LEARNING IN HAND

PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANTS (PDAs)

AS A TOOL FOR CLASSROOM BASED LEARNING

PDAs have become tools for teaching and learning and a number of teachers have adopted  handhelds and pocket PCs technologies into their lessons. An example of this is a technology-based lesson plan designed by Stephanie Beisch on Vocabulary learning found on the website : learninginhand.com

The lesson was designed to help 6-8 graders increase their vocabulary. The content area for this lesson can therefore be rightly identified as Language Arts.

The goal of the lesson include helping students to learn the meaning of new vocabulary words,  locate synonyms for each vocabulary word, collect and store definitions and synonyms in their database’ and create programs that will enhance others’ learning.

The vocabulary is learned using a technology called Noah Lite.

On a whole, the lesson can be said to follow the constructivist approach to teaching. The lesson is very much student-centered and the teacher is a guide or helper. A critical look at the procedures involved in the lesson reveals that it encourages creativity and innovation among the students. For instance, students create an animation that describes their assigned word and share their original animations to each other.

 It also promotes interaction among students and helps them develop their analytical skills since they are to create their own quizzes at the end of the lesson.

Besides, I think Stephanie Beisch does a very good job by providing options for  the students in the lesson plan so that they do not remain at the recall level but can actually apply the concept to similar and even higher levels of syntactic and discourse organization.

 

I think this lesson plan provides a good example of how such PDAs can be used effectively in the classroom.

DIGITAL STORY TELLING

My first experience with digital story telling was with Dr. Thompson in the CI 505 class. Since then I have used the concept on two occasions to teach Narratives in Academic Writing. I am always trilled with the personal touch that my students give to their narrations. One thing that stands out is that they love to tell the stories from their personal point of view and in a more reflective way than they usually do on paper.

I can't wait to have more knowledge and experience with Digital Story Telling.

http://www.teacherspodcast.org/

SOMETHING FOR DISCUSSION IN CLASS TODAY

I FOUND THIS DEBATABLE ARTICLE FROM LITERACY IS PRICELESS AND I REALLY NEED YOUR OPINION ON THIS ISSUE, COLLEAGUES.

Articles
Digital debate: Prepare kids for exams or life? - eSchoolNews Article
An Australian educator’s decision to let students use cell phones and the internet during exams has prompted a global dialog about the nature of 21st-century assessment–and whether the definition of cheating should be changed in light of ubiquitous technology use. (article excerpt)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS?

POD CASTING IN ACADEMIC WRITING

My goal this past week in my English 101C class was to draw students attention to the fact that they can integrate the development of writing, speaking, listening and reading skills in their writing class. This is to get them stop compartmentalizing the development of these language skills.

I, therefore, introduced them to using Pod casting to report their findings from a survey that they are doing in groups for the EN G 101c class.

They seem enthusiastic about the idea of making an oral presentation in the form of a Podcast which will be 50% of their grade on the survey paper. They will be doing the presentations next week and I am very eager to see how they will do on this task and whether they will be motivated to do something like that on their own for the rest of the projects they will be doing in the class.

If it turns out very good, I will do a pilot study on this for a possible conference paper.

MEETING THEM WHERE THEY ARE AND GUIDING THEM TO WHERE THEY NEED TO BE

Student today live, sleep and wake up with IPods. Many love to read and listen, and watch a lot of “thing” using the IPod but show little love for reading books.
This week I did a lot of reading on Podcasting and video games in the reading/ writing class. I listened to a number of Podcasts form ITunes and I was very impressed with how this technology could be used in the classroom to ensure creativity, collaboration among students and help make learning materials more authentic. I think it can be a very powerful tool for cooperative learning if used effectively.
I read about teacherspodcast.org. in Literacy is Priceless and visited the site. Colleagues, I think there are wonderful examples of how we can use Pod casting to create the sort of 21st century classroom that Dr. Schmidt zealously encourages us to aim at.

Something worth pondering
Reading Literacy is Pricelss I found that the New York Times published a very interesting article by Motoko Rich titled, “Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers.”
“You can’t just make a book anymore,” said Mr. Haarsma, a former advertising consultant. Pairing a video game with a novel for young readers, he added, “brings the book into their world, as opposed to going the other way around.”

Colleagues, what are your reactions to this assertion? How can we use these tools to meet them where they are and help them reach where they need to be in today’s 21st Literacy?.

This week has been a very busy but an interesting one for me. I got some new ideas on Web 2.0 and some beautiful experiences doing the homework with the Palm One.

I am getting more and more convinced that New sch0ols need new tools.

Motivation and Technology in the Classroom

This week, I have been reflecting on how to motivate students to love using technology in the classroom.

I have been using some technology such as Google doc., Inspiration and Compleat Lex tutor to teach academic writing. During my one-to-one conference with my students I found out that there are about four of them who prefer using technology for entertainment and not for academic work in the classroom. I have been looking for ways to help them come to appreciate technology not only as a tool for entertainment but also a tool for academic work.

I have come to realize that learners bring different perspectives to the technology based classroom. While some are highly motivated, others are very passive about using technology in the classroom and still others do not want to use technology for academic work, especially in the classroom. I think that all three groups need to be motivated. Those who show high motivational intensity towards using technology to study in the classroom will have to be helped to maintain their level of motivation and those who are less motivated require careful guidance from pedagogical applications to this approach.

Making students aware that learning through multimedia technology demands new learning strategies and self-directed learning is a crucial first step.

Do you have some ideas on this?