My Technology Prezi

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Technology Reflection 3: Interactive Smart Boards

Description/Experience

During seminar on Friday, November 11^th, we learned all about using Smart Boards.  Smart Boards, essentially are digital white boards that your computer can hook into to use as a more interactive class resource or as a hi-tech white board for content presentation.  The Smart Board requires the use of its pen, which can write on the screen, and this pen doubles as the computer mouse when playing interactive educational games.  Because the board is digital, you are not making permanent writings on this board, it is showing up on the screen digitially, and you can erase it as you please.  The Smart Board is a multi-faceted educational resource used for both content presentation and lecture, as well as classroom interaction with educational games, etc.

Application

At Clay-Batelle, where I am doing my hours this semester, I work in a collaborative classroom with my mentor teacher.  We are in a math class 2^nd period, and this teacher uses the Smart Board for presenting content to the class, but she uses it more interactively when reviewing for math exams (which actually happen quite frequently).  She writes out math questions from their study guide and the students come up to the board and write out the correct response.  She breaks the students up into 2 teams and the students have to alternate back and forth doing the questions.

1.       Learners: Transitional Math Class (variety of grades. Mainly 10^th graders)

2.      Learning outcomes:  After using this smart board for the review, the students will have a better comprehension and understanding of the study guide, and therefore the chapter, for their exam the following day.

3.      Assessment:  She checks the answers after each student goes up to the Smart Board and the next student come up to fix the answer if they are wrong.  She gives the winning team a piece of candy at the end of the class period.      

Students have already become acquainted with the smart board (how to use the pen, erase their work if they mess up, etc.) so the teacher simply broke them up into two teams and they were able to watch their teammate work out the problem.

Reflection

            Every chapter these students go through in math results in an exam.  This Smart Board activity is great for students reviewing each chapter’s content because they get really excited about using this tool, and it’s affective because the students are able to work out each problem in front of the class.  If they end up getting the questions wrong, they are easily erasable and the next student can come up and demonstrate what each student did wrong. 

            The Smart Board supports the teaching strategies in this activity because it provides an interactive area for students to work out their review questions for the exam.  The students love using the Smart Board, and it’s very easy to use in this case.  While it can be touchy at times, the teacher usually steps in to fix and technology glitches.  Overall this tool is great for students in review situations.  The students easily fix their teammates work if they’ve done something incorrectly. 

            The Smart Board also enhances the students’ understanding of learning the content in this review activity because it is a review of the actual content they’ve covered in class.  The students are working directly with problems from their study guide which were taught in class throughout the 2 weeks before each exam.  When they get something wrong, as I mentioned earlier, their peers attempt to fix it and the teacher goes over what the student did incorrectly in the first place.

            Because they’re using actual problems from their book, there is a positive correlation between the material they’re working with and the understanding of it throughout this activity.  I could see the students getting lost in an interactive game if the teacher plugged her computer in to Smart Board and used it that way, but the teacher actually writes out review questions that come straight from their chapter study guide.  The students are able to comprehend the information because it’s being worked out directly in front of them and they see where mistakes happen in each question, as well as how they are fixed.

--Pedagogical-Content:

Review activities like this are always drill and practice.  The students are applying what they have already been taught and displaying what they know to the teacher; they are essentially practicing what they have already learned.  The students are learning this information thoroughly because they are working it out in front of the entire class, and their teammates fix any of the answers they get wrong.  This helps them understand how to work each problem out thoroughly and correctly.

Technological-Pedagogical:

The Smart Board provides a fun piece of technology that truly helps the students learn the material of their review.  Pairing the Smart Board with a math review creates a great recipe for success on the exam.  The students are working interactively with each other, bouncing ideas off of their teammates, and then displaying that they understand the content by working out the problems in a competitive manner.  Each student can follow along on their own study guide and actually watch as their peer works out the problem.  As the student works out the problem on the Smart Board, their peers can see exactly where they went wrong if they didn’t answer the question completely.  The content is displayed for the students on this large white board.

Technological Pedagogical Content:

This activity is a review with the entire class. The entire class is participating but the teacher breaks it down so one student is working on a problem at a time until it is completed.  The information is worked out so thoroughly and until it is right, so the students are getting a great understanding of the information presented.  As I stated earlier, the students love getting involved by using the Smart Board, so this activity provides for a great reviewing resource where the students actually learn the content material.

Technology Reflection Assignment: the iPad

Experience

During Friday’s seminar, we learned about the iPad!  Before this seminar, I had briefly used an iPad once, and recalled that upon the iPads introduction into the world of technology, many people described them, essentially, as a large iPhone.   Because of this semnar, however, my eyes were opened to the many uses of this technology.  As students in the Benedum Collaborative Program were able to see the iPads different uses in the realm of education.  The iPad encourages students to become engaged in independent or small group work when it comes to math, reading, spelling, science and other excercises. 

Application

One application that I have found to be available on the iPad is geared towards algebra: using different objects to set up equations and solve for “x”, figuring out various interactive distant=rate x time equations, etc.  While I am not specializing in math, I am tutoring in a math class at Clay Batelle Middle/Senior High School.  I work with a special education teacher who works in collaborative classrooms while I am there.  I feel that this math application on the iPad would be phenomenal to utilize in this math class because it gives students a visual representation of equations in an interactive, engaging way.  When it comes to Distance=rate x time word problem equations, students become a little confused.  I would love to present the concept of these word problems, show the students how to set up tables to solve for the variable and then plug in the equation, make sure they have a solid understanding, and then use the iPads (that are actually available at Clay Batelle) to practice these algebraic questions on this specific application.  This would ensure that students got the information down in their notes with pencil/paper notes and practice, but they also get to practive in an interactive, engaging, educational manner.  I would be able to measure how well they understood the material by checkin their progress on the periodical quizzes given through the iPad application..

Reflection

Because the application reinforces content that is being covered in the math classroom that I am in, I know that students would be reinforcing the content they learned in class by using this application to practice.  Letting the students work independently on the iPad would give them to focus on the subject matter closely, and they could ask questions if they ever get stumped on s specific content.  Independent work in math helps students develop the algebraic concepts by fully focusing on the process of solving for the variables, and figuring out which steps to take next.  This specific application would be extremely helpful in reinforcing the skills they learned on paper in the classroom.

Pedagogy-Content

I would make sure that the students got a lecture of the algebraic concepts that they need to know to move on to the next level of math.  They would need to be fully taught the content before using the iPad to practice. The students at Clay Batelle have used iPads in their classes before, but I have never seen them use them in their math class.  After being taught the content of the math concept, students could move to iPads for practice.  I would only be hesitant to let them practice on the iPad if they couldn’t figure out how to solve for “x” on paper, which they have to do on their exam.

Technology-Pedagogy

This application exercise would require students and instructors (myself and my mentor teacher) how to use an iPad.  The iPad is not a toy in this sense, it is an instructional tool/aid.  I would make sure that the students arent’ opening other applications or folders (as the seminar leader warned us) and that they were staying on task.  Students would learn a great deal about how using an iPad is very beneficial in the classroom when used correctly.

Technology-Content

The Algebra Application would reinforce the students understanding of solving for variables and figuring our word problems using distance=rate x time.  Using the iPad to practice the learned content would be extremely beneficial, as I mentioned earlier, because it would give the students an interactive, more independently engaging representation of various algebraic questions.  Students would definitely be excited to switch up their skills practice and use the iPad to execute math exercises and mini-quizzes.

Technology Reflection Assignment

Description/Experience


During this past seminar, we were presented with a couple different technological resources that we will be able to use in the classroom. The main one presented to us was a resource that a teacher at my PDS (Clay Batelle) uses in her classroom. This interactive site is called Edmodo, and it’s a place that students and teachers can log on and post assignments, discussions, and questions about the class. It’s essentially a social network site for the classroom.

Application

Although my concentration is Social Studies, my mentor teacher is a special education teacher who works in collaborative classrooms, and has one English class with her special education students. One lesson I could do in the English class is have the students write an autobiography. They are learning about auto biographies right now, and writing their own would be extremely beneficial in mastering the content. Using Edmodo, I would post a questionnaire to the students and have them answer all of the questions (about their lives) in list format by a certain date. Then, I would have them post their autobiography to the site for everyone to see. Lastly, I would have them give feedback to each other’s papers before handing them in to me.




The learning outcomes would be beneficial to the students because they would teach these special education students the importance of handing assignments in on time and it would also help them get an early start to their paper. Handing pieces in before the whole assignment is due is helpful to students who are learning the writing process. Students would also learn from their peers comments. Peer editing is always helpful in the writing process. The teacher would oversee all of the discussion, peer comments, and editing.

Reflection

Pedagogy-Content: 

I would convey the content to them by modeling the way. I would post my own answers to the questionnaire and I would post my own autobiography. Teaching them what an autobiography is by showing them an example is the best way to convey the content.




Technology:
Using Edmodo makes the students interact with each other and use each other’s work as an example. They are able to interact, learn about each other, and learn about the writing process. Peer editing is a concept that would be used in this assignment, but the students would be doing this all online, and not on paper.

Technology-Pedagogy:
The students would use computers or iPads to complete this assignment. They would be learning not only about the writing process, but they would be learning about computers/iPads, social networking, and peer editing. This technology makes all of this possible. They would be learning by experience, by diving in and figuring out the technology and using it to construct a vibrant autobiography.



Technology-Content:
This assignment uses technology (Edmodo) in a hands on way to learn the content (writing an autobiography). By using Edmodo, students are exploring the process of writing an autobiography and they would be interacting with other students online to further understand it.

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