I believe that as future educators, we need to look for opportunities to use a variety of technology in the classroom that is conducive to development and learning. For this reason, I am very excited to have added another resource to my repertoire of places to go to look for new ways to use technology in the classroom: the Digital Edge Project. The Digital Edge Project is an online library exhibiting exemplary teaching paired with the use of technology in the classroom.
After reviewing the site, three lessons stuck out to me in particular: The first was “Photographing Geometry” (in which students recognize and take pictures of geometric shapes in their immediate environment). The second was, “We’ve Got Mail” (where kindergarteners created stationary to send and receive mail using word processing and KidPix). The third lesson I focused on was “Pop Portraits” (which was set in a high school art class to make Pop Art portraits while using digital cameras and iPhoto as an alternative to the traditional use of self-portraits in the classroom).
Of the three lessons above, the one that I am most interested in is “Photographing Geometry”. I really like this lesson because I believe it promotes skills conducive to expression and learning. In this lesson, students are encouraged to work together, create presentations, and share ideas. Students will also feel more comfortable about using technology as a way to express your ideas as well as identifying geometric shapes all around them. Although this lesson was used by this teacher in a second grade classroom, the teacher had the students receive help from their fifth grade mentors which promotes communication skills. I really like this hands-on project because the students are given many opportunities to search for geometric shapes, time to talk with peers, the resources and skills necessary to create a power point presentation, and the opportunity to share and present their creations. I think it is great that the students are able to experiment with a digital camera and that they are given the freedom of choice to decide what they want to use in their own creations. I really like how more than one type of technology is used for this project (especially since the power point presentations are being used as a tool for expression rather than the traditional use of copy and paste from the internet). I could also see how this same lesson could be used while incorporating even more uses of technology (such as photo-sharing programs or social spaces). I mean really, a teacher could get really creative with this lesson, and so could the students.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Carley,
ReplyDeleteI think the project you decided to focus in on, Photographing Geometry, was an interesting idea for an assignment. I know that we should always strive to make lessons meaningful for the students and one way of doing this is to cut across multiple disciplines or subjects, like what we talked about in Resnick's article. This project definitely does that and in that way is very creative. I think this would be a great lesson to serve as an introduction to geometry; a great way of familiarizing students with the shapes around them.I really liked this idea! This kind of project coul be modified to fit so many different subjects and lessons. Digital photography seems to be quite popular with students.
Carley,
ReplyDeleteYou presented some great thoughts on this lesson, Photographing Geometry. From your description of the lesson, it sounds like these second graders had a great idea of how to use a digital camera! I think this is great. I know that my eyes have been opened to how I think of presenting children with technology and this sounds like a great way to do it at a young age. I also like the thought of collaborating with older peers to teach social skills. Applying this idea for a lesson to other subjects, as you said, could be a perfect learning opportunity for both teacher and students.
Wow! I would have been really interested in that lesson too! What a great way to get students interested in the subject AND help them to recognize it is more than just something we learn in school. It is everywhere!
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of possibly adding more technology to the lesson as well, especially the idea of a photo sharing site. It could be a great learning tool for students to interact with photographers to learn how they see the geometry in every day life, or even to learn about digital cameras! You've got an idea there!
This sounds like a really fun projject. I also really like that is involves two different type of technologies. This project reminds me of some of the concepts from the last article because the students will be using technology to create something as opposed to traditionally recieving information from the internet. This creating process will give the students lots of freedom and expression in their final projects especially because they get to use both a digital camera and a computer program. I also really love the way this project brings together the outside physical environment and digital technology. This is really cool!
ReplyDelete