Journal Article Blog The Eighth

“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.

Journal Article Blog The Seventh

“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.

Journal Article Blog The Sixth

"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.

Journal Article Blog The Fifth

“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.

Journal Article Blog The Fourth

“Don’t Feed the Trolls. Using Blogs to Teach Civil Discourse” by Karen Work Richardson

Richardson’s article talks about teaching students how to be civil when using the Internet to publish their own comments. There’s potential to abuse Internet technology, like attacking other students and posting harmful comments and rumors about each other. Richardson says that incivility is part of Web culture. Teachers need to show their students that there are guidelines of civil discourse on the Internet, just like there is in the real world. The rules of civility in the classroom are the same rules of civility that should be used on the Internet. She wants teachers to teach their students that with “push-button publishing” then need to use reflection and self-restraint. They should talk about ideas instead of people and getting personal with their comments. Teachers need to create a comfortable and safe environment for their students to feel like they can discuss without the fear of being attacked. One thing Richardson mentions is the rule about “don’t feed the trolls.” You’re supposed to ignore the posters that are being very negative and trying to start trouble. If you don’t respond to them and pretend like their comment was never made, then the troll will have a difficult time starting the trouble they were hoping to start.


I think teaching civil discourse on the Internet is very important. First, you want to make sure your students will feel comfortable when the class is using things like blogs and discussion boards. If they are afraid that they will be attacked by fellow classmates, they may be reluctant to post, and that could have an impact on their grade and learning experience. Second, these guidelines could be very important outside of class, as well, in helping to try and create young people that are more civil to each other than the adults are who re using the Internet now and who are running our society. People seem to feel like it’s okay to be a total jerk to someone as long as they are posting their comments on the Internet. In my opinion, they seem to forget what effects they have on fellow human beings and lose sight of the fact they're talking to a real human being, not a cumputer. You could hope that civil discourse instruction in the classroom would translate outside the classroom. You hear a lot about, I think it is called cyber bullying, where young kids get extremely hurt by what their peers say and do to them on the Internet. Some kids end up trying to harm themselves, and some succeed. Obviously that won’t stop just by teaching civil discourse guidelines for the Internet, but it should at least make you’re Internet classroom environment safe, and maybe it will enlighten some kids.

Journal Article Blog The Third

“Remixing Chemistry Class “by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams

This article discusses how the authors decided to do all their chemistry lectures on vodcasts, so that the students could watch them on their own time and more class time could be used for experiments. They originally used the vodcasts just for review or for students who were absent, but then they realized that if they pre-recorded their lectures they would have more class time to do lab activities, demonstrations, and to help students who were struggling. They make the vodcasts available in many different ways. They have them on their Web sites, on Google Video, iTunes, classroom computers, and DVDs. They were concerned that students wouldn’t watch the vodcasts, so they got a system than allows them to check if the students have watched them. Students have said that they like the vodcasts because they are able to pause and rewind the lecture and learn things at their own pace. One student said she had her grade raised a letter and wished that her other classes would use vodcasts. The authors compared state science test scores from before and after their change to vodcast lectures, and they found that the average score post-vodcast was nearly identical to the scores before.

I like the idea of recording lectures. I’m not sure if I would only use vodcast lectures, though. I think they are definitely a good idea so that students can review information and, like the authors said, they will be able to go back and hear information they missed and listen at their own speed. You would be able to devote more class time to discussions, answering questions, doing creative lessons, and other activities that don’t involve just sitting and listening to the teacher. I would still be a little concerned about my students not watching the videos even if I had a system to check if they had watched them. Just because they had the videos playing doesn’t mean they were paying attention to what was being said. It also requires students to have some kind of technology available to listen to the lecture. I know most kids have some kind of access to computers, and probably more so by the time I’m teaching, but it could still be a potential problem for some kids.

Journal Article Blog The Second

“Too Cool for School? No Way!” By Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler

This article talks about how teachers can use popular technology as teaching tools. They reference things like blogs, iPhone, YouTube, Flickr, and Google Earth as technologies teachers may not look at as things they could use to teach their students, but if they are modified to be used as an educational tool they could be used as new creative and fun ways to teach. They call their concept technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK). They added on to a concept called pedagogical content knowledge created by Lee Shulman. Shulman said that what makes a teacher a teacher is that they have the ability to understand how to allow children to learn. They can apply strategies to make learning accessible to students. Mishra and Koehler say that technology needs to be added to how teachers can teach their students. They need to be able to transform technology that wasn’t necessarily made for educational purposes. They gave three examples of current popular technology that could be used in the classroom. They suggested microblogging as a way for students to interact with each other about classroom discussions outside of the classroom. They talked about specialized search engines to help students understand intertextuality. Students would search for a target phrase and look at the different ways it’s used in different places, and they could record and annotate what they find. The last technology they mentioned was music DJ software. This can help students learn about math concepts like ratios, fractions, and percentages.

I think it is a good idea for teachers to use technology that is popular with their students in an educational way. It would be something different than what they are used to, and they may be more willing to use it because it’s something they enjoy using all the time. They would most likely be used to having online conversations, so things like blogging and discussion boards could be very useful in getting students to talk, and some students may even feel more comfortable discussing their views online than in the classroom. There’s potential for things to get out of control on blogs and discussion boards, though, so there would have to be rules and the teacher would have to closely monitor what’s going on. I think the music DJ software is a very good suggestion. Most kids love music, so they may actually be a little more enthusiastic about the lesson than if it was just a regular lecture. Technology can be very useful if you know how to use it, so creating ways to use technology to help students learn will not only teach them the subject matter they are learning, but also how to use technology to their advantage.