Submitted by Kacie Heitlauf (not verified) on January 28, 2008 - 19:35.
I am a 2nd grade teacher in a technology enhanced district. My district is located in Redmond, Washington, where Microsoft has built its foundation. Maybe being in the same area has provided a sort of technological precedent that is trying to be duplicated for our children. Our district has successfully provided Promethean ActivBoards (a type of Smartboard) and document cameras for every single classroom, K-12. I have only been teaching for two years and I was overwhelmed with the technology options that I had for my teaching practices and my students learning. Students are growing up in an ever advancing, technology-centered world and all of the new educational tools are making it easier to engage and motivate children in the classroom.
I use the ActivBoard for interactive presentations, educational video clips about important historical events (mostly found on www.unitedstreaming.com) and as a traditional whiteboard to write on and where students can write on as well. Students are always very engaged when I am looking for someone to show their work or demonstrate a math problem. I can also copy and paste any image that we are discussing such as famous paintings when doing an art lesson. By copying these images onto my ActivBoard flipchart, I can highlight certain aspects that exemplify the lesson’s objective. The ActivBoard is run by software located on my projection computer, so I can also access the Internet and other programs and applications. This is very useful when showing my students a new program or website I would like them to visit during our twice-weekly computer lab visits.
The document camera has a variety of functions that meet my students’ needs. Of course it can display any flat paper or object without being made into a transparency like overheads required. My document camera is used to model student construction or manipulatives in math. It is very useful when examining something up close, like in our life science unit about insects. We were talking about the body structures of an insect and I was able to stick a mealworm under the camera and magnify it, so the students could see exactly what I was talking about. With any visual that I wanted to save, I could take a picture of the image that would save onto my projection computer. I feel like the technological possibilities are endless for my students and me.
Primary Classroom Uses of Technology
Submitted by Kacie Heitlauf (not verified) on January 28, 2008 - 19:35.
I am a 2nd grade teacher in a technology enhanced district. My district is located in Redmond, Washington, where Microsoft has built its foundation. Maybe being in the same area has provided a sort of technological precedent that is trying to be duplicated for our children. Our district has successfully provided Promethean ActivBoards (a type of Smartboard) and document cameras for every single classroom, K-12. I have only been teaching for two years and I was overwhelmed with the technology options that I had for my teaching practices and my students learning. Students are growing up in an ever advancing, technology-centered world and all of the new educational tools are making it easier to engage and motivate children in the classroom.
I use the ActivBoard for interactive presentations, educational video clips about important historical events (mostly found on www.unitedstreaming.com) and as a traditional whiteboard to write on and where students can write on as well. Students are always very engaged when I am looking for someone to show their work or demonstrate a math problem. I can also copy and paste any image that we are discussing such as famous paintings when doing an art lesson. By copying these images onto my ActivBoard flipchart, I can highlight certain aspects that exemplify the lesson’s objective. The ActivBoard is run by software located on my projection computer, so I can also access the Internet and other programs and applications. This is very useful when showing my students a new program or website I would like them to visit during our twice-weekly computer lab visits.
The document camera has a variety of functions that meet my students’ needs. Of course it can display any flat paper or object without being made into a transparency like overheads required. My document camera is used to model student construction or manipulatives in math. It is very useful when examining something up close, like in our life science unit about insects. We were talking about the body structures of an insect and I was able to stick a mealworm under the camera and magnify it, so the students could see exactly what I was talking about. With any visual that I wanted to save, I could take a picture of the image that would save onto my projection computer. I feel like the technological possibilities are endless for my students and me.