Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Tech Savy Teachers: Changes in the Earth's Surface

Written by Jennifer Ray and RaeLene Hamblin

As Tech Savvy teachers, we want to give our students the opportunity to use content-specific technology tools. We know that these technologies allow our students to explore science in ways that are engaging and enjoyable.

We used technology to teach about the reshaping of the Earth's surface, which is standard 2 in Utah's core curriculum for the 5th grade. Specifically, we wanted students to explore volcanoes, canyons, and mountain ranges after we had discussed the forces that create these landforms. Students were also given the task of describing the terrain of a new location, such as Nevada in our example. Google Earth is the technology tool students used to accomplish these tasks. The image to the right is an example of how students are able to see the topography of various landforms, in this case a volcano.

Google Earth enables students to view geographic locations throughout the world. We began by looking at the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii. Google Earth allows the students view the terrain of the actual volcano by using the 3D feature and by zooming in to the volcano. Students can move the focus around the terrain so they can explore the volcano in depth. As seen in the picture below, Google Earth also offers informational articles when this specific box is clicked. In this example, a Wikipedia article shows information about Mauna Loa.

Next, students explored the geological features of the Grand Canyon. Students were able to see real photographs of the Grand Canyon alongside the topographical view. As the students explored the Google Earth images, we discussed the forces that created these landforms. Finally, students were instructed to explore a nonresidential area of Nevada and describe the terrain they see. Students also explained what forces shaped that terrain. An example of a student's view of Nevada is provided below.
This technology of Google Earth allowed students to observe and analyze data in the form images. Because the images were three-dimensional, students were able to gain a deeper understanding of the content than they would have through a lecture with pictures. The following image of the Grand Canyon exemplifies the kind of images that students are able to manipulate to explore geological landforms. Investigating these landforms engages students in meaningful learning. This is one example of how tech savvy teachers use technology to enhance learning.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Science/Math Techonologies: Stellarium

Stellarium is one of the technologies that I explored last class period. I really enjoy the fact that this program allows you to not only view the sky at the current time, but past and future times. This program also allows you to view the various star constellations. This program is a lot of fun and is one that I hope to spend more time figuring out.

TPACK

TPACK is technological pedagogical and content knowledge. This means using technology that is specific to a certain content of subject and is oriented by content pedagogy. TPACK is very important for teachers to have because it allows teachers to teach the content more fully and with better methods. TPACK makes learning more engaging and applicable for students. Learning about plants is much more engaging when using programs like Celestia.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Web 2.0 and RSS Feed

I am quite excited to use RSS feed. It is very convenient to be notified about new posts and be able to read those posts in the RSS reader. This will save me much time. Often when browsing my usual sites, I get distracted by other material on the site. Sometimes I even forget what I came to the site to find. Subscribing to the RSS feed of those sites will diminish my distractions and still allow me to receive the information I am seeking because all of the updates from the various sites I am keeping up with will be posted in one place.

RSS feed will help me with teaching because I can subscribe to websites that have information I can use in my teaching. These websites include Utah Education Network, School District Websites, Edutopia, and many other beneficial websites. Another thing I could do would be to subscribe to the RSS feed of students' good reads book lists. This would allow me to keep up with what my students are reading and what their thoughts are about those books.

Web 2.0 has so many excited things. I am looking forward to using good reads and delicious. I do not feel that I am as familiar with these sites as I would like to be, but feel that with some quality time spent exploring the features of each of these sites I will be able to benefit from all that they have to offer.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

My Technology Background

My technology background is relatively simple. I am frequent user of Facebook, Hotmail, and Gmail. I have not done much in the way of blogging but I am excited to learn. I can handle most of Microsoft Office, but am less familiar with some of the programs. I can usually figure out a new program with a little bit of trial and error. I am looking forward to learning about technologies that I am now unfamiliar with. I think this will be a very enjoyable class.