One of the blogs I have been following is Technology Fridge. For the week of July 10th there was a link to Free Technology for Teachers. This website has free resources and lesson plans for teaching with technology. I read the July 7th post about Automatoon, a service on the web that allows its users to create animations. I explored this further and created a free account, now I have learned how to make my own unique animations! This new tech tool would be great for students using technology in the classroom. They could use the animations on websites they are creating or any other multimedia project. Also, students could create animations to demonstrate their knowledge of certain concepts, such as the Hydrologic Cycle or the anatomy of a volcano. They could even recreate their favorite scene from a book they read, rather than use a simple hand-drawn illustration.
The second post I looked at was from the other blog I am following this semester, 2 cents worth by David Warlick. The July 5th article on the home page caught my eye, So what do you call a textbook that isn’t a textbook? One of the hotly debated issues is wondering what we are going to call our future textbooks if they aren’t even books. Warlick likes the idea of a ‘digital curriculum’ and this got me thinking about what my curriculum could look like years down the road. Traditional textbooks are continuing to become more obsolete as more efficient technology is being developed, as a future educator I need to recognize this and see what other resources are out there. Eventually, my instruction could be based solely on a collection of resources designed and maintained by me. This would make my teaching methods highly individualized and unique; I could really cater to the needs of my classroom without the limitations of a textbook. But the problem is that a lot of inexperienced teachers rely heavily on textbooks to get them through the first years of teaching. Warlick brought up the idea that perhaps teachers should be required to create a first year digital curriculum to present at job interviews. I found the idea fascinating; I would encourage this progression into digital curriculum because it would promote continuous learning. One of the responsibilities that will come with becoming an elementary teacher is committing to becoming a life-long learner. I feel this new concept could really press teachers to think ‘outside of the box’ and our students could really benefit in the long run.
The final post I looked at was also on David Warlick’s blog from October 8, 2010, Are they students or are they learners? I was drawn to this post because it had 84 comments left on it, so I assumed it must have really promoted some people to think about the concept. What was great about this post was that Warlick created a chart to distinguish the characteristics of students and learners and how they differ from one another. The categories were entitled relationships with educators, relationship with other “students”, motivation, compensation, mode of operation, why?, equipped, and assessment. I really recommend people check this out; it was really eye opening for me. I never realized how the relationships in the learning environment could be so dramatically shifted just by approaching school from a different perspective. If the children are occupying the role of the “students”, they are being motivated and influenced by the culture of school and must work to earn compensation (good grades). This takes away from the sheer joy of learning something new; it’s more a job than a passion. Learners see value in their work and are motivated to learn because they see how it benefits themselves and others. There is a collaborative spirit among learners, whereas students are competitors. I’ll be thinking about this more as I become an elementary school teacher. Will the children that I teach be students or learners?
I went and looked at the Technology Fridge website and read about the Automatoons! Looks very cool, I'm gonna have to test it out!
ReplyDeleteI follow Technology Fridge too. I missed the post on Automatoons, but after are speed sharing in class last week, I had to go check it out. Your excitement was contagious. It's a fun site. I can see how it can be incorporated into the classroom. It has the potential to take the same boring lessons and turn them into something new and exciting, and the learning concepts that are being taught are reinforced while the students are creating their Automatoons!
ReplyDeleteI used freetech4teachers as well and I find that site to be really helpful and give great ideas. However, I have not checked out the Technology Fridge yet but I would like to. Thanks Ariel!
ReplyDeleteI love how involved your responses are about the blogs that you follow. You can tell by reading your blog that you really enjoy what you have found and it encourages others to check them out too.
ReplyDeleteI follow tech fridge too. Isn't it cool how many links it has to sites that could be oh-so-helpful in teaching? I downloaded a bunch of free stuff for my iPad from recommendations it made. What a great site!!
ReplyDeleteYou've found some great information through your blog followings! The animation tech tool could be really fun for students to use. I hadn't even thought about how textbooks might become nonexistent someday, but i like your take on the situation. Warlick's idea of teachers creating a digital curriculum seems a bit overwhelming, but I agree that it could be really beneficial. Looking at student learning through a relational aspect was also another great idea. You've found some great food for thought!
ReplyDeleteIts interesting that you found a post about all hard copy book fading and how now a lot of curriculum is digital. Personally, I find it very hard to concentrate when reading on a computer screen and have never attatched to digital books. I kind of feel that the best thing to do, like handling technology in the classroom, is to provide both digital and hard copies of books for students to use and read.
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