Iola High School Chalkboard Summary

A teacher is standing at the front of any classroom in any school in America. She tells the class she wants the essay typed, and that they should use addition online sources in their paper. The bell rings and the students head to their next class. They will be watching an educational video on different kinds of chemical reactions. None of this would be possible without electronics. From the computer where the students will be tying their essay to the Promethean Board where they watched the video, technology is now a crucial part in teaching all across the U.S. The different kinds of media used to educate young people has expanded greatly through the use of electronics. “Shut Down Your Screen Week” is a movement attempting to deprive students of valuable technology in the futile hope that students will be less distracted. Although many people believe “Shut Down Your Screen Week” will be advantageous to students, Indian Ridge Middle School would benefit from not participating in the event.

boards were integrated into the rooms to give the children an early introduction to computer technology. They also provide opportunities for hands-on activities, which is a great way for children of all ages to get in touch with the world around them. For example, in the one year old’s wing the teachers use the boards for music and sometime the Oklahoma City Zoo’s animal cameras where the teachers teach about the different types of zoo animals. But some parents have regards with SMART boards being used in their child’s room. For example, in the one year old rooms parents sometimes do not want their children being introduced to technology at that early of an age. Which is not a good idea at this time, technology is used everywhere and it is better to learn early on in life.

From my very first observation I could tell that technology played a huge role in Ms. Felder-Way’s classroom. She found ways to integrate technology into almost every lesson. All of the students were assigned Chromebooks which were purchased by the district. In the classroom there was a SMART Board, two desktop

Smartboards, or interactive boards connected to a computer, have risen up to replace the common chalk-board or whiteboard in schools. Students are also expected to take notes, review their lessons, and in some cases, watch their teacher on each of their own personal computers. According to Barbara Means, Kerry Olson, and Ram Singh, “Reformers advocate classroom activities organized around important, multidisciplinary themes, with students working singly and in groups on long-term projects that involve

Teachers need to know how to use the technology. Teachers will use “educational strategies” (Rosen 4) that were successful in the past and simply transferred the content from a whiteboard to a PowerPoint on a Smartboard. Why waste time, energy, and money on something that is more or less the same style of teaching, just on a different medium? Throughout Rosen’s book, Rewired: Understanding The iGeneration And The Way They Learn, he references the fact that the current generation of students are completely different from what teachers have seen in the past (4). As a result of that, students learn unlike anything teachers have experienced. Rosen writes that “We literally have to rewire such teachers to understand and see that their belief system, while having validity in the past, may not be accurate in today’s world.” (184) Even Joel Klein, the CEO of Amplify a company whose goal is to integrate technology into the classroom, knows that the success of technology rests almost solely on how teachers use it. Klein even said in his interview“If it’s not transformative.... it’s not worth it” (Rotella

The students are more engaged when we use the SMART board. They participate more and pay closer attention to the lesson because they want to go up to the SMART board. Even though we had technical difficulties and quite a bit of chatting, the students still appeared to be engaged in the lesson. I had the students discuss in their groups the word that matched the definition. The students groups are made up of mixed abilities.

We have a Smart system that sometimes works and sometimes won’t turn on so it has to be touched manually to turn on. The board has parts missing so there are make shift things in the slots to compensate. Right now we use the white board and smart technologies everyday. It is a good way for the students to be engaged because there are games, moving parts and lots of pictures. These students do not do well with lecture and notes so for them we do videos, online reading as well as use the smart board for every lesson. This group of kids has to have movement and it has to be interesting. So we do a lot of presentations on the board and have them manipulate the board or have them go up and use the pens for the smart technology. Some of the challenges we have had with the technology is that I have a different computer than what is used for the school so my set up is different. Also I had to download the Smart software but it only gives you a trial for 90

At Sherwood Middle School all classrooms got a lot of new technology. Some of the classrooms got projectors. They are brand new. But most of the classrooms got big monitors. They show powerpoint’s easier. Some students like these new forms of technology. Some don't like this technology. The new technology has its pros and its cons.

“New Class(room) War” effectively illustrates the point that suppressing technology in the classroom to limit disruption as opposed to supporting it is a battle the teachers know they are going to lose. (Freedman par. 17) This is inevitable because new technologies for entertainment, learning, and communication are constantly being developed; this provides an infinite number of ways to deviate from classwork electronically that nobody had access to as little as twenty years ago. This detriment to society that is disguised as a miracle has teachers referring to the array of modern media devices as today’s equivalent of “pigtail-pulling, spitball-lobbing, and notebook-doodling.” that took place in the classrooms of the pre-computer era. (Freedman par.6)

The teacher had the students all come up to the front of the room then one by one had them take turns going up to the smartboard to create a two-digit number using their fingers to move and create ones, tens and hundreds with the blocks. Once they got the answer right the children would pick another person to go until every student participated and answered a question on the smartboard. The teacher also showed examples up on the smartboard for the students to all see. If the students made a mistake the teacher was able to fix the problem on the smart board by using her laptop at her desk. Ways that technology added to the lesson: It got students more involved and engaged with the lesson. It also broke down the hard lesson for the students to understand. It also made the lesson fun and appealed to the students visually and got the students hands-on learning. The students also have their own individual assigned iPads. Every day they have “PI time” in which they all log on to the iPads and grab headphones, and go on to the educational app called imagine learning to work on their language arts

UMS Montessori Computer Teacher - Conducted lessons using SmartBoard technology and promoted an educational enriching environment. (5)

Digging through the recycling bin of the math supervisor's office, I pull out an old piece of paper with typed font on one side, and blankness on the other -- perfect. “Mom,” I say, looking up with my four-year old eyes, “Do you have a pencil?” She goes into her purse to retrieve one, eager to see what simple drawing I could create as we waited for my dad (who was a math teacher at the time) to come out of his meeting. However, as she is searching, I waddle right up to the bookshelf and pursue my options. A vast array of different grade-level textbooks were laid out before me; the third-grade option seemed most suitable. I took my pencil, the book, and the paper, and sat sat down at the table to see what I could make of the advanced problems.

integrated into the rooms to give the children an early introduction to computer technology. They also provide opportunities for hands-on activities, which is a great way for children of all ages to get in touch with the world around them. For example, in the one year old’s wing the teachers use the boards for music and sometime the Oklahoma City Zoo’s animal cameras where the teachers teach about the different types of zoo animals. But some parents have regards with SMART boards being used in their child’s room. For example, in the one year old rooms parents sometimes do not want their children being introduced to technology at that early of an age. Which is not a good idea at this time, technology is used everywhere and it is better to learn early on in life.

As a matter of fact, nine out of ten students agree that the use of technology in school will help with a job search later on in life (cio). A great example of this neoteric technology is the Interactive Whiteboard, a piece of equipment introduced in 1991 that became a vital part of the nation’s education within the past several years. As of September 2008, 86% of schools, both large and small, made use of interactive whiteboards; increasing student engagement, school attendance, and test scores as a result (neamb). That rise in test scores, such as those of the SAT or ACT, have repeatedly concluded in more students receiving large defrayment, amassly desired

For example, students who learn better by listening can understand more fully with audio and videos shown on the board. (Bell ) For visual learners, students can watch as the lesson develops across the board. Research has shown that students of all ages respond well to interactive white boards. With everyone loving the boards so much, students will jump at every chance to use the board. Interactive Whiteboards make kids want to learn. It makes them more willing to listen and focus on the lesson. Fifty years ago, classrooms didn’t have this kind of technology. Classrooms only had black boards or white boards. (Bell )