Google Earth is the first big idea that I want to talk about in this post. My best friend introduced me to Google Earth one afternoon as I was trying to understand driving directions... I told her that I thought I knew where I was going, but I really wish I could see a landmark (I'm a very visual learner). Using Google Earth, she showed me the exact street that I needed to travel on, and because I could see it with my own eyes, I knew exactly what to look for when I physically took the trip the next day. I have loved Google Earth ever since. Any time I need to travel somewhere I am not completely familiar with, I search for the location on Google Earth. I have also begun to use Google Earth to look at national landmarks as well as beautiful sites in other countries in the world. As I read our textbook, it occurred to me that Google Earth is a valuable technological tool that teachers have access to. As teachers, we can show our students historical places, astronomy, and now, the ocean. In the following video, a Google Earth representative talks about how Google Earth is now capable of taking people places that very few of us will ever have the chance to see in real life.
found on youtube.com
As I did some exploring of my own on Google Earth, I saw that there are now resources created specifically as educational tools! I can only list a few because they are extensive, but some of my favorites are: oceans, the night sky, the moon, historical imagery, and even Mars! For those who wish to teach Science or History, Google Earth is invaluable, but it can be useful to so many more subjects if you just think outside the box. For instance, in a Literature class students could be assigned a project to seek out the hometowns of their favorite authors and then consider how that may have impacted the books they chose to write. Students would consider things like population, the number of religious structures, the number of schools available, the terrain, and historical landmarks in the area in order to formulate an idea of what the author's life was like growing up and how it influenced their stories. I am very excited to come up with creative ways to incorporate Google Earth into my future classroom.
Visual Thinking and Concept Mapping Software is the second idea I want to touch on. The textbook states that, "Many teachers of writing urge students who feel blocked creatively to begin talking, writing, or drawing whatever comes to mind, without editing, as a way to stimulate their creative imagination. Expressing ideas verbally, in print, or through pictures produces a powerful momentum" (Maloy). As someone who intends to teach Secondary Language Arts, I think that this is a very important realization. Writing down key words or fleeting thoughts on paper is not always effective, however using Kidspiration or Inspiration allows other ways of though-production for students. Having the ability to remove the stigma of "work" from a writing assignment by replacing that work with creating graphics or creating a flow chart of ideas on the computer is a tool that helps people like me to keep the art of writing alive in our children.
In a class that I took two semesters ago, the professor asked us to compare and contrast how great thinkers from history would have fared if computers and the internet had been available to them. I have thought about that assignment a great deal since then and I can say that in my opinion, if great thinkers such as Socrates and Plato and Aristotle had been able to share their ideas and argue their positions instantly via the internet, not only would their ideas have been improved upon by each other, but we would have a wonderful record of their teachings today to reflect on. It has been said that Socrates never wrote down anything that he taught, and historically it is known that Aristotle's vast library of knowledge has nearly all been destroyed. I have to wonder if, through technology, recordings of Socrates and digital copies of Aristotle's work would not have survived for us to have today....
Haikudeck
Lastly, (but my favorite thought of the chapter) is the idea of "Playing Games Together" to solidify learning in the classroom. The textbook talks about after school video game clubs and critiquing the games they played, but when I think of gaming with students, I can think of hundreds of things to do with students that promote learning. At home, I use a wide variety of educational websites for my children to practice their facts. Nearly all of those sites are comprised of games... or at least the ones that my children prefer to use are! And the more challenging the game is, the more my children enjoy and learn from them. This idea of gaming to learn is really what I call a "no-brainer". When we are very young, we are taught songs and rhymes that help us remember key ideas in school. This is a form of play and I'd wager that no kindergartner is aware they are actually doing work while they are singing the song "head, shoulders, knees, and toes". As we grow, we are given opportunities to play dress-up and role play important historical events, or pretend to be lawyers or members of a jury in a classroom, all the while learning how the judicial system works. Again, we play these games and the knowledge solidifies. For some reason, the idea of playing in order to learn becomes too juvenile once we reach middle school. There are teachers and parents that frown on singing songs or playing dress up because they feel it is juvenile or a waste of time. I truly do not understand why anyone would condone dismissing the use of something that has worked for a person's entire life! And dismissing video games as a waste of time is also a grave mistake; One that many educators have been fighting against for years.
If a child who writes only in blue ink receives straight A's when he does so, why in the world would you force that child to write in green ink? If a student retains more material from creating a digital map than he does from reading a list of continents over and over, then why would you prevent him from creating that map digitally? The same train of thought should be used when considering playing games with students. If a student is receiving knowledge from playing an interactive computer game with other students and a teacher than she would from listening to a lecture, why would anyone consider the computer game to be a waste of time?
I am excited to share technological tools with my future students such as Civilization 5 and Language is a Virus in order to engage them as well as entertain them. And of course, I will play along with them!
I have created a short Prezi in order to illustrate the differences (the differences being none at all) between the kinds of play that are beneficial to a child. Please enjoy the Prezi here, or click this link to open it in a new window: PLAYING GAMES PREZI
Resources:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic — CC BY ... (n.d.). Retrieved October 4, 2015.
Category:Creative Commons - Wikimedia Commons. (n.d.). Retrieved October 4, 2015.
Excellent post - and I can see how you can get wrapped up in your writing - a gift I wish we could give to all of our students! That said, how can we create an environment where they can be successful in their learning within the confines of curriculum, instruction, internet access, etc. You did a great job on your first Prezi and I appreciate that you honored an artist for her interest in changing the digital tool. As a prospective English teacher, you definitely need to explore Google Lit Trips (http://www.googlelittrips.com/GoogleLit/Home.html) - quite the transformational use of Google Earth - imagine students crating their own. :)
ReplyDelete