Multidisciplinary Technology Lesson Plan

Creating a multidisciplinary technology lesson plan was fun. I actually enjoyed this. The lesson plan was to be designed to give instruction on more than one content area. For example I created a lesson that had content areas of English, language arts and technology (PowerPoint). Then I had the students read a book Honey I love which was a poem. They’re to define words found in the story developed their own poem and make it into a power point presentation. A little difficult to figure out at first but it was possible to have all three subjects covered in one lesson. It taught me that technology in education really can be an is essential part of today’s classroom.   

The second lesson plan was science, art and technology (gaming). This was a fun lesson also because the students were to read books on animals and the environment and make charts that explained where various animal live. How these various species adapt to their living environments and how they survived. They then were to play educational animal games that featured Gorilla, Cheetah and a Zebra in their natural habitats.  I found that with the games although a good tool to foster learning you must monitor what the students are doing. Ask question about what they are learning from the games. I also realized that games foster learning subconsciously because the children are focused on having fun they don’t even realize that they are learning.           

Web Evaluation

The website evaluation assignment was true learning experience. It gave a resource on how I can judged if the content that is on a website is something I should use as source or not. I was able to view various website and see if the information was current and was the last time the site was updated. Where did their information come from. Was the site user friendly, free or was a cost involved. It also gave me the opportunity to find some sites that I found to be exceptional and evaluate them and add them to a list of my teaching resources.

Web Quest

In creating my web Quest it was a real journey for me! I found it difficult to come up with a web based lesson. After days and days of trying to figure out what to do came up with an idea to do a web quest on energy. The student  were being asked by the president of the united states to come up with solution for the energy crisis in America. The students were contacted by the secretary of energy to work on the assignment. They had to create a paper loaded with fact and innovative ideas on how to solve the energy crisis in a America. In the initial creation of the web quest I found it to difficult to come up with concepts and ideas to make what I was thinking a reality. The Web Quest caused  me to have to be creative and think outside of the box. I also had to design it in a way that the students were actually on a quest to learn how the computer can be used to help them learn and gather information. I used websites focused on science and energy and used YouTube to show them present day crisis that have occurred do to our dependency on oil and challenged  the student to use the tools provided to come up with ways we can solve the problems we are faced with in the area of energy.

In conclusion a web quest is valuable tool to use in the classroom. Although it takes some time to create it is excellent and students respond to it favorably. I look forward to developing my web quest skills for it is a smart and innovative teaching tool that does wonders for teaching.

Gaming and Virtual Environmnets

Let me just say as a childhood special education major I am thrilled at the idea of gaming in the classroom.
why I am thrilled is because male students dominate the area of special education. While you have female students who are in special eduction also there are still more males in special eduction.

Boys love games weather they are disabled or mainstream. Gee (2003) argued  that good computer games are not just entertainment but incorporate as many as thirty six learning principles. Games take focus and concentration and force you to have to think quick and from many different angles. i would dare to say it fosters critical thinking.

I am all for gaming and virtual environments in the classroom I am especially excited because this will be a good teaching resource for students who have exceptionalities.

Chapter 9 Technology Integration in Content Area

Technology Integration In The Content areas are a excellent resource and teaching tool. In Bitter Chapter 9 The chapter explains how you can incorporate technology into earlychildhood and childhood eduction. It also deals with teaching technology for those who have special. The gave useful guides on how to construct a lesson plan. However with all the examples given it was still was challenge for me. There are some challenges that arise with incorporating technology into your lesson. First you have the finical aspect although a lot of the sites are free there are many fee based sites and software that may need to be purchased.

I am all for technology based teaching, In section five of the course packet it looked at student and teacher email  as away to st objectives in and out of school. they found this process to be effective. Only 92% of students had an email which leaves out the other 8% of students who had no access to computers. the question arose in my head what do you do about the other 8% who don't have computer access. blogging  and data collection tools are a great tool for learning and evaluating if students really get what has been taught and to communicate there own ideas in a content area.

Learning and teaching Technology!!! #3

Learning and teaching with technology covered a lot. However I found teacher as a researcher to be an interesting part of the chapter. It said that teachers who have vast knowledge in computer technology often use computer at home, school and work. They have a better understanding of computers be the frequently use them opposed to teachers who do not frequently use the computer. Therefore teachers who are computer savvy are better able to integrate technology in the classroom. I agree with collegiate sharing of technological information. However I believe all teachers should have to become computer literate. There is no way to make it in the 21 century without adequate knowledge of how to use a PC. Any teacher who does not know how to use a computer is missing a key component of what leaner's need to make it in today world. The standard for teachers as far as technology is concerned needs to be upgraded and all tecahers old and new should have to adhere to the new technological standards for teaching..