Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Enriching Technology Blog Post

Whew, i'm finally touching technology for the first time this weekend. My blog post was late because i was in hamilton the entire weekend spending time with the family. It also gave me some time to think about how technology could be used at Mackenzie. I think that it goes without saying that technology is useful, but  its hard to find useful uses (if that makes any sense). I think that in order to do new things in new ways, we have to start off by making baby steps. Education is a system that will take ages to progess. Technology is the complete opposite, which is part of the reason why there have been so many issues trying to unite the two. The idea of a baby step, in my opinion would be starting to use technology with projects. One project that i think could benefit from the use of technology are the Grade 12 English seminars. I'll outline what the idea is in the format that was given to us on the class website.

Idea details:

The Grade 12 English seminar is a large group project that is worth about 10% of one's final mark in English. Groups of 4 students are to analyze a certain theme in 1984 or Brave New World and then in a sense "teach" the class about that theme. The idea being that, every group must present in order for the entire class to learn about the themes in the book. What I think would be effective is if we can apply the netbooks to the hour long seminar. Student will create a website, with links to either a prezi or Google docs etc for their main information and points. Within the seminar there are also certain discussion questions that must be addressed. These can be addressed in the form of an online survey where comments can be posted and where the results can be viewed on a common screen. In addition student will be able to study  the notes created and discuss things online and have interactive study sessions from home through programs like diigo, and google docs, etc. To sum up, students will create an interactive website that will teach the class about themes and motifs of the select study book that the english class is studying.

Technology Needed:

-Access to the Netbook Cart
-Website creation tool
-laptop projector kit

Pros:

-It allows for a more interactive presentation
-Makes sure that all students must participate and continue
-Ensures that a conversation/discussion can be started. (Results of the survey)
-A website can be acessed by everyone and can be used for future notes outside of the classroom (Most people didn't remember what the presentation was about: this solves that problem)
-People don't necessarily have to meet up to work on the project (a major problem i had last year)

Cons:

-Some people might have difficulties creating an engaging website
-The class using the netbooks can results in alot of distraction during the presentation
-Might be hard to coordinate so that all of the technology will be available for each presentation
-Depending on class sizes, not all students will have a netbook

What Needs to Happen to make the Idea Work- Who is Responsible

There is not actually alot of work that needs to happen in order for this to happen. It is an indepentdent project after all. Student will have to train themselves and learn how to create the websites. The teachers must outline what the students have to do and also ensure that they will have the netbooks and projector for each scheduled presentation.

2 comments:

  1. I think we have everything in place for this to work, and the teacher would love using these programs/ websites. Some teachers have already started using Google Docs, so that's a plus. The only downside I think might be is that the English teachers would want you to use the books for the ISP instead of a computer.

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  2. 1) I think that this idea is realistic because not alot of work will have to go into it in order for it to be successful. Teachers must simply present the idea to the students and assign a due date, so there is not alot of planning or prep work that needs to go into this project. Students will do all of the planning and creating of the site and other applications. It is a group project so people will be able to work off of each other's ideas. We also have all of the tools needed for this to be a success. The netbooks are available upon request and all of the software needed to make useful applications can be found on the internet and used from either a students home or classroom. Students are smart enough to design a website, so there is no issue there either.

    2)This idea will also be effective because students will be able to access the information presented in the presentations at a later time when studying. A major problem with this project is that the content is on the exam but the only way to get the information is to listen to the presentationk, where not many people absorb the information anyways. This would solve that problem. Students will learn how to create website and use certain applications (Google Docs, Evernote, etc) to effectively communicate their ideas through technology. A skill that could come in handy in this ever changing world.

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