First and foremost, I would like to say, kudos to Ms. Cook for using advanced technology in her special education classroom. It is amazing to see her children’s ability to do homework and schoolwork on laptops and iPads efficiently. Being a special education teacher must be a challenge, as, they are working with children who need extensive attention and help getting through everyday life, not to mention teaching them to read and write. With the use of laptops, Ms. Cook has empowered her children to learn and advance at a faster rate than before. Technology has not only helped Ms. Cook teach her classroom, but it has also allowed students to be involved in classroom activities. Through the use of an iPod, her student, Corbin, is now able to stay in the classroom during “silent reading time”. Before the iPod, Corbin had to go into a different room and have a teacher read to him; now, he is in the classroom with his other peers. Another one of her students, Kris who cannot talk, uses his computer to communicate. He uses a mouse and a laptop to converse with others. This is utterly astonishing. There are many other students who use their technology to learn. By bringing technology into the special education classrooms, the students are able to learn at a faster rate, are more efficient in class, and can participate in activities.
Although being a special education teacher can be challenging, the students are eager to learn and express their own imagination and creative personalities, like every other child. With the right resources, technologies, and attitude, these children can be taught and will achieve. A good website with online educational games for special education students is MangoMon.There are multiple games for reading and math. Permitting children to play educational computer games allows them to get familiar with their new technology and learn. I think that the use of technology in the classroom, especially a special education classroom, is a great idea, as, it is helpful for the students and teachers.
The app that I discovered was helpful can be helpful for special education student and toddler aged students. It is Read & Write: Letters, Sounds and Combinations.This app allows children to learn each letter, the sound of the letters, the sound of combinations, and sight words. This app also plays a game with the letters; where, the child has to pick the picture that begins with the given letter. This app could be used in a classroom with iPads because there is a teaching mode for the teachers to show the students, and a student mode designed for the students. This would be a fun app for any child to play. I think that this app is an all-in-one because it offers a variety of things.
I think that making learning fun is a great way to teach. Sitting down having to do homework is a chore; by letting the child have fun, they forget they are learning. This not only helps the educators in the classroom, but it also helps the parents at home. I think that this app would improve learning because after the teacher showed the students how to “play”, the teacher could spend one-on-one time with an individual student, if needed, while the other children “played”. It would also be helpful in the classroom because if one student needed more time on a certain question, or had difficulties mastering one combination, then that student could spend more time on this area without holding the entire classroom back.
Although the “Did You Know” video had a lot of interesting facts about how fast the Internet world is growing, this counter puts it all into a real perspective. There are some sites on this counter that I have never used before that are growing at a rapid pace. I knew that Facebook was huge, but I would have never guessed that it would have been the most viewed site. Under Facebook is YouTube. I just currently, in the past year, started watching videos on YouTube on a regular basis. It is absolutely incredible to watch how fast this counter moves. For instance, in one second, there are over 13,000 views on Facebook and 1 hour of videos uploaded to YouTube. Information used for research and even communication used to take days, hours, or minutes to receive; now, this information can be received in a fraction of a second!
As a future educator, this technological advancement is frightening. Keeping up to date with new technology is a hassle. It seems like as soon as I learn how to use one program, a new version of that program is released and I have to learn how to use it all over again. This, in and of itself, is stressful, not to mention teaching over 100 high school children. My students will be much more technologically advanced than me and I feel that it will be a struggle to keep up with the new advances. Another unnerving idea about the world growing closer to technology and the Internet is the idea of having personal information on the World Wide Web. Keeping a clean path becomes more and more difficult. Even though there are privacy settings, there is always a way around them. Facebook and Twitter allow everyone, to see what is going on in your life, where you are, where you have been, and what you look like. If you stop to think about this, it is discomforting knowing that anyone who looks at your profile knows everything about you. I was taught as a kid not to talk to strangers, now we have children, of all ages, on the Internet talking to some people they do not even know! Not to mention, having sites such as Wikipedia gives students to information that could be false. Although educators teach students to use “reliable sources” it is now becoming a challenge to find these good sources. Although I think that the Internet can be a great resource, it has to be used with care and caution, as, everything is traceable, some information can be misleading, and personal information is available to anyone with access to the web. Scary! I think it will be interesting to watch the world progress because the extensive use of the Internet could turn out disastrous.
Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today
Michael Wesch’s “A Vision of Students Today” video puts a student’s life into perspective for a teacher. A student’s concerns include not only what they are learning, how they are learning, and what they are being prepared for, but also the amount of money they are spending, the jobs they will apply for after graduation, and their social lives. After entering the large classroom, the camera focuses on signs the students hold up with interesting, but true, facts about students’ lives. One student holds up a sign stating, “I buy 100 dollar textbooks I don’t even open”. This is true for every school. I have been to three different colleges. Before every semester I would take my schedule to the bookstore, let the clerk pick out my books, and pay ridiculous sums of money for books, only to find out I would never open the cover. $800 coming out of a student’s wallet is insane, then, not to even use the book is even worse. This semester, I waited until the third week of school to buy my books; I bought two out of the seven “required” books. Another girl holds up a sign stating, “18% of my teachers know my name”. Having a teacher, in college, who does not know my name can get frustrating. I feel like every student in the class gets categorized under the same “name” when the teacher does not know us apart. I do not like being characterized with a fellow student who does not care and who does not work, because I work hard and feel like that should make a difference, not in my grade but in level of respect received. Having said all of this, I understand it is not the teacher’s choice to have a class with over one hundred students. This is an issue that should be addressed by the school itself. Another student says that they bring their laptop to class, but do not use it for class related things. This is also true.
On one hand, I think that watching this video as a student, there are many good point that are true for every student. On the other hand, watching this video as an educator or University president, this video exemplifies what students actually do. By putting a student in a " what used to be normal" classroom, without technology and lecturing with a chalk board takes away from the student’s learning ability. We will have computers, access to the Internet, and will often do other things than study with a textbook and paper. By requiring children to study and learn in old fashioned ways, educators are not preparing their students for the future, rather, they are hindering them. Teaching needs to be up to date with the world today and many teachers are having trouble transitioning from the past to the present in technology.
Sounds like you're a fan of "tricking" the students into learning. So am I!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! My favorite part was your education apps section because you chose the reading and writing app. As a (hopefully) future high school English teacher, I think it is important that students fully understand the basics of English. Even as a student in high school, I could tell that English was, to quote George Orwell, "in a bad way." I believe that teaching students fundamental English skills, in fun and creative ways, is one of the most important things in a students future. Great post on that section and really good overall. Everything you wrote makes sense, your last section was funny about the textbooks, and you nailed it on the head in the app section. Great job!
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