Chapter 10 titled “promoting success for all students
through technology” contains a lot of relevant and interesting information.
This first thing I want to talk about in this chapter is Interactive
white boards. The text book has a whole section on interactive white boards and
rightly so, because these things have transformed what you can do in the
classroom. I myself refer to them as smart boards. I started seeing these in
about middle school and they are just the coolest things. Interactive smart
boards are touchscreen boards that are mounted on the wall and connected to the
internet. These white boards create engaging instructional opportunities for
the entire class. I just find these whiteboards to be really helpful for
teachers. You can use them to show students certain things on the web and you
can show them a PowerPoint and even write little side notes on them. Teachers
can use these things in so many different ways. They also just make things
easier for the teacher.
The second thing I would like to discuss is online
translation services. These are things like google translate. Google Translate
offers a two way translation between more than 50 languages. Google Translate
is good for when a student speaks more than one language and English isn't
their native one. Students can write out their notes and assignments in class and
then go home and translate their work so they can understand it better. I think
Google Translate is a really good resource for both students and teachers.
Teachers never know where their students are coming from and what languages
they are going to speak so this translation service could be helpful in those
types of situations.
Photo courtesy of
The third thing I would like to touch on is hand held
calculators. As a lot of people know, a
calculator is a handheld device that performs mathematical operations and
computations. In school settings you can find mostly three different types of
calculators: The basic calculator, the scientific calculator, and the graphing
calculator. The basic is more geared towards elementary, the scientific for
middle and the graphing for high school. Calculators enable students to visualize
mathematical operations. Calculators are
useful devices inside and outside of the school setting. For school students use them to help them to complete
both schoolwork and homework. I find calculators to be useful and sometimes necessary
to be implemented in the classroom.
Photo retrieved from www.schoolmart.com
Photo retrieved from www.calculatoredge.com photo retrieved from debate.org
Work Cited
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon
A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New
Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
" Kindergarten Interactive White Board Use."
YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2015.
Interactive whiteboards are extremely popular! There are many who advocate against them due to their extremely high costs, but fortunately, there are many less expensive alternatives coming out now that don't require any additional hardware to the normally-equipped video projectors. More importantly is the focus on interaction and the opportunity to manipulate learning in different ways!
ReplyDeleteGoogle Translate is a pretty awesome tool - and it keeps getting better. I can only imagine how helpful it has become with ELL students and their parents! It is impressive and vital as we continue to evolve into a global society and need to communicate among various languages, too!