Exit Slip 2/22

Today we learned about making a flip chart for Active Inspire. Jeff found a picture of an alligator in clip art, made it smaller, and attached our names on the top of each one. He then drew a lake, and made it so when you drag a gator into the lake, it disappeared but left your name visible. It did not seem difficult to make which is reassuring because we will have to create one sometime this semester.

Next, some classmates shared their digital autobiographies using Animoto and Vuvox; we had a quick review of these technology tools.

Then, we listened to a presentation on the chapter we read and got a refresher on the history of what brought on organized education--the Industrial Revolution. During this period, people left their farms and moved to cities; this created a large need for universal schooling instead of parents having the sole responsibility of educating their offspring. Now we are experiencing a new revolution, the Knowledge Revolution. Schools need to incorporate technology into the classroom more to give children a well-rounded education and the skills they need to successfully transition into a career. We also went into a little more depth about the major revolution periods and times of change that brought on education, Reformation, American Revolution, Industrial Revolution, and Knowledge Revolution, through small group discussion and presentation of thoughts.

The Knowledge Revolution provides unprecedented access to knowledge for everyone, of which technology is a part. Is it occurring? I believe it is--through the Internet, laptops, cell phones, etc.

Do we need more knowledge than our parents to be successful? Yes and no--for the most part, I think we need to know more about technology than our parents, but there are many things they know that I don't (and have to look up online or another resource).

Later, Jeff introduced us to tools to make podcasts, Audacity and GarageBand. Audacity is best for PC users, GarageBand is best for Mac users. When making a podcast, you must follow these three steps: pre-production (come up with an idea, a script, sound effects, and music), production (recording), and post-production.

Contemporary Issues:
Dayton Technology of Design High School-students ages 16-22 who are at-risk or dropped out make a 3 year commitment. In one class, they create an educational video game and then market it. They also have classes in science, math, social studies, etc. and earn a high school diploma. I think this is a good way to get these at-risk students engaged and attending school.

Virtual field trips-interactive group of websites on a certain topic. Easier to schedule and to access (i.e. Egypt) but cannot be the only tool a teacher uses because it does not provide students with hands-on experiences. I think this could be a helpful tool, but it has a lot of words and would need to be altered for young children. You could have your students take a virtual field trip before taking an actual field trip to help students especially boys, see what will be there and give them a little time to explore before going there.

Virtual Schooling-uses online whiteboards, on a phone, not being with a teacher face-to-face. It is more cost effective. Issues: people need access to a computer, possession of computer skills, and the ability to manage your time. Also, people do not have much social interaction and the online classes may be much easier than an actual class. It is good in that people have the flexibility to take classes whenever they want and a choice in what courses they take.

Webcams in laptops provided by schools given to high school students-I think the schools need more guidelines on what they can and cannot do. Also, there are issues of privacy for students, even if their parents give consent.

Cool Tools:
National Geographic Kids-students can play games, read, learn about multiple domains, etc. One issue with this site is that there is a lot of reading, which will be difficult if young students cannot yet read.

Dropbox-It saves multiple files, documents, music, pictures, etc. One issue is that to save a lot of larger files (i.e. music, etc.) people must buy more space.

Comapping-More appropriate for older students. It helps people stay organized by mapping out their schedules. It is user friendly and free if you want a personal account. For schools or businesses, it is very expensive so not as likely to be used school wide. You can share your map with others and they can add to it which is really convenient.

Twitter-is free to sign up and lets you learn what people are thinking. To do this, you must "follow" them. Making an update is a "tweet". Twitter is like a Facebook status. It can be downloaded to anything with Internet access. You can personalize your profile to your liking. You must be sure to set your profile to private because it automatically is set to public, which can be a safety issue. People may only type 140 characters per post. Teachers can use this at any grade level to update parents on what is going on throughout the school day by tweeting about it.

We ended class with a discussion about our inquiry questions and how to word them.