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How technology impacts learning
How technology impacts learning
How technology has changed the classroom
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Using Smartboards to Support Literacy
Technology has come a long way in the last forty years. We have so many options today to use in classrooms that we should be producing technology savoy students. One of the biggest technology tools to enter the classrooms is the use of Smartboards. At first any teacher can become overwhelmed. I mean a board that is called smart? What can this device do that will make learning to read more fun and engaging and yet be a valid form of learning? Well, with time and refresher after refresher classes, it is now clear.
The Smartboard is mounted in the front of the classroom where a white board would have been. A projector is mounted on the ceiling and connections are made to the computer and the board. With a remote control, a teacher can turn the Smartboard on/off. There are also special pens to use on the Smartboard. It also has a tool bar to the side to change the ink colors of the pens as well as many other tools used to make the use of the board fun and engaging.
In a special education classroom, a new world has been opened up. For the younger and lower engaged students, we have the online program starfall. This program is uploaded from the computer to the Smartboard. The students can work on vowel sounds, vowel rules and sight words all with radiant animation in color and sound. They see the words and sounds and make a visual connection. We can also use the online program Raz-kids for the student to read a story on their level of instruction. The teacher can also check the students’ comprehension with a quiz that follows each story. It is like being at a picture show. The big screen brings reading to a wonderful and pleasurable level. The program gives the teacher a report that tells what readi...
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...vices contributes to the strengthening of students reading skills from phonics to reading fluency to big gains in reading comprehension. When students use any or all of these devices, their world is opened up to an all-new level of learning.
Conclusion:
Tying the technologies together
Where ever you live and whatever grade you teach, technology has made it into the lives of teachers and students. Whether it is an ebook, laptop, iPad, computer, or Smartboard, they all have brought teaching literacy to a new level. These tools are not going to leave our classrooms, if anything they will impact the learning at new and higher levels. There will come a day, and I think it will be soon, that every student will have access to their own technology devices at school and at home. As teachers, we need to embrace technology and try and stay ahead of our students if possible.
”Books will soon be obsolete in the schools...Scholars will soon be instructed through the eye. It is possible to touch every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture” (Thomas Edison). An idea that was destined for failure has now been made into the key source to get students and teachers more interacted while in a classroom setting. Tablets such as the iPad and the Microsoft surface have made this idea possible, showing students that there is another alternative to the traditional method which would be a printed version of the textbook. Tablets are portable computers that use a touchscreen as its primary input device, meaning that both keyboard and mouse are both physically located on the screen. Early Tablets were built to be used with a pen, today however tablets can be used with just one finger or multiple fingers with the support of multi touch input. Tablet have had a positive input on society especially students in school that are looking to get their work done in an engaging way and, not by moving a pen or pencil like it’s been done for decades. Tablets have proven to be the better tool for learning among students.
Mrs. Estep used the smart board for her lesson, but did not use any interactive features. She used Book Flix by Scholastic, which is a website that reads animated books to the class. When Mrs. Estep told the children to go to the smart board one yelled, “Yay smart board time!” Unfortunately the second book on the website that Mrs. Estep was going to show the children wouldn’t load so she went to her backup plan and had the children play a game. Technology is very prevalent in classrooms, but sometimes it is not reliable, so you must come up with and alternative
Implementing technology into the classroom is an expensive endeavor, which schools must constantly be willing to spend money on. When a school decides that they want to have an interactive whiteboard, there are many other costs involved. First, they must purchase the board, a projector, and any needed software. They must also make sure that they have a computer available to connect the board to, as well as a blue tooth device or cables to connect the board to the computer. Some schools have also chosen to mount the projector which is an additional cost for the mount, as well as making sure that there is a power supply available in the ceiling. “Unfortunately, institutions without sufficient state appropriations or huge endowments suffer.” (Vartabedian, 2002) With a...
There will always be technology as long as there are people whether for better or for worse and their advances will always be debated. Technology such as computers, iPads, and cell phones should be used modestly in the classroom. Using technology for everything during our daily lives hampers our own independence. To stay sharp minded in the classroom, people need to rely more on them and less on the technology that dominates their life today.
The use of Smartboard technology assists in a variety of learning instruction for diverse learners. Students with ADHD need physical movement in the classroom. This provides them with the physical movement, kinesthetic learning and a visual reinforcement of the content. Integrating computer games through the use of technology offers a better chance for ADHD learners to succeed (Zemliansky, 2010). While this type of activity provides students with ADHD to have some physical movement, it also keeps the lesson
Through the use of Interactive whiteboards, referred from this point forward as IWBs, the classroom setting moves into the 21st century as teachers and students alike employ this innovative tool to support learning in whatever form they need: text, audio, video, graphics, and images. Its use has heralded a new paradigm in the way lessons are taught allowing lessons to be more visual as well as giving students more hands-on, authentic learning experiences. This new “soup de jour” in education has many advantages and disadvantages, as well as a variety of applications that can be found throughout the educational spectrum, making many school districts seriously consider all its pros and cons when planning their future classrooms’ use of multimedia and technology.
Technology is everywhere; in the home, office, restaurant and the classroom. As teachers, we need to begin to embrace this technology and apply it to our students’ lives. But this begins with the teacher’s attitude and according to Johnson,
The interactivity provided by computer technology is useful in that it helps struggling readers for a variety of reasons. For example, there is always a lack of basic word reading and fluency skills for many struggling readers. These skills are needed to access grade level material (Higgins & Raskind, 2005; Manset-Williamson et al., 2008). Accordingly, the struggling reader does not have access to the material. The application of computer technology in classroom with the purpose of improving deficient reading skills provides the struggling reader with access to the material used for teaching comprehension skills (Higgins & Raskind, 2005; Manset Williamson et al., 2008). In the meantime, struggling readers who read with little comprehension need word reading and fluency skills mostly to read passages (Higgins & Raskin, 2005; Oakhill, Cain, & Bryant, 2003). The provision of visual and auditory presentation, or bi-modal presentation, of the information leads to an improvement in reading comprehension skills can be improved
In practice, universal design and at often works in concert to achieve optimal and practical results (Hitchcock & Stahl, 2003). Assistive technologies make universal designs more effective. Assistive technologies keep the learners engaged by expression, representation, during the learning process. Identify at least three assistive-technology devices and explain how they accelerate and enhance learning. Audio players, recorder, reading guides and graphic organizers are the three assistive technology devices that can accelerate and enhance learning. Records and audio are equipment that allows the learners to enhance their learning by providing them the opportunity to listen to the words that appear on the page as they are reading. Someone that has a difficult time with writing or taking notes, the audio recorder can be a great tool to help the students grab the information during the teacher lecture provided during the class. Visual tracker and learners that have a hard time to stay focused, reading guides would be a great tool. For those learners that enjoy stay organized or map out their writing assignment, graphic organizers are excellent for these learners.
Although some teachers still use regular boards,most teachers use smart boards to teach. These boards are like ordinary boards except these are controlled by a remote control pen. By just clicking on the board questions can be written in a variety of ways and in any color you want. The final piece of tech that is mainly used in the classroom is a variety of websites that provide tests,quizzes,and assignments that students can access with a certain username and password. Research has found that all types of technology are changing the way teachers teach forever (usnews.com).
In the article by Chris Preston and Lee Mowbray (2008) a kindergarten classroom was the choice of installation of the interactive hardware. The justification for using this technology with Kindergarten children was their short attention span and the ability of the interactive whiteboard to keep them actively involved promoting learning (Preston and Mowbray 2...
“Are we going to prepare kids for their future, or our past? If we aren’t using technology, we aren’t preparing them for the future” says Sister Patricia Clune, Superintendent in Kansas City (Galitzine). Many kids develop back problems at an early age from carrying heavy textbooks(Tablets). Electronic devices weigh much lighter than textbooks making it a more suitable option for kids (Tablets). Textbooks need to be constantly updated but by using electronic devices schools can easily update books electronically at a much cheaper cost (Tablets).There are numerous tools found online that educators can use to encourage students to be more innovative and creative with their learning (Hilgedick). The support for electronic devices is constantly growing because of health, economical, and educational reasons.
Paper has officially been replaced with iPads. Just kidding, but there are over 1.5 million iPads that are being used in classrooms by students on a daily bases rather than using printed textbooks as main learning resources (Graduating With Technology). With recent advancements in technology, many school districts have turned the focus off traditional learning methods of using textbooks, and are now focusing on integrating the use of tablets and computers as the main means of learning for students. Technology is going to continue to advance throughout this digital age and is going to gain popularity within education, but there are questions arising of how effective technology is when used in the classroom. The opportunity of using new technology to enhance learning should be seized, but textbooks should not become extinct within the education system or become a secondary learning method due to tablets and other types of technology becoming more popular in the education system. Textbooks are reliable, they can be used by anyone, and there are enough textbooks for each student to have their own, and be able to take them home. Also, technology is impacting the way the brain receives information. Reading digital print isn't as productive for readers as printed text, and there is limited access to resources needed for tablets to be effective when used by students. While this is true there are benefits to using tablets and other forms of technology in the classroom. It is easier for teachers to have assignments emailed directly to them, or post assignments on the internet, the use of technology is required in many core classes, and textbooks are easily worn, and expensive.
Do you ever think about how much technology has changed the way we work, learn, play, and even think? Technology is a major beneficiary to society; especially in the classroom where we get the opportunity to learn and grow. In recent years, schools have begun implementing tablets and other devices in the classroom to better student’s education. The use of technology in the classroom provides more of a personalized learning experience and gives students a widespread availability to engage in learning. Technology is necessary in today’s modern globe, it is basically “the pen and paper of our time and the lens through which we experience much of our world” (Warlick, 2013). Technology is not just considered the “internet”, it is so much greater than that. Overall, it enhances the quality of education and engages students deeper than ever before. With all the significant gains, why would people argue that technology hinders students more than it helps? Critics may try to repute the use of technology in the classroom but I believe what really matters “is the way we use it, the context that we use it in, and the learners who we use it for” (Chong, 2012).
Bowser and Reed [1995] as cited by Bryant et al [1998] argue that as a child progresses through the Education System, their requirements change and this may necessitate a need for different devices. This is not limited to those children with a physical disability but is relevant to all children with SEN as they progress and the Education System places additional burdens upon them. For children with a visual impairment ICT can provide support in various ways; tools to support communication, to improve access to information and as a means of producing learning materials in alternative. There is a wide range of devices and software, which can