To Technology! And Beyond!

Whether you embrace it or bash it, use it or refuse it, technology has embedded itself in every aspect of our lives. It isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so everyone might as well buckle up and enjoy the ride. That being said, I think we can expect many exciting advances in technology in the next five years, especially in the setting of the school classroom. In coming years I believe that new technological innovations will quickly disseminate into the daily instruction of teachers as more and more of those teachers become young, technologically savvy educators. I expect to see more teacher use podcasts, blogs, websites, and audio files to reach and stimulate their pupils. I also imagine that these advances will allow more parental insight and participation within the classroom, a much needed side of learning since parents struggle keeping up with their children nowadays. I think all of these technologies will be used regularly in classrooms in five years to help facilitate instruction.

            Overall, I feel that technology is changing education for the best. New technologies are breaking down the once opaque walls of the classroom and replacing them with the clearest of glass. Now, teachers, students, parents, administrators, and the community can all see what is taking place in the classroom and make the appropriate changes when needed. I also feel that education can now be transported more easily to the students’ home. What I mean is, that with new technology, students can now access school documents and study materials from home and in that way; learning can take place 24/7.Technology also allows educators to accumulate material from around the world in seconds with the help of the internet and the mountains of information databases available. Using this, teachers can use the most up to date and accurate information in their lesson plans.

            Teachers are reaching their students in a different way today by using technology students are already familiar with. No longer is the traditional lecture the best way to convey a learning objective. Students today are more technologically apt than ever, and as teachers, we need to harness this ability of theirs and incorporate it into our teaching. By doing so, we are reaching our students educationally in various different learning methods, whether it is spatial, auditory, kinesthetic, etc. Students are changing and so are teaching methods, so as future educators we must stay abreast of all the technologies that can help improve our instructing styles. So, in a few years we’ll find ourselves at the pinnacle of these decisions. The brink of another school year. We’ll have a classroom of wide-eyed students waiting for us and we’ll have a thousand choices to make. What to teach? How to teach? What to use to facilitate todays lesson? And most likely, new technologies will help answer each and every one of these questions. 

            Below you will find an AudioBoo file that details how I believe Podcasts can be used in the classroom and how I hope to one day incorporate them into my lessons. Take a listen by clicking on the “Play” button below. Enjoy!

listen to ‘Podcasts’ on Audioboo

Inspiration Station! - Graphic Organizers

 

            As teachers, it is our responsibility to see that each of our student’s receives an adequate education entrenched in the learning technique they most benefit from. Obviously, it is impossible to customize your entire curriculum around the needs of only one student. This doesn’t mean, however, that a teacher cannot insert various learning devices into their lesson plans that reflect different learning methods. In this posting, I will briefly highlight the benefits of using a graphic organizer, Inspiration 9 in this case, to convey information to students who are spatial leaners.

            We can all remember that time in the classroom when we have struggled teaching a concept to our class. What have we done in these instances? Probably, try and draw a chart/graph. And what has this usually accomplished? Well, if you’re like me, your drawing skills probably just confused your students further. This type of situation is perfect for the use of a graphic organizer. Graphic organizers allow the user to convey information in a visually appealing manner, which also provides an organized, easy-to-follow pattern of comprehension. This sort of technology makes it easy for students to grasp educational concepts as well as provide them with a visual memory of the information. Inspiration 9, just one of the many graphic organizers available (and the one I am most familiar with), is extremely easy to use and provides teachers with a multitude of graphic resources to create their idea. Overall, graphic organizers create a new way to present information in the classroom and also make it incredibly simple to export this information to study guide sheets, or as image files for uploading. This allows students to easily access this classroom information to study from.  

            Another way this information may be used to teach students is to have them create a graphic organizer to teach a lesson to their fellow classmates. In this way, students will not only be rehearsing the information, they will also be instructing it by showing their graphics to one another. A graphic organizer would also work wonderfully as a wall hanging to engage students in a particular subject the class is studying. In this way your students gain knowledge through the aesthetically pleasing aspects of your classroom. The advantages of graphic organizers, such as Inspiration 9, are endless. Teachers can present new ideas, put student ideas on the organizer as they are generated, formulate study guides, and make lasting visual connections for students.

            So there you have it. Graphic organizers. They provide a new and exciting way to deliver classroom information. Inspiration 9 is just one of many graphic organizers that can be used to accomplish a multitude of learning objectives. They are generally easy to use and allow the user to export their work to compatible processors. So, what are you going to do with your graphic organizer? Teach prime numbers? The Spanish-American War? Or maybe, like me, you’ll use a graphic organizer to teach the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

Below, you will find an image I exported from Inspiration 9 that I created to teach my students about the Catholic Church’s Hierarchy. Check it out!

         

The Podcast Task

            In today’s ever evolving classroom, podcasts can play a very important role. There is no doubt that after a few hours of hearing a teacher talk (maybe a few minutes for some) students tend to zone out in the quagmire of monotony. Podcasts can liven up a classroom by bringing an outside opinion (and voice) into the classroom. For example, in my Social Studies classroom, I might use a podcast of someone reading the Emancipation Proclamation as President Lincoln. This would give my students an idea of what it would have sounded like on January 1, 1863, and then provide a basis for in-class discussion afterward. This technology may also be used to teach valuable classroom appendages such as vocabulary or test reviews. These podcasts could be made accessible on a teacher’s course site so students could access them at home and prepare for an upcoming class.

            There are both advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of podcasts in school. Advantages include; making the classroom more transparent so parents can see what’s being taught, having teaching resources available to students at home on the teacher’s website,  providing a different type of learning strategy for students who may have a nontraditional learning method, and to break up the overall repetitiveness of the everyday lecture that often occurs in a history classroom. Although the advantages alone may be enough to sway a teacher to utilize podcasts, the disadvantages must be taken into account. Some students may not have internet access, so making listening to a podcast part of an at home assignment might not be possible. Another disadvantage might occur in the long run. A teacher might rely heavily on using a certain podcast(s) in class and fail to update their lesson plans because “it’s way too easy” just to have the students listen to a podcast. And finally, we must still be conscious of the fact that many parents are still not comfortable using technology and may not be able to figure out how to access a podcast aimed to inform parents about a topic.

            Although there are both advantages and disadvantages to using a podcast, all can agree it is a valuable teaching resource that should be investigated more thoroughly by educators. This technology has the ability to transform the classroom by making teaching more accessible and interesting. I think we can all expect more fascinating developments to emerge out of the world of podcasts in the years to come.  

            Because of the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, below I have posted an audio review of the Podcast “What Caused Titanic to Sink?” part of the Rhapsody Tours podcast series. Please take a look at the Audioboo found below and, if interested, check out the podcast.  

listen to ‘Titanic’ on Audioboo