The Chapter 6 video showed a lesson utilizing weather data from the internet. The students were asked to research a particular city’s weather and construct a slide which would be published as a class for Tech Night at the school.
- 1. Basic operations and concepts: students appeared familiar with navigating on laptops and web browsers, scrolling/clicking etc.
- 3. Technology productivity tools: the students prepared slides to report the results of their research
- 4. Technology communications tools: the slides were collected and published with the class to be presented at Tech Night. The instructor also mentioned that the class participates in an e-pal program communicating with other classrooms.
- 5. Technology research tools: students used technology to enhance learning by obtaining current weather information for many locations
I liked that the teacher did a walkthrough with the class to look up San Diego so they all saw where to go and what the information looked like when they got there. I noticed that she told students to double click on web links; at least in my experience, it should be single (unless it’s a Mac thing?) Not to be nitpicky at all J I thought she spent far too much time bringing students up to the front to click on this or scroll down to that. What I did not like in this video the most was that the class seemed to be rather chaotic and the teacher did not give very clear instructions about who was supposed to be doing what and where (maybe it was nerves and she was trying to over-direct); perhaps it is because she mentions that some computers were not working so when I was watching I was trying to figure out just what sort of setup they had (1 laptop per group?). I think I’d have a better understanding observing the lesson if I had a better feel for what resources they were actually using.
Wow - great job identifying the standards, Emily!
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that struck me in the video was how well the groups worked together. With just one person running the controls, it opens the door for one person to do all the work while the others goof off. And yet, I didn't see that happen on the video.
UIS has a classroom specifically designed for collaborative work - UHB 2027. If you are ever on campus, I'd encourage you to take a look at it sometime. The room is arranged with 8 host stations (with big monitors hanging on the wall). Each host station is set up for 3 students. There are 24 laptops. We use Team Spot software in this classroom, which allows the students to connect their laptops to the host station. That way, they can display their work on the big screen without hovering around the small screen of a laptop. And even better, the Team Spot software allows them to control the big screen from their individual laptops. So they can take turns revising drafts and everyone is equally participating. It's pretty awesome!
You can see photos on our Facebook page