Tech Tools in Use

Socrative is one of the Tech Tools in Use presentations given by groups in our EDUC 504 class. Their presentation was very insightful into the power of this tool and made me think about how I could apply it in my own classroom.  

This online tool is a way for teachers to poll and quiz students online that mimics the use of iClickers. Teachers can create assessments that are either multiple choice, true/false, or short answer. In each of these types of questions one can select the correct answer and can also provide instant feedback to students. Teachers then provide a code to students for the socrative "classroom" and then as the teacher you can release the quiz that you created to your students. You can also choose to use a "quick question" to poll students like one would for a iclicker question. You can also provide a fun quiz in the form of a "space race" where students can work in teams to complete a previously created quiz. Teams race against one another to answer the most questions as quickly as possible. Socrative is a simple and powerful online tool that allows teachers to assess students understanding in a few different fun ways.

My biggest concern with this technology in the classroom is that each student must have access to either a computer or smart phone. In my current placement we do not have access to laptops in our classroom daily and the computer lab computers are extremely slow. I think that it would be interesting to try to use this tool with students on their cellphones. While this tool is easy to access on a phone I think that one must establish the correct norms for use in the classroom, however our current policy is that students do not use phones in the classroom. It is left to the discretion of the teacher in my placement to decide how cellphones are used in the classroom, however, my mentor teacher prohibits their use.

I am inspired to think about how to incorporate this online tool into my future classroom. Although concerns with having technology are the most prominent in my mind, I think that the incorporation of technology into the classroom is essential, especially as the use of technology is so important for the future success of our students. Some may argue that knowing how to use technology effectively is more important than the regurgitation of rote information. This assignment not only introduced me to many different online tools, each with their own pros and cons, but it made me think more critically about how to incorporate technology into the classroom, the norms that would need to be established for student use, and what things are important for a teacher to consider when checking out new tools.

Guest Presenter: David Theune

David Theune was our first guest speaker of the semester in EDUC 504 and he was such an inspiring and motivational speaker! David is an English/Drama teacher that connects his students with "authentic audiences."

He provides provides different audiences through the use of community and technology.  

The first audience he discussed was parents. Although parents are typically very involved in elementary school, a lack of parent participation occurs in high school. David invites parents into the classroom and involves them in different activities such as listening to student read essays and helping build up students by providing feedback. Although he does state that many parents may not be able to come, providing the opportunity opens doors and provides an audience for students beyond the teacher. This started to make me think about how I could get parents involved in my future chemistry classroom. Although I think chemistry is something that many parents may find intimidating, I think it would be great to open up science into the community and have students present their work, such as lab reports or projects. As a student being able to explain and communicate science to a lay audience is a powerful and meaningful endeavor.

To provide an even broader audience David presents his student work to the world through the internet.  He has his students create digital personal narratives that his students share through YouTube. Although this is an incredibly personal and intimidating feat students rarely turn down the opportunity to share their work, however, they are provided the opportunity to opt out of sharing their work publicly. I think that creating a public space for your classroom to share their work is very cool. I have the idea for a project in which students complete a research project on a scientist that they can relate to and then they have to adopt their scientists character and present a digital narrative from the perspective of their scientist. This is a more involved project, but I could also utilize this online sharing for student work about developing different lab procedures or reporting out and explaining results. 

David also provides an opportunity to bring in local non-profits and organizations into the classroom. He has students write persuasive essays after completing research then students vote on the best essay and the winner gets to give money to the organization that they supported in their essay. In this way students contribute to their community and see that they can impact the world.  There are many different organizations, such as environmental agencies, that I could incorporate into my future lessons. When students are learning about solubility for example, we could extend what is learned in the classroom and learn about different compounds that find our way into local waterways and perhaps even learn about waste water treatment plants. 

David even suggests to have students teach younger students in the district.  Doing this you can have students plan what they are going to teach and then execute it by visiting other classrooms. This is a low-tech way to provide audience to the classroom. This could be difficult with some chemistry topics as they may be abstract for younger students, but perhaps that would provide some challenge to the high school students and try to get them to truly explain their thought process. 

The final audience that David suggests is through streaming your classroom with peers in other chemistry classrooms.  He suggests http://www.ustream.tv/ as an avenue for streaming the classroom. This even provides an opportunity for parents who are unavailable to come into school to view student work.  

Overall, I thought that David Theune's presentation was very informational and motivational. I left class feeling PUMPED UP about including audience into my classroom. Even though he suggested many different projects that have worked in his ELA classroom, his ideas inspired me to start thinking about how to incorporate his practices into my own teaching. Although this presentation happened at the end of a very long day, I left the School of Ed feeling ready for the next opportunity I may have to utilize any one of these great ideas.

If you are interested in learning more about David Theune below are the links for his twitter feed and blog.

Twitter  https://twitter.com/DavidTheune

Blog http://educationaltransformer.blogspot.com/