I enjoyed this week's assignment. It allowed me to think about my classroom, and how I use technology. It game me time to reflect on ways that it has been successful and new ways that I could use technology.
Distributed
or e-learning environments: According
to Reiser and Dempsey, “E-learning has emerged as a broad term that encompasses
all learning involving technology in any way whatsoever” (Resier and Dempsey,
p. 287, 2012).
I could use e-learning to help my students better understand the
concepts we learn in science. We are fortunate to have a great adoption to use
as a resource. The adoption is called “Stemscopes”. It has many components, and
it has been an amazing resource. I am able to assign readings, quizzes, and
vocabulary games for each student so that they are able to do the learning from
home. I do believe the technology aids in facilitating the learning because
students are engaged, and feel like they “own” their learning a little more
since it is from their own home rather than at school. In my opinion, it is not
enough as a standalone instructional method, but I think it works well with the
classroom instruction. By using both methods within my classroom, I think it
will make a positive impact on my students.
The ethical issues that could arise by using this technology is
that it could be that the student is not doing the work that is assigned. They
could have a parent, sibling, or friend doing the work for them. I also think
accessibility could be an issue. Most of my students do not have internet
access at home, but their parents do own a smart phone. There could be issues with
them being able to login due to lack of internet. The guidance that I would
need to provide for students is that we would need to login at school and
practice for a few weeks. This will help eliminate them getting confused and
not remembering how to get to their assigned tasks.
Digital
games or simulations: “Well designed games have the potential to support meaningful
learning across a variety of content areas and domains” (Resier and Dempsey, p.
321, 2012).
I have found the above statement to be true in my experience with
using games in my classroom. I use them quite a bit. Some of my favorites
include games that are available with our science adoption, “Stemscopes”.
Others that I have found to be successful are the games in the iStation
program, Splash Math, and Magic Reading. I have seen so many of my students
improve in their skills and have fun in the process. I use games in my
classroom to help my students practice skills that they struggle with a little.
One of my favorite “games” is iStation. I like this one because it works at the
child’s level. As stated in the book on page, 321, a good game design has
appropriate challenges and still allows the player to be successful to some
extent. This is exactly what iStation does. As a teacher, I enjoy watching my student’s
growth and I am perfectly fine with a game being the “teacher” sometimes.
The issues that might occur with the use of digital games or
simulations could be ethics and providing instructional guidance. I think
ethics could be an issue, because I have seen where students get help from a
friend and it turns out the friend is the one gaining the skills because they
are playing the game. A way to help this issue is to go over the expectations
with students. Make sure they understand when they are logged in under their
name, they should be playing. Another issue could be instructional guidance. I
have seen this first-hand with iStation. It is so sensitive as to where the
student clicks and it is times. Students can get frustrated and this could be a
big issue. I had to do a little training session with my students. I had to
explain to them that they needed to do their very best and answer as quickly as
possible. It has helped a little, but that is still difficult for them because
they are six and seven years old.
Virtual
worlds: “Virtual worlds or multiuser virtual environments are
characterized by 3-D virtual environments that simulate real-world objects and interactions
and are available to multiple users simultaneously on a global basis” (Reiser
and Dempsey, p. 334, 2012).
Virtual worlds are not something that I have ever used in my
classroom. I have heard great stories about the use of virtual worlds, but
personally I haven’t seen it. This is an area where I would like to explore and
begin to integrate it into my classroom.
One of the coolest ideas I have found online that uses virtual
worlds comes from a teacher named Sarah B. Sarah had her first-grade students
use the augmented reality app, Aurasma, to create “guess who” pages for her
parent teacher conferences. The students drew a picture of themselves in the
app and they wrote three sentences about themselves. The app allowed them to
turn their illustration into a video overlay of the student saying “Hi! You
guessed right!”. I think it is a fabulous idea, and a great way to allow
students to create a meaningful product all while working on presentation
skills, writing sentences, and of course their creativity (Sarah B., 2015).
The biggest issue that I can foresee using virtual worlds is
providing instructional guidance. The book lists many challenges of virtual
worlds such as preparation, system bugs and downtime, technical issues, and multiple
types of interfaces (Reiser and Dempsey, 2012). These have to do with providing
instructional guidance. The issues would be instructional guidance for the
teacher and the students. In order to be able to successfully implement virtual
worlds in my classroom, I need to “practice” using them and become comfortable
with them. Once I reach that point, I can then introduce virtual worlds to my
students. I picture introducing one virtual world project every nine weeks to
begin. Once I feel more confident, we can do more. I truly think the use of
virtual worlds will foster my students creativity and the products they will
create will have more meaning.
Resources:
Reiser, R. A. & Dempsey, J. V. (2012). Trends and issues in
Instructional Design and Technology. 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson.
B., Sarah. (2015). “AR – Augmented Reality”. Retrieved from
http://www.mrsbarnettfirstgrade.com/2015/01/ar-augmented-reality.html
