This past week has been pretty exciting in terms of what was passed on to us. During this time, we were given a crash course on the function and use of SmartBoards, and that what we learned in five minutes took others three weeks because of how tech savvy we are.
A bit of clarification on the SmartBoards, these tools work similarly to how a whiteboard is presented on the wall of a classroom. The difference is that this functions as a large wall tablet via a projector and advanced screen. Teachers and students are then able to tap icons on the screen, use pen tools to create digital marks, and even create interactive activities based around the SmartBoard's functions. SmartBoards were just the start of things that we learned; following that we were shown several classroom conductors that could be used for presentations. One of these sites was called Pear Deck where teachers could create a presentation room for everyone to follow along with on computers or tablets. This ensures that students will be on the right slide as the lesson progresses. It also allows for students to interact on slides where the teacher has created interactive pieces for live feedback on where everyone is. Following up with conducting a digital classroom, we learned more about how virtual reality and augmented reality can play key factors in the classroom. One of the activities that has been set up is a virtual escape room where students must collaborate and figure out what the codes are. This can be used as a reward or as a moment to immerse the students in a lesson where it is viable. Virtual Reality may not have activities that are applicable quite yet for your field but it may help shake things up from being in a classroom. Augmented reality isn't as popular as virtual reality is nowadays, but it can be a cheaper option depending on whether tablets are available or if the students have their own smart phones. Rather than immersing someone in a completely simulated space, augmented reality creates a digital object that interacts with the physical world. Much to how the popular Pokémon GO functions, devices will place a 3-d object in the real world using the camera's field of view. As a functional tool, augmented reality can be used to set up a classroom activity where students use devices with corresponding apps to investigate different stations. The best part about this is how you don't have to make room for physical objects and how multiple students can look at the same screen to see what is happening. With the constant increase in technology, it will become increasingly important to make sure students have access to it. If they don't know how to use it, then we have not been doing our jobs as teachers in making sure they know more than just the content. We're training them for jobs yet to be created and technology that hasn't been invented, so we have to do our part to prepare them for as much as we can.
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Joel SchreinerBorn on December 17th, 1996, Joel Schreiner entered the Electronic Art program at CSU right out of High School. From there he decided to set his eyes on becoming an educator alongside an illustrator and concept artist. Archives
December 2018
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