Week Seven Response

     Knowing what is going on in the world is extremely important.  It wasn't until I was in High School that this became really important to me, and I think that is because all through elementary and middle school we were never taught about world events.  I think that is probably because adults feel there is a greater need for teaching students other things rather than whats going on in the world.  While I completely agree that there are certain events in the world that are not appropriate for children; however, I also believe that we should try and explain as much as we can what is going on in the world around us to these kids. One way to explain these events to kids or to make it maybe even more fun for them to want to learn is using maps.  

     I think it would be really fun to out a map of the world up and have the students throw sticky darts at it where ever the darts lands is the area we will look at.  This process will happen many times in order to narrow it down form an entire continent to a specific country.  

     Say we have had the kids do this activity and it lands on Iraq or Afghanistan.  We could then take the time to explain in depth what is happening with the conflict with these two places and the United States.  Once we have gone through and talked about this conflict.  I then could have the students go through and create a map that is representing these areas and we could then go through and label the different types of government in these areas.

     I think this lesson would be really fun to do during the entire school year, every Monday we start with the first map and once that area has been selected I will research current events for that area and then create a lesson based on what I find. 

Week Six Response

This was my first time using Garage band, and the podcast software within this program.  What an awesome program though.  

As a future teacher I think it would be awesome to have podcast set up for when students will be gone, yet still need the information that was presented in class.  I know this will take several hours to make happen for all lessons, but if I know a student will be gone for an extended amount of time I could go through my lesson plans and find the most important lessons, which would be the most crucial to them while they are gone, and have them watch and listen as if they were sitting in class.  

As for how my students will use this program, I think it would be really awesome to have the students tell a story to the computer and have to draw pictures, which I would upload for them, to go along with what they are saying.  This could be a fun way for the students to use a new piece of technology; however also incorporating other aspects such as planning what to say, writing a script and drawing pictures. 

Anytime technology is used in the classroom there are hurdles that must be jumped over.  One big hurdle I feel would pose a huge problem is that not all classrooms have access to computers with a garage band software.  Even though my laptop has this program, one computer is not very practical for 25 to 35 students.  I would have to come up with a way to get this program installed on computers in the computer lab.  Which would allow all students to work on this program at the same time. 

One benefit to incorporating podcasting into my classroom is just showing the students one more piece of technology they can use in their everyday life.  In my opinion you can never know too much about technology.  

These are just a couple ideas of how I will use the podcast software in my classroom. Once I become more familiar with this program, I'm sure I will come up with more ways to integrate the use of this program in my classroom. 

Week Four Response

     In ten years education will look extremely different.  In order for me to really look at how much of a change there will be I first need to look at the last ten years in education.  Ten years ago I would have been in sixth grade.  When I was in sixth grade there was little to no technology integrated into the classroom.  The entire school district, which consisted of seven schools had a laptop lab (30 or so laptops), which was transported from school to school as needed, these computers were very generic dell laptops.  This was the only technology in the classrooms besides the overhead projectors.  Throughout the next few years Pendleton School District began to integrate more and more technology into their classrooms.  Now each and every classroom has their own smart board, document camera, projector, and most have an ipad or two.  While ten years seems like a really long time to finally have more technology in the classroom it really is not, especially when thinking about the cost of all this technology.
      Ten years from now is hard to predict for the mere reason that technology is ever changing.  Yes, in ten years there will be more use of technology in the classroom, however I could not begin to tell you what that technology would be.  As the years pass, we as a society will become more and more dependent on technology and as teachers it is our duty to make sure that the students do not get "left behind".
     The biggest change in education I see happening is the switch from paper books to electronic books.  Information is constantly being updated, because of more research; it is important to have the most up to date information possible.  In order to do so, cost effectively, e-books are the way to go.  While there may be more of a cost at the beginning, buying the tablets, in the long run the tablets will pay for themselves because of the cost saved by not having to rebind books or even buy 30 more copies of a new book. With e-books you can download and pay for the book once for several tablets. 
    A change in technology for the classroom is going to happen so we might as well embrace it and learn ways to use this wonderful tool in our everyday classrooms!