Friday, October 26, 2007

Distance Learning and Introduction to the Internet...

Chapter 7 included a lot of information that is used daily online. The first part of the chapter was helpful because it discussed the different types of distant learning and different applications for the classroom. I think that as an educator integrating tools for distant education will be beneficial to students that have to travel or miss school. It can also provide a means for students to interact with there peers when off of campus. It will be important as an educator to keep in mind that there will be a digital divide, and not all students will have access to technology for additional resources. I enjoyed the first part of this chapter, and struggled through the second, which discussed navigating the web, bookmarks, search engines and emails. I feel like as a current college student I am required to use the internet daily and a lot of this information is common knowledge, especially at this point in this class.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Create your own concept maps online at http://bubbl.us...








Innovative use of Technology in the Classroom

I have been doing field work in a pre AP 7th grade classroom this semester and the teacher I am working with is using technology in innovative manner with her students. This teacher has struggled with the temperature in her classroom for years and decided that she wanted to fight the school district for funding for air conditioning. She has now been recording the temperature daily in her classroom with a temperature probe and logger pro software. The students are aware of the project and participate in daily recordings. The data is then sent to the school district daily. The teacher has been consistently finding that the temperature in her classroom is above OSHA regulations and has made a valid case for her classroom. It is exciting to see her students participate in the scientific process with technology and witness first hand the importance of scientific investigation.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Exciting Software for Science Educators

I recently downloaded Google Earth to my computer and believe that it will be a fun resource for my future classroom. The software allows you to explore different constellations and galaxy's. You can also create "road trips" and navigate around the earth from thousands of miles away to hundreds of feet away. This software is fun to explore and I believe that students will really enjoy this hands on approach to exploring science.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

How can we incorporate technology into the classroom while teaching concepts such as photosynthesis with limited computer resources?

We posted this question in Classroom 2.0 last week looking for feedback from educators as opposed to trying to find resources on our own. Classroom 2.0 is a website for educators to communicate and share ideas. While the majority of questions posted had responses, ours did not. After comparing our question to others we came to the conclusion that our post was to specific. If we had phrased the question "How do we integrate technology into teaching photosynthesis?" we would have received some feedback. We asked the initial question with the addition of "limited technology resources" because in the majority of classrooms k-12 we will not have access to machines capable of analyzing specific output from plants and experiments. After looking at other posts placed by students in ED331 and the feedback they received, classroom 2.0 looks to be a wonderful resource for us as future educators.