Digital Blog Post #L- Chapter 12

GUYS! I believe this is our second to last blog post to finish out the semester! I'll share more in my reflective post but blogging is a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be, and what a great way to creatively get ideas and thoughts out. Maybe I will consider blogging after this class...

Photo credit to Kevin Doyle on Flicker 

Anyway... To get to the actual blog post from chapter 12 about Engaging Learning with Digital Tools. The first concept I wanted to look deeper into was the thought on One-to-One Laptop Computing. Which is when every student in the school gets their own laptop to use in school. There is even one-to-one laptop programs (Maloy p 306). The times have changed! I have mentioned this before in past blog posts, but when I graduated (high school) in 2012, the next year everyone got iPads to bring home. free of charge, until you graduate then you can buy them for a low cost, if you want to keep them. How I wish we had personal laptops or iPads in high school or any other grade level. Doing projects would have been a lot easier, instead of trying to get in class lab time (which never happened). But, our class textbook (Transforming Learning with New Technologies) states; having one-to-one laptops has not shown, in research, that it effects students achievement (Malory p 308). There is far more to come for the future in aspects of students having one-to-one technology. How are we going to keep up!?

Word Scramble by McKenzie Rhodes From Wordle

The second concept I dove into was integrating Technology to Address the Participation Gap. To sum up what it is, the book calls it BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) or BYOD (Bring Your own Device). All in all, it is supposed to lesson the pressure of schools and districts that cannot afford to get computers or tables for their students. So they let the students bring their own.  I think thats a pretty touchy thing to do and could lead down the path of bullying for some students. In my opinion, if the schools cant afford afford laptops or tables, their students probably cant either. It creates pressure for students to have the most up to date technology. Not every student will have equal

Photo credit to  Jaimi Lammers from Flicker 

technology, especially over the younger children (Maloy p 308). In some ways I think it could be a good idea, but needs a little more in-depth thinking for those that are not as fortunate as some.
Integrating iPads and Other Tablet Computers, again how I wish I had this in lower level school (I know I sound like a broken record)! Last semester I took an education diversity class and we had to do observation hours, so I went to a grade school on Florida SouthWestern State college campus. One of the classes I sat through was a history class where they used their iPad throughout all of their class time. You could tell the teacher was really pumped to be using technology, especially the iPads. The beginning of the kicked off with a Pop quiz! Every student favorite thing, right?! Anyway, instead of having the traditional pencil and paper, they did their quiz on their iPads. They would go through question by question and then after each question it showed the number of students that got the answer correct. When there was an overwhelming amount of students who got it wrong the teacher went over the subject and topic so help review and refresh their memories. The students had a general excitement about it also. There was laughing and excitement, which you probably wouldn't find when students are using paper and a pencil. Also, it makes it a breeze for the teacher. The quizzes are already graded so they don't need to take the time to go over every individual students quiz.

Above is a video from YouTube about technology and the positive impact it can have on children in school and also the negative impact it may have. Like stated in the video, too much screen time could mean the loss of social skills, which I think is very true. With using technology there should be a limit, and that needs to be put in place at home, where more games are being played on tablets than actual learning might take place.

Until next time guys ☮


References:

C. (2015, June 19). Pros & cons of kids using digital technology. Retrieved April 14, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com

Doyle, K. (2014, May 03). Macbook Air. Retrieved April 13, 2017, from https://www.flickr.com

Lammers, J. (2012, April 26). IPad. Retrieved April 14, 2017, from https://www.flickr.com

Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.  

Rhodes, M. (n.d.). Nine Lives – Tumblr Banner by Kenzie Rhodes. Retrieved April 14, 2017, from https://www.canva.com

Rhodes, M. (2017, April 13). Word Scramble . Retrieved April 13, 2017, from http://www.wordle.net/create