Focus Question: What constitutes a highly interactive, inquiry-based
learning environment?
“Highly interactive means providing educational activities in which students and teachers are not just consumers of what technology offers, but are active creators, shapers, and evaluators of the information and experiences that technology presents. Inquiry-based means that teachers prepare, deliver, and assess lessons differently while students think critically and creatively about the learning they do and the technologies they use (Maloy, 2011, p. 26).”
“Highly interactive means providing educational activities in which students and teachers are not just consumers of what technology offers, but are active creators, shapers, and evaluators of the information and experiences that technology presents. Inquiry-based means that teachers prepare, deliver, and assess lessons differently while students think critically and creatively about the learning they do and the technologies they use (Maloy, 2011, p. 26).”
Tech Tool: Ultraportable Laptop
Computers
Teachers, college students, and several professions call for the need
of computers with high processing speeds, long battery life, large memories,
and easy-to-read screens while still being ultraportable (Maloy, 2011, p.7). A teacher’s
teaching style could greatly impact the computer they choose. Whether we choose
to be innovators or lagers, the impact and need for computers is still great.
Carrying around jump drives is insufficient because programs like icloud,
google docs, and skydrive put our documents at our fingertips with any computer
that has access to the internet.
All this pressure on being innovative yet efficient can leave someone searching for a computer very perplexed. Lenovo provides a clean website with lots of computers to browse. If all the information becomes overwhelming Lenovo provides a PC Finder Tool that can help narrow a decision to a computer that suites the specifications given to it.
As a student I use a very portable and useful Macbook in conjunction with google docs and skydrive. As I grow into a teacher I can see myself needing a more powerful computer. Here is what the “PC Finder Tool” matched my criteria to.
All this pressure on being innovative yet efficient can leave someone searching for a computer very perplexed. Lenovo provides a clean website with lots of computers to browse. If all the information becomes overwhelming Lenovo provides a PC Finder Tool that can help narrow a decision to a computer that suites the specifications given to it.
As a student I use a very portable and useful Macbook in conjunction with google docs and skydrive. As I grow into a teacher I can see myself needing a more powerful computer. Here is what the “PC Finder Tool” matched my criteria to.
Chapter Summary & Connection
It is obvious throughout this chapter that technology has made a huge impact on society, and has slowly but surely been making its mark on education also. I can already see my daughter as having an electronic childhood, and being part of Generation M, with all the toys she has that spits out the ABC’s, phonics, and various animal names and noises. As a parent I am inundated with commercials that put little kids at the computer to have a jump start to their education, which coincidentally puts these kids in a “student centered” type of learning space.
I have often made use of Web 2.0 growing up. I have made online journals, social medias, followed blogs, and have developed fun addictions to websites like stumbleupon.com and pinterest.com. I am already a follower of teacher blogs that appeal to me. I can see great use of blogger and wiki for connecting to students and parents. I do not see myself as having a digital disconnect with students because I strive to at least be an early adopter of technology (as seen on Rogers innovation curve), and I am a digital native being born in 1988.
Maloy, R.W. (2011). Becoming an e-Teacher. In Transforming Learning with new Technologies
(pp.1-27). Boston,
MA: Pearson
