Virtual Classroom

Virtual Classrooms are a way to effectively keep the communication and knowledge running virtually. The website a checked out is one that you can build your own virtual classroom, it is open 24 hours and can be edited at a local level. The website gives really great ideas on what you can do with your virtual classroom such as group and individual learning activities, quizzes, surveys, discussions and homework activities. It also explains how the virtual classroom can be organized as in having student homepages, calendars, timetables, and unit overviews.

I think Virtual Classrooms are a great way for students to learn! It will most definitely get them familiar to the internet in this rising age of technology.

http://education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/onlinelearning/virtual-classroom.html

STREAMING VIDEO

This article talked about what video streaming is. It goes into talking about how exactly it works. It explains different types of plugins that work to run a streamed video. The two mentioned in the article are RealPlayer 8 and Quicktime 4.1.2. It then talks about the advantage of using streaming video such as that most of the time the players are free, videos are available to view anytime interne connection is present and also the videos typically require very little in system resources.

I think video streaming is another great technology to use in the classroom. However with my experience in college sometimes internet will just randomly kick off and not work so make sure to plan accordingly just in case.

http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=196605182

ANIMATION

This article starts out by giving all the common reasons many teachers do not use Multimedia and Animation in their everyday curriculum. It then leads into the pros of using multimedia, especially in the middle school. Animation works well for some of those with learning disabilities. The paper also states how difficult it is to grasp exactly how the heart works or even how the moon revolved around the Earth simply by reading text.

I think animation is important to have in the classroom if a computer or needed materials are available. I think this not only grasps the attention of the students, but I think it helps them retain the information a lot better and a lot longer.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-4529573_ITM?email=jespino@eagle.fgcu.edu&library=Lake%20Worth%20Public%20Library

STORYBOARDING

This is the only article I could find on the topic. The article starts by explaining a situation where you need to help your daughter or son out with an essay. They cannot seem to get their ideas organized to write so the article suggests storyboarding. It goes into explaining how to sucessfully storyboard with your child. Start with talking and getting the entire experience out of your child and write down notes as they talk. Afterwards help your child focus on three main events or "main ideas" and put them down on note cards. Then, have your child focus on giving a lot of details to go with the main ideas. This visual aid is great way to have children organize their thoughts and write.

I think this is a very important technique for teachers to use especially at such a young age, children sometimes need to see things out in front of them before they start doing it all in their head. If you think about it, children do not automatically learn how to add and subtract they have to see it being done on paper before there head can process how it is done. I think it is the same thing with writing.

http://www.education.com/activity/article/Storyboarding_Use_pictures_help/

WIKIS

I found a case study on whether or not Wikis were good to add to classroom learning.

The case study starts out by giving some background information on what exactly Wikis are. It then went into the theory of what a community with Wikis would provide. The Case study was to be done to three Year 9 classes. The teacher separated the class into groups of six to nine students. Each group is given a different wiki and told to research technology and how it affects things such as music. The entire case study is extremely interesting as it states the positive and negative effects of wikis in the classroom. One group of students had a very bad experience with the Wikis and ended up writing a lot of mean things back and forth and becoming hostile while others took the criticism a lot more maturely. The problem I see is in the way people handle being corrected. In the first group one of the girls tried correcting something the boy wrote saying it was not part of the assignment and he got very hostile. In the second group the girl praise the boy on his work well done but criticized some other work. The second boy took the criticism and fixed the problem.

In my opinion I do not think Wikis are good idea in the class room because some students to not like to stand to be corrected by another students and get very upset. I think that maybe in a computer class Wikis would be a wonderful idea but it is just too open to change for any other subject. Anyone in the group can go in delete and add things to the wiki, making it very susceptible to arguments.

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/discussion_papers/Wikis_in_Schools.pdf

BLOGGING

The article I read was just explaining why blogs are good to have put on the curriculum. In the article it gives an example of a Math class that has incorporated blogs into their classwork. It also explains that blogs "give students a motivation to read ahead in their textbooks, providing another means of communication between students and the professor, and creating a space for students to write about mathematics." The article goes on the have an example of the actual blog which took place between the teacher and student.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3997/is_200803/ai_n25419896?tag=content;col1

I think blogging would be a wonderful thing to implement in the teaching system. Clearly it is working well with all us blogging back and forth. I do think that blogging might stray away from the classroom setting a bit but it is a definitely as the artcle states a great way for teachers and students to communicate.

VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3614/is_200407/ai_n9454464/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1

(a) The above link is the article I found on Virtual Field Trips. It has a very positive view on them. It talks about how you can visit areas that are far off from where you live by visiting them Virtually. It also gives very helpful tips on how to organize and plan a virtual field trip.
(b) The article relates to teaching and learning because it goes into much detail on how to make sure plan the trip. It makes you think in terms of how the trip will be presented, how to prepare for it and who will be participating. The article also relates because it states how important technology is and how virtual field trips are moving into the technology era. It also explains that many teachers are resisting the change and these types of trips because they are so use to the old way of doing things.
(c) I really think virtual field trips are a wonderful idea, however, I do not see them as a substitute rather I see them as a supplement. I think normal get on a bus and go to a destination field trips are so important and should still be done today. I loved going on field trips when I was younger, I learned so much and didn't even realize I was learning while on them. I understand that with gas prices that window of going on field trips is slowly closing but I believe they can still be done. Obviously there will be less each year due to rising prices but because of that there should definitely be an increased number of virtual trips. I would have loved visiting the Great Wall of China or Washington D.C. when I was little and learning (virtually of course) and today that seems possible because of the rapid expansion of the internet and this amazing thing called virtual teaching.
(d) I think further investigation would definitely be useful. With my further investigation I was able to find out what a huge impact gas prices are creating on classes taking field trips. All in all further knowledge on the subject could only be a gain.