I have had such a great experience in my EDIT class with Justine. She always kept class and activities fun and interesting. The information I learned from this class was truly valuable and necessary for 21st century learners. The skills I learned from this class will definitely help me in my future career as a Speech Language Pathologist.
Technology integration in education is very important for 21st century learners. Technology is constantly growing and changing and I feel that this class helped me see new sides to technology that I had not been exposed to previously. Technology in classrooms opens up new doors for students by enhancing collaboration and imagination. I liked how we learned about technology integration in education by using technology. The LAD project was a great example of this because we created a lesson plan on a website and combined technology into this plan. The blog was also a great idea to incorporate technology into our class discussions. All in all I loved this class!
My group presented on Monday and I think we did a great job presenting and communicating to the class. Our project came together well and everyone in my group was very cohesive. I really enjoyed watching the other groups present as well. So far we’ve learned about college athletes, defensive driving, and children with hearing impairments. I think the LAD project was a great final project because it tied everything together that we have learned in Justine’s class. We learned how to build our own website, think critically and come up with an important question, use technology such as QR codes, and create videos. I believe this was a valuable experience!
The article, “The Rise of the Interactive Whiteboard in Higher Education,” states that interactive whiteboards engage students’ imagination and promote collaboration. They also accommodate all types of learners, visual, kinesthetic and auditory. The SmartBoard also enhances communication. Students are able to achieve a level of interactivity that is impossible to achieve with traditional textbook learning. Student collaboration is enhanced when these new levels of participation are introduced.
Some defects of the SmartBoard are that is very expensive. Some schools may only be able to provide a few SmartBoards. In these cases the SmartBoards are put on wheels and moved from classroom to classroom. This causes problems when multiple teachers want to use the board. Another problem is instructing teachers how to use the boards to their fullest potential.
All in all I think interactive whiteboards are a great addition to our 21st century classrooms. I would also be interested in the ways SmartBoards could be used in speech therapy.
Works Cited: www.essexettc.org
This week we had the opportunity to meet with Justine about our project. This was really helpful, she gave us some pointers, approved our technology activity, and we talked through our final plans for the project. On Wednesday we used the day off from class in order to work on our project. We decided on some more kid-friendly names for our tabs on the website. We also recorded our author introduction. We got a lot done and I am excited to present on Monday!
This week, we worked on our i+1 section of the project. We divided up the work, and I am working on the technology activity. For this activity I decided to use QR Codes in order to teach the students about food groups. The teacher will cut out the QR codes and students will scan and match the food with it’s matching food group.
We also watched the rough draft presentations. I really enjoyed learning about everyone’s project ideas. This experience also helped me learn how to improve our own project!