New technology in your school
Take a minute to share the most exciting new technology device(s) or programs you have in your school that you see as having a positive impact on teaching and learning. Please include:
- Your grade level and subject
- The exciting new technology
- How you use it with students
22 Comments:
We don't have much at the small school I teach at. I am trying to come up with a way to teach my 5th graders how do use a data base, or spreadsheet. We don't have a projector so they can see what I am doing. Any ideas?
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Perhaps creating the lesson using screen shots (PrintScreen) and creating your own "technology book" for students might work. Here are some DB and SS lessons for fifth grade.
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http://its.guilford.k12.nc.us/act/
grade5/database5.asp
http://its.guilford.k12.nc.us/act/
grade5/spreadsheet5.asp
We have tremendous resource invested in tech. The equipment and infrastructure make the sky the limit in our district, but there is little inservicing in the possibilities that tech has to offer. We have laptops, projectors, desktop computer labs, COWs, computers in nearly every room, an onsite TV lab, and the list goes on. Without inservicing too many teachers are left out of the tech loop.
We are about to start clay animation which can be done quite cheaply. We use information from the Technology School of the Future in Adelaide. See the information on this page.
http://www.tsof.edu.au/resources/animation/
Dear Kathy, You are my first resource for any project!! I've posted a few cool projects with Kid Pix on my website. 2nd graders did Haiku poetry about Fall with animated stickers and music. It was a big hit. Last year, 2nd graders did biographies of the Presidents with Hyperstudio, which we no longer use. The students dressed up as their president and created a 15 second quicktime movie which we posted. You can see these on www.bzkids.org - go to projects 2003-2004. Keep up all of your great work!!
Faith in Chicago
We're hoping to add a smartboard to the computer lab in my library. I'm thrilled about the possibilities. I'm wondering if there are ideas for using a Smartboard at the elementary level.
Here are links to some interactive whiteboard lessons. (Remember to use the term "interactive whiteboard" when searching for support materials. Other terms are company names of interactive whiteboard producers.
http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/rt/2-04_Column/index.html
http://www.ictadvice.org.uk/index.php?section=te&catcode=as-pres_02&rid=4883
http://www.kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/pages/listsmartboatr.html
Kathy
I am getting ready to have my fourth and fifth grade students create a PowerPoint presentation. Since this is the first time I will be doing this I am open to any helpful hints.
There are all types of articles and rubrics available to help you out.
Here are a couple to get you started:
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech/tech204.shtml
And here you can make a PBL checklist which might be easier for these grade levels.
http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/testing.php3?idunique=3&max=6&checklist=13
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I teach 4th/5th ELD students. I set up a weblog for my class after seeing your S.O.S on the Blog Meister and I'm realizing that my kids can use their weblog to upload from home sentences that they can then just past into the powerpoint presentations their working on at school. Thanks!
We were just introduced last night at our faculty meeting to ParentConnect, which will be up and running in September of next year. Parents can look at students grades, attendance, homework assignments, and various other information concerning their child at school. As a parent myself, I look forward to trying it out.
Kids focus more when they have a tube in front of them whether we like it or not! They loosen up and write in this environment. I am teaching and learning 8th grade English. Last year I used LiveJournal to do some poetry writing and critiquing. This year I'm helping teach other teachers to go on line to try blogging in their classes.
I'm trying your recommended blog site this time, and am please to learn how blogging has changed since last year!
Thank you!
I am a technology integration specialist at a 4th-8th grade school. We acquired SMART boards as a result of the federal EETT grant. One was purchased for my 6th grade math classroom at the time. I then began training teachers how to use it. As teachers became interested in the board, our school purchased more. Other staff became comfortable with the new technology and then began training other staff. We now have a SMARTboard in every classroom and all of our teachers use them on a daily basis. Our train the trainer method was quite successful. Our teachers are quite comfortable with the technology and I now work with them in their classrooms to model lessons and assist them in the integration of technology in their curriculum.
I'm interested in knowing how other teachers of pre-kindergarten (4- to 5-year-olds) use technology in their classrooms.
What kinds of things do you do with the children? How do you manage the activities? Do you assess them on the technology or the content of the lesson?
Thanks, MaryKay
Mary Kaye,
Here is a site that is dedicated to early childhood technology literacy that might offer some useful ideas.
http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/littlekids/
Kathy
What do you think about teachers using Tablet PCs and wireless projectors as oppossed to interactive/SMART boards? The tablet allows the teacher to move around the classroom more freely than a SMART board and is much easier to move between classrooms if it has to be shared. Do Tablet PCs get too hot to carry around? How long does the battery life last?
Just got Visual Communicator. Looking forward to kicking up our morning news show.
We dispersed Toshiba Portege M200's to about 20 teachers last year. Those batteries last about 2-3 hrs. This year, we're going to be using Fujitsu LifeBook Tablet PC which we got with an extra battery and a CD/DVD drive. I used it at NECC for a 1/2 day workshop + and it lasted the 6 hours. Great solution for use in very old buildings w/o elec. 2 grades or 175 students will be using them in Sept. They don't get too hot.
It's just amazing what you can do with the tablet PC - very much everything you can with an interactive whiteboard. We have some wireless projectors as well which allow the teacher to show a student's work on the screen as well as the teacher's. Students love to be in the spotlight and they strive to excel.
We have at least 1 projector and a pulldown screen in each classroom - some are connected to a DVD/VCR. Wireless access points are in the many buildings thruout the campus k-12. More than 50 teachers now have tablet PCs with CD/DVD drives so they don't need a separate player. We have 4 computer labs - 1 used primarily for a language lab both via tape recorders and computers w CDs. We are training the teachers on how to use the Tablets (and this sometimes means very basic use) but they come away from the 3 1/2-days of training with excitement and confidence that they know how to use the Tablet and now are ready to prepare their lessons. Several new digital cameras and older Compaq tablets are available for checkout from the library primarily for use on campus but sometimes the students take it to a Watershed site to take pictures for their projects etc.
We also have a help desk - mostly me - who is available to answer their questions right then and there. Or they can come to the Computer Room, where I walk them thru the solution.
New technology is great, but there has to be support behind it.
I'm just starting to use Windows Movie Maker. I will be learning it along with my students and a group of teachers. I want to then burn a DVD for each student. Do you have much experience with this? Is it easy to convert to the DVD?
Creating DVD's is not as easy as it seems. However, creating a VCD (video CD) is easy, can be done on a regular CD-R and can be up to 74 or 80 minutes, and VCD's can play on most DVD players.
MovieMaker saves out as a WMV file. For either a DVD or VCD, you would have to have DVD and/or VCD software. Adobe Premiere Elements imports WMV files and creates DVD's. Sonic My DVD Studio imports WMV files and makes either VCD's or DVD's.
I personally would leave the file in WMV format and burn it on a CD-R. Students can read it on any Windows or Macintosh machine with Media Player.
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