The SMARTboard in Practice

In addition to my work with PowerPoint, I have been using SMARTboard technology in a way that I hadn't anticipated. Prior to teaching in a SMARTboard-equipped classroom, I had had serious doubts about the value of the technology. Indeed, I had thought that if I were an administrator, I would have a very difficult time justifying the purchase of a technology with such questionable utility. However, now that I have spent some time teaching in a classroom with a SMARTboard, I have seen that this technology has the potential to really enhance teaching and learning.

First, I should mention that using a SMARTboard does not require one to use SMARTboard software such as Notebook. Rather, the SMARTboard can be used effectively with many other software programs. My choice (as one might expect, given my previous post) has been to use the SMARTboard in conjunction with Microsoft PowerPoint. My uses of the SMARTboard have ranged from the very simple to the complex.

Beginning with an example of a simple use of the SMARTboard, I created a fill-in-the-blank worksheet as a review activity in a Science class, and then I put the fill-in-the-blank sentences into a PowerPoint presentation. When I displayed this presentation on the SMARTboard, students were eager to have a chance to go and fill in one of the blanks in front of the class. The students became engaged and interested in what would otherwise have been a less stimulating activity.

For a more complex use of the SMARTboard, I created a "Jeopardy!" game in PowerPoint for a French class. (This is more complex than the previously mentioned SMARTboard use because it requires the creation of a complex PowerPoint presentation with hyperlinking between slides.) Students were able to walk up to the SMARTboard, select a square on the game board and answer a question. This created a great deal of student interest in the "Jeopardy!" game and made them excited to get involved and volunteer to answer questions.

The SMARTboard was particularly effective in these instances because the class I spent the most time teaching was composed primarily of kinesthetic learners. Being kinesthetic learners, they enjoyed having an opportunity to get out of their desks, move around the classroom a little bit and have some tactile interaction with the SMARTboard. This, in large part, is what made the SMARTboard a valuable and effective teaching tool.

Microsoft PowerPoint in Practice

I have long been a proponent of using Microsoft PowerPoint in the classroom, but I have just recently begun using the program in ways I had not previously thought of.

First, PowerPoint's Custom Animation feature has allowed me to create visual aids that help students understand complex concepts. For instance, I have been using PowerPoint to teach Grade 6 students about air pressure and compression; the program's Custom Animation feature allows me to effectively demonstrate what happens when particles of air are compressed into a smaller space.

Second, I have been using PowerPoint in a much simpler way to teach Grade 6 French. In order to teach vocabulary terms to students, I displayed words and images on-screen using PowerPoint. Traditional paper flash cards can be difficult for all students in the class to see at once, mainly because of their small size. However, with PowerPoint "flash cards," the words and images are large and clear enough for the entire class to see. This allows students to establish connections between words and the concepts they represent.

Finally, another use for PowerPoint (also in French class) is as a means to model for students what their notebooks are expected to look like. For instance, in the example below, students were asked to create a French vocabulary chart, with English terms in the left-hand column and French in the right-hand column. Using PowerPoint for this purpose enhances the clarity of the teacher's instructions and allows students to write effective and organized notes and assignments.

Enhancing Education with Multimedia

There are many ways for teachers to use multimedia objects (e.g., videos, sound clips, animations, simulations, etc.) to enhance their lessons. However, multimedia, like most forms of technology, can be a double-edged sword, and the teacher must always evaluate its effectiveness.

Here is an example of how a teacher might incorporate multimedia into a Grade 7 Social Studies lesson. The multimedia object, in this case, is a Flash animation developed by Statistics Canada, and it can be viewed at http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/analysis/popdwell/vignettes/prairies.html. The animation uses a map of the prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba), along with a series of images, to explain how the construction of railway lines through these provinces encouraged European immigrants and settlers to move westward and form large settlements along these railway lines. Showing students this animation provides students (particularly visual learners, but also auditory ones, as the animation is accompanied by a voice-over) with an idea of where major railway lines were constructed and what effects they have had on contemporary Canada.


The use of this multimedia object in the classroom would contribute to the completion of Outcome 7.2.7 in the Social Studies curriculum: Students will assess, critically, the impact of urbanization and technology on individual and collective identities in Canada. At the same time, it would contribute to the following ICT Outcomes: students will evaluate the relevance of electronically accessed information to a particular topic (C.3.3.2), and students will demonstrate an understanding that information can be transmitted through a variety of media (F.1.3.1). Finally, the content of this learning object would provide students with an example of how, generally speaking, technology (in this case, the railroad) can have a tremendous impact on our lives and societies.

Safety, Responsiblity, and the Internet

The Internet is an extremely vast source of information that readily lends itself to use in the classroom. Teaching strategies that make use of this massive resource, such as WebQuests, can be very effective (for instance, click here to check out the WebQuest I designed using TeacherWeb).

However, despite the Internet's positive potential for teaching and learning, it can be exceedingly dangerous. Students must be taught how to use the Internet safely and responsibly in order to maximize its utility and minimize its dangers. One way of teaching students about appropriate Internet usage is to have them complete the "Jo Cool or Jo Fool" web awareness activity and quiz developed by the Media Awareness Network (the activity and quiz are available at http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/jocool_jofool/kids.cfm).

"Jo Cool or Jo Fool" takes students on a "CyberTour" of different fictional websites in order to determine whether they are safe and responsible or unsafe and irresponsible. It covers the basics of acceptable Internet use, including: protection of private information, legitimacy of sources, respectful participation in chatrooms/forums, online marketing ploys, and awareness of illegal Internet use (such as illegal music downloads).

Bringing these online dangers to the attention of students is an essential prerequisite for Internet use in the classroom.

The Value of Discussion Boards

Discussion boards carry a great deal of educational potential. However, much like blogs, discussion boards come with considerable risks. As noted in one of my previous posts, The Potential of Educational Blogging (posted on September 13, 2007), there are serious privacy issues that must be taken into account before blogs and discussion boards are incorporated into teachers' lesson plans. Young people may lack the maturity or capacity to fully understand the intricacies of freedom of expression in the public domain. However, there may be security measures, such as the password-protection of discussion boards, that will address many of these concerns. Another potential problem with discussion boards is that individuals cannot participate outside of class if they do not have a computer at home. If a teacher asks his or her students to contribute to a discussion board, he or she must be aware of the reality that not every student has access to an internet-enabled computer outside of the classroom.

Despite these potential pitfalls, discussion boards have numerous possible benefits for teachers and students alike. For instance, they allow teachers and students to devote considerable time and attention to discussing important class topics. Because they take place outside the classroom, discussion boards can extend students' exploration of concepts and ideas beyond the classroom. Also, discussion boards promote greater student involvement and participation in these class discussions, particularly for students that are shy or reluctant to share their views in class. Along these same lines, discussion boards encourage students to produce higher-quality work, since students know that their peers will be reading their posts. This is not just a benefit for students; teachers, too, enjoy the benefit of reading/viewing/grading better work. Teachers also have the benefit of having a record of the class discussion. Perhaps most importantly, discussion boards offer students plenty of opportunities to improve their written communication skills.

Taking into account both the pros and cons of discussion boards, there are plenty of ways that they might be integrated into the classroom.

Discussion boards...

1 ...can be used to facilitate class discussions. This is perhaps the most obvious use for a discussion board, and it is an important one, for many of the reasons outlined above. It is an effective way for students and teachers to be engaged in discussion, without consuming class time.

2 ...can serve as online study groups for students. If students are having difficulty understanding an important concept prior to an exam, or having trouble developing ideas for an essay, he or she can use a class discussion board to ask classmates for help. I have personally been involved in university-level courses where the class discussion board is extremely active the evening before an exam. Students help one another out by providing answers and explanations, and I can see the same thing happening in upper elementary, middle, and high schools.

3 ...give teachers a place to post links and assignments. Teachers can post assignments or links on a class discussion board, and this has numerous benefits. For instance, it allows students that are absent from class (say, athletes that are required to travel often) to keep up to date with course requirements. Also, posting assignments on discussion boards ensures that students (and perhaps their parents as well) will have access to the information they need in order to complete the assignment (e.g., instructions, due dates, etc.).

4 ...give students a place to post their work. Discussion boards may be the end of the age-old excuse, "My dog ate my homework." Students can submit their homework assignments via discussion boards, which is more efficient (not to mention more "green") than handing in hard copies of assignments. This also has the aforementioned benefit of motivating students to produce higher-quality work, as they know that their peers will be seeing their assignments.

5 ...offer an interesting alternative to the standard position paper. If students are required to state their position on a certain topic in a discussion board, as opposed to handing in a copy of their position paper, their views are open to criticism and responses from others. This allows students to learn not only how to state a position, but also how to defend that position against counterarguments (which is in fact part of the social studies Program of Studies).

Overall, discussion boards carry plenty of potential for classroom integration, despite their potential drawbacks.

Concept Mapping in the Classroom

I had initially approached concept mapping with some skepticism, but now that I have familiarized myself with this tool, I think that it has tremendous potential for classroom use. It is a fun and versatile tool for students to explore ideas and relationships. I can see it being a great asset during the creative process, particularly when students are beginning a creative project or report. The concept map below is of the first kind mentioned; its purpose is to help students explore and understand concepts (and the relationships between these concepts).


This concept map could be used for Grade 6 Social Studies, where students are required to develop an understanding of democracy in Canada by examining historical models of democracy. One such historical model is the Iroquois Confederacy, and another is Ancient Athens. The concept map pictured here details features of society and democratic process in both contemporary Canada and the Iroquois Confederacy.

A teacher might present this concept map to his or her Grade 6 class, and then have students construct a similar concept map for Ancient Athens (or, the teacher might present a concept map for Canada only, and have students construct maps for both the Iroquois Confederacy and Ancient Athens). Students could construct their concept maps in groups and present them to the class, and of course, they would be encouraged to add colors and images, and perhaps even sounds and videos, to their concept maps; the example pictured above has been deliberately left rather plain, for the sake of clarity and simplicity.

By constructing their own concept maps for the democratic models of Canada, the Iroquois Confederacy, and/or Ancient Athens, students would be fulfulling a number of requirements in the Social Studies curriculum. No less importantly, they would also be satisfying the following outcomes specified in the ICT Program of Studies: organize information, using such tools as a database, spreadsheet, or electronic webbing (C.4.2.2); record group brainstorming, planning and sharing of ideas by using technology (C.5.2.2); use a variety of technologies to organize and synthesize researched information (C.7.2.1); use selected presentation tools to demonstrate connections among various pieces of information (C.7.2.2); and recognize that graphics, video and sound enhance communication (F.4.2.1). Also, there is room in this activity to integrate a number of other ICT outcomes. For instance, the students could be required to complete web research in order to complete their concept map, or they might be required to integrate their concept map into a PowerPoint presentation.

It should be clear by this point that, in addition to being a versatile tool for enhancing both creativity and understanding, concept mapping is an excellent way for students to fulfill many of the requirements in the ICT curriculum.

Technology Integration: A Lesson in Media Literacy

What follows is a rough outline for a lesson entitled "Media Literacy and Alcohol Advertising," intended for Grade 6-8 Social Studies students.

In class, students are shown, via LCD projector, examples of alcohol advertisements. White (2004) offers a good selection of video advertisements online, while Sells & Gonzalez (2002) have provided a fair selection of applicable print advertisements. (Of course, the teacher must first screen the advertisements to ensure that they are appropriate for the students to view.) The teacher then leads a class discussion centering around the ads and commercials, with a focus on the following questions: What are alcohol companies trying to accomplish and why? What techniques are they using to accomplish their goals? Who are they targeting with their advertisements? Why might their methods be effective (or ineffective)? Following the discussion, students must use computers (either at home or at school) to access The Target is You!: Alcohol Advertising Quiz (Media Awareness Network, 2007) and complete the quiz online. Finally, they must post, on the class blog or discussion board, a minimum 100-word response to the videos, the discussion, and the quiz, including mention of at least one thing they learned during the quiz.


This is, as noted, a Social Studies lesson, and it is designed to develop the requisite Communication Skills (particularly Media Literacy), as defined in the Alberta Education Social Studies Program of Studies. More specifically, it is geared towards the following Skills and Processes, as outlined in the aforementioned Program of Studies: detection of bias on issues presented in the media (6.S.9, 7.S.9); examination of techniques used to enhance the authority and authenticity of media messages (7.S.9, 8.S.9); examination of the values, lifestyles, and points of view represented in a media message (7.S.9; 8.S.9).

At the same time, the lesson provides students with an opportunity to meet the following ICT Outcomes: access and retrieve appropriate information from the internet by using a specific search path or from given URLs (C.1.2.1); discuss how technology can be used to create special effects and/or to manipulate intent through the use of images and sound (F.4.2.3); understand the nature of various media and how they are consciously used to influence an audience (F.4.3.2); identify specific techniques used by the media to elicit particular responses from an audience (F.4.3.3); recognize that the ability of technology to manipulate images and sound can alter the meaning of a communication (F.4.3.4).

This is a fairly modest application of technology. Standard technology (in this case, an LCD projector connected to an internet-enabled computer) allows the teacher to share with his or her class a number of different media messages, both in video and print formats. This provides students with an opportunity to subject media messages to serious scrutiny in an open class discussion. Without the integration of this simple technology, such a discussion would not be possible (or, at the very least, it would be much less focused). The online quiz is simply an interesting and engaging way (complete with upbeat music and sharp graphics) of presenting a wealth of information about alcohol advertisements to the students, with a specific focus on Canadian youth. The blog (or discussion board) posts provide students with an opportunity to extend their discussion beyond the classroom, or at least an opportunity to read and consider their classmates’ thoughts on the subject. This further sharpens their critical thinking skills, without consuming any more class time.

References

Media Awareness Network (2007). The target is you!: Alcohol advertising quiz. Retrieved September 27, 2007, from http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/alcohol_quiz/.

White, A. M. (2004). College drinking. Retrieved September 27, 2007, from http://www.duke.edu/~amwhite/College/college6.htm.

Sells, P., and Gonzalez, S. (2002). The language of advertising. Retrieved September 27, 2007, from http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/advertisements/alcohol%20ads/index.htm.

Technology Integration: The Good, the Bad, and the Obstacles

This post is in part a response to Feldman, Coulter, and Konold's (2001) article entitled "Linking Technology, Learning, and School Change" (Learning & Leading with Technology 28(4), 42-47. Retrieved September 17, 2007, from http://neirtec.terc.edu/template/resources/pdf/LTLSC.pdf). To briefly summarize, the article details the process by which one (fictitious) teacher successfully integrates technology into his classroom in a way that enhances his students' learning.


First, it is worth noting that the article presents a very convincing case for technology integration as a means of expanding and deepening the learning that takes place in classrooms. In particular, the authors draw attention to the ability of technology to appeal to visual learners (e.g., with maps and graphs). It is quite evident that this advantage of technology integration can be applied to a wide variety of subjects, including science (as in the authors' case study), mathematics, and social studies. For instance, students may have an easier time understanding the details of the fur trade if they have access to interactive and/or animated maps detailing major transportation routes and First Nations' territorial boundaries. This would be one way of--pardon the cliché--"bringing history to life" for those students best suited to visual learning. Thus, it would serve as an example of good technology integration.

Of course, technology integration is a double-edged sword, and readily lends itself to misuse. Consider the example given in the aforementioned article, wherein a teacher is looking to expand his students' understanding of ecology beyond the schoolyard. He could have attempted to make connections between their schoolyard's ecology and that of the African Savannah (for example), by showing them videos of lions, elephants, and giraffes. While interesting, such videos, particularly in the absence of the teacher's carefully-chosen commentaries, probably would have done little to expand the students' understanding of ecology. Thus, this would not be good technology integration.

Finally, successful technology integration is not quite as simple as Feldman et al. (2001), and my response to them, have made it out to be. There are numerous obstacles to be overcome before technology can enhance student learning, perhaps the most important of which is school or school district support. The fictitious teacher in the article was able to integrate technology into his teaching in large part because of the support structure put in place by his school. In reality, due to a lack of funding, a lack of progressive thinking, or some other factor, these support structures are not always present. And even the most creative teacher will find it difficult to integrate technology when he or she has access to little more than a decades-old VCR and an overhead projector.

The Potential of Educational Blogging

Now that I have created a blog and posted an entry (see Introduction, below), I am considering the extent to which a tech-savvy teacher might use blogging in an educational capacity. Blogging certainly has some positive potential for classroom application (using the term "classroom" rather loosely, of course), but I find myself viewing it with some skepticism. It seems to me that blogging comes with a multitude of risks, and I fear that it might have an adverse impact on the social element of schooling.

With respect to the risks, I fear that the privacy issues associated with blogging my be too senstive to be placed in the hands of young people. They may lack the maturity or capacity to fully understand the intricacies of freedom of expression, and the potential for breaches of privacy in the public domain is considerable. Indeed, I, a cautious individual by nature, had a difficult time writing my previous blog entry without including personal information that might identify myself or others. For the sake of brevity, I will not elaborate further on this point.

Another concern I have is one related to sociability. While I understand that online interaction is itself a form of sociability, I think that increased student-student or student-teacher interaction via blogging will come at the expense of face-to-face interaction. That is, students uncomfortable with face-to-face social interaction may choose to participate in class discussions and projects online instead of in the classroom. This, in turn, will stunt the development of those students' social and communication skills, which remain important even in our technology-friendly world.

Of course, I could be wrong about all of this, or the benefits of educational blogging may simply outweigh these potential costs (or there may be ways of avoiding these problems altogether, such as security measures for privacy protection). For the time being, however, I am approaching the subject of blogging with some reservation.

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my (very first) blog! Here I will be discussing, and experimenting with, technology in the context of teaching and learning. But first, it might be prudent to say a few things about myself, by way of introduction. If you already know me, then by all means, skip this entry; if you do not already know me, then I am pleased to make your acquaintance.

My name is Grant B., and I am a prospective Social Studies teacher. I recently graduated from University with Bachelor's Degrees in History and Philosophy. Aside from my interest in history and teaching, I enjoy sports and music. When it comes to sports, my favorite one is hockey, and my favorite team is the Edmonton Oilers. As for music, I am a big fan of rock (e.g., Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, Rush, etc.), and I used to play the drums from time to time. As I mentioned, though, those things are not what I am truly passionate about; my passion--or my mission, as I like to think of it--is to teach young people about the world in which we live, with the hope that these young people can help improve our world in some measure.

So there. Now you know me. If you are so inclined, I would like to hear a thing or two about you (or you can just post a link to your own blog, I suppose)...