Technology Blog 9/10

http://www.astronomycast.com/planetary-science/ep-141-volcanoes-hot-and-cold/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+astronomycast+%28Astronomy+Cast%29 (Volcanoes, Hot and Cold)

http://grokscience.wordpress.com/ (Quantum Story)

http://webcast.berkeley.edu/media/common/rss/Astronomy_7B__001_Spring_2010_Audio__webcast.rss (Lecture 26)

http://podcasting.jhu.edu/makefeeds.php?courseid=67754 (General Biology I)

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/sciam_podcast_r_psych.xml (Brain Imaging Studies...)

Podcasts are digital media files that are can be downloaded through the internet. There are many advantages and disadvantages of all of these podcasts. All of them provide education to the listener. The person speaking on the podcast can be anyone ranging from a child to a professor. All of these podcasts are from educational places, so the people speaking on them all should have degrees.

Another advantage of these podcasts is that they can be use in substitute to an onsight classroom. The listener can learn the information as if they were in a classroom, except they aren't. The podcasts can be retrieved from any place that has internet access. The podcasts also have an advantage over regular lectures because you can pause and rewind them. This is beneficial in case a listener is writing notes.

There is one disadvantage these 5 podcasts have in common. In general, some podcasts have video. In the cases of these podcasts, there is no video. Since some people are visual learners, these podcasts may not be useful to them. If they had video with the audio, then I would not see any disadvantage.

Technology Journal Blog 5/6

The Negroponte $100 One Laptop per child initiative is one that wants to provide students poor and lower income students an opportunity to get an inexpensive laptop. The idea though is not to provide laptops just to provide them. They are meant to help better educate students around the world. I think these computers would be great in a school that has Internet capabilities and other technology to supplement them.

However, I believe there are a couple problems with this initiative. The first problem I see is providing an Internet source for the computers. Its all good in theory that the students have Internet capabilities. But if they do not have access at home, how can the computer benefit them outside of school? There also has to be a way to educate the people on how to use these computers. This is my second concern with the initiative. How will people, who know little about technology, use their computers to educate themselves?

I think the program is a good start but there has to be more outside involvement besides just giving people computers. There should be workers to help the people use their computers. Also, there has to be a way to provide Internet sources to people in technology-lacking areas so they can maximize their learning with the computers.

Technology Journal Blog 3/4

I think teachers should write lesson plans to stay as organized as possible. The fact that a teacher has a lesson "planned" out provides a guideline that is easy to follow. Without a lesson plan, teachers will be stuck presenting materials from off the top of their heads. Any classroom activities made for the students may not be organized. And if teachers have to spend extra time organizing the activities because they do not have a plan, then that takes away time from learning. Experienced teachers may be able to not use lesson plans only because of their familiarity with the material they are teaching. In my opinion though, lesson plans are essential even if they simple plans. The organization that lesson plans offer will save time in a classroom and keep the students more on task.

Using the lesson plans off line is a good way to gather ideas about writing your own lesson plans. However, I do not think we as teachers should copy another teacher's lesson plan and use it as our own. If my students cannot use other people's work as their own because they would be plagiarizing, then I should not another teacher's lesson plan.

http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/1144.html

Technology Journal Blog 2

Technological applications play a big role in how a class is operated in today's K-12 classrooms. Applications as simple as a word processor provide many useful resources in classrooms. Word processor can be used to create notes and worksheets for students to use to enhance their learning. A spreadsheet is another application that has many practical uses in a classroom. Spreadsheets provide a tool that makes it very easy to consolidate and arrange information is such a way to make graphs. Graphs can be made to show population growth, family incomes, and other mathematical applications. Databases are another application that are useful mainly to teachers. Databases can keep any information about any of their students in once accessible file. For example, if a teacher needs to find a parent's phone number, they can open the database that contains the student's information and find the phone number.

 By simply looking at the many different functions word processor, spreadsheets, and databases have to offer, it is clear that technology and its different applications can play a huge role in a classroom. The possible uses of technology are endless and as the years progress, different applications will emerge and have useful functions in the classroom.

Technology Journal Blog 1

Before stating the issues of using technology in the classroom, it is good to know some of the benefits of classroom technology. Technology use by the students and teachers can make learning faster and more interesting. Technology can also enhance critical thinking skills by providing teachers with more dynamic lessons. Teachers can increase their student's interest in the material by playing videos, making power points, and using smart boards instead of lecturing and writing on a chalkboard.

While all of these benefits of technology provide hope in the future of education, there are still issues. I want my blog to focus on one in particular. In my opinion, the biggest issue with our technological revolution in classrooms is money. How are schools going to afford technology? For schools with a surplus of funding, this will not be an issue. But what about the schools in districts with low SES. Those kids will get left behind the others. There is already a education gap between high SES and low SES. I think technology could possibly widen this gap.

I think most will agree that technology in the classroom can only be a benifit for teachers and students. However, not all students will be privileged to the same quality of technology as long as it cost money to buy technology. Students who live in my neighborhood will automatically be behind students in a school district like Chatham simply for the fact that we do not have the money they have. This is a problem that needs to be fixed before we fully evolve as schools into the era of technology.