Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Guiding Principles Re-visited
At the start of the web tools course, I was asked to reflect upon my guiding principles for using technology in the classroom. Here were some of my thoughts:
1. Does it help students apply science to daily life?
Activities that encourage students to use the web to find, for example, the pros/cons (and the factual information to back both) regarding the application of new technology are used to help students to think critically about how science affects their lives and their world.
2. Does it offer an alternative learning experience we can't do without the technology?
Offering access to virtual labs that allow my students to "see" and "manipulate" atoms and molecules, change the temperature or pressure of a gas, and numerous other activities that would not be safe or possible in the average ninth grade classroom as supplements to actual hands on labs are activities I frequently use to cover the less hands-on-friendly physical science concepts.
3. Am I doing old things in old ways? Using a projector/white board to show notes and demonstrations, using laptops in place of encyclopedias and newspapers, and using laptops for word processing are ways that I use technology weekly and even daily, but when the resources are available, why not use them?
Now that I have been introduced to many new webtools, I find the demand to incorporate technology in a new and productive manner to be less intimidating. Not only are there many tools that students can use to be creative and to collaborate with each other, the list continues to grow.
I feel positive that as long as I continue to focus my technology use on the learning outcome, asking myself how the use of a certain technology will encourage students to be independent, creative learners, I will be successful in helping students use these tools to collaborate and create new things, rather than using new and exciting technology to accomplish old-world tasks. The bottom line is that in order to prepare my students to successful in a web 2.0 world, I had to jump into it myself!
1. Does it help students apply science to daily life?
Activities that encourage students to use the web to find, for example, the pros/cons (and the factual information to back both) regarding the application of new technology are used to help students to think critically about how science affects their lives and their world.
2. Does it offer an alternative learning experience we can't do without the technology?
Offering access to virtual labs that allow my students to "see" and "manipulate" atoms and molecules, change the temperature or pressure of a gas, and numerous other activities that would not be safe or possible in the average ninth grade classroom as supplements to actual hands on labs are activities I frequently use to cover the less hands-on-friendly physical science concepts.
3. Am I doing old things in old ways? Using a projector/white board to show notes and demonstrations, using laptops in place of encyclopedias and newspapers, and using laptops for word processing are ways that I use technology weekly and even daily, but when the resources are available, why not use them?
Now that I have been introduced to many new webtools, I find the demand to incorporate technology in a new and productive manner to be less intimidating. Not only are there many tools that students can use to be creative and to collaborate with each other, the list continues to grow.
I feel positive that as long as I continue to focus my technology use on the learning outcome, asking myself how the use of a certain technology will encourage students to be independent, creative learners, I will be successful in helping students use these tools to collaborate and create new things, rather than using new and exciting technology to accomplish old-world tasks. The bottom line is that in order to prepare my students to successful in a web 2.0 world, I had to jump into it myself!
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