unnoticed since it is flat and you would not be able to hear any typing since it is all touchscreen. I think the ipad has a lot to offer and I cannot wait to see what updates they make to the ipad in the future.

Peer Edit/Review

Today in one of my Teacher Education classes we had a peer review, where we edited another persons lesson. In this lesson there was a column for academic, physical, social and linguistic needs. Well in this column for each activity they were doing in their lesson it said that if the student was not behaving to not allow them to participate in the activity. This was really upsetting and I feel that a lot of regular education teachers do not know how to accommodate these students so they try to eliminate them. I think it is so important for teachers to not eliminate them from the activity but ask the student what they need in order to finish the task without misbehaving. Most of the misbehaving can be avoided if you pay attention to the student and make accommodations for them. Pushing them off to the side of the classroom will not improve their behavior or help them in the future.

The question "Why?"

As I read Bud the Teachers blog about "why", it made me realize how much I ask why? It also made me realize that the question why is very important to keep in mind while teaching. Students are going to want to know why they are learning something or why something is the way it is. Teachers should keep in mind while teaching to answer the why questions students may have. I don't think any person can ask the question why? too many times! So, don't get frustrated when a student asks the question why, encourage it!

Aspergers Syndrome an inside look

In my CEP 452 class we got to skype with a man who has Aspergers Syndrome. I found this very interesting and very educational seeing as I am going into Special Education and I will most likely have students with Aspergers. We talked about how there is a wide spectrum for the severity of this syndrome. The man we talked to was named Paul and he has written short stories about what it was like growing up for him (click here to read one). While I read this it seemed somewhat bizare and sad. One tip he told us was to make sure that the information you are teaching the student is interesting and be able to show them how it connects to their life and other things. He explained to us that he was not interested in learning because his teachers could not tell him why he needed to know was 7x7 was. He also went into detail about how some things need to be structured for him to do while other things cannot have any structure for him to achieve. He also said that it was very hard for him to communicate (face to face) with people. Then he was talking about how he is working on getting a job, and he got upset at this because it is so hard for him to achieve this, it made me really sad at this point while he was talking. I cannot imagine the struggles he goes through on a daily basis. I know talking to our entire class must have been very hard for him (it would have been hard for me even to do) but he helped us all more than he could imagine.

Digital Texts

What do you think about digital texts? What does the future hold?

I think that digital texts can be very helpful for some students. This will allow students to read at their own pace and also have the opportunity to look up a word or click on a link that will provide addition information. Digital texts allow students with fine motor difficulties to get words on a paper by typing. I also really enjoyed what we talked about in class by making links within the text for students to look words up that they may not know. I also found it very interesting when some of the students talked about how they had bad handwriting and they would be more focused on their handwriting than their answers. Digital texts would help them a ton. They could just type up their answers and that would hopefully solve the problem.

I think the future holds a lot more than digital texts. Things will involve a lot more technology in the future. There has been a on of technology advancements just in the last couple years. I think there will be especially a lot more e-books.

My sister owns a kindle and she loves it. It allows her to travel with multiple books but on one device and a device that is small. The kindle makes it a lot more convenient to carry a book/books around. It also has many different features on it to help guide reading. I know it has a dictionary that you can look up words as you read. This would a be a great tool for students to use while reading because almost everyone comes across a word they do not understand and its a lot easier to be able to look it up right then and there, rather than have to wait and look it up at a later time.

In one of the classrooms I was in there was a 1st and 2nd grader with emotional impairments. When it came to writing a letter to another student, the 1st grader typed it on the computer and the 2nd grader wrote it on paper. Both students had the correct formatting of the letter, both sounded out words, both made their own sentences. It was great! I really enjoyed seeing something like this happening because the accommodation that was made for the 1st grader allowed him to also write a letter whereas if he were to write it with a pencil/pen he may not have been able to write his letter.

So, overall digital texts can be very important and helpful for some students to be able to advance with their writing and reading skills.