Blog from Chapter 1

Chapter one from Engaging Learner with Interactive Whiteboards was a really interesting introduction to IWBs. It begins by talking about what an IWB is and three popular companies that sell IWBs. It then goes on to describe the ways to effectively use an IWB in a classroom. It strongly emphasizes the importance that an IWB is MUCH more than a glorified projector and should be used as such. Then it discusses the instructional benefits to using IWBs and how important it is for teachers to understand this new technology.
The next section in the book focuses on how how IWBs can impact student achievement. There is inconclusive conclusions about how IWBs can be beneficial for students. However three aspects that are linked to student achievement are student response systems, graphics and videos, and reinforcer properties. (p.5) The next section is over the instructional challenges associated with IWBs. The biggest cause of these challenges is that many teachers do not know how or simply do not use the IWBs effectively. The last section focuses on the importance and implementation of teacher training so that IWBs can be used to their greatest extent. The chapter ends with a quiz to test how well the reader retained the information from the text.
Overall, this was a very informative text that provided interesting information about IWBs. I learned a lot!

Mid Term Reflection

Now that we are half way through this class (CRAZY), I'm feeling pretty good! I feel like I'm learning a lot about integrating technology! It's funny that I'm enjoying this class so much because I was really nervous when it began. I thought the material would be really complicated and difficult for me to catch on to. But the class is turning out to be really great! The way the material is presented makes it really easy to understand! I can only hope that the rest of the class goes as well as the first half has!

Wiki Walk Through

The Wiki Walk Through was really informative! It started explaining the basics of a wiki, what it is? who uses them? how is a wiki different then a blog. That information was kind of a review for me. However, on the next page, I found a whole host of really cool ways to use a wiki in my classroom.
It started with general ideas for all kinds of classrooms and then gave ideas for specific groups or subjects ('young learners', 'math', 'social studies',' science', 'language arts', 'other subjects' and even a 'teacher wiki' option).
Under the general ideas, I liked the suggestion of having the students create a Frequently (or Not) Asked Question Page. This is a really cool way to see how students understand certain topics. For the 'Younger Learners' portion, I thought the idea of having a student book review wiki was really great. One hidden perk to this is that it can provide a guide for teachers to see which books the students enjoy. Under the 'Math' portion, I really liked the idea of having students taking geometry have a wiki of different examples of proofs. In most problems, there are more than one way to get the correct answer so the students could show that. Under 'science' I thought the idea of having a taxonomy wiki would be really cool. You could have the students post animals they see over the semester that fit into each branch! Under Language Arts, I really liked the idea of the "travel brochure" for different literary eras. Under Other Subjects, I thought the of having an orientation wiki for students coming into a new school created by current students. This one might have to be closely monitored though.
The teacher wiki page was basically just encouragement for teachers to create wikis so they can share ideas for other teachers to use. This tab was followed by 'Your own ideas ','Take a wiki walk', and 'Good Reasons?'.
On the next page, there was a section on why use a wiki. The subjects under this were Connections, Creativity, Engagement, Interpersonal, Writing, Metacognition, which are all perks of using wikis. Wikis have students engage higher order thinking skills. Win!
The next parts explain how to do a wiki and the responsibilities that go along with having them. Overall, I think the Wiki Walk Through had great ideas of how to use wikis in a new and cool way!