How can you use iPads in an elementary classroom?

I was looking for some ideas on how to use iPads in the elementary classroom and came across this great resource by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano. It is only right that I share it with you! It includes slides on applications for Bloom’s taxonomy integration, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, 21st Century Skills and Literacies, and The Digital Learning Farm!

Transformative iPad Use in Early Elementary School from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano

Technology Infused Presentation

The following presentation is a PowerPoint I created to integrate the history of the Olympics and technology. The lesson was actually found on the Microsoft in Education website and modified for middle school students. For more information about this lesson including Standards, Objectives, and other specific instructions, contact me at brownk2012@gmail.com.

Reflect on the Idea That Tests are the Only Objective Assessments of Student Learning

If one was asked, “Are tests the only objective assessment of student learning?” I would wholeheartedly disagree. The word “objective” is defined as “fair, impartial, equitable, nondiscriminatory, or unbiased”. Evaluating students only using test scores would not be described by any of the previous adjectives. All students do not learn on the same level, the same way or method, and definitely should not be assessed in that way.

At the beginning of each school year, teachers inform their students that his or her primary goals for the year are to learn and prepare to successfully pass the state’s standardized tests; High School teachers begin to prepare their students for comprehensive End of Course Exams. These formal, standardized tests are used to provide the state, school system, and school administration with students’ academic achievement or mastery. These results are not always as reliable or valid as they are perceived. One of the highest academic achievers may not respond to the testing format and appear to not be proficient based on these types of tests. While the student that ranks high on the standardized test, may not be able to verbally communicate or perform exactly what has been learned.

When planning lessons for all students, we must also think of ways to assess them that we will be fair, equitable, and nondiscriminatory. Some of these methods include questioning and learning logs to determine what information the students have gathered and using checklists and rubrics to allow for scaffolding and guiding the students as they move on to the next level of learning. Using other techniques like student profiles, anecdotal records and portfolios help to keep record of student learning over time. These profiles and portfolios might include samples of the students’ work like presentations, projects, or other visual representations of learning.

Using both formal and informal assessments allow you and the students to accurately estimate how well the student is learning a skill or concept, if the student needs additional instruction, guidance, or remediation. So, I can not agree that tests are the only objective assessment of student learning.

Technology-Infused Classroom

You walk into a classroom, but what you find is not a room with twenty or more small desks and one large teacher desk with two or three chalkboards. As you enter this room, you will find large tables, where three to four students are sitting, collaborating, and communicating on a digital project. There are two desktop computers at each of these tables, which are laden with relevant hardware and software to aid in meaningful, thought-provoking lessons and activities. In the back corner, you may find another large table with a laptop and printer setup, with a small storage unit below it to store accessories to the Whiteboard and Document Camera systems. There is a file cabinet, but it doesn’t house the regular paper files, because those are all found on the school’s network server. This cabinet actually contains flip cameras, digital cameras, and I Pods, as well as the accessories needed for them.  You look around further, and realize that you do not see any hard copy books, because they are found on the students’ Internet tablets. This is how I would describe the perfect technology-infused classroom. This room would be considered the epitome of all classrooms and allows for an exclusive learning environment for all students, no matter their intelligence or skill level.

Using these technology tools in my class would be a dream come true. The reality is that many school systems do not have the budgets to include these tools for all classrooms. But, implementing technology resources in the classroom can be done without many of these tools. Being an effective 21^st Century educator, I want the following things to be present in my classroom.

• Becoming more of a facilitator of learning, rather than a teacher presenting information for the student to recite back to me.
• Working along with my students to produce a class website, which would include all the daily events and assignments, blog discussions, educational web links, and even showcase the students’ best work, is also a goal of my future 21^st Century classroom.
• Using the Internet in more effective ways will allow me to I plan to use more project-based, collaborative methods to reach the goal of producing a life-long learner. This would include using websites like http://www.filamentality.com/ to create Web Quests for students to become more engaged in their own learning.
• Focusing not only on the state curriculum standards, but also on media and information literacy, to create more critical and analytical thinkers, especially when using various researching methods.
• Allowing the students to more responsible for their role as a student and the information that they produce.
• Planning more virtual field trips when the school budget doesn’t allow for the actual experience, as well as taking advantage of teleconferencing through Skype or Google Hangout to create a dialogue with experts in various areas of life, as well as students all over the world.

These are just a few ways that one can create an effective, student-centered learning environment. I have included three very interesting and influential videos that definitely describe what the 21^st Century Classroom should move toward in educating our children and the importance of the Technology-Infused classroom.

   

Leister, J. (2008, July 2). 3 phases of educational technology. [YouTube Video file]. 

     Retrieved from http://youtu.be/-Ir4-EFVhzI

Nesbitt, B. J. (2007, November 28). A vision of K-12 students today. [YouTube Video file]. 

     Retrieved from http://youtu.be/_A-ZVCjfWf8

Rhonnieful. (2009, October 29). Teaching in the 21^st century.  [YouTube Video file].  

    Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjgKzrkMetU&feature=colike

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

Visual Literacy and the Internet

When I think back to the time when I attended middle and high school, the picture is so different. My teachers wrote on chalkboards and had students cleaned them at the end of the day. We read from textbooks and took notes on college ruled notebook paper. If there was any media shared, we had to take a field trip to the school library, where the librarian would set up the VCR media cart or a microfilm projector. The lights would be turned down and then we were quizzed verbally about what we saw. And if there was research to be done, we went to the old wooden cabinet, pulled out several drawers, and searched the card catalog for the books we needed. Well, times have definitely changed since then!

Now, teachers are equipped with the Internet, which offers various forms of media, laptops, as well as desktop computers, LCD projectors, and Smart Boards; some are even fortunate enough to have Apple I pads and IPods for each student in their class. Students even have their own tablets and phones that help record and dictate their lessons. Researching information can be accomplished with the blink of an eye by simply typing key words or phrases into an Internet search engine.

Technology is the primary source of change. With this change, teachers have had to also change from the primary form of direct instruction to a more hands-on, visual approach. More lessons have to be integrated with the use of presentations using audio, pictures, and animation in order to maintain the attention and motivation of the 21^st Century student.

During my teaching, I too have evolved from the textbook only teacher. I researched the internet regularly to find resources that would grab the attention of my students. I staying up late, many nights, creating PowerPoint presentations that not only provided the necessary information based on the curriculum, but also found supplementary resources including video-streaming and content-based websites that included interactive games, subject-related articles, even creating interesting, motivating handouts and scaffolding assignments that ensured that my students were learning the necessary information, but also allowing all the students to learn at a pace that was comfortable for them. All of these things have been done to ensure that my students were active participants in learning and not simply given information to recall by memory. Using visual learning strategies and techniques, in conjunction with the Internet, results in a critical thinker, a great communicator, and an evaluator of all concepts, views, and situations.

In the future, I plan to include, more frequently, Internet tools such as a class website, which would be an informative site for my students and their parents. This website would include links to student work and portfolios, so that the students can show their knowledge and mastery of the state assessed skills, but also show their progression of knowledge, that may not always be accurate from grading reports. I have also found an interest in the use of WebQuests to enhance and promote critical thinking of certain concepts.  I understand that prior planning is the key to my success as an effective teacher. So, I will continue to research valid and reliable sources for information, whether by using email with my fellow colleagues, or by using reputable sites for information, that can be used in the classroom and within my instruction methods.

Instructional Strategies and Technology

What is one of the most important tools used in classrooms across America? In one word, Technology. When I think of how teachers shared information during my elementary, middle, and high school years, I remember using a  textbook and quite a bit of workbooks as well as handouts. Today, these same tools are still used, but do they gain the interest of students and guarantee that the students of the 21^st century are learning quality and meaningful information that they can used in the today’s technological world? This blog will be a means of sharing how technology plays a significant role in the classroom based on research and collaboration with like-minded educators in my graduate studies class.

Today, the students of the 21^st century are being introduced to a wealth of information at the click of button. They are being taught and entertained in ways that my parents and even my siblings could have never imagined. As educators, we must be able to reach our students and create life long learners by preparing interesting, meaningful, and thought-provoking lessons that they can use in the future. Using one strategy will not produce great minds like Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, or Marie Curie. We must realize that in today’s society, we have various types of learners and the strategies and methods we use must vary as well. Although lecturing is a common way to share information, many students need more hands-on and critical thinking activities in order to gain knowledge.

Direct Instruction, like lecturing or drill and practice activities, is great for introducing a new topic or skill. But how can today’s teacher ensure that the students have actually grasped the information without simply memorizing the information? Whether the experience is independent or working with a partner or group, we must ensure that students understand what is being taught and why it is important in the real world. Using strategies like portfolios, collaborative learning groups, debating, problem solving activities, and even reflective journal writings could be used to ensure that the students are actively participating and critically thinking.  Incorporating technology in these types of lessons would utilize various types of media, such as text, audio, visuals, video, manipulatives (objects), and people, which would help to facilitate communication and learning.

Technology and media can help teachers become creative managers of the learning experience instead of merely dispensers of information. With the use of tablets, such as the I-pad, notebooks, and desktop computers, students can learn, be assessed, and given feedback in a matter of minutes. This allows the teacher to better prepare lessons and activities that are truly meaningful and helpful by going at the student’s pace.