2 things I learned from presentations

I learned two things from presentations:

I want a promethean board in my classroom.

I also want a classroom set of cameras in my classroom.

Both would be a great way to let the students have the technology in their hands.

What I learned

What I learned from watching Nicole's and Hailey's lessons was how I can find ways to make regular lessons interactive by using technology. I enjoyed seeing how other people were proactive about finding different ways to use technology in their teaching. I hope to show that in my teaching I can find ways to use regular lesson plans enhanced through technology.

Internets talks

My wife and I discussed with her Aunt how she uses the internet in her home this weekend. We talked about how through talking about the internet and making some decisions early a lot of things can be avoided. Even for those who are not as technology savvy internet safety can be obtained. We also discussed how much computer literacy is a necessary skill in today's world. As parents we have an important role to keep our families safe from the dangers of the internet.

Readings

1. What article did you choose to read for your fourth article?
Fighting Internet Filth
By Mario Hipol
August 2005 Ensign

2. What were the most important things you learned from the readings?
This isn't something I learned, but I liked the idea of using pop-up filters, showing kids how to use credible internet browsers, and to keep kids from using P2P file sharing applications. By doing this, kids and students can keep computers safe from harmful material and viruses.

3. How will what you have read influence your actions as a parent and/or teacher of children and youth?
Teach them correct principles to make the correct choices is one thing, but providing them an opportunity to make mistakes with the internet can have lasting consequences. I will keep computers in public places in my home, and make sure students are always given access to the internet, but with supervision.


4. How can you use what you have learned from the reading to have a positive influence on family and friends?
Lead by example. As people come into my home they and they see how someone can be connected to the internet, take the necessary precautions and still have a safe environment for their children and family.

Techno Lesson Slideshow

MrYoungGEPP

View more presentations from mrlewisyoung.

My notes didn't work, so these are the notes:

2. Mrs. Haggerty is not afraid of technology, but she has mentioned that she does not know very many creative and effective ways to use it in her classroom. I offered some of my ideas, and I think she may use more in the future.

3. Students have a hard time understanding the difference between cities, states, countries, and continents. I wanted to teach them this concept. I felt that through this google earth tour of the world, I could better prepare them to understand the concept. Students didn’t have access to a computer lab, so I couldn’t let them discover on their own. Ideally, I would have spent 30 minutes in Google Earth letting them play around with the concept of city, state, country etc. on their own, but because of limitations on my own time, I could not. Right before our last day, a computer lab opened in the school where a lesson like that could, and probably will be taught.

4. I started on a zoom out view of the earth. I talked about how the Earth was made of large bodies of land called continents. I stated the objective clearly, that we were going to go on a field trip without leaving our seats.

5.I let Google Earth zoom all the way into their school, where I had placed a logo on the soccer playing fields. They connected with the school and some of the students came to the screen and pointed out the playground, and where the bus drops them off. Then I showed them that draper was a city, smaller than a state. The state which we live in is…

6.I showed the students that Draper Elementary was just a small dot compared to all of Utah. Again, if I could have had the opportunity to let the students discover and play with Google Earth on their own, I would have jumped at the opportunity. But because the computer lab was under construction the entire time I was there, I couldn’t.

7. I explained that Draper was a city inside of a state inside of a country, America.

8. America is apart of something larger than a country called a continent. The zoom feature of this slideshow helped run this lesson, they could see the zoom in, and zoom out during this portion better than other portions.

9.What continent is this?
None of the kids knew. That was OK. They didn’t get it right the first time, and they didn’t leave the lesson knowing the continent’s name. My objective wasn’t to inform them of the names of each continent, but it was to help them understand the relationships between their community and the world.

10.My favorite part of this lesson came here.

Mr. Young: Does anyone know what continent this is?
Student 1: Africa!
Mr. Young: No…
Student 2: Australia!
Mr. Young: nope, not that either.
Student 3: Texas!

This illustrated to me that they have a hard time understanding what I was trying to teach, and further convinces me that this could be a most effective tool to teach them this.

11.The slide show goes on.
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14. Seven or eight students knew this one. Probably because it is the most unique of all the continents.
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16.I created a pop-up, and for this lesson I had one member read it to the class. If I had the students working in groups with their own computer, I might give them a task at each location, or one location. It worked well for my lesson, but in the future I will probably do it a bit differently.
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19.I brought the slideshow to a close by bringing them back to Draper Elementary. It seemed to me that the zoom function really hit home that time. They saw the earth zoom out, and then zoom back into Utah, and their school come into view.

I could have used the technology more effectively in letting the students use Google Earth to learn the concept in my objective. I would have too, given the opportunity.

I think the technology gave this learning activity the backbone it needed to learn a difficult concept for first graders. Without technology it could be learned, but the technology helped greatly in the aid of learning.

The students may learn this concept without technology, but allowing them to discover it on their own using the technology could be quite beneficial. Using it as a discovery model instead of direct instruction would be the most effective, and I would try to implement that more next time.

You could do a similar activity without technology, but it would seem like a boring direct instruction lecture about each of the continents. Would not engage the students in the same way.