| Our
March 3, 2005 meeting was perhaps the most exciting class yet.
One of our assignments was to read the SEIR-TEC
eBook about using handheld technologies in schools. We began
class with an exciting game of “Who Wants to be a Winner?”
based on the game “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”
with fantastic twists by Tony. The setting was perfect, complete
with music and a disco ball! It was like you were actually on
the show! As questions increased in difficulty, the prizes increased
in their value ranging from winks and smiles to candy and points
for assignments. Melissa was the fastest off the block and was
chosen to sit in the contestant chair. She did a super job! We
were quite impressed with the whole game, and the PowerPoint template,
but were sad that this is the one creation Tony wouldn’t
loan or share with us. But, the good news is that there are templates
online.
The following
are a few key points learned from the game show review. I for
one was glad I wasn’t in the chair!
- PalmSource
makes the operating system while palmOne makes the hardware.
- A WebTarget
which costs around $799 will beam to all handhelds at the same
time.
- Most handhelds
run from a lithium-ion battery.
- Taxi was
the original project name for the Palm Pilot.
Next, we
moved on to another new technology. If you thought blogging was
cool, check out the new way of broadcasing: podcasting.
A podcast is an easy and inexpensive way to broadcast over the
Internet. You can download podcasts to your iPod if you’re
lucky enough to have one or any mp3 player! Using Garageband,
you can even add music. Simply amazing! Check out the Willowdale
Students' Radio Broadcast. If the second graders are podcasting,
you can too! It’s awesome! Like our blogs, you can subscribe
to podcasts so you know when they are updated. We listened to
David
Warlick’s podcast about his views on contemporary literacy.
We have been challenged to blog about our reactions to his commentary.
I tend to agree with other ideas from our class that there is
a place for both laptops and handhelds in the world of one-to-one
computing. Sometimes we have to go with what is now and not wait
for the future to happen. There are also times when we don’t
want the students to have all the bells and whistles of the entire
laptop in front of them. However, he makes a valid point that
students need to know how to use all these technologies so they
are able to function efficiently and effectively in the world.
His ideas about being a realist and an idealist in the realm of
teaching are bound to ruffle any educators’ feathers. Of
course we would all love to have a laptop for all students. The
battle of affordable education verses needed education has been
around for decades and will continue to rear its ugly head. Again,
we are reminded to blog about David Warlick’s comments.
Listen to his podcast.
After the
class cooled down a bit about Warlick’s loaded comments,
we moved on and decided to skip over HanDBase specifics. If you’d
like the PowerPoint, Tony will email it to you. I don’t
know about you, but I love how the class is designed to be flexible.
It really makes the technology here and now.
Our attention
was also directed to a recent article about the Brain
and Blogging. Check it out here.
Next, we enjoyed
a fantastic dinner by Erika! She had a rough week with the power
in her house shorting out, causing all major appliances to be
out of commission. The sandwiches, chips, and yummy cookies were
perfect! Thank you!
Our after
dinner video was a cartoon about the “Paper
Free School.” Teachers and a technology specialist battled
over the use of geoboards verses a software program. It was an
interesting clip that really made us think about how technology
should not replace effective teaching methods, but enhance them.
Onward we
proceeded to the Word Processor Show Down! Using the jigsaw teaching
strategy, Tony placed us with a partner and we each explored a
different kind of word processing software. We then came together
and demonstrated our assigned program, completing a helpful chart
to compare each. The four word processors we explored were:
If you’d
like to see the chart, I’ll bring mine to class on Thursday,
as I don’t have a scanner to show it to you here. There
were benefits and drawbacks for each. My solution is to put our
heads together and create one that capitalizes on the benefits
of all of them. Of course, we’d make it a freeware program!
I found it
interesting that about 50% of the time spent on handhelds in education
is used for word processing. This fact alone makes choosing a
word processor an important decision.
Then, Tony
showed us the newest AlphaSmart
Dana that runs the PalmOS software. It appeared to be an oversized
handheld in my opinion. They consider it a laptop alternative.
There is no color, but it does have beaming capabilities. Maybe
primary students would find it easier to use because it can sit
on a lap rather comfortably.
On to perhaps
the most exciting part of class, Sketchy!
Sketchy is a program that allows students to add animation
by looping drawn slides together. We can also type words into
Sketchy slides. Wow! The applications in which this software can
enhance content standards is absolutely amazing! I hope some classmates
choose to blog about ways they might use Sketchy with students.
Some ways we talked about is to have students illustrate vocabulary,
beam, and guess. Students can also illustrate math concepts. I
can’t wait to use it with my 4th graders and have them illustrate
and describe the fossilization process.
We walked
through how to create a slide, the pallets, adding text, etc.
It’s very easy to use with a bit of exploration. Here's
a link
to a pdf with instructions.
Lastly, Tony beamed the game Minefield,
a higher level thinking game. We were reminded again to Blog about
David Warlick. As always, this Thursday night class provided enough
excitement and adrenaline to get me through a Friday! See you
Thursday the 10th!
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