Thursday, November 17, 2011

"Technology Reflection: Instructional Use of the SmartBoard"

Technology Reflection Assignment


Description/Experience
In our last Education 311 seminar, we were presented the demonstration of the smart board. Mr. Graham from Kingwood Elementary showed us many websites, including portaportal that could be used on the smart board for different subjects. The takeaways from the demonstration were that there are many different websites that can be used on the smart board to make learning fun for the students.


Application
I would conduct an activity made for a reading lesson involving rhyming words. The learners’ of my activity would be a classroom full of first graders. This activity is designed for a first grade classroom. The learners will gain the knowledge and understanding of the different words that rhyme and sound similar. At the end of this activity, students will be able to pick out two similar words that sound the same, or rhyme. I will know that the students acquire the learning outcomes by successfully completing the activity. I will know my activity was effective when they complete a worksheet at the end of the lesson showing their comprehension of the rhyming lesson.
The lesson would begin with introducing the definition on the smart board of the word rhyme. This would take a minute or two and then following the definition, I would give multiple examples. This total would occupy four or five minutes.

The next ten minutes would be used for the game on the smartboard. The game will be a matching game that has two similar sounds that would be described with pictures. The second round of the game would be words. This would go back and forth until the ten minutes are finished.

Following the game on the smartboard, the students would spend the next five minutes on a worksheet of pictures/words and matching them using a pencil to the similar word/picture to demonstrate the students comprehended the lesson.


Reflection

  1. How well the use of this technology may support your teaching strategies in this activity.
  2. How effectively the use of this technology may enhance students' understanding of and learning from your particular content in this activity.


--Pedagogical-Content:

Your pedagogical content knowledge refers to your understanding of teaching strategies that are specific to a content area. That is the knowledge about choosing appropriate pedagogies for teaching a particular content Example: Using drill-and-practice to teach math problem solving. This strategy however may not necessarily be effective for other content areas such as teaching speech and drama.

The use of this technology will support my teaching strategies in this activity because I will utilize the smartboard, which will gain the attention of the students. I will also use the technology as a game, instead of straight lecturing. Students will learn a lot from this teaching strategy because it enforces the technology “fun” activity that students crave to do.

This technology will enhance their understanding of the content because they will learn first. Then the students will drill-and-practice by playing the matching game. This will help them see and hear the difference between non-rhyming words and rhyming words.

The teaching strategies in this activity include, demonstration, illustrations, examples, and drill-practice. I think this is appropriate to teach this content because the students will be able to see, hear and figure out what the different words are for rhyming. I believe that this will help the students comprehend this particular content because they will be doing the activity with me showing me what rhymes and what does not rhyme. For example, I will have volunteers go up to the board and match the two words instead of me doing it every time.

Some conceptions that students would bring with them when learning for this particular content would be the different letters that make up words. The only thing that concerns me about students’ prior knowledge would be if they understand that the words rhyme only on the sound, not necessarily the letters.


--Technological-Pedagogical:

Your technological pedagogical knowledge refers to your understanding of technologies for particular learning tasks, your ability to choose technologies based on its fitness, your knowledge of pedagogical strategies, and your ability to apply those strategies for use of technologies

Example: Selecting Edmodo/facebook for facilitating student generated debate. Edmodo here is the technology that supports the main pedagogy-group discussion/debate.

The main instructional strategies this technology used to serve in my activity is to ensure the students understand the different examples of rhyming. The smart board will show the different words and how they match up based on sound. One example of this would be to have the students match up the words and the smart board could help them comprehend if they get it right or not.

Different classroom management strategies I need to consider is giving a set number of rules prior to going to the smartboard. Some examples of this would be one person at a time at the smartboard, no rough housing, no fighting, be respectful to your peers, etc. This will show the students what behavior is expected of them before they go to do the activity.



--Technological Pedagogical Content:

Your technological pedagogical content knowledge refers to your understanding of how teaching and learning from content may change when technology used and is our knowledge about selecting technologies that suits, support, and enhances teaching strategies and learning activities in your particular content area. It is your understanding of teaching strategies to effectively teach the particular content and help student conceptual difficulties in this content by meaningfully incorporating technologies.

Example: Using a flash card app on iPad as a means to aid students memorize words and definitions in language learning. iPad app is here chosen as a tool to support the pedagogy around instant feedback, quick repetition, and individualized learning. These are some effective strategies used in language learning content area.

The smartboard would enhance the way the content is represented in my activity because it will be shown visually and heard verbally. The activity includes demonstrations, examples, explanations, illustrations, and more. Words and pictures will represent the different words of rhyming while the students will demonstrate their comprehension of words that rhyme in front of the whole class.

The demonstration in front of the entire class would not be possible without the smart board because the students would not be able to see it except when it is projected on to the screen. Other students can create their own words, and or game that would show that they learned the content and understood it.