Week Seven

Picture a classroom. There are 35 students. One computer in the corner of the class. The class is noisy while the teacher is trying her best to calm the students down. They all want to use the computer.

This is what I imagined when I started reading Phyllis Stallworth’s words in “How to Thrive -- Not Just Survive -- in a One-ComputerClassroom”, I felt like this is one situation I would hate to put myself in and felt lucky enough to have a computer room at my school. There were times when I needed to bring my laptop with me, but it was done for a specific purpose and I had a full lesson planned without having the students use the laptop.  As I continued reading this week’s articles, I felt a bit at ease knowing that there are numerous solutions for teachers who have one computer at hand and would like students to be able to use it, but I realized that I could also benefit from these strategies as many of them provide tips on what to do when having a projector as well. Some of these ideas include showing a movie, graphic organizers, maps, short videos, student presentations and even having the class connect with another from around the world. I realized that if planned out well, a lesson with one computer can be not only very entertaining, but informative as well.

I was very eager and excited to read about the use of mobile devices in class as it is something I would love to explore further, that is, once mobile phones are allowed in class. Until then, I’ll have to settle for writing and saving ideas to be used with my students. What I would love to get a chance to do with my students is a QR Code hunt. The idea would be to create a treasure hunt where students use their phones to scan QR Codes, receive a question or task which would lead them to the next QR Code. Today, a simple search in an app store would yield tens of results that include apps made especially for educational purposes.

http://www.topapps.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Top-Android-Apps-for-Teachers-or-Educators-to-Offer-Quality-Education.jpg

When searching through the internet for a list of apps, I came across a post by Martin Call who categorizes famous apps based on Bloom’s Taxonomy such as Ted Talks for Analyzing,  Prezi for Applying and Popplet for Remembering. Many of these can be put into different categories and changed around, but the fact is, even when using mobile devices or Ipads, the learning process is not void of higher order thinking and enhancing cognitive processes.

http://www.pedagoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Blooms-Apps.jpg

Upon reading the article by George M. Chinnery about Mobile Assisted Language Learning, I was very impressed by the findings of the Thornton and Houser project in which better learning results occurred when using SMS to send vocabulary practice and card in comparison to students who received the same vocabulary via paper or the web. I've never given my students vocabulary practice activities on their phones, but from what I understand from the article “Emerging Technologies, Mobile Apps for Language Learning”, Quizlet is one of the tools that can be used on mobile devices. I will be using that with my students during the next school year.

This week, we got to experience Padlet. I had already used it the WebQuest that I created for the final project, but never got a chance to use it with my own students because I only recently found out about it when searching for an alternative to Linoit. I have always used Linoit for reflection and pre-reading and Padlet would serve the same functions.  After thinking about what activities can be used with Padlet, I believe I came up with some interesting ones such as writing an original story by having each student post a paragraph. It is amazing what a post on Nicenet can do to your imagination.

This week we were asked to work in pairs in order to review one another’s draft for the project plan. I can certainly see how this is beneficial, as it gives me a new perspective and evaluation on my work. I am glad that peer assessment is part of the steps towards our final project as it will give me a chance to rethink certain issues through and make changes to what I might think is a final idea. Now that I am given this chance and knowing that it is quite assuring for me, I will be trying this method with my students as it would boost their confidence and having their work evaluated by another student before the teacher, I believe, would be quite a relief for them.

I am still working on my Wiki and tutorials for my final project. It does take a lot of work. After going through the Padlet activity, I feel that adding another reflection to the Wiki site was a great idea. I was afraid to overload the teachers with a Wiki reflection and a WebQuest reflection, but now I’m convinced that it will only be of benefit to them to reflect on the whole learning process. I have added another assessment rubric which will be counted as part of the final grade to the Wiki as I wanted it to have meaning and I wanted the teachers to be motivated to complete the tasks.

This has been a very interesting week and every week is unique in its own way. I’m looking forward to next week and I cannot believe that we will be approaching week eight in a matter of days.

Nahla

Sources:

• ·         Burkhart, Linda J. "Strategies for teachers - One Computer Classroom." Simplified Technology. N.p., Jan. 1999. Web. 4 Aug. 2014. <http://www.lburkhart.com/elem/strat.htm>.
• ·         Chaika, Glori. "Education World: One Computer in Your Classroom?" Education World: Connecting educators to what works. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Aug. 2014. <http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech092.shtml>.
• ·         Chinnery, George M. "EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning." Language Learning & Technology 10.1 (2006): 9-16. Web. <http://llt.msu.edu/vol10num1/emerging/default.html>.
• ·         "Using One Computer in the Classroom, 7 Categories of Classroom Computer Use."SouthEast Initiatives Regional Technology in Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Aug. 2014. <http://www.seirtec.org/present/onecomptr.html>.