Ann Marie Caplan
EDU 537: tech
May 28, 2012
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW
1.
TRADE ARTICLE
For my trade article, I chose to
review a recent article from ISTE’s Learning and Leading with Technology
magazine called “Fostering Creativity and Innovation through Technology” by Sheena Vaidyanathan. In this article, the author speaks about the
challenge we have discussed in our classes since day one: the challenge of
teaching our students about science, technology, engeneering and math, while
still being innovative for the competitive world of the future. The author, having taught visual arts in the
elementary setting, gives multiple examples of programs available online that
can encourage creativity and innovation in the classroom. Examples of these resources include Google
Sketch Up to create 3-D models, Inkscape to create graphics, Scratch to create
their own video games, and Seahorse to edit bitmap images. Many
of these programs are available for free on the internet.
The beauty of technology is it allows
students to experiment without fear of doing something wrong or making a
mistake. Students may start out creating
a copy of the project demonstrated by the teacher, but the end result will most
likely be something completely different and a product of their own
creativity. In addition, many of the
innovative programs available are user friendly and allow for mistakes to be
easily corrected with a click of a button.
Many programs that encourage
creativity and innovation are widely available on the Internet at no cost. Therefor, it is not only available to
students using the infrastructure already in place at many schools, it is
available at home for student who have access to the Internet. Using these resources to further creativity
and innovation in the areas of Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)
is going to better prepare our students for the future.
2.
TED TALK
For my TED TALK review, I chose to
play devil’s advocate a bit and watched Sherry Turkle’s: “Connected, but
Alone?” evaluation of technology. While
she is a strong supporter of technology and all of it’s advances, she questions
whether it is taking us in the right direction.
She speaks specifically about how technology has evolved to the point
where we don’t have to interact with each other if we don’t want to. With texting, e-mail, and the Internet, we can
communicate with one another through an inanimate object (computer, ipad,
phone, etc) rather than in a face-to-face situation. I find this topic particularly interesting as
I encourage my own kids to physically walk down the stairs to ask me a question
rather than texting me from their room.
Kids today, have grown up with
computers, gaming devices, and fancy phones, and are far more adaptive to
technological advances than we are as adults.
But, have they lost the basic art of communication? This is a skill that is essential while in
school, especially as we encourage students to think critically and work
cooperatively in groups to develop a deeper meaning. Sherry mentions two points in her talk that I
found particularly interesting:
· CONTROL: technology gives
us a false sense of control of a situation.
We can control how much interaction we have with another person, and we
can determine whether or not we have to deal with them or not.
· ESCAPE: we can escape
uncomfortable situations by turning to our technology. She specifically mentions the feeling of
loneliness and how we can avoid that feeling by turning on a mobile
device.
· ALONE: technology gives
us a safety-net so we don’t need to deal with being alone. With twitter and Facebook giving us constant
connections with anyone, we develop a habit of not having to cope with
alone-ness.
The speaker is essentially looking
at the psychological effects of technology on people in today’s society and how
we need to make sure we are not traveling down the wrong technological super
highway.
Sherry stresses that we have lost
the art of communication, which is essential in daily interactions, especially
with kids. Students who are connected to electronics at home, and have family
members who are also connected, may not have the communication skills necessary
to process through problems at school, communicate effectively with classmates
about a project, or express their needs effectively when they are having
problems. While technology can advance
us to new heights and take learning to a new dimension, it is important to stay
connected to the basics of communication and help kids develop interpersonal
skills that will benefit them as they grow into adults.
The app I have chosen to review is
Explain Everything for the iPad. I first
experienced this app at an Apple training program. The app makes it possible to put together a
presentation while recording voice, illustrating, adding pictures, etc. While at the training, the Apple representative
walked us through a process of using a picture of the rainforest, adding illustrations,
and recording what we know about the topic.
After completing the presentation, it can be sent to YouTube, shared
email, or saved in a picture file to be added to iMovie at a later date. I could see this app being used in any
educational setting both by teachers and students. It could be a valuable teaching tool as it is
easy and quick to use, and it could be a great tool for students to use to
share what they have learned.
For my webinar review, I searched a
variety of sites including the ones on the blog. I found it difficult to find a webinar that I
could access for free and easily (I registered for one, but could not figure
out how to view it). I ended up finding
a webinar on YouTube about the many ways to use Google Apps in the classroom. The quality was a little difficult to see, and
the presentation was not always fluid, but the presenter did provide a bit.ly
of the presentation at http://bit.ly/hbypj0 for future reference.
Some of the features are ones that we have already covered in class, but
many were new to me. The three features of Google Apps that I found
most intriguing are the ability to translate letters to parents into different
languages, using Google forms and spreadsheet to collect and collaborate
science experiment results, and using Google forms to create formative and
summative assessments for students. The
webinar provided lots of valuable information as well as opportunities to apply
what was being taught in real time. I
would definitely consider referring back to this webinar or attending another
webinar on this topic in the future, as there was a lot of valuable information
that was shared.
I chose to review PREZI as my free
choice tech tool as I hope to use it for my tech project in the future. I am intrigued by the ability to move around
a presentation and take the viewer on a journey rather than just showing them
slides with information with hopes that they are paying attention. By keeping the information moving, so to
speak, I would think the viewer would be captivated by the presentation and
eager to see what comes next. I could
see this easily being used in the classroom to “spice up” content that is less
than entertaining. The Prezi can then be
published to the Internet for viewing or can be downloaded to your
computer. The value of working on the
presentation online is that you will always have access to it no matter what
computer you are working from. The site
has four valuable YouTube videos giving brief tutorials for how to use the
application as well as an in-depth manual of help topics. Prezi is also connected to Facebook, Twitter,
and Linkdin making it easy to share your presentation.
My initial impression of the ISTE
website is that there are lots of opportunities to buy things. Beyond the initial purchase of the
membership, just about everywhere I explored led me to something to
purchase. Aside from this small
frustration, I found that the website does offer a lot of information for
teachers and administrators. After some
digging, I found the area with information on webinars (the season pass is only
$795!) though I was not able to get into the webinar archive, either because of
my computer freezing or the site itself.
All in all, this is a site I may return to in the future, though I find
it easier to navigate and collect information via the Internet itself.
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