Technology Centers

We have been talking a lot about communication and collaboration in my EDIT 2000 class at UGA. There are infinite amounts of ways to connect with other professionals as well as students in order to become a better teacher. Online communication is becoming more and more utilized in the classroom, and it is allowing for authentic and engaging learning to take place. Students no longer question the relevancy of the learning material, as they are given the opportunity to publish their work on blogs and other various outlets. In a transition to another unit, we took one class to study various sorts of technologies that don't necessarily fit into any of our units. For this activity, we were seperated into groups and given various technologies to study.

Our group was assigned the online newspaper and the mobile quiz app, Socrative.
Both of these technologies were fun to learn about in the short time we were allotted. As a future teacher, these technologies pose endless uses in the classroom.

The online newspaper (you can find the one our group made here!) could be used as a sort of module in which students see relevant information for the particular class. Texts, videos, pictures, forums, polls, etc. can be posted to the class newspaper to provide easy access to materials other than a text book. Such material is usually more current and interesting to students, thus, making the material more meaningful. Students are more likely to check out the newspaper and its potential updates rather than read a monotonous text book. Furthermore, students can create their own newspaper. it would be interesting for students to do this for a project on current events, perhaps in a social studies classroom.

Out of the two, I most liked the Socrative app. In order to use it, the teacher would simply create a "classroom" online. Students can then access the classroom from any device or laptop. The technology is similar to clicker technology, used for quizzes. Teachers can easily create quizzes for their students. After questions are completed, they are instantly uploaded for student-access. Following each question, students are notified whether or not they answered the question correctly. Teachers are immediately given the result after completion. The immediacy creates convenience that is essentially free. The quiz app could be used in a number of different ways. Teachers could use it for attendance purposes; teachers could use it to gain initial knowledge; teachers could use it for formative grades; teachers could use it for "Ticket-Out-The-Door" purposes.

It's amazing how many different technologies are out there that are easily accessible and mostly free. Teachers have amazing resources to create an effective and engaging learning environment that promotes authentic learning and critical thinking.