There are two main approaches to classroom technology. One is when the school district provides a particular set of technology and one is when the technology provided is either inadequate or nonexistent. This unit covers both situations.
Learning Activities
After reading this page, you have several choices:
Design a lesson that uses technology as a means to teach an important concept. If you are in education, be sure you use Ohio standards (either Common Core or the old benchmarks) and that your lesson actually teaches the concept. Think about your assessment and please do not use worksheets or tests as a means to assess what your students have learned. You can find pdf files of standards here: http://literacymethods.wikispaces.com/Ohio+Standards
Install some version of Linux on an old, useless laptop. You get credit for this even if your install is not completely successful, so this is not a high stakes activity. Write up what you did and what worked and didn't work. Videos are nice for documentation as well. You can find information about various versions of Linux here: http://distrowatch.com/
Obtain an Arduino and do something cool with it. Video what you did. Arduinos are available on Amazon for less than $25. You can get a Sparkfun Arduino kit that includes a wide range of electronic components for $99.
Technology use in the classroom is not an end in itself. While using technology (and particularly having students use technology) helps students to develop technology literacy and problem solving abilities, it remains simply a tool that can support learning, if used wisely.
How Technology Can Support Learning
Technology takes students where they cannot go on their own. For example, a simulation can take a student back to Jamestown or into an operating room to try their hands at open heart surgery. Many museums have excellent interactive websites, so students can "visit" museums all over the world without having to board a school bus. There are websites that explore history or other topics in an exciting way. When students get truly interested in something, their learning deepens (see Bloom's Taxonomy).
Technology provides access to information and resources that normally would not be available. For example, instead of studying an historical event using a poorly-written textbook, students can actually read primary texts, listen to recordings, see images, and watch original videos. This gives students a much richer sense of history and allows them to contemplate and understand people's thoughts and ideas at the time the events took place.
Technology offers multimedia explanations of concepts, which may make them clearer in students' minds.
With technology you can do things that were not possible in the past without huge amounts of expensive machinery. This includes creating videos, animations, multi-track recordings, multimedia (e.g., Prezi), 3-D images, 3-D animation, robots, and the list goes on and on. When students are involved in doing really interesting things, they learn a lot not just about whatever topic you are teaching about but also teamwork, problem solving, persistence, and so forth. What is even better is that much of the software one would need for this is "Open Source" (see below) and therefore freely available to teachers and their students.
Technology is engaging. Students often enjoy being "wowed" by technology and will pay more attention to a lesson as a result.
What Technology Cannot Do
Technology is no substitute for the real world. Students need to interact with real materials rather than constantly having the world mediated through technology. Students need to try real things like growing plants in the classroom or creating structures with real materials. Where possible, use the real world for teaching.
Technology cannot make drill and kill activities engaging for very long. It can't make a poorly-planned lesson into a good lesson.
Technology does not teach. It's up to the teacher to design a learning activity with a set of learning goals and then use the technology on the way to helping students achieve these goals.
District-Provided Technology
As of this writing, certain types of technology are common in classrooms, such as interactive whiteboards, clickers, document cameras, tablets, and so forth. As time goes on, these items will change--just in the past ten years classroom technology has changed drastically.
This means that you will need to learn how to do problem-solving as you learn the technology available in your classroom. This website may help with the process of learning and problem-solving: http://ohioetc.wikispaces.com/
When a district provides technology, they will often provide workshops to help you learn the technology. These can be helpful, although be aware that they may be put on by the seller of the technology, so they may be pretty full of advertising for that seller's products. Also, these workshops may or may not be put on by teachers who actually use the technology in the classroom. You may need to do some innovative work to find ways to make the technology work for you. Or, you may choose not to use the technology, if it seems to support the kind of teaching that you do not believe is helpful for students. Remember, technology decisions by a district may or may not include teacher input.
You can find tons of really good information from actual teachers for any district-provided technology on the web. Do a search on the name of the technology and add words such as "teacher" and "classroom." Frequently other districts will have materials on their websites, as well.
Inadequate Technology
When the technology provided is inadequate for various reasons, you still have alternatives.
There are a number of workarounds that you can use. For example, here is a cheap alternative to the commercial interactive whiteboard:
If you have your own computer (sometimes you can't download unauthorized software on school machines), you can download the free software that is required. You can also find LCD projectors with LED lights that last 20,000 hours for under $300. Infrared pens are now easily available if you don't want to make your own. And, of course, wiimotes are ubiquitous.
If you don't have a sufficient number of classroom computers (or any, for that matter), ask around for people to donate old laptops and look into refurbishing those laptops with Linux: http://ohioetc.wikispaces.com/Linux
You may not be able to get these computers on your school's internet service, however, you can take these computers to some place with wifi and download the amazing range of open source software that is available for Linux. If you use an education-centered distro such as Ubuntu, you will find a lot of educational software bundled with the operating system and plenty more you can add on without overtaxing an old computer.
One of the "selling points" of technology is that image of a group of students sitting in a classroom and each student is using the exact same type of machine. In fact, you might be able to get more done if you have a range of technological possibilities, such as inexpensive or donated android tablets along with donated old laptops.
Open Source: Cool Things Your District Didn't Provide You With
Open Source is a philosophy that applies to software and hardware.
In addition to Open Source software there is Open Source hardware. One example is the arduino:
With an arduino, you can do amazing projects such as....
or...
The Arduino Uno (which is the current version of the arduino) is currently available on Amazon for about $17. You can buy various kits, but you can also skip the kits, find plenty of tutorials online, and just buy the various electronic components (e.g., LEDs, resistors, servo motors, etc.) yourself.
Table of Contents
Introduction
There are two main approaches to classroom technology. One is when the school district provides a particular set of technology and one is when the technology provided is either inadequate or nonexistent. This unit covers both situations.Learning Activities
After reading this page, you have several choices:Philosophy of Technology Use
Technology use in the classroom is not an end in itself. While using technology (and particularly having students use technology) helps students to develop technology literacy and problem solving abilities, it remains simply a tool that can support learning, if used wisely.How Technology Can Support Learning
Technology takes students where they cannot go on their own. For example, a simulation can take a student back to Jamestown or into an operating room to try their hands at open heart surgery. Many museums have excellent interactive websites, so students can "visit" museums all over the world without having to board a school bus. There are websites that explore history or other topics in an exciting way. When students get truly interested in something, their learning deepens (see Bloom's Taxonomy).Technology provides access to information and resources that normally would not be available. For example, instead of studying an historical event using a poorly-written textbook, students can actually read primary texts, listen to recordings, see images, and watch original videos. This gives students a much richer sense of history and allows them to contemplate and understand people's thoughts and ideas at the time the events took place.
Technology offers multimedia explanations of concepts, which may make them clearer in students' minds.
With technology you can do things that were not possible in the past without huge amounts of expensive machinery. This includes creating videos, animations, multi-track recordings, multimedia (e.g., Prezi), 3-D images, 3-D animation, robots, and the list goes on and on. When students are involved in doing really interesting things, they learn a lot not just about whatever topic you are teaching about but also teamwork, problem solving, persistence, and so forth. What is even better is that much of the software one would need for this is "Open Source" (see below) and therefore freely available to teachers and their students.
Technology is engaging. Students often enjoy being "wowed" by technology and will pay more attention to a lesson as a result.
What Technology Cannot Do
Technology is no substitute for the real world. Students need to interact with real materials rather than constantly having the world mediated through technology. Students need to try real things like growing plants in the classroom or creating structures with real materials. Where possible, use the real world for teaching.Technology cannot make drill and kill activities engaging for very long. It can't make a poorly-planned lesson into a good lesson.
Technology does not teach. It's up to the teacher to design a learning activity with a set of learning goals and then use the technology on the way to helping students achieve these goals.
District-Provided Technology
As of this writing, certain types of technology are common in classrooms, such as interactive whiteboards, clickers, document cameras, tablets, and so forth. As time goes on, these items will change--just in the past ten years classroom technology has changed drastically.This means that you will need to learn how to do problem-solving as you learn the technology available in your classroom. This website may help with the process of learning and problem-solving:
http://ohioetc.wikispaces.com/
When a district provides technology, they will often provide workshops to help you learn the technology. These can be helpful, although be aware that they may be put on by the seller of the technology, so they may be pretty full of advertising for that seller's products. Also, these workshops may or may not be put on by teachers who actually use the technology in the classroom. You may need to do some innovative work to find ways to make the technology work for you. Or, you may choose not to use the technology, if it seems to support the kind of teaching that you do not believe is helpful for students. Remember, technology decisions by a district may or may not include teacher input.
You can find tons of really good information from actual teachers for any district-provided technology on the web. Do a search on the name of the technology and add words such as "teacher" and "classroom." Frequently other districts will have materials on their websites, as well.
Inadequate Technology
When the technology provided is inadequate for various reasons, you still have alternatives.There are a number of workarounds that you can use. For example, here is a cheap alternative to the commercial interactive whiteboard:
If you have your own computer (sometimes you can't download unauthorized software on school machines), you can download the free software that is required. You can also find LCD projectors with LED lights that last 20,000 hours for under $300. Infrared pens are now easily available if you don't want to make your own. And, of course, wiimotes are ubiquitous.
Here is an alternative to the Elmo document camera:
http://ohioetc.wikispaces.com/Document+Camera
If you don't have a sufficient number of classroom computers (or any, for that matter), ask around for people to donate old laptops and look into refurbishing those laptops with Linux:
http://ohioetc.wikispaces.com/Linux
You may not be able to get these computers on your school's internet service, however, you can take these computers to some place with wifi and download the amazing range of open source software that is available for Linux. If you use an education-centered distro such as Ubuntu, you will find a lot of educational software bundled with the operating system and plenty more you can add on without overtaxing an old computer.
One of the "selling points" of technology is that image of a group of students sitting in a classroom and each student is using the exact same type of machine. In fact, you might be able to get more done if you have a range of technological possibilities, such as inexpensive or donated android tablets along with donated old laptops.
Open Source: Cool Things Your District Didn't Provide You With
Open Source is a philosophy that applies to software and hardware.Open Source Software
Here is an introduction to open source software:http://ohioetc.wikispaces.com/Open+Source
Open Source Hardware (Arduino)
In addition to Open Source software there is Open Source hardware. One example is the arduino:With an arduino, you can do amazing projects such as....
or...
The Arduino Uno (which is the current version of the arduino) is currently available on Amazon for about $17. You can buy various kits, but you can also skip the kits, find plenty of tutorials online, and just buy the various electronic components (e.g., LEDs, resistors, servo motors, etc.) yourself.
Here are some arduino resources:
http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage
http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/index.html
Everyone Should Learn to Code