skip to main |
skip to sidebar
“Fulldome Video” by Linda E. Law
Fulldome video is a new technology that can be used for education. It’s an inflatable dome that you can project images on. You don’t just project pictures; you would project a video where you feel like you’re actually there and moving around the place. You can use it as a kind of virtual field trip to places like Mars or the moon. The article says that right now it’s used mostly by planetariums, but a school can purchase one from $20,000 to $40,000, which comes with a dome, a projector, a laptop, and some content to show. The software uses 3D animation, 5.1 surround sound, and edge blending. Most of the content deals with astronomy, but people are developing content about other subjects, as well. The Rennselaer Nanotechnology Center in New York and Nanotoon are developing a show called “Molecularium: Riding Snowflakes” about molecules and atoms. The author also mentions that students may be able to make their own content for the dome.
I think fulldome video would be a great thing for schools. It’s pretty expensive right now, but hopefully they will become cheaper over time. The article mentioned that it would be easy to pack up the dome and put it in a truck, so, I don’t know if you can right now, but maybe in the future they will be available to rent. This can be a great source for teaching. It’s visual, auditory, and interactive. The technology can be further developed to make many different content programs. You can have programs where you go back to Ancient Greece or a different country you are learning about. It can give students an opportunity to really experience what they are learning about, not just reading about something but getting to live it. Having students create their own content would be a great way to learn the lesson and technology skills for the future.
“Social Justice: Choice or Necessity?” by Colleen Swain and David Edyburn
This article talks about how teachers use technology in the classroom and how they can possibly disadvantage some students by either not using technology or not letting every student use it equally. They comment on how the children of today will need technological skills for their future jobs. A 1992 report from the Department of Labor’s SCANS said that at least 80% of jobs in the next two decades will require that an employee be technologically able. If a teacher decides not to use technology in the classroom, or limits who gets to use it and when, they aren’t preparing their students for a successful future. They say that teachers should make sure that technology is available, that they use it frequently, that they use it for real-life applications, that it’s used in a way that is going to make the learning process more effective, and that they should use it to monitor a student’s progress. They also bring up the point that technology can be very helpful for students with special needs. Technology can help them overcome challenges to allow them whatever opportunities that they may have had to miss out on without it. There is something called a Digital Equity and Portal Toolkit that can give you strategies and resources to help you provide access to technology for all of your students.
I am afraid that when I become a teacher there won’t be enough or adequate resources to use technology as a big part of the class. It’s obviously important to use so that the students can become technologically fluent, and I think it can help create very effective assignments, so I’m a little concerned that I won’t be able to use it, especially if I teach at a school that can’t really afford a lot of technological things for the students. I’m planning on teaching kindergarten, so I’m not sure how big technology has to be, though it would be great to have the opportunity to use it. Some kids at schools with less money may not get the same technological education experience that others do, which will help contribute to a divide in our society, so I like the article’s point on getting technology education to all students to avoid a disadvantage for some kids. Every kid needs to know how to use technology for the future, and technology can help make your lessons more impactful on the students.
"It’s Magic: An Educators Vision of the Future" by Annemarie Timmerman
This article was Timmerman’s vision of future education and the new uses of technology. She starts out with an example of a class. It’s supposed to be The Science of Harry Potter. The kids take the class at a Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They learn about how things fly, create their own flying broomstick models, and share their models and how it can fly with the rest of the class. She mentions something called the 21st century Instructional Revolution, which is supposed to change how schools are run and how education is taught. She says the revolution came about because of new technology which allowed teachers to change the way they did things in the classroom. She mentions something called “developmental modules” where I assume that takes the place of grade levels. She also mentions that new students who enter the concrete operational developmental module will get mentors. Personality tests and profiles are used to match mentors and what she calls cherubs, the new students. Mentors advise on what developmental modules to take and find out their interests and learning styles. In Timmerman’s vision students can create interactive holographic people and interactive worlds. One future project she mentions is the student making a hologram of a historical person and making the person appear just as they were in real life by researching them thoroughly. The students would then manipulate their holograms in a virtual seminar, responding themselves as the historical person would respond. Timmerman’s vision is basically that technology is going to be so much bigger in the future. We haven’t begun to use it to its potential in school. She also predicts a revolution where school will be very different.
I found this very interesting. I was a little confused when I read it, all the technology she talked about is beyond me. The future she talks about seems to have very intelligent students. I don’t know what the future is going to be like, but things will definitely change while I’m a teacher. I really hope that hologram thing happens while I’m a teacher. It sounds like a very interesting idea. Timmerman made future education seem like it would be much more interesting for students because it would be so interactive. Timmerman connected her article back to Harry Potter at the end, saying that students at Hogwarts enjoyed school because they were allowed to experiment and do things, and they constructed knowledge instead of just receiving it. I agree with that. My theory has always been that students learn better by doing and exploring, so I think that advanced technology may be able to provide that.
“Making Field Trips Podtastic!” by Aliece M. Weller, John C. Bickar, and Paul McGuinness
This article was about using interactive podcasts on field trips to have the student more engaged in what they are seeing on their field trips. A specific program was introduced at the Boston Museum of Science as part of research done at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Students use handheld computers to use interactive podcasts so that they will spend more time and become more engaged in the exhibits. What happens at an exhibit is the students listens to a brief podcast about the exhibit, then take a quiz, and when they get the quiz correct they get to move on to a new podcast. The purpose of having handheld computers besides listening to the podcasts is that they can take photos and videos, record interviews with museum staff, look for additional information on the Internet, and to take notes. The student is supposed to make a presentation to show others using the material from their computers. The authors think this is a good idea because it allows for multiple ways of learning and for the student to explore the exhibit themselves.
I think this could be a good way to get students engaged in field trips. I remember on field trips I used to go on, we would get worksheet and students would either not bother filling them out, or not put a lot of effort into them, and we didn’t discuss the field trip much afterward. I agree that using podcasts and interactive exhibits would get students more engaged in learning on field trips. Field trips are supposed to be educational, but a lot of kids look at it more as a day off from real school, so I think having something interesting for them to do will increase the chances that they will learn something and get what they are supposed to out of the field trip. Having them make a presentation on the field trip will make them pay attention and allow the teacher to make the field trip relevant instead of just discussing what they did for a few minutes and then forgetting all about it.
