It is important to learn about all technology devices even when they change so much because it is good to know all of your options for your lesson plans. Previous Chapters in the textbook, Because Teaching Matters, planning includes figuring out what technology best works for the lesson and the classroom in which it is being taught (2010.) Some teachers prefer to have both desktop and mobile components but both have their advantages and disadvantages. Desktop computers are big enough so that one screen can easily be shared by a large group of students. The problem, however, is that it is heavy and not easy to move. This is where mobile components, or laptops, come into play. The laptop can easily be carried to any place in the classroom because of its small size. The mobility requires a way to keep the laptop charged so that student must always sit by an electrical outlet or the card, limiting mobility. There is a higher risk for breaking the laptops though because students can carry them anywhere. A disadvantage to the laptops is that it limits how many students can be in the group because the screen is not big enough for a large group to view.
Most of the devices that are used in the classroom are small enough that they can be carried anywhere. The classroom can be taken on the go using digital media players/recorders that can plug into any laptop or computer making transferring and sharing the media files easier. Digital cameras can become expensive with the more options you add to them. Usually there are cameras that have video and picture capabilities in one device, making them cheaper. Also, digital cameras have more memory in them than regular film cameras, which are slowly becoming extinct. The benefits of these devices greatly outweigh the price/quantity issue when you take into account how much more open the classroom can become with their use.
In order to know which device to use, it is important to take into account the software that is being used with the devices. The computers/laptops also have software and it is important to evaluate your lesson plan and figure out which software would best assist the student in their learning. If the lesson includes a writing assignment then it would probably be a good idea to use a word processing program. This program can assist them in line spacing and help them catch their grammar errors. Picking the software heavily depends on the lesson and the classroom/students.
Learning how to use spreadsheet software or database software may seem useless or less important for a fourth grade students but I believe it would actually benefit the student more to learn the ins and outs. The younger students may not need to know the details for the program, but learning the basics can lead them to have greater success in later greats. For instance, if you teach the student in fourth grade how to enter numbers and formulas into the spreadsheet then when they are in seventh grade and the teacher asks them to create a graph, they already know the basics and skip right to learning the more complicated functions of the spreadsheet program.
These software tools can even help the students to be more prepared for state testing. The No Child Left behind is a testing system to determine the level of students. Software that can improve student testing is a drill and practice software. Much like a state test, the drill and practice software gives them one question at a time, increasing the level of difficulty until the student reaches the end of the practice. The process tools software gives them one question at a time but helps the student, step by step, on how to solve the program which will help them when it’s time to take a state test and they need to work through the problems on their own.
All of this technology helps the students to improve their learning which will then improve their skills in later grades and in later testing.
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