Technology Inventory Interview

I interviewed a teacher in the Preschool on campus. I have been taught by him before, and think he is a wonderful teacher. I asked him the following questions about his classroom technology:

1. What technology is available in his classroom?

2. What technology did he wish he had in the classroom?

3. How does he use technology to get ideas and prepare for lesson and class material?

4. What technology has he used with the kids that really got their attention?

In regards to the technology available in his classroom, he said that they were equipped with digital cameras, CD players, overhead cameras for recording students, and a class computer. 

He explained that most of the technology used in class was for the teachers. His reason for not having computers for the kids and other technologies available to them for the most part in class was that kids in his class are not new to technology.  He explained that many of them, even at the age of 4, already know how to text and use their i pods! Because of the resources that are already available to them at home, including family computers, he feels that he can use further activities to stimulate their minds. 

Though the children do not use technology often in his class, he does wish he could have an LCD player in the room so that he could download pictures taken in class of the kids, and show the pictures to them on the LCD player. 

He personally uses technology frequently to help with preparations for project work. He explained that the Internet for him, is full of an immense amount of resources that helps him retrieve pictures, ideas, etc., for project work.

For my last question, I asked what technology the kids have used in his class that they have enjoyed. He explained that they had once given the kids the digital camera to take pictures while they were, I believe, on a field trip. This allowed them to capture images that they found interesting. This gave the teachers a chance to view the experience from a child's perspective. 

It is amazing how much technology has changed, even over the last 5 years! There are so many resources that are available that can assist in making lessons more exciting and learning, that much more valuable. 

XO COmputers

The EO computers were really fun to use.

In the classroom, the children could learn to take pictures, chat, and do video recordings. With this they could practice typing as they chat with friends. With the video recording, they could plan a story/ skit before they record and then act out their skit. They can then show it to their friends and chat about their story. They can also take pictures in a story order, and make them into a slide. 

Using a Digital Camera

The content is under Standard 1 in the Kindergarten core curriculum. The objective is to describe and practice responsible practices for health and safety. The main objective is to identify harmful and helpful things for the body. 

The pedagogy involves hands on experiences as they find different objects that are safe as well as harmful for our bodies. Other use of pedagogy is collaboration with the students. They will need to learn to share the camera as well as help one another learn how to use the camera. 

The technology that they will be using is a digital camera. They will be taking pictures with the camera of things that are both helpful and harmful for the body. 

Research Points

What Research Says about Technology and Child Development

Children from birth to age eight are learning at a rapid pace. During this time children learn and play across five developmental dimension:

Social and Emotional Development

Language Development

Physical Well-Being and Motor Development

Cognition and General Knowledge

Approaches Toward Learning 

• Large amounts of research focuses on the use of computers to " enhance social, language, and cognitive skills" ( NREL). 
• Social Development:Computers and software can serve as a vehicle for interaction related to the child's work. 
• Proper placement of the computer in the classroom can strike conversations between peers as they work together on activities on the computer as well as talk about new things they have learned. It can also be a motivation for children's cognitive and social dev., enhance improve their attitude about learning, increase spoken communication and cooperation skills, and initiate interactions with peers more frequently. 
• Language Development: Encourages longer, more complex speech and the development of fluency
• Children speak out loud and narrate as they read on the computer of draw pictures.
• Children learn to cooperate with peers as they share, take turns, and talk about what they are doing.
• Physical Well-Being and Motor Development: Computers allow them to write freely without having to had completely developed good handwriting skills. They should not sit in front of the computer too long. Limit time to 1 hour a day, balancing it with physical activity.
• Cognition and General Knowledge: They are able to manipulate things that they could not have outside the physical world. Use open ended software, do not drill and test them. 
• Approaches Toward Learning: They are a good way to learn and reveal hidden strengths as well as a good way to assess. 

What Research Says about Technology in Child Development:

Using technology in the classroom can range from short and simple lessons to being an integral part of long-term projects.  Technology should be used in addition to hands-on learning, and should not take the place of important tasks children need to accomplish during their early years.

Technology can help children improve their social development, their language development, their cognition and general knowledge.

Technology can support educational goals and support content standards when used in a planned, guided manner.  It can help with students' language development and emergent literacy and mathematics.  Adult participation and guidance are important.

When selecting software for young children, it is critical to choose software that is DAP.  It should:

Encourage exploration, imagination, and problem solving

Reflect and build on what children already know

Involve many senses and include sound, music, and voice

Be open-ended, with the child in control of the pace and the path

Hardware that can be used in the classroom:

Tape recorders

Video cameras

TV/VCRs

Fax machines

Portable keyboards

Digital microscopes

Computers

For choosing technology to be used with younger children, the best choice for a particular situation may be no new technology, or just simple tape recorders and cameras.

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5 Effective ways for Children to use technology:

1. Make and display a graph: physical graph with  actual objects that are meaningful( collect info, fav. colors, how they traveled to school) 

2. Explore with digital tools: explore things with a new perspective ( ex: use magnifying glasses, pictures off line etc. save so children can refer back to them)

3. Tell a story to create pictures and words: make one on the computer

4. Write, record, and revisit: take pictures that you have taken along the way and turning them into a book; power point, online, have them write captions, drawings etc. 

5. Share and document Learning: Make sure they you send different pictures in the books home with the kids so they can talk with parents about it, enhancing communication. 

Lewis & Clark Expedition

Tagged under the Delicious header

TPACK: Virtual Tour

For this activity, I took my content from the Utah 5th grade core curriculum. The content is in standard four, objective one. This content consists of teaching the children about different events that helped in the expansion of the U.S., one of these important events being Lewis & Clark's expedition.

The pedagogy in this project involves the children discovery how to use a new piece of technology that is very useful in the classroom. Using Google Earth is a good fit for this project because it allows the children to track important events that happened in history, contributing to the expansion of the U.S. They will have the opportunity to look up different sites and pictures as well as write journal entries, reflecting on how the travelers must have felt after accomplishing such a great feat.

As for the technology used, the children will use Google Earth. This is an amazing tool that is new to me, that allows us to view 3-D pictures of places all over the Earth, as well as find out information about these places. By using this tool, I believe the kids eyes will be opened to an even bigger world of technology than they have ever experienced.It was very exciting for me to learn, and I believe that they will have the same positive, enlightening experience as they discover the wonderful possibilities this technology has to offer.

Virtual Tour: Starting Layout

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1.Missouri River	The students will look up the length of the river on the wiki link and write a journal entry about how they would have felt as explorers knowing they would be traveling along such a huge river.	A wiki link that directs them to info. about the Missouri River.
2. Sioux Territory	Journal entry: How they would have felt during a first encounter with the Sioux Indians	Click on a link that will bring up a journal entry from someone in L. & C's group, explaining the first encounter
3. Mount Hood	Journal entry: What would they have carved in this mountain after such a long journey?	Wiki information of what Clark carved in Mount Hood near the end of the journey
4.Fort Mandan	Draw their own map of the U.S. as if they were Clark at Fort Mandan, marking the different rivers and large terrain they crossed. This map would be sent to Jefferson	Wiki a picture of Fort Mandan where a group left from to go back to Jefferson with the map of the U.S. and info. of the plant life they had found
Details of image overlay / path / polygon: