Technology Reflection Assignment
Description/Experience
The technology that was demonstrated in the last seminar was the smartboard. The smartboard is a type of interactive whiteboard that uses a projector and is commonly used in many classrooms. There are many different websites and tools that can be used on the smartboard that can help to enhance the learning experience of students. I learned about several different websites and ideas for lessons and practice that I will definitely use on the smartboard when I become a teacher. I also realized how many different ways that the smartboard can be used, and that information will help me in the future.
Application
Application
An instructional activity that I came up with where I can use the smartboard is geared towards first graders because that is the age group that I work with at my PDS. Through this activity the students will hopefully gain a better knowledge of the content, and be able to think about it in a different way than if they would have just been lectured about it. The content that they will be learning about in this activity is about place values. The website I would be using on the smartboard involves using base ten blocks to model regrouping for addition problems. I would be able to know that students are acquiring the learning that I expect them to by giving them a worksheet to follow up the activity.
This activity would start out with me reviewing with the class what the students already know about place values and carrying. I would then introduce the website that we would be working with. I would do a few example problems with the class to show them how the website works and have a couple of students come up to the board to do an example. While the rest of the class is working on another activity, I would have groups of students come up to the smartboard to take turns doing problems that I give to them. I would be there for help if they needed it, but for the most part the students should just be working and helping each other when necessary. Each group could work at the smartboard for about ten minutes and then they would work on the activity everyone else is doing while another group comes up to the board and repeats the process.
Reflection
--Pedagogical-Content:
This activity would be giving the students the opportunity to practice the concept of place value and regrouping with addition that they had been working on in class. I would use both demonstrations and examples to teach the content and then I would use the individual practice to reinforce that learning so that the students will get to practice it and better understand what they are doing when they are regrouping.
Students might think that this concept is too difficult for them, but this activity will give them a visual and make them realize just how simple it can be and that they are capable of doing it. They will now have the ability to see exactly what is happening when they are regrouping, which will then help them to become better at it. Hopefully this activity will cause students to see regrouping in a different light.
--Technological-Pedagogical:
The practice of the concept that the students would be doing in this activity is really the main instructional strategy. The technology serves as a way for the students to visualize a concept that they have already learned about and would maybe help them think about it differently. Since the technology used in this activity is interactive, the students will get to actually see and better understand how place values and regrouping works.
I might need to use some different classroom management strategies when doing this activity. Since there will be one group working on the activity while the rest of the class is working on something else, things might get a little hectic. It will be important to keep the students under control and if needed I could tell students that they will not get a turn doing the smartboard activity if they do not cooperate. I think that this will help keep the class under control because they will most likely want to get to use the smartboard, so taking that privilege away could help them to behave better.
--Technological Pedagogical Content:
The interactive activity that the students will be doing on the smartboard will help to enhance what they have already been taught. They will learn more about what actually happens when they are regrouping, which should help them to better understand it and be more successful when solving addition problems that involve regrouping. This activity will give the students practice and understanding that would not happen if they were just using the base ten blocks.
Without the use of this technology, I don’t think that the students would understand the concept as well. For example, when I do the examples in front of the class, they will be seeing the concept in a different light that would not be possible without the use of this technology. The practice that they will receive would also not be the same, because even though they are very similar, this activity will give the students a different experience that is just not possible with the base ten blocks.
