Because I love art and I like technology I decided to also take a look at Tux Paint so I downloaded it to my computer. It was a pretty basic paint program with some fun features for children to play and learn with. I like that the program had shapes. I thought it would be a good way for children to learn what various shapes look like. I wasn't as impressed by the program as I had hoped I would be. I also took a look at the Scratch website and downloaded the program to my computer. This program is just awesome a great teaching tool for teachers and students to be creative with technology. This program is highly interactive and allows the creator to make games, animations, music, stories, and art. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but it is something I would be interested in using in my classroom.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Exploring Tech Tools
For this week I am exploring tech tools that can be used in education. I chose to take a deeper look into podcasts. I had heard of them before and used them before, but never for teaching purposes. I explored the website www.sciam.com which gives quick audio podcasts about various science information. This would be a great way to introduce a topic for a lesson and give the children the opportunity to listen to someone besides their ordinary teacher deliver the information. I also looked at the website www.bookwink.com which uses video to tell stories about books or from books to children of all ages. When I got to the website I was immediately absorbed in the video podcast that started playing. It showed African Animals and told a summary of a book called A Long Walk to Water about a boy who was run out of his village during the war in Sudan. Seeing as how I have been to Sudan this story was incredibly relatable. This would be a great way to introduce African Studies to the class and learn about this war and the current issues this region of Africa is facing. I could see how this website would be very useful in the classroom the books travel around the world and introduce books to children. The video podcast would be a great way to spark reading enthusiasm, engage children in talking about books, and encourage them to pick up books and read. This would be a great tool to use in the classroom, though it is mostly for 3rd-8th grade students. Next I went to the website http://www.ESLteachertalk.com/ which is a podcast and blog website for ESL teacher who share resources, information, expertise, and teacher tools. The podcast I watched was about teaching holidays. They gave some web resources, though when I went to the first resource it was unavailable. They talked about how holidays are great ways to teach children new language that is unique to those specific holidays, such as Thanksgiving and cooking terms or sports terms. He says "What other terms can you apply to that Holiday?" not only does this increase new vocabulary but it also adds culture into the classroom. This website and podcast would be a good resource for teachers.
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I really need a paint program on my computer so that I can add certain things to lesson plans with out using an internet picture. I will have to keep looking since you weren't too impressed by this one. I liked the pod-cast idea as a technology tool in the classroom. The idea of introducing a book and getting students engaged through a pod-cast was great.
ReplyDeleteWere you able to actually create a podcast yourself at any of those websites, or did you just listen to different ones that were already made? I have subscribed to a couple of podcasts before through i-Tunes and really enjoy them. It reminds me of the old-time radio stories (not that I am old enough to remember the days when radio was the only source of "modern" entertainment, but close...) ha ha. Normally I am not an auditory learner, but if the story is interesting enough (enough suspense), or if the podcast mixes music with the story, I do seem to be able to absorb information that way. I think podcasts are an excellent tech tool for everyone, but especially for teaching auditory learners!
ReplyDeleteI've never used podcasts out of iTunes, and I never knew they did podcasts of books. This would be a great way to access books on tape, that weren't necessarily on tape :)
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