Blog Post 8

Adaptive Technolgies are among the most exciting prospects in terms of educational technolgoical systems. The ability of software to adapt to the needs of the student or the learner is incredible. Some of these software programs include those for advanced and gifted students. Online programs often offer the ability to formulate challenging course material for those students who may not be particularly challenged by the curriculum. In addition, there are adaptive technolgoical programs that exist for those who speak english as their second language. Programs offer teachers solutions for working with students with communication barriers. When I worked with the 1st grade classrooms at FSUS last year I saw that they often used adaptive technology to challenge every student at their respective reading level. While the benefits are enumerable, there are many challenges. For example, at higher levels, the differences in difficulty of work or challenge can often lead to minor social stratification and lower levels of achievement for those students who are given easier material.

Powerpoint is a great technology for meeting the levels outlined in bloom's taxonomy. Lets say for example, I was teaching a lesson on the Battle of Gettysburg. For remembering, I would teach them the events of each day. This is the basic stage: remembering. Next, I would instruct them on why such information is important: understanding. Each slide would give information clarifying the decision making process. For application, I could show an empty map and have the students show where Lee's troops went and where the Union troops went. Next, I would have a slide of questions that would guide the students on why the think the decisions made were done in such a way. This would be analyzing, which could lead into the evaluation slide in which I would ask who the best general in the battle was. Finally for creating, I would show a map of the first day, and I wouldhave the students create their own battle plan.


As mentioned in the book, teachers need to be the driving force behind the evolution of technology both within and outside the classroom. Reddit's technology board (located at reddit.com/r/technology) is my personal choice for staying updated on technology.

Reddit uses a user-submitted content forum that rates content based on an upvote system. This keeps the most current and relevant information at the front page of visible content. This can be a great way to manage information and learn new content, which can be of great assistance in teaching and staying informed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Journal #9

Image
The flipped classroom is a revolutionary new approach to education. The basic premise of the system is that students do work and research on their own time or with teachers assistant in an extracurricular manner, then the students are given time to collaborate and do work inside the classroom; teaching each other rather than being lectured to. Students could use videos outside the classroom to learn about pertinent classroom information. One of the single best resources for educating children of all ages is the website https://www.khanacademy.org/. Khan Academy has material for all sorts of classrooms and can offer a singular format which students can use for all of their classes, not just a single specific course.  The Open classroom is the future of education in the modern world. As the cost of traditional in-class education skyrockets, there is little doubt that open-classroom approaches will rise in popularity. Open content dictates the materials that can be usedby teac...
Read more

ILP "Participation" - MOOC

Image
For my independent learning project, I participated in a MOOC. I utilized the website EDX.org, which offers a wide variety of MOOC courses on a wide variety of subjects. Using the program was very simple. I created an account for free and enrolled in my first course. As a history major, I decided to enroll in the "History of Violence" course offered by Newcastle college. I found it incredible to be able to be enrolled in a course taught by Australian professors, despite being in the united states. To begin, you take a pre-course survey which establishes who you are, where you are, and why you are taking the course. After this, I watched many of the videos and began to develop a strong base knowledge in the subject matter. The course breaks into three weeks, and there is an exam at the end to assess knowledge. If one were to pay $49, they could be given an official certificate signifying completion of the course from EdX and the college through which the course is being offere...
Read more

Blog Post 6

Image
Maintaining websites is a very important part of being a teacher in the 21st century. The website for Briar Woods High School, the high school I attended can be found at https://www.lcps.org/bwhs . The class pages are not the most well formatted, and the website is not the easiest to navigate, but the page is most assuredly serviceable. This site, of course, is catered to individuals who are ages 14-18, so the complications of navigation can most likely easily be circumnavigated. For example, the “staff” link is for staff to use, where as many might assume they can click that tab to go to the teachers pages. One actually must navigate to “academics” to find their teacher’s individual pages, which are not uniform in formatting when it comes to the actual links themselves.   I believe that technology is essential to accomplishing professional responsibilities. Of course, productivity software is a crucial part of all portions of the profession. Completing memos, spreadshee...
Read more