Interactive Whiteboards

I feel as though interactive whiteboards can add so much more to a lesson and a classroom curriculum. Interactive whiteboards are easy to learn as well. I knew very minimal on the smart board before our class where Mrs.Mislevy taught us all about its features. When I was working on my smartboard project, I remembered the features and I was able to navigate pretty easy around if I did forget something. With only one 3 hour class on learning about the smartboard, I was able to create my own lesson on it. I can only imagine what I will be able to do with lessons after I learn more and more about the smartboard technology. Interactive whiteboards can spice up a lesson. It can get teachers away from the typical ways of teaching and steer them away from lecturing at the students. Interactive whiteboards get the students up and out of their sits and participating in the lesson. It has been stated by many different researchers, many different times that students who are actively participating in their own learning process, learn and obtain the information more than if it was simply taught directly to them. Students have technology at their fingertips constantly and they are good with technology. They grew up with it so they get it. When technology and interactive whiteboards are added to the curriculum, they allow students to learn in ways that are familiar to them. They are feel more confident with the content material because they are confident with technology. I feel as though students would be much more engaged if interactive whiteboards were used in classrooms more often. It takes me by surprise to learn that some school districts received grant money for interactive whiteboards and they are sitting in the closet. I understand that some teachers are reluctant to learn technology but the software for interactive whiteboards is not difficult to understand and I feel as though if they gave them a try, every teacher would be fighting for one in their classroom. When I have my own classroom, I would love an interactive whiteboard. I would use it for teaching all the time. Interactive whiteboards can be used with any content area to make it more interesting and it allows the children to participate and stay engaged.

Technology Article Video Presentation

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6yWml_PPso

Article

http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-class-school-participation

Article Presentation Video- Assisitive Technology

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gSq3wKeCw8

Video in the Classroom

I think video definitely has value in the classroom. Take our video project that we did in class as an example. We were given a project to use our creatively to relay a public service announcement. The video encouraged cooperative learning because it was done with a partner and we had to work together to create a video and complete the project. It teachs students how to properly use the technology that is at their fingertips. I have been at Albright for five years now and not once have I opened the programs we used to create our video before last class. It also teachs students the resources that are available. This would be a good project to teach copyright when showing students the website for free music downloads that do not have any copy rights. Video projects in classrooms go away from the traditional way of teaching and keeps learning interesting and exciting for students. And students are more likely to feel more comfortable sharing a video than doing a prepared talk. This allows them to relay the same information in a more comfortable way but still allows the teacher to assess their learning. I think video is such an awesome addition for the classroom. And the best part is that it can be used with all ages from kindergarten through post-secondary education.

When thinking about ideas where video can be incorporated into the curriclum, the idea that came to mind was teaching current events. We do this in our methods course with Doc and a great way to present current events would be to do the research and create a little news report video to share with the rest of the class to relay the information. The class could be split up into partners or small groups to complete their current event and it can be an ongoing project throughout the entire year. A group could present a current event each week to the rest of the class. I think that it would add a little spin and fun to the current event. It is more exciting than reading and then summarizing to the rest of the class what you read in the current event. Of course, like with anyhting else, there will be some challenges. Students may not have access to video cameras or the programs to create the videos, but these challenges can easily be fixed. The teacher can give classtime to record the videos and a program is not neccessarily needed to create a video. There are several other ways to use video in the classroom such as morning announcements, prepared talks, creating a video to show how to conduct a science experiment, etc. Video is a great tool to adding to the classroom curriculum for all ages.

Love at First Bite PSA Video Project

Wow, I feel like its been forever since I've posted on my blog. I really enjoyed working on the group (partner) video project. Minus the fact that I didn't feel good last week, it was a lot of fun to create. When we first went over the syllabus and Mrs. Mislevy went over the video project, I thought it was going to be torture. I knew nothing about creating a video and putting together photos, video clips and sound clips to create one piece and to be honest I was a little nervous about the project. Fortunately, when working on the video, it was easier than I originally thought. Even coming up with an idea didn't take Melissa and I very long. Everything just feel into place. We had to do a little research to come up with our statistic but we knew the direction we wanted to take with the PSA. It took a little longer than I thought it would. The entire project took us about 5 hours between researching, creating the storyboard, finding pictures and video clips from Twilight, recording video, recording audio, creating the audio music track and transitions. We were able to make our project fun with the constant jokes and knocks referring to the movie. It also added humor to our to topic as well. Once we had our script, there were very few changes.

First we picked a topic and did the research for the statistic. We read the script and decided what parts we were going to each read. Then we picked video clips from the Twilight movie and pictures to put in our video. Then we read the script over and decided what video clips and pictures were going to go with the certain lines in our script. We put the photos and videos in order on the computer program. Then we realized there were two places in our script that a picture wouldn't cut it for. So we decided we were going to each read one of those parts as if we were news reports so we went over to Masters Hall to video tape each other. Once we were done, we came back to upload the video and put into our PSA video. Next we recorded our audio, we each read through our lines and recorded them. We had to record a few times because of the quality of the microphone but eventually we got a recording that sounded good. Next we picked a music clip from the website and tampered with it to make it sound the way we wanted for our video. Then we had to blend the music and audio together. This took a little time because we needed to turn the audio up and the music down to hear our voices on the video. Once we got that, we realized we had to mute the music and sound from the video clips from Twilight. Next we put a title and the credits at the beginning and end of the video. And we added tranistions to tie everything together.

I wish that we would have planned our tranisitions earlier because we didn't realize that it would push our timelines around to match the clups with the sound and there were places that we were not able to use transitions because it would mess up the timeline.

Overall, I really enjoyed working on the video project and it was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be.

Response to Chapter 8 Reading

While reading Chapter * of the Educause text, there were several pieces of data that come to no surprise to me. Data shows that “one study found in spite of the fact that 99 percent of K-12 schools have Internet access, as do most classrooms (87 percent), these resources are rarely used effectively.” This does not surprise me at all. Some of the older teachers have several resources of technology to use during teaching at their fingertips but they never use it. They are afraid to try new things and feel as though they cannot use technology. That is even seen in some of the classes at Albright. Some of the older teachers do not use technology even though several forms of it are present in the classroom, such as an elmo, projector, smart board, etc. Instead they use the smart board to write on as if it were just a simple white board. They do not know how to use the smart board and have not taken the time to try it so they sick to the traditional way of teaching which some may refer to as “lecturing.” Learning how to use the available technology should be a teacher’s top priority. This how teachers can capture the attention of their students and keep them engaged. These days, all students live for technology whether that is the internet, video games, ipod, cell phones, etc. So teachers should keep up with the pace of technology and become acquainted with it. Technology isn’t going to go away so it is better to use learn how to use it and make life easier.

I found it very surprising that only 38 percent of college students reported using the internet for work in classes instead it was used as a form of communicating. I agree that I use the internet a lot for communicating but I am always on the internet during research for my classes. I did my undergraduate work at Albright College and access to the internet was a necessity because professors were always giving us information to research or websites to visit or standards to download.  There is something seriously wrong that only 38 percent of college students reported using the internet for school work. That just seems so unreal to me especially because I use the internet for every single course I am taking right now for research and classwork.

If I were giving a similar survey, I would want to know which websites are most often used by students. How much time is spent using technology each day.

Copyright

I was shocked to read all that I read about copyright. I did not realize that there were so many rules and regulations regarding copyrighting. I always see the warnings when watching DVDs about not copying the DVD becasue it is illegal and you can get in a lot of trouble. But it never really occurred to me that these rules applied when using materials in the classroom. I understand the concept of fair use but the readings for this class were the first time I have ever heard about fair use.

Playing the jeopordy was very useful for me in learning about copyrighting. The rulings of some of the court cases surprised me. I think the concept that suprised me the most was that if schools are going to show a movie in school, they must pay to get a license. I thought it was neat to learn that everytime I write something, it automatically becomes copyrighted. Which I think is really nice. I spend a lot of time and energy into writing lesson plans and it is nice to know that they are protected under the copyright law so that someone else can't take them and claim them as their own.

I have observed copyrighting being violated many times and in many ways. I know people who burn DVDs and CDs that are copyrighted. I know people that illegally download music without paying for it. I also know an organization that shows a movie a few times a year without purchasing a license.  I have not witnessed violation of copyright laws in any schools.

I believe that it is the teacher's right to teach their students about copyright. Teachers spend a lot of time teaching about plagarism and copyright goes right along side with plagarism so that is a wonderful teaching opportunity to teach students about copyright. I would not go in depth with them about all the laws and ligistics but I would give them a simple version so that they understand and take copyright law very serious. I do not think that college should be the first time copyright law is taught, emphasized and has time devoted to teaching and learning copyright law.