Promethean Board Reveiw

With the rise of technology in the classroom, some school districts are beginning to implement the use of Promethean boards within their classrooms. A Promethean board is an interactive white board that not only allows students and teachers to write, draw, and annotate, but also has interactive lessons that enhance learning. Like a normal white board, students can use a promethean pen to write and draw; however, teachers can also use word documents to add shapes, text boxes,  and images to the board. For example, if students were completing a data table in a science lab, the teacher can use a word document to create a table and then have students fill it in using the Promethean pen. Moreover, a teacher could upload an image and annotate over the images labeling parts or writing notes.

The real advantage of using a Promethean board is the access teachers have to over 90,000 interactive lesson plans and resources through Promethean Planet. Promethean Planet is a website that provides  teachers with lessons in multiple subjects, grade levels, and languages. These interactive lessons have activities within them that allow students to interact directly with the Promethean board. For instance, if I were teaching a lesson on volcanoes, I would use a lesson from Promethean Planet that has a giant volcano in which I can drag words out of the lava and put them into organizational tables.  Moreover, the lesson includes videos and images that students or teachers can click on for more information and notes. Typical PowerPoints pale in comparison to the professionally designed interactive lessons on Promethean Planet.

Teachers can use the Promethean Board to enhance their lessons by engaging students in interactive activities which increase learning. The Promethean board addresses all learning styles as they provide visual images and text, auditory videos, and activities which require students to move and manipulate images and text.

A limitation to the use of Promethean boards is that, unlike smart boards, students have to use a Promethean pen to interact with the board, not their fingers. Older versions of the Promethean board only allow for the use of one Promethean pen at a time, which limits the amount of students who can participate in activities at one time.  Another limitation to Promethean boards is the affordability and accessibility of this technology tool, for many school districts do not have the funds to purchase it. Finally, another limitation to this technology tool is that not all of the lessons on Promethean Planet are free, which does limit the amount of lessons teachers can utilize in the classroom cheaply. However, there are numerous free presentations and lessons, so teachers will have access to lessons even without having to purchase them.

If you are interested in integrating a Promethean Board into your classroom, follow these four easy steps:

1. Buy a Promethean Board. Most school districts will supply Promethean Boards if funding permits, so individuals do not need to spend their personal money.

2. Download active inspire software onto your desktop computer.

3. Create an account on Promethean Planet

4. Turn on your desktop computer and Promethean Board and open up the software. It will sync and the Promethean Board will be ready to use!

Cell Phones in the Classroom?

To many in this next generation, cell phones have become another appendage- always in the hand, pocket, or bag of all students, at all times. With such a focus on cell phones, educators, Kimberly LaPrairie and Dr. Lautrice Nickson, propose 10 ways for students to use their phones in the classroom. The following ten suggestions were paraphrased from their most recent article 10 Ways to Engage Students with Cell Phones in the Classroom in the magazine Learning & Leading with Technology. 

1. Allow students to use their cellular devices as a way to answer multiple choice questions using applications like Poll Everywhere.

2. Reinforce vocabulary by allowing students to take pictures with their devices that represent or describe a specific word.

3. Allow students to text sentences with vocabulary words to their teacher's device. 

4. Ask students open ended questions and have them text in their responses. This activity can be accomplished through the use of Poll Everywhere.

 

5. Allow students to use the web browsers in their phone to conduct research in class.

6. Record, create, and edit student video projects  to assess learning outcomes.  

7. Allow students to send questions to their teachers using text messaging. 

8. Allow English language learners to listen to audiobooks to "increase their fluency and comprehension".

9. Send questions in a text to students in a foreign language and have them re-text the translated message back to their teacher. 

10. Allow students with learning disabilities like dysgraphia or dyspraxis to record lectures and class discussions to be reviewed at a later date. In addition, students with writing difficulties can use their cellular devices to take notes. 

Though I agree that some of the suggestions above are viable and engaging activities for students, overall I believe cell phone use in the classroom should be limited.  Using cell phones for multiple choice or open ended questions using Poll Everywhere is a great way to give all students a voice and provide visual representations of data. In addition listening to audiobooks, and taking pictures or recording videos are also activities that could greatly enhance learning. However, because cell phones are small personal devices, ensuring that students are using their devices for academic purposes is a difficult endeavor. With social media use skyrocketing, I believe that a majority of students will use their phones only half-heartedly for academic purposes, with a majority of their focus being devoted to social media including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snap Chat. In addition, another limitation to using cell phones in the classroom is accessibility. Not all students have access to a personal cellular device and thus would be unable to participate in these class activities. Even if students who did not have their own device were paired up with other students, they would still not receive the same experience as students with their own device. Another problem I foresee in allowing students to conduct research on their cellular devices is that many personal devices lack appropriate filters and privacy settings. This lack of security puts students at risk of viewing inappropriate material, or interacting with online predators. 

The use of cell phones in the classroom could meet all NETS-S student standards as it promotes creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, information fluency, digital citizenship, and digital fluency. In addition, using cell phones in the classroom also meets NETS-S teacher standard 1 (promoting creativity in the classroom), standard 2 (developing digital learning experiences) and standard 4 (promoting/modeling digital citizenship). 

LaPrairie, Kimberly, and Lautrice Nickson. "10 Ways to Engage Students with Cell Phones in the Classroom." Learning & Leading with Technology May 2013: 36. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

NETS-S (2014). In ISTE NETS-S Advancing Learning in the Digital Age. Retrieved February 12, 2014

Virtual Collaboration

As technological advances have opened up the lines of international communication, global, national, and local collaboration have increased drastically. With this increase in collaboration, it is necessary that students learn how to appropriately and successfully collaborate with others online. Three teachers in Joppa, Maryland piloted an online collaborative learning project series between different classes at different schools within their district. Barbara Boksz, one of the teachers on the frontier of online collaborative learning, wrote about this project series in an article entitled Honing the Skill of Virtual Collaboration. Prior to the start of this project, all students participated in a class discussion on netiquette and appropriate online behavior. In this project eighth grade students from different school cites were placed in virtual groups on Edmodo and asked to do virtual introductions using the applications Paint and Microsoft word. Once student introductions were complete, students were taught how to use the application Scratch to create online games. After students had gone through a step by step tutorial of how to create their game, students began to create their own original game about cybersecurity. When students had finished designing their games, they sent their games to the virtual members of their groups. Each member played each of the original games and then offered feedback to the designer regarding limitations, successes, and future suggestions. In addition, sixth grade students also participated in this virtual collaboration project by completing research projects about computers. After students had been placed in groups, and introductions were made, students used Edmodo to research, and write short excerpts about, different parts of a computer. Students then shared their writing and findings with their group, who voted on which information should be included in their online poster. After collaborating and sharing research, students created virtual posters of their findings. Overall, this virtual collaboration project was very successful and provided students with an opportunity to work closely with others in an online environment. 

While I agree that it is important for students to learn to work collaboratively with others, a project of this scale may not be a realistic expectation for most classrooms. This project required many hours of preparation by the teachers beforehand including meeting on unpaid days. In addition, it required a lot of class time which could limit student exposure to different subject matter. With that being said, I do think that the idea of virtual collaboration could be more easily achieved on a smaller scale, say between two classes at one cite. This would allow teachers to coordinate class schedules for work more efficiently and allow teachers to work more closely together. In order for this type of collaboration to be successful, teachers must be adept at using tools such as Edmodo, Diigo, and Google Drive. If I were to implement this activity into my own classroom, I would have students collaborate more during their research, or video game design, instead of after. I would also have my students use Diigo to share their research and findings as it allows for an efficient sharing of resources. I would have also had students collaborate on a subject outside the field of technology, to connect multiple subject matters with STEM curriculum. 

The use of virtual collaboration in the classroom, meets all NETS-S student standards. Students practiced creativity and innovation by designing video games and posters online (standard 1). In addition they practiced communication and online collaboration through the use of tools like Edmodo (standard 2). Moreover students practiced research information fluency, digital citizenship, and technology operations and concepts. Furthermore, this activity meets all NETS-S teacher standards by inspiring student creativity, growing in professional development, modeling digital age work/learning, promoting proper and safe netiquette, and designing technological learning experiences for students. 

Boksz, Barbara. "Honing the Skill of Virtual Collaboration." Learning & Leading with Technology Apr. 2014: 22-26. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

NETS-S (2014). In ISTE NETS-S Advancing Learning in the Digital Age. Retrieved February 12, 2014

iPad Application Review and Rules

Part 1: A list of iPad Rules

1. I will treat my iPad with respect by charging it every night and carrying it with two hands

2. I will know where my iPad is located at all times

3. I will not use my iPad without my teaching being present

4. I will keep food and drinks away from my iPad because I realize I could break the iPad

5. I will use my iPad for learning and will not view inappropriate material

6. I understand that my iPad can be inspected at any time without notice

7. I understand that having an iPad is a privilege, not a right, and that my classroom behavior may make me ineligible to use an iPad

Part 2: An Evaluation of 6 iPad Applications

Creation App Reviews

https://docs.google.com/a/cougars.csusm.edu/document/d/17SK3D2fvg1D0sUuQ52cP1uEvhtl_3SSOoJfv4MLnkSI/edit#heading=h.2u6wntf

https://docs.google.com/a/cougars.csusm.edu/document/d/1t9DJluvGpQJAsIdDEx79y1AGGDw8BI5QMgt7bRf03rc/edit

https://docs.google.com/a/cougars.csusm.edu/document/d/11X89fC4xmpy2ZgmcxrRGuOImu4nG9fKSuBZIv_0rvWg/edit

Content Specific App Reviews

https://docs.google.com/a/cougars.csusm.edu/document/d/18W1L-OrYtoQe2cnYwwiFoAVNehcAp9VblTkuQYw2RPg/edit#heading=h.2et92p0

https://docs.google.com/a/cougars.csusm.edu/document/d/1BV-OJSAd3ENr38i4rYz470eopoDZ6uiu1M03UK1srdI/edit

https://docs.google.com/a/cougars.csusm.edu/document/d/1N0vI1wE0QKWVennm2crQmX_df7AHdg3XmuRSUzaRT1g/edit