Sunday, June 9, 2013

Blog Post 4

Once I start teaching elementary education, more specifically second grade, I want to use tools that keep learning fun. That is why in my class room I would like to use SMART Response interactive response system to go along with my SMART board. The SMART Response interactive response system connects small hand held devices directly to my SMART board. This allows me to post math problems, reading questions, and potentially many other daily questions such as attendance at the front of the room. All they have to do to respond to a question is simply click a button on their assigned device. The potential this tool has in a classroom is limitless. As a teacher, this benefits me in many ways, but most importantly it allows me to evaluate my entire class almost instantly. If I was to give the same problems on paper it would likely take me at least 30 minutes to go through all the papers and get back to my class to address frequent issues or see that they have comprehended the material. Not only does it speed up the time it takes to evaluate my students understanding, but it is a very helpful tool to eliminate unnecessary paper waste. Making my classroom more environmentally friendly.



Jamie Risner

21st Century Learning And Communication Tool

When I graduate I will be teaching High School history, with that in mind I believe the most important learning and communication tool I will be using in my classroom will be e-books. There is new technology being brought into classrooms every day, however I think the most important, and overlooked technology is e-books. One reason I think e-books will be the best learning tool for my classroom is they are small, weigh a lot less than a traditional textbook, but can store all the students needed information for all of their classes. Not having to have many different textbooks is not just good for the students, but also great for the enviornment because e-books do not use any paper. E-books are not only good for the students but also great for the shcool as well, because books would be much cheaper downloaded on e-books. On the web site www.dbreaders.com it says that 1,500 books on an e-book will cost about $15,000, however to buy 1,500 hard copy books would cost about $39,000. By simpley using e-books schools could save a lot of money that they could put towards other improvements in the school.

The third, and most important reason that e-books would be the best learning tool in my classroom is, because they offer many options that pen, paper, and text books do not. The website www.dbreaders.com says "e-readers offer online dictionary, unlimited notes, saved highlights, simple and convenient search, and the ability to share quotes on popular social resources like twitter and facebook". With these types of options right at my students finger tips the sky would be the limit to their learning. With so many benefits it is hard to understand why schools have not already gone to using e-books. E-books range in price from around fifty dollars to hundreds of dollars, and are avalibale at most electronic stores and even online. I believe it is only a matter of time before schools start doing away with textbooks, and replace them with e-books. My question is, with all the benefits e-books offer to classrooms, why wait to make the switch?

Kaylee Diegan

There are so many technological tools to be used in the school systems. Many of those are used in my EDM 310 class such as a blog, twitter, google docs, skype, etc. However, I think there are certain technological tools that should be used with different age groups. For instance, Remind101. This is a tool that could be used for the age group I want to teach, which is sixth grade. Remind101 was created by two brothers who can see the obvious struggle of communication between parents, students and teachers.

How It Works

As a teacher, you create a login and are given a unique code for your class. Your students and their parents can also sign up, using your class code. The teacher can then send messages to those who are signed up. The best thing about it though, is that there are no cell phone numbers shown. The only thing that you can see when sending/receiving messages is the other's name, not phone number. This keeps a safe barrier with the communication, ensuring that the cell phone numbers of teachers, students and parents are being misused.

Examples

A teacher can send a reminder saying, "Science test tomorrow."

A teacher can send a message saying, "Homework due on 06/11/13. American History, page 220, questions 1-6."

With this tool, students are reminded of their work, and parents are either reminded, or told for the first time. Many times, students are lazy and don't turn in their homework. This is an easy way to stay on top of them and make sure they are performing their very best.

4 comments:

  1. maggie I really like this idea! The only time I have used a smart response interactive response system is in one of my college classes. The only time we used them was for attendance. I am happy you pointed out all the great benefits they offer. I will defiantly want to use them in my classroom as well.

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  2. I think this is a great idea, Maggie! In many of my college pre-requisite classes we had something similar to this SMART Response Interactive System; but it was referred to as a "clicker". My professors would take attendance via the clicker, and also post questions as you said. I never thought about the fast grading response. It's not only favorable towards the teacher, but the students also. The only thing I saw in your post you may want to look at was "...connects a small hand held devices directly to my SMART board." I think devices should be device! Great post!

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  3. Since SMART boards are by necessity group based you may find that iPads are better suited to accomplishing your goals. You can expect tablets in all classrooms within 5 years from now!

    Well written. Thoughtful. Keep it up.

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  4. Maggie,

    I like the idea of the Smart Response system as well. I've used it a few times and I really liked it. But, like Dr. Strange mentioned, things will definitely be moving toward the use of tablets in the near future! However, I think that some of the same principles of paperlessness and efficiency will still apply. Good post!

    I noticed that you didn't include the links to your group member's blogs, so try to remember that next time!

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