Remember overhead projectors that your teachers used in elementary school? Light projectors that projected transparencies up onto the board so that you could follow along with what the teacher was doing. Document cameras are the new and improved overhead projectors. Basically, they are mini cameras that a teacher can put anything under to enlarge onto the board. Now, instead of having to make transparent copies of every worksheet to use on the overhead, a teacher can simply put anything (books, regular paper, objects, hands, pencils, anything!) under the document camera and it is enlarged and shown on the board. Document cameras are just another new and convenient technology in the classroom making lessons far easier then ever before.
Document Camera
Check out this YouTube video that gives you the 101 about document cameras. Enjoy!
We Feel Fine is an exploration of human emotion on a global scale.
For Intro to Writing Arts, we were asked to explore a website called We Feel Fine. In August 2005 Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar created this website that takes every single weblog post that includes the words “I feel” or “I am feeling” and puts them into one huge database. When the website finds a phrase with these words, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the “feeling” expressed in that sentence. You are able to sort these posts by the emotion, age, gender and location of the blogger as well as the weather condition at the time of post. All of this information is saved.
This website is basically a database of human emotion that gets bigger every minute. If one wants to find out when women in their 20′s in Europe feel most stressed, they are able to. Does the weather effect how people feel? Do women feel certain emotions more than men? Do people in Africa feel happier more often than people in Sweden? This website helps others to research and explore different human emotion over time. They can read each others blogs and connect, communicate and interact with people who they probably would never meet in real life.
People are also able to search blogs through this website. By clicking on the sentence, you are brought to the weblog that the sentence was taken from. Another great thing about this website is that it is fun to look at and play with. The interface is colorful, bright and interactive. According to the creators, ”at its core, We Feel Fine is an artwork authored by everyone. It will grow and change as we grow and change, reflecting what’s on our blogs, what’s in our hearts, what’s in our minds. We hope it makes the world seem a little smaller, and we hope it helps people see beauty in the everyday ups and downs of life.”
Recently, I have found a very useful Twitter application that helps you keep in touch and communicate with not only YOUR friends, but your friends friends, your friends friends friends, your friends friends friends friends and so on. This application is called Twitter Friends Network Browser. To use it, you simply type in a Twitter user name and an icon for their Twitter page comes up along with icons for a number of their friends Twitter pages. Each icon has their Twitter profile picture, their name and their latest tweet. You are able to click on any of these icons, go to their twitter page and begin following them.
This Twitter application comes in handy because it gives Twitter users the opportunity to find their friends faster and easier. If you are already following a few of your friends but know that there are many more of your friends that you want to follow, you can find them through the friends that you are already following. Rather than search for friends by name one at a time through “Find People,” you can find numerous people in less time.
This Twitter Application is useful for people in the Education profession because it gives them the opportunity to find and follow more people in their field. This can lead to professional opportunities such as collaboration, team teaching and simply the ability to share technology, classroom management techniques, lesson plans, activities etc. Educators could also use this application to keep in touch with fellow teachers to keep their teaching communities close and friendly.
I enjoy using this application to find my friends from high school and college who I otherwise probably would not be able to find unless I went through my yearbook and searched each person. This application helps people to reconnect and communicate with others faster and easier everyday.
Michael Ian Black is a popular comedian who currently stars in a show on Comedy Central called Michael and Michael Have Issues. I follow him because his tweets are hilarious. For example, today he tweeted this…”Sometimes when I floss I pretend the floss is a thong and my teeth are all tiny butt cracks.” I also follow Michael Ian Black because he uses a verified account and I know it’s actually him. I love that he tweets numerous times a day and each tweet is witty and interesting, even if they are sometimes ridiculous. Whenever I am stressed out or having a rough day, reading his tweets never fails to brighten my mood even the slightest bit.
Michael Ian Black follows many other comedians and actors such as Demetri Martin, Daniel Tosh and Sarah Silverman who all also have shows on Comedy Central. This says that he uses his twitter account to keep in touch with colleagues/friends (maybe to also make them laugh and brighten their day) and for his professional career as a comedian (to promote his show Michael and Michael Have Issues). It obviously says that he is interested in comedy and acting. I also think that he may be interested in communication through technology because he tweets many times throughout the day/on a daily basis. He also follows The Onion, which is a website that makes fun of politics, news stories and popular/controversial issues. This says that he may be interested in news and politics…or interested in using them as the subject of jokes in his stand-up comedy act.
The layout of Michael Ian Black’s twitter page is a sort of collage picture of the following…a dragon, Princess Leia, a unicorn, a taco, a pretty blonde girl in pink , a ping-pong paddle and him shooting a rainbow beam out of his hand. I find this very amusing and it gives me a little insight into some of his interests…maybe Star Wars, ping-pong, Mexican food, mythical creatures, and pretty blonde girls. Who knows? But it’s still funny.
I leave you with some of my favorite tweets that I have found on Michael Ian Black’s twitter page…Enjoy =)
Slogan for birds: Fuck you, dickhead, we can fly!
New slogan for that show: “Kate plus eight plus her enormous vagina.”
Do pilgrim-style shoe buckles count as bling-bling?
If animals could read maps we wouldn’t be so impressed when they find their way home. We’d be like “So what? You can read maps.”
My first book, “My Custom Van,” now in paperback. Foreword by Abe Lincoln. “Best book ever written” – God.
Gravity is like nature giving you a hug. And never letting go. Like a crazy person
It is amazing to me with how fast technology is growing everyday that many students do not see a computer till the third grade or have a weekly computer class in their schools. Many times teachers have to integrate technology education into their curriculum on their own and with everything else they must accomplish (preparation for standardized testing) they cannot fit it into their already crammed lesson plans. That is no way to prepare students for a future filled with fast-paced growing technology.
Here is a great YouTube video about a school in Grass Valley, California that has invested money and created a technology lab in their school called “The Rattler Pit.” A former teacher and technology specialist named Jeff Peach had the idea to create a Mac lab in Magnolia Intermediate School that would not only encourage students to interact with technology but also help teachers to integrate technology and multi-media into their curriculum. Peach helps teachers to collaborate, share ideas, and figure out how to make technology work with their curriculum. He believes that “a computer lab that’s based around the way teachers think when they work” is most successful and beneficial for both students and teachers.
Peach created a working model of teaching with technology that teachers are excited about and comfortable working with where they do things they wouldn’t normally be able to do. Teachers with no knowledge of the Apple System are able to easily work in “The Rattler Pit” and adapt to a curriculum filled with technology education. Peach was able to take things that teachers already do in their curriculum and add technology to make the lessons better and more engaging. Teachers believe that the workplace of tomorrow requires more than just skills but also the ability to use technology and create team relationships. They believe they are helping their students to achieve just that.
IMac laboratory similar to "The Rattler Pit"
The most crucial part of this working model is hiring a technology specialist/teacher, which requires extra funding. The teachers at Magnolia agree that the lab is worth the money and greatly benefits students and teachers. They are currently trying to integrate a “Rattler Pit” into every school in their district. Teachers with years of experience are seeing the biggest improvement in their student’s education in years. Computers can be used to enrich the curriculum and engage students rather than sit in the corner of classrooms gathering dust.
This is a great video describing why technology is such an important part of our lives. It stresses the importance of introducing these technologies and “tools” to children and monitoring how they learn them, so that they do not go about it in the wrong ways. Engaging students is how they learn best and technology is the best way to engage them.
This video also talks about how technology changes (faster as time goes on), how we as humans have developed new forms over time and how technology can improve our lives. If students do not learn these technologies and keep up with the time, they will be left behind and lost in the future. Technology must be taught in schools so that this does not happen.
This video will open your eyes and mind to the importance of technology.
Here is a video I have found that further describes assistive technologies that exist and how they can benefit people with disabilities.
This video gives a definition of Assistive Technology then goes on to describe different types such as, those for the visually impaired (screen reader, closed circuit magnification, Braille translation devices etc.), those for the developmentally and physically challenged (adaptive keyboard, alternate communication devices, adaptive student desks etc.) and those for the deaf and hard of hearing (personal amplification device, audio/visual communication devices, voice to text translation etc.) It shows pictures of each technology or device and describes (most of the time) how it is used.
This video was made by students in an Introduction to Special Education class at Townson University .
(Sorry, the creator chose a bad color for the font and it is sometimes hard to read).
Computers have become an essential literacy tool in our society and that includes classrooms. Over 76% of American students use a computer at school and 83% use one at home for school assignments/word processing (NCES, 2001). Computers contribute assistive technologies to the classroom that not only enhance any student’s educational experience but also improve learning for students with special needs and learning disabilities. Assistive Technologies are the tools and strategies that act to liberate the use of technology for all students as well as to provide new ways to “assist” interactions and learning (Lewis, 1994). In other words they make it easier for teachers and students to do such things as write, communicate, see and read.
Computers can make curricular materials (CD textbooks, E-books, websites, webquests etc.) more accessible in faster and easier ways for students with disabilities such as…enlarging the size of the text, changing the color or font of the text, having the text read aloud, hearing labels read of pictures and simulations, speaking into a computer microphone to write, and using alternate input options: trackballs, larger keyboards, touch screens, etc. Students with poor eye sight will benefit from enlarged text on the computer screen, struggling readers can benefit from having the text read aloud to them (and teachers will have more time to work one on one or observe a group), students with poor motor skills can benefit from the opportunity to speak into a microphone to write (converts sound to text) etc. All of these things make it easier for students, and especially special needs students, to improve, reach their utmost potential and succeed in the future.
According to Cynthia L. Selfe in her article “Literacy and Technology Linked: The National Project to Expand Technological Literacy,” technological literacy–meaning computer skills and the ability to use computers and other technology to improve learning, productivity, and performance–has become as fundamental to a person’s ability to navigate through society as traditional skills like reading, writing, and arithmetic. If this is true, technological literacy needs to be taught in schools as aggressively as language arts and mathematics. Along with aiding traditional literacy instruction, computers can reduce unnecessary labor associated with writing and alleviate teacher workloads as well.
Students working with laptops in the Classroom
In 1993, an official national challenge to expand technological literacy was launched in America’s schools, homes, and workplaces, called the Technology Literacy Challenge. If students’ technological literacy becomes strong and more advanced, they will have a greater opportunity for good jobs with higher incomes in the future. Rather than being stranded with only traditional literacy training, they will fit into a world that runs on technology.
“Literacy instruction is now inextricably linked with technology,” says Selfe. The solution is simple, right? If computers are integrated into school curriculums, students will be given the technological instruction they need to survive in a world that cannot function without computers. If only it were that easy. Although 98 percent of all schools own at least some computers (Coley, Crandler, and Engle 29) there are many minority and low socioeconomic educational institutions that cannot afford any or enough computers for their students. Also, the more computers are integrated into schools and curriculums, the more students will have a need for computers in their homes, another costly expense for families.
It seems to me that the problem with the Technology Literacy Challenge, is that it is not hitting the places that need the most help. Although some Americans have benefitted, it has not benefitted all students, such as poor students or colored students who do not have sufficient text books, let alone computers in their schools. I believe this project to expand technological literacy should benefit those with the most need first, before those students who may already have access to computers in their own homes. My suggestion…work from the bottom up.
Three writing spaces I find myself using the most are my computer, pencil and paper and my cell phone…surprise surprise. I use each of these writing spaces on a daily bases and can honestly say that I would not be able to function normally without them.
My laptop is basically my entire life in a 15” piece of metal and plastic. Not only do I use it to compose papers and complete homework assignments, but I also use the online communication websites Facebook and Twitter numerous times a day. To compose papers and assignments for school I use various programs in Microsoft Office such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I consider the Internet a writing space as well because I type e-mails to professors and classmates, type messages back and forth to friends on Facebook and update my status on Twitter, which all involve writing and communication.
Although I use my computer to complete the majority of my formal school work, my 5-subject notebook is just as important. I use pencil and paper to jot down notes during class, write informal class work/homework assignments and compose a daily “To-Do List” that keeps my brain organized (I am VERY forgetful). Because I am left handed and tend to smudge ink all over the paper, I stay away from pens and insteadprefer colorful and fun mechanical pencils.
Lastly, my cell phone is a very, VERY important writing space I use every day. I rarely talk on the phone and probably send and receive somewhere between 50 and 75 texts a day. I know, it sounds crazy but texting is much more convenient for my college student, on-the-go lifestyle (especially because the only time I have to talk on the phone is while driving, which is currently illegal in the state of New Jersey).
Remediation occurred when word processing was invented and (sadly) pencil and paper were pushed to the curb and given the name inadequate, messy and slow. Typing a paper on the computer is faster, neater and one can easily erase anything by pushing the backspace. Writing a letter is no longer needed when one can simply compose and send an e-mail in the span of 2 minutes or less. In most classrooms, students are able to type their notes on the computer and print them out later rather than copying everything onto paper. Technology is taking over and in the future…pencil and paper will be a thing of the past.
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