Saturday, May 29, 2010

Technology for education

The technology we have studied and explored in the past week has many implications for use in the classroom. One online web activity for instance was Flickr, as part of my p.e. course I regularly take digital pictures of activities(interestingly-the camera was the result of the donors choose option discussed in an earlier email from Scott), print them out and post them on a bulletin board for public viewing. I could just as easily upload these photo's and allow my students to view all the photo's online. In regards to the blog site, I could use blogging or twitter to provide my students with schedules, updates to training or other student driven needs that they could access during off hours. This might save a few phone calls to my home etc. The Face-book student-teacher issue is a sensitive matter but the use of a Face-book fan page may have applications in a school environment. At this point, I do not have enough knowledge about this application to form an educated comment on the fan page. I really like the idea of student created podcasts to demonstrate knowledge mastery in health and p.e. All of our students have laptops and getting them to create podcasts to demonstrate higher level thinking would definitely be a quantum leap over the basic fact recall summative testing done quite often in p.e. Lastly, having each student create an RSS feed on health and p.e. sites could open their eyes to new concepts that they could explore on their own. For instance, the N.Y.Times has a physical education section that explores many concepts within our discipline that I find interesting and I am sure a segment of my students would also find this educational. In conclusion, my eyes and energy has been redirected by the potential that exists to use technology and help the students use their intellect for more than videos and games. These do serve a purpose, but only as filler and not as content.

4 comments:

  1. I agree. It's going to take some learning on our part to understand the ins and outs of all this tech stuff so when that the day comes to use it in the classroom we are at least one step ahead. This technology seems to make life a little easier (minus all the logging in and uploading) so I hope you can figure out the best way to utilize. I know that day is coming when everything we do is processed so I hope you are ready because I am not quite there yet.

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  2. That's a great idea about having your students create the podcasts to show they have the higher level thinking skills needed to meet your standards. Fortunately, you have the equipment necessary to do that. I can see myself incorporating the RSS feeds and flickr pages to the schools but it's a little more limited when you are working in an elementary school.

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  3. You have great insights on all the technology we have learned so far. The facebook fan page is a great way to connect with former students and keep everyone updated with new information related to your field of expertise. Using the camera to capture body mechanics can be useful so students can learn and improve on their form in demonstrating a particular skill.

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  4. I was unaware the N.Y. Times had a physical education section, Thanks for bringing this to our attention as I will be checking into this. I can also see myself using Podcasts and RSS feeds to help my students in health class. I enjoyed reading your discussion.

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