A Great Invention in Classrooms: The Smartboard

When I was an elementary school student, the Smartboard didn't exist. My teachers wrote notes on the blackboard and barely incorporated technology into lessons. The overhead projector was the most exciting way to make concepts more visual. As I've observed various classrooms over the past year and a half, I've seen the Smartboard used in so many ways that really aid student learning. It is such a great webtool because it is so visual and interactive. There are numerous lesson activities in multiple content areas available with this technology that could really engage students. My favorite activities are those that require students to come up to the Smartboard and label words to pictures. It is fun for students and is a great way to assess their understanding of the content. For example, here is a labeling activity that is appropriate for younger grades and goes along with a community helpers lesson. Students will look at a map of a community that includes several types of community helpers. They must label the buildings found on the map by dragging the words from the word box. Here is what it looks like:

I think this activity would be very interactive for students. They would enjoy coming up to the Smarboard and labeling the correct words to the pictures. I am now more confident using the Smartboard after gaining practice experiences in my graduate technology course. It really is an effective tool and I can see myself using the Smartboard in my future classroom. It could be incorporated with any content area and has the ability to keep students engaged. For reading lessons, students could practice their sequencing skills by matching pictures with the appropriate sentences and then placing them in order of when they occurred in a book. Students could label shapes or work on basic math facts by coming up to the Smartboard and answering mathematical questions. In science, they could label and order life cycle processes of various animals or label the parts of the body. Even in social studies, they could label continents on a world map or the states on a map of the United States. There are so many interactive and visual activities teachers could do with students to integrate this technological webtool into the classroom. I think students will be more motivated to learn when having the opportunity to become active participants in their learning. You should consider using the Smartboard in your classroom! Children love technology and if we don't use it, they will run circles around us!

Can Facebook Play a Role in Education?

Facebook is such a common form of communication in today's society. It is a way for people to keep in touch with friends and family, share pictures regarding their own lives, and join events or discussion groups. It is highly popular and is a part of daily life in our society. If this is the case, do you think it could play a role in education? Although there is negative media attention surrounding the harmful privacy and safety issues of social networking sites like Facebook, if used appropriately, I think it could be an effective tool to motivate students to learn.

I do believe there is potential for Facebook to play a role in education. Facebook can enable students to create a network of friends and share media or interests in an easy-to-use website environment. Teachers could encourage group work and discussions about curriculum-based content through Facebook with various students from other classes, schools, states, or even countries. Students could even exchange information about culture with students from other parts of the world to increase their knowledge on a personal level. The opportunities to connect with people and learn new things are endless, which could positively affect educational tasks. Using social networking sites like Facebook will also increase students’ level of engagement because it is something they are comfortable with and familiar using. As a result, I do think Facebook has the potential to play a role in education, but it must be used for the right reasons. Teachers must choose appropriate lessons that could integrate this tool and monitor its proper use. It may take some time before parents and educators regard this site as an educational tool, but I definitely think there is potential.

All About Kidpix

Kidpix is a great webtool that should be used in classrooms because its features are so engaging for children. It allows for students to paint and draw, explore backgrounds and pictures of many topics, and even create a slideshow of images with transitions and custom recorded sounds. It is such a beneficial tool because it combines sounds, graphics, and special effects to make multimedia projects. I think this webtool would successfully motivate students to use their creativity to engage with the school curriculum. When using technology, students can master content in fun and interactive ways that allow them to use their imaginations. I would definitely recommend using this program in the classroom and could find ways to connect to social studies, science, and ELA lessons. For example, students could retell a notable story they read in class or create their own stories using graphics and sounds from Kidpix. They could create a presentation of slides on the difference between living and nonliving things or on community helpers. The options are endless and teachers could integrate various content from the curriculum by utilizing Kidpix. Here is an example of a short story I made in my graduate class when exploring the features of Kidpix:

Randi's Kidpix Slideshow

If it was engaging for me, I can only imagine how students would feel using this webtool. Try it in your classrooms! I think it will help bring your curriculum to life!

The Benefits of Excel

Microsoft Excel is a great instructional tool for teachers and students to use in the classroom. It enables us to organize and manage numerical data in an efficient and productive way. Teachers can use Excel to keep budgets and grade books, create schedules, and make attendance lists, which helps them save time when making calculations or storing data. It also encourages them to organize displays of information in effective ways. In addition, Excel could be helpful in teaching mathematical topics and could increase students' motivation to work with math concepts. Since Excel is so hands-on, students get to organize their data or create graphs in a fun, stimulating, and engaging way. Other subjects could be incorporated using Excel as well, which makes this tool have such a great impact in the classroom.

Here are two examples of projects I did in my graduate course using Excel:

The possibilities on Excel are endless! There are so many charts and graph options you can explore. There are also various ways you can organize or store different kinds of information. I made charts and graphs on the percentage of colors in skittle bags and Santa's elf shopping list. These are just some of my examples, but you can effectively integrate this tool into the classroom using core curriculum ideas. Excel is such a beneficial tool and I believe teachers should learn how to use it and incorporate it into lessons in their classrooms! 

Beginnings of School: Use Kidspiration!

Kispiration is a visual organizing tool that helps students explore and understand words, numbers, and concepts. I was introduced to this great software in my graduate course and on our first day, we made a visual called "All About Me." It consisted of three pictures: the side-view of a face, a heart, and a house. Each picture was labeled as: Why I'm Special, Things I Like, and My Family. We were asked to go through the pictures offered on this Kidspiration program and answer these questions using various pictures and words. It was a fun project that enabled us to learn one of the ways we could use Kidspiration in our classroom. Here is my "All About Me" project:

I think this project is a great way to have students introduce themselves to establish relationships within the classroom. Every teacher has an activity or icebreaker to use in the beginning of school, but I'm sure most of these activities don't involve using technology. I think this is an engaging activity that requires students to use pictures and words to describe why they are special, things they like, and all about their family. These are topics that students usually talk about when getting to know each other in the beginning of school so getting to use the computer is an added bonus. I would definitely think about using Kidspiration for this purpose because after they make their "All About Me" project they would get to share it with one another as a way to establish positive relationships. It would also add color and creativity to our classroom and I would therefore choose to hang up their projects after they are done sharing. Not only do they get to open up and learn about each other, but they are gaining an academic benefit out of using Kidspiration. They are using visual learning to explore words and concepts that help describe them. I think this activity is an engaging way to integrate technology into the beginnings of school and everyone should explore all the amazing uses of Kidspiration!

Welcome to my blog

Hi everyone! This is my first blog experience and I found it pretty easy to create. The blogspot tutorial was helpful and guided me through the steps in making this blog. The hardest part was trying to choose a creative name for the title and link to the blog. I'm not the most creative person, but I decided to make my title about the best of technology in the classroom, since I will be posting all about educational technology. I've never shared any of my ideas through a blog before. I've only read friends blogs who post about fashion, sports, or the media. I hope you find interest in the topic of educational technology and that you like what you read here on my blog.

My graduate course EECE 750: Modern Learning Technologies will teach me a lot about educational technology and integration in the classroom. I will share with you the valuable information I have learned about in class and in the various reading materials I will encounter throughout my semester. I plan to upload the projects I create, which should give you a better idea of ways to engage students with the use of technology in school. I am excited to share my knowledge and ideas with you all.