Mobile Learning

Poll Everywhere is a very good tool for instantly being able to get feedback from your students.  I really enjoyed the way that this site is set up and how the tool supposedly works.  I say supposedly because since I don't have a classroom of my own I wasn't able to test it out in a real environment.  However if I did have my own classroom I have several ideas for integrating this technology in the classroom.  One technique that I used during my teaching internship was a quick write.  This was something that students would do at the end of a lesson that would allow me to see what students understood the material covered and which parts students still weren't understanding.  I would read these at the end of everyday and tweak my lesson plans accordingly.  It would save me a lot of time if I could get this feedback instantly.  I would also do this polling about 10 minutes before I wanted the lesson to end that way for the last 10 minutes I could cover any areas of difficulty.  If all students understood the content then I could cut those last 10 minutes and move on.  It would allow for the teaching in the class to be much more targeted on what the students need to know and what the already know.  It would help with pacing and keeping students engaged.

As with any tool you want to implement in your classroom though there will always be challenges that you will have to overcome.  The most obvious challenge I see is that fact that cellphones are not allowed in many schools, especially elementary.  This would obviously cause a hindrance in the effectiveness of this tool.  Another obstacles would be the fact that not all students would have cellphones and therefore be able to participate in these types of polls.  As with most things in an ideal situation this tool would be great but most of us don't live or work in an ideal situation for implementing these technologies.  This is why teachers need to be creative to figure out solutions to these types of problems.  I think this has great potential to increase the power and effectiveness of education and I would really love to see this implemented in classrooms.

WPP Final Presentation

1. Text of your problem:  Engage students during transitions and in the instance of lessons not lasting long enough to increase classroom management
2. Text of your solution:  Use of activities through Gizmo and videos from teachertube and youtube to fill these times and keeps students engaged and busy so issues won't arise
3. Text of the TP, TC, & PC questions and your answers:
4. 1.   What is the TP knowledge for the solution?  (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)

The technology supports the teaching strategies and methods that I have chosen by allowing the teacher to have quick access to a variety of transition activities.  It would do no good if the transition into one of these activities lasted just as long as it would moving into the next part of the lesson.  That would defeat the purpose.  The technology allows for these activities to be presented to the students quickly to hold their attention and keep them engaged.  Technology also gives the teacher or substitute teacher the advantage of being able to access things such as videos and music quickly as well.  The technology has the advantage of providing a wider array of options to implement this strategy.  Technology can also be used to differentiate activities for students that may finish with assignments early.  This way you can challenge all students without a set task that may be too hard for some and too easy for others and won’t engage that student.

2.           What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?  Be sure to think about representation.)

Technology makes this content much more accessible.  While substitute teachers should bring things in with them transition and extra materials technology gives these teachers a much wider array of options.  Technology allows teachers access to short videos, music and other activities that can engage students keeping them from causing disturbances during down time.  These down times often occur during transitions or if a lesson runs short.  This is something that happens more often with substitute teachers but is an issue of classroom management for all teachers.  The technology and its ability to let you access a wide array of activities also allows for teachers to differentiate instruction for different students.  An activity that may engage and challenge one student may be too easy and therefore not engage another.  Of course this differentiation can’t happen all the time, especially as a substitute because there would be no time for the lesson.  But if a student finishes with a lesson early this access to several resources will come in handy as it will allow you to challenge that student and/or give them multiple activities.

3.           What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies.

Technology is a large part of our culture and especially the culture of the students we teach.  The purpose of activities to support classroom management is to have engaging and challenging activities that will hold a student’s interest during transitions and/or if a lesson doesn’t run as long as planned.  Implementing technology into these activities help make the activities into something engaging and meaningful for the students and not just busy work.  A short video clip of something like current events can be engaging for example because it is happening in the world and is something students can relate to.  It is also educational and gets them thinking about the issues of the world.  Technology can be a great tool for something like this because it allows us to access these types of video clips.  There are also several educational activities online such as gizmos.com.  This is a place where students can learn through inquiry.  There is such a large array of choices with these inquiry activities that a teacher can find one that relates to the topic quickly and easily.  Each activity also comes with questions so that students will have to have something to show for their work and won’t just goof around.  The main goal with these activities is to keep students engaged to help classroom management as well as learning and stimulating their brains.  Technology is a great tool that allows us to accomplish both of these goals