Thursday, October 9, 2008
Week 6 Reflection
Based on what I know about technological innovations and what I've read about the history of instructional films, television and the computer I think that the Internet and the World Wide Web will definitely have a major influence and the way that instruction is presented to learners. In the past the instructional films and television did not have a great impact on the methods of instruction, but the Internet and World Wide Web have many more possibilities and have already increased the use of technology for instruction in the classroom. I think the greatest reason for this is the opportunity for interaction. "[Instructional designers having a constructivist perspective] and others who are particularly concerned with presenting authentic (i.e. "real world") problems in learning environments, in which learners have a great deal of control of the activities they engage in and the tools and resources they use, find the new digital technology more accomodating than its predecessors."(p. 23) While they have not been used a great deal as of yet, some of the tools we have learned about thus far in our course are all tools that could impact the future of education. Also, in my classroom our reading program is online and is very beneficial to our students because of the fact that it is so interactive. Not only that, but most of the classrooms in my school, at least in the upper grades, are in the computer lab for research or Kidspiration, which is a program to help with graphic organizers, or other programs on the computer at least once per week. In addition, one teacher has made it her goal to integrate technology into her classroom more this year and she found Teacher Tube online, the educator's version of YouTube (which is blocked at our school) that she has already used several times to enhance her instruction. In conclusion, I think that the Internet and the WWW has already started to make a difference in the K-12 education system and as technology continues to evolve and teachers receive more training they will continue to make an even greater impact.
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5 comments:
The use of the WWW in teaching is amazing. I know that for me I found that using technology has made it much easier to engage different learning styles in my classroom. I use a program that will read text to students. Students can find clips on youtube that add to the information presented in class.
It's very interesting that that your reading program is on line. How do you like that? Do the kids like it? How about parents, what do they think of it?
Well, I have mixed feelings about it. The students need to be closely monitored because it is easy for them to simply click through and not actually read the material. However, it does have it's good points. It's very interactive which is good for my students. They seem to like the characters in all the stories and look forward to going to the computer lab for Headsprout. I have yet to hear any negative feedback from the parents, so I'm assuming that they like it. It probably wouldn't be my first choice, but it has its strong points.
Katie
I couldn't have said it better myself. There is no doubt in my mind that technology, namely the Internet and web have had a strong impact on many aspects of learning. Educationally it has allowed students to become more efficient, problem-solvers, multi-taskers, and stimulated, as well as socially through the variety of sites we have learned about the past six weeks. They explore more than I have, or have time to, and so much can be learned from them as well. I do believe they are sometimes overly engaged with the web and should be developing their 'real world' social networking skills.
I like interactive programs too. They engage students in learning and they like the pictures and wearing headphones to listen. Read Naturally is done as a software program on computer now.
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