Classroom Technology Resource Reviews

Big Huge Labs

For the Greek unit of 6th grade world history, the students have been studying, among other things, Greek mythology. One of our culminating projects in mythology was for the students to create trading cards of different characters from Greek mythology. To do so, we used the Trading Card Maker from www.bighugelabs.com. The whole process is super easy and the kids REALLY enjoyed it. They got something slick and professional looking while at the same time retaining the ability to customize their work.

The website, run by Flickr, has several preprogrammed templates for playing with photographs, a few of which have some pretty cool applications in an educational setting. The trading card maker can easily be put to use showcasing student understanding and creativity. I've also had the kids use the Movie Poster Maker to create promo posters for our upcoming production of Homer's "The Iliad". While not all of the applications at Big Huge Labs are usable in the classroom, it's definitely worth checking out as a way for students to learn to use technology in a creative and educational way.

Classzone

This coming week I start teaching sixth grade mathematics, which is rather outside my social studies comfort zone. I do, however, have several resources in my toolkit to make this an exciting, rather than a daunting, challenge. One such resource, which my host teacher introduced me to, is www.classzone.com, a site created by textbook giant McDougal-Littell as an online extension to their family of printed texts. Classzone offers a host of services meant to be used in conjunction with McDougal-Littell textbooks, but some of their features offer learning engagment opportunities for everyone.

At the homesite, you simply select your grade level, subject, and state and the site brings up a list of McDougal-Littell texts commonly in use in your state. Once you've selected your text, it takes you to that book's homepage where you'll find everything from homework help to activities, learning games, and animations that help explain the concepts you're teaching in class. The site also breaks down by chapter so you can easily find and access resources directly linked to the specific lesson the student's are studying.

My host teacher went over the use of classzone.com with the students last semester, specifically in reference to the homework help feature and games designed to strengthen basic computation skills. Another helpful feature that I've found useful in breaking down the lesson in order to think about how best to teach it is the @HomeTutor feature. The HomeTutor is designed to provide an overview of the lesson which is accessible to students while at home or away from the classroom. I've found it helpful to look at the way the HomeTutor breaks down lessons and to then compare that with the way that I'd been thinking of tackling the lesson myself. It provides another perspective that sometimes provides insight into other ways of explaining a key concept that I might not have thought of myself.

Obviously, Classzone is most effective for teachers using McDougal-Littell textbooks in their classrooms. However, with a little time and exploration, even teachers who teach from other books could use this resources to come up with games and ideas for activities in their content area.

Hulu

While Hulu.com might be best known for its alien commercials and archives of popular TV shows like The Daily Show and the Simpsons, it also provides access to a treasure trove of educational videos from acclaimed sources like National Geographic, NOVA, CNBC and a host of others too numerous to list. In fact, the sheer breadth of archived video material available at Hulu is staggering. From an educator's perspective, having free access to all these educational videos at the click of a button is an amazing resource.

For example, a few weeks ago we were looking at the history of ancient Rome and slavery. The slave revolt of Spartacus in 73 B.C. is the stuff of legends and, with a few keystrokes and a click or two of the mouse, I was able to pull up an extremely well done video from National Geographic that brought the story vividly to life for the students. Having access to such educational materials is a priceless tool to help engage students with quality re-enactments from trusted sources without having to go through the hassle of ordering a video and waiting for it to arrive. Perhaps the key benefit is that it enables educators to bring up information quickly and easily and at the spur of the moment. If, while planning a lesson where a video resource would be helpful, you can find it at your fingertips in mere moments and incorporate it quickly into your teaching. This is where Hulu truly shines.

The only real problems that I've encountered using Hulu is that it takes up a significant amount of bandwidth and that some form of projector is needed to transfer the video from the computer to a larger screen. Therefore, in a school with limited technology resources, Hulu would not be a viable option. However, if you work in a district with good bandwidth capabilities and some basic technology like a digital projector, Hulu functions smoothly and allows access to a mind-boggling amount of educational videos.

A much smaller issue is the commercial breaks that allow Hulu to function. They are generally about 30 seconds in length and come about every 15-20 minutes, meaning that in an hour long documentary, you can expect to lose a couple minutes to commercial interruption. This time need not be wasted, however, as the projector can be blocked and the audio muted to enable class discussion while the commercial runs.

Videos have long been used in the classroom to enrich learning and to provide visual reinforcement of the concepts or events being studied. Hulu is a tool for the modern digital age that allows educators to access a wide variety of educational videos from their own classroom. If you work in a district with good internet connectivity and decent bandwidth, and have some means of transferring the video to a larger screen, Hulu might be a tool to help you easily find and incorporate educational videos into your instruction. It's definitely worth checking out. Click here to visit it yourself.

My Philosophy of Education

For our technology class we created a video presentation of our philosophy of education. A lot of the current buzz in social studies education has to do with increasing the focus on critical thinking, research, and problem solving. I agree; my personal belief is that content must be both woven into a deeper understanding of the larger context and driven towards imaginative and analytical thought. You can watch my philosophy movie by clicking below.



For a list of images used in the presentation, click here.

I enjoyed the process of creating this video, technical issues notwithstanding. Having to trim down my philosophy to fit into around 90 seconds of audio really helped me think about what I value most in education. I was also encouraged by how easy it was to create a reasonably polished video, as this makes me think that such a project could be incorporated into a classroom setting with a little bit of planning and initiative. Having seen how well my students react to other projects involving technology, I feel like a video project would be a good way both to engage the students and to help them reach another level of technological literacy.

Article Assessment: Tools for the Mind

Technology specialist Mary Burns lays out her reasoning for rethinking the use of technology in the classroom in this insightful piece in Educational Leadership magazine. Burns argues that current use of technology in education is misguided, focusing on low-order thinking and presentation rather than on helping to develop critical thinking and analysis abilities. Reliance on "show-and-tell applications" like Word, Powerpoint, and Publisher, and an emphasis on presentation rather than analysis has made ineffectual use of the educational possibilities of technology. NCLB requirements have further shackled schools regarding technology by encouraging a reallocation of technology funds from instruction into data-management in order to meet NCLB reporting and accountability requirements.

What is needed, argues Burns, is to refocus on critical thinking and curriculum and to integrate technology as it best serves learning rather than using technology simply to improve student engagement. In order to foster critical thinking and analysis skills through technology we must move beyond show-and-tell applications to technologies that enable students to analyze and interpret data and to explore concepts more deeply and meaningfully. Some specific examples of higher-order technology include:

• Spreadsheets
• Databases
• Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
• Computer Aided Design and Drafting programs (CADD)
• Simulations

Such technologies enable the user/learner to interact at a deeper level requiring thought, analysis, reconstruction of knowledge and result ultimately, argues Burns, in more meaningful and powerful learning.

From a teaching standpoint, I can definitely see the benefits of a shift towards higher-order uses of technology in the classroom. Clearly, the more that we can get students to analyze and interpret data and to think clearly and critically, the deeper their understanding will be. The difficulty to be surmounted is in teaching the students to use higher-order technologies effectively. Using spreadsheets, databases, or any of the other higher-order technologies Burns lists requires specific skill sets that need to be taught. With NCLB increasingly focusing curriculum and class time towards meeting progress standards, teachers have little available time to incorporate technology training into their classes, regardless of how helpful that technology might be in deepening student learning. Teachers, tech gurus, and administrators will need to work together if students are to become proficient in and reap the benefits of the use of higher-order technology. That said, the obstacles are not insurmountable. Education professionals all have in mind the best interest of their students, and if higher-order technology is given the chance and can show itself to be beneficial, certainly it will find its way into the classroom.

Article Assessment: "The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web"

In this thoughtful piece about technology and the changing nature of education, author Will Richardson concisely summarizes recent technological developments and their implications in the field of education. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and the sheer ease with which information can be accessed online have created a radically different information culture which in many ways demands a rethinking of traditional educational goals and methods. In particular, Richardson argues that the traditional definition of literacy as the ability to read and write is insufficient in an age where anyone with internet access and a computer can create content which is accessible across the globe. Literacy in such a society must also include the abilities to:

• Identify sources and gauge their credibility
• Compare new information with existing knowledge
• Evaluate the authenticity and relevance of information

Simply being able to read and write is no longer enough.

As educators, Richardson's words are hugely relevant to us. Important as it is for students to be traditionally literate, it is increasingly critical that students also be able to evaluate and make intelligent use of the wealth of information at their fingertips. In an age where anyone can contribute to the body of knowledge, educators need to ensure that students develop those skills that enable them to become adept at gathering, interpreting, evaluating, and synthesizing information. The web is awash in information, some profound and enlightening, some trivial, and some disengenious or false. It is enormously important that students have the tools to intelligently evaluate information and it is the duty of the educational system to help provide those tools.