The Wonders of Interactive Whiteboards

Great literary article -- I enjoyed the dialog about the benefits of the hardware and software. It was interesting to read how the three different authors feel about whiteboards. From reading the article it appears that the United States may be beyond other countries as far as technology in the classroom goes. I think the boards are exciting, and I can see how students would be much more engaged in a lesson when the teacher chooses to use a whiteboard. It was good to learn about the different manfacturers of whiteboards also.

Teachers and Students click on feedback method

This article points out the positives and negatives of a CPS system. I think it would be big fun to use them in a classroom! It would make me pay attention, and I think students need to be more interactive. I do think the use of a CPS system could be overdone. I liked the response of Karen Hill who said she is working on ways to make the students use their higher-level thinking skills when using the CPS system. I have seen one teacher use them for discussion in a sociology class and it works well. With 90-minute classes, I think using tools like these are a must if you are to hold the student's attention and keep them excited.

Digital storying in the classroom

Digital storytelling is an innovative tool to use in the classroom. It would, of course, be ideal for a technology class, but I can also see it being used in other disciplines as well. The exciting part is to have students post their work on the internet. They would require extensive fine-tuning and editing, and force students to pay attention to details -- something that does not come naturally to many of us! I enjoyed the article and getting the websites to help with the unit plan. I do hope the teachers in this class will use this tool.

Podcasting in Education

I am amazed to learn how many things one can do with an IPOD! I am happy to say that I received an IPOD Shuffle for my birthday. My oldest daughter felt sorry for me, and I am thrilled with my new toy. I loved reading the article regarding lesson plans, podcasts, quizzes, and photos. It would be such fun to have a classroom where every student had an IPOD! I am a big proponent of Apple products and have an eMAC at home.

Benefits of Discus

I thoroughly enjoyed the session on Discus. Even though I am not in the classroom, I enjoy learning new information and am developing the unit on Global Warming for our interdisciplinary unit in the Academy. I was amazed you can get to so many newspapers and also the volume of information that is accurate about a topic. It is so important as an administrator to know what is going on in the way of research, and how to get to information.

Geek's Guide to teaching in the modern age

This article offered so many great ideas for teachers who want an interactive, communicative classroom. I paraticularly like the section the author provided on helping students decide what is a credible site. Teaching students to decode site addresses would be an extremely helpful tool as they must do more and more research. My husband uses Skipe all the time since he travels quite a bit. I hope to see more teahers using these tools in their classrooms!

Make Way For Wikis

This is exciting! I definitely think there is a place for wikis in the high school setting. Students and teachers could share ideas, comments and edit work. I liked Wales' comment about Wikipedia providing students an opportunity to talk to students about reliability. The North Carolina teacher who set up the teacher's Lounge was excellent as well. I think media specialists have an opportunity here to bring the school together with a wiki.