Calculators, Calculators, Calculators...Blah, Blah Blah...

I have a currently have a professor that believes the only technology that can be used while teaching a math lesson is a calculator. Because she thinks that is the only technology that can be used in a math classroom, she thinks that every age needs to be using a calculator. Not true. Not true at all. I don't believe that elementary classrooms need to be using a calculator. The students in those classrooms are being introduced to new math concepts and therefore, need to learn how to do it by hand and mentally. I do understand that calculators are being used more and more, however, I still believe that it is imperative for young students to learn the basics by hand.
I do think also that there are many, many more technology tools that math teachers could be learning about. They could be taught about how to use a SMARTboard in the classroom, or the website with the polls. Those technological advances will be crucial to the classroom eventually, and I am still sort of clueless as to how to use them. I think that if the math technology class was as advanced as this Ed Tech and Design class, the math minors might be able to incorporate fun math ideas with technology and make it more interesting for students to learn and enjoy math.
Calculators are not the latest and greatest technology anymore. It would be more benefivial to learn about lessons we could create for our math class to incorporate with technology.

Image used with permission from Iowa AEA - AP Images.

Wii Would Like To Play, In The Classroom

The cheap and new piece of technology that is a great idea that many classrooms are adapting, is using the Wii Remote as an interactive tool to work with the whiteboards. Many classrooms, if not all, have a whiteboard in it, and Wii remotes are cheaper to purchase than purchasing a SMARTboard. The Wii remote will allow classrooms to have an interactive classroom without spending ridiculous amounts of money on technology. Simply purchasing a few pieces of technology, can create a whiteboard into a SMARTboard. We all know how much the students will get excited about new pieces of technology that they get to use during class. Technology that they get to use and not just the teacher. Technology that is a Wii remote. Technology that the students think they know everything about. Technology that they think will let them play games in class. Technology that BAM! let's them learn in class. How excited would I have been if my teacher brought in a Wii remote to let us use in the classroom with the whiteboard? I would have been pumped about learning! I would have been so engaged! With this new, cheap learning divice, the teachers are going to have to allow this to happen and let them explore all that the children can.
Learn more about the Wii remote in the classroom at this website. Watch the following video, and the children demonstrate what they are able to do in their classroom with the Wii remotes.

Cell Phones in the Classroom

Cell phones. I use them, I cannot lie, and sometimes I commit the same offense that I am going complain about, but I can go days with out it, I can go days without recieving or sending a text. I'm begining to get more and more frustrated with them. I cannot have a normal conversation with a someone with out feeling ignored because they are answering a text message WHILE I AM TALKING TO THEM! then, after finishing reading and sending a text, they say, "Sorry, what was that?" My response is usually, "Nevermind, not imortant." When really I'm screaming in my head, "If you weren't TEXTING you would have heard me the first time!" Then I get hated on because, I am unable to simply hear someone because, they are mumbling, or talk too softly for my ears to hear. If we all would communicate with people with our voices then maybe we wouldn't be such poor speakers. But what do I know.
I do enjoy the comfort that cell phones bring. Whether I'm in the car driving a long distance, or the fact that I can use it to not feel awkward in certain situations where, heaven forebid, I'm sitting/standing alone waiting for someone. They are handy and helpful and clever and useful, however, life can go on without them. Again, what do I know.
So, cell phones in the classroom. Can that happen? Can it happen without students becoming too comfertable with using them during class for other tasks than what the teacher intends them to be used? Hard to say, I guess you never know until you try.
Cell phones are being used in some schools as a cheaper alternative to clickers for things such as polls that can be used to answer questions to tests, and for other uses that will make the students more equipped for the global community. I believe that students are going to learn how to be more equipped for the global community from their own experiments and testing, I think that students know more about technology than the teachers, and therefore, the teachers may be wasting their breath "teaching" them new things that a certain technology tool can do. Teachers can use their IMAGINATION to teach new and innovative ideas to the class. Technological devices can help in many ways but should never ever be the main focus for any lesson, students are able to learn just as well with or without the technology. I think that sometimes teachers rely too much on the new things that may keep a student engaged in the lesson, when really a simple lesson without technology could be as exciting as a lesson with the latest tech tool in the school. Don't get me wrong, I do agree that technology is necessary to have these days, and there is no way to avoid the fact that they are helpful for some students and it is necessary to teach students with the new technology. However, students are still able to learn with or without the technology that some teachers rely too heavily on.
Give students a chance, let them think for their own. The teacher that can incorporate technology and common thinking strategies will be one to keep around. Let students be creative with no limitations, if thier creative ideas can expand with technology, let them work with technology, if their creative ideas work with pencil, paper, and crayons, let them work with pencil, paper, and crayons.

Images used with permission from Iowa AEA - AP Images.

iBooks on the iPad

The iPad is the latest and greatest piece of technology to hit the markets, and the iBook app is one that most are talking about. Like the Kindle, the iBook app allows one to carry around a small piece of equipment and read. One can turn pages on the iPad with the simple touch of a finger, and get the same effect of turning an actual page. There are many other apps that the iPad offers, apps such as the ability to take notes, there is a keyboard that pops up when one is ready to jot down some new note. You can listen to music, browse the internet, e-mail, and much much more on the iPad.
Many have been discussing the possible use of the iPad in classrooms. For college students it may be cheaper to simply download a book on the iPad rather than pay ridiculous prices for some books that you may only open twice a semester. The iBook app will certainly reduce the amount of trees that are cut down for the use of paper, and will reduce the amount of weight college students carry on thier backs. The iBook can highlight certain parts and return to them later. For younger students, the iBook app can read the text to the student, and has wonderful pictures to share. However, how tempted will students be to use the other sweet apps that are available with the iPad rather than follow along with what is going on in the class? I know that I would probably be.
If the iPad is adapted in elementary or high school classrooms, it will have to be modified and will have to block some things to keep students to from wandering from the lesson that is being discussed by the teacher. There are some apps that might be helpful for students to have when they go home, a teacher could upload videos of what had been discussed in class (which could be helpful for students who are sick from school). The videos could be helpful for those students with learning impairments or vision impairments. There are many ways that the iPad could be helpful in the classroom, however, it may be a few years before some schools are comfertable with letting the students have these hundred dollar devices in thier hands.

Images used with permision from Iowa AEA - AP Images.

YAY for SUNSHINE! YAY for JASON MRAZ!

Love the Seseame Street, and this song that makes me want to be outside ALL THE TIME!

MmmBop...Blog?

Me. Blogging? What?! Yikes. MmmBop. Nice.

Fast-forward to two minutes to hear the good stuff...