Sarah Bustamante
LEARNING CONNECTIONS: MANAGING AND MAXIMIZING A CLASS SET
OF IPADS
Conn, Cynthia. “Learning
Connection: Managing and Maximizing a Class Set of ipads.” International
Society for technology in Education. 39.8 (2012): 29 May 2012.
This article
documented a pilot program with 5th graders at an Arizona Title I
school where the class was granted a set of ipads. Before using the ipads the students were
required to create a care and use agreement where they recognized and set forth
rules and regulations. This process
aided in establishing a sense of ownership among the students.
Findings:
- Professional development for the ipads were extremely beneficial
- ipads were much friendlier to use over laptops
- Students thoroughly enjoyed the use of ipads- using them to complete schoolwork, (didn’t want to miss school for fear of missing out on using the iPads)
- Students stayed on task while using iPads
- Students of special needs were difficult to identify amongst their peers when using ipads as they were successfully able to use the ipads as well
- Teachers became active facilitators- they were able to get immediate feedback from students success on apps and were informed about what areas of instruction needed more attention
- Many apps provided differentiated instruction in that many included visual, interactive, and varying levels that challenged students
I found this to be an interesting article as it does show
positive findings for intergrading technology in the classroom where each
student regardless of their background or disability has an opportunity to be
engaged and involved. I also believe it
is a wonderful way to encourage students to take what they have learned in the
educational setting to apply to their use of technology at home.
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Alan Kay shares a
powerful idea about ideas
This TED Talk was about how to implement technology to help
comprehend, teach, and display mathematics and science at a new level. Kay’s reasoning is that by learning in a
situated fashion students can learn in a visually understandable way. Some of the ideas he presents build on
activities implemented in the classroom and later analyzed and re-taught using
technology. He ends his presentation by
promoting the use of laptops saying, “Children are the future we send to the
future.”
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Webinar
HeadSprout: Improving Reading Comprehension Through
Adaptive Online Instruction
This Webinar looks at reading comprehension through
measurement and assessments. Indications
of comprehension include: following instructions, answering questions and
retelling. Reading comprehension is a
requisite skill needed for all subject areas- not just language arts. Headsprout is an online instruction tool to
help build independent comprehension skills through adaptive instruction. “Adaptive instruction personalizes the
sequence, contents, and other instructional elements for each learner depending
on the learner’s error patterns.”
Through 50 online lessons, students learn to comprehend through various
strategies designed for grades 3-5.
Typically, fluency is stressed in schools, while many students struggle
with comprehension.
I am curious to learn more about this program. In my reading perspective class (reading
endorsement course), we learned about the NCLB- Reading First and its
flaws. Many of the claims were based on
fallacy and few resources were considered when NCLB was passed. In fact, the sources that were considered
were those who were tied to corporations with the desire to push their
product. In turn, study after study
revealed that fluency and phonics increased while comprehension was not
improving through the Reading First Initiative. The findings through this
Webinar were positive and I am definitely left with lingering curiosity about
this program.
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App Review
Motion Math Wings
| Motion Math Wings is a mathematics game that challenges its player to identify the greater amount between 2 different problems. For beginners, the problems look like they do here (in the provided picture) where the visuals are represented using shapes. In advanced problems you may see a multiplication equation across from visual shapes. The engaging part is that the bird is flying at a steady pace and the player had to tilt the ipad to guide the direction of the bird to choose the greater amount. Once reaching the island, the player receives their score along with rewards. |
After downloading this App from last class, I found that
this has become my kids’ favorite app on our ipad. They quickly discovered it and are finding features
I hadn’t known about. What is
beneficial about this game is that it provides visuals and several attempts at
mastering a particular problem. For
example, if you were to fail the above problem, you would see the same one
maybe 2-3 times more throughout your flight.
What my boys particularly loved about this app was that it provides nest
building materials and new feathers for the bird as you go along and complete
flights. I have a feeling that I will be
pressured to purchase the full version very soon. The free app so far has been great!
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FINDING SUCCESS WITH BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE
Chuck Dinsfriend
April 26, 2012
This BLOG introduces its readers to BYOD (Bring your own
device). Schools are implementing this
solution as it cuts costs of purchasing the technology itself, maintenance, IT
servicing, etc. The successes lie in
ensuring that Acceptable Use Policies be enforced and understood in the
classroom and giving students login information of their own.
The benefit that I see in this is that again, students are
instructed how to use their device in a safe, educational setting where they
can take this information home to implement on their own.
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My Choice: Creating a Classroom Website http://www.wmich.edu/teachenglish/subpages/technology/classwebsite.htm
Technology with Teaching
This site provides several tips and instruction on how to
create an effective classroom website.
With examples and many links to other websites which provide additional
information, I found that this was an excellent place to begin my research for
what constitutes a quality site for parents, students, and colleagues to access
and benefit from. This will provide a
great amount of information to drive my tech project in doing just that-
creating a classroom page. I am unsure
of what kind of site I will create but this gives helpful tips such as what
elements are important to include, design, functionality, organization,
etc.
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