Week 12 Blog

Welcome to Our Virtual Worlds, by Gee Welcome to Our Virtual Worlds, by Gee item options This article is relative to integrating technology in the classroom because learning styles have changed and so should teaching styles. As teachers we are to be dedicated in making the classroom a learning environment. We have to be open to the idea of using technology to our advantage. As noted in the article, games can be designed to be as complicated as problem solving in a game. In my student teaching placement I was observing a 6th grade ESL (English as a Second Language) class and the students were using apps on an iPad to learn cite words in English. Another example is that I worked with a 4th grade class on introducing wikispaces and creating a virtual museum walk. I taught the teacher first until she got to a certain comfort level and then went on to teaching the students. So it’s like the article mentions, it’s not really necessary that the teacher is completely indulged in technology, but enough knowledge of it. Good Video Games and Good Learning, by Gee Good Video Games and Good Learning, by Gee item options I enjoyed the example this article gave to compare biology and video games. In many ways, school is a game, not a place where you learn all the facts and regurgitate them back on a test. What we should want to tap into is intellectual learning. As in education, video gaming has the potential to create certain characteristics needed to establish a love of learning. The students should identify themselves in their learning why should a student care about ‘virtual museum walk’ and not a ‘regular’ museum walk. Another thing is that students can interact with a video game; there is not a ‘doubt question’ in video gaming, you lose and try again. I think the biggest thing is that learning will mostly likely happened outside the classroom. Students can personalize themselves, have lower consequences in failing to do something right, and achieve higher level thinking by plating. As teachers, we have to be open to those ideas, we have to be welcoming. I like to think of it this way we are not reinventing the wheel we are making the wheel turn faster.

SMART Exchange lesson

My unit will be on learning about how music has shaped the American culture over time. Therefore the first search I did was to see if there were any existing files. This is what I found: http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html?sort=Best+match&type=All+Types&q=music+changes+the+world&subject=All+subjects&grade=All+grades The lesson is "Music changes the World" I think this is a great starting point for me. I want to create a lesson explaining the effect music has on culture, trends, ideas of the audience, etc. This lesson has pull out tabs and this idea would work for me when trying to get students to focus on certain points at certain times. The notebook file also has people from the Beatles to Motown. I liked how the file also has the reflection of how music gets inspired. This shows that not does music influence the world, but the world also influences the music that can serve as a method of freedom of speech.