Interactive White Boards

We've been working with interactive whiteboards like Promethean and Mimio Boards that essentially do the same thing, but cheaper.  and Boy, they are flashy.  You can do some pretty neat things with them, like create games, interactive class lessons, etc, and their respective websites are full of creative lessons and ideas for teachers to use in their classrooms.  Because that way, people will buy more of them!

Its for your child's future!

I think there's a lot of pressure on teachers to adopt technology in their classes, and that is good, and they should. 

Preferably in a box with a fox, because I'm a hack writer.

But I don't think that Promethean boards, especially at five thousand dollars apiece are a good enough way to do this.  After all, your still just a teacher, teaching at students from a board, the same way they've been doing it for decades, with a much fancier board.  There are better, free-er ways to use technology and collaborate.

Lincoln Elementary Visit

We went as a class to Lincoln Elementary School in Cedar Falls this week, and got to see some example of how technology was being used by the students and teachers there.  My Classmate Katrina Bauer got some great pictures of the trip, check 'em out on her blog.

Also, her Camera apparently only takes pictures of people with souls

It was pretty amazing to see that level of integration in an elementary school.  I was amazed at seeing what sixth graders could do with Google sketch up:  One boy made a complete bar and grill, including a glass front on his building that you could see chairs and tables through.  Yikes. 

How will I defend having a job when there will be hordes of tech-savvy young people everywhere?  I'm going to have to reach Skynet levels of integration just to keep up.  I'm even learning to speak robot.  Apparently, both "Hello," Goodbye," and "Obey," are all the same phrase:  "Beep."

Flat Classroom Project/Global Learning

The future is awesome.

The video might be a little ways off, but could you imagine?
The Flat Classroom Project is trying to make that a reality.  Imagine what we could do if we could collaborate with anyone in the world.  Imagine teaching the Hunger Games and Skyping Suzanne Collins to talk to your students about it, or speaking directly to students in Egypt while their country goes through a revolution?

The flat classroom project is having their conference soon, and we're going to watch our professor give his presentation in Bejing.  Pretty cool, Right?

Edit:  No one thought to bring a decent camera to the Flat Classroom Conference.  Dammit guys.

My Problem with Problem-Based Learning

There's a lot of excitement from teachers on the web, especially on edutopia, for problem-based learning.  And I think that's really great, PBL's are a very effective and engaging way to teach . . . if you're a science or math teacher.  However, once you start heading into art and humanities territory, the benefits of PBLs start to be less and less pronounced.  Our PBL was based in an English curriculum, but when when we finished up the lesson, we discovered that though we sent out our [hypothetical] students to read up on lots of stuff on the internet about kindle's and copyright issues, we didn't get them reading any literature.

Hypothetical students, though, are super easy to keep on task.  Lookit 'em go!

I don't want anyone to think that I don't think its an effective way to teach, I just don't think its compatible with teaching English that well.  Go ahead and Google "Problem based learning for English classrooms."  There, I even did it for you.  There just aren't that many teachers using PBL's for Teaching Language Arts and Lit.  There are better ways to use technology and get students involved with Literature and Language, more focused ways.

Introduction Presentations

As our class recently started, we spent our first assignment doing something that is par for the course for ant class:  We introduced ourselves.  While usually this involves standing at our desks and telling the class some boring canned info, like where we're from, how old we are, (maybe our name, I don't know, I rarely pay attention to these things when they line us up like that.), Dr. Z had us pair off and create a multimedia presentation that would introduce us in the most interesting way possible. 

Many of us answered the call.  A lot of people used powerpoint, which is okay, but I saw a lot of cooler stuff on Prezi, which I'm still trying to figure out how to use effectively myself.  I pirated a lot of techniques from those. Our presentation though (and by "our", I mean the bubbly and talented Hailey Coggins' and mine), was a youtube video that kind of spoofed what we thought of the basic ideas for the usual presentations: Powerpoint, prezi, skits, etc.

It was a blast to make, and I think it got our point across:  That we're both kind of goofy people who don't mind being the butt of a good joke.  Also that we are immensely attractive and charming, but that was unintentional.  I think the video gave us more control over the tone and captured our personalities better than just the information we gave.

Another group also used a video and I think they achieved the same effect:  It gave us a nice little view into their personality, and I remember their presentation much more clearly than many of the others.  Once I get their permission, I'll post it here and say a little more about what I liked about it.  

Expectations

This semester, in classroom computer apps, I have a lot I want to learn about.  Technology literacy isn't exactly popular in the English department, but I know its going to be extremely important when I'm teaching, or at least it will be if I want anyone to pay attention.  So I have a few expectations of what I want to learn:

- new programs that will make communication and information gathering easy for students

- services which allow me to dissolve the distinction between student and teacher

- New ways to teach using technology to keep students engaged