WGBH in iTunes U has a bunch of great video podcasts for K-12. They also break the videos up in different ways so anyone can find just what they need. I watched a few of the videos in the K-5 section. I watched "Observe Clouds," "A night in the coral reef," and "Solar Eclipses." The first video is about watching how clouds move and change shape. The second video is about what the different inhabitants of a coral reef do at night time. The third video explains what happens during a solar eclipse and shows actual footage of one.
These videos, and others like them, are great resources for teachers. They have videos available for many different subjects and grade levels. This way teachers can find videos appropriate for their classes. Videos can be extremely helpful when teachers are trying to explain a certain concept. They can introduce the topic, play the video, then continue explaining it and give the students activities dealing with the concept. I know from my own experience in the classroom that videos usually helped the concept we were learning come alive. Videos are great for things you want to show students that is not possible through actual experience. For example a school in the U.S. probably can't take a field trip to African to see the desert wildlife, but they can watch a video about it and get a good representation.
I could definitely use the three videos I mentioned in my future classroom. The first is great because it talks about watching clouds which students can do on their own time. I could use this video to introduce a science lesson on clouds or weather. We could then talk about the different kinds of clouds and how clouds are formed. The second video could also be used in a science lesson. This video is great because it introduces and explains some great vocabulary words like herbivore, and luminescent. The third is great because it explains and shows and actual eclipse which many student might not get a chance to see in real life. This would be a great video to show the student as they are learning about space.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Great ideas for future teachers!
The edible school yard was about a middle school in California that is using a different method to teach social studies and science. The students are planting and keeping up with a huge garden and learning many different things. They also take the things they plant and make different foods. A Night in the Global Village was about a school that takes a group of students and puts them in the place of people from other countries. They have to trade with each other to get basic supplies like food, water, and wood for a fire. This extreme experience helps them be more conscious of poverty and hunger and how they effect other countries.
I think both of these videos can be of use to me as a future teacher. They both have their own lessons that teachers can learn from. One of these is that it can be great for the students if their teachers break from traditional curriculum. Students can learn a lot from a traditional curriculum but do they really remember it? Teachers should come up with fun and interesting experiences to teacher their students certain concepts. The students will likely remember these fun experiences for the rest of their lives. Also these experiences teach student things that they cannot learn from a book. They can learn things like cooperation and working together to create a product.
Another lesson that can be learned from these videos is that with a traditional curriculum not all students have a chance to succeed. However, if teachers try new and interesting ways to teach a concept, students that fail in a traditional curriculum may succeed. For example in the edible school yard video a teacher talked about how someone who is not good at math or who is not articulate may be great with their hands. Conversly a student who is great at math may not be so good at gardening and working with their hands. I think both of these lessons are important and I will definitely keep them in mind when I become a teacher.
I think both of these videos can be of use to me as a future teacher. They both have their own lessons that teachers can learn from. One of these is that it can be great for the students if their teachers break from traditional curriculum. Students can learn a lot from a traditional curriculum but do they really remember it? Teachers should come up with fun and interesting experiences to teacher their students certain concepts. The students will likely remember these fun experiences for the rest of their lives. Also these experiences teach student things that they cannot learn from a book. They can learn things like cooperation and working together to create a product.
Another lesson that can be learned from these videos is that with a traditional curriculum not all students have a chance to succeed. However, if teachers try new and interesting ways to teach a concept, students that fail in a traditional curriculum may succeed. For example in the edible school yard video a teacher talked about how someone who is not good at math or who is not articulate may be great with their hands. Conversly a student who is great at math may not be so good at gardening and working with their hands. I think both of these lessons are important and I will definitely keep them in mind when I become a teacher.
iTunes U
Sadly, before this class I had never heard of iTunes U. It is a section of iTunes that can be extremely useful to students and teachers. It is full of educational materials from top universities around the United States. The best and brightest professors are uploading great content that anyone can look at for free. One thing I really like about iTunes U is the many different ways you can search to find what you want. You can search by university, you can search by category (business, science, ect.), or you can use iTunes search and filter the results so that just iTunes U results show up. Once the person finds what they are looking for they can download it to their iTunes program. They can also subcribe so that they get they automatically get new content.
There are many ways that iTunes U can be beneficial to studnets and teachers. First of all it incorporates different learning styles. A good amount of the content is just audio, but there are also a lot of videos that show demonstrations and other things. These demonstrations can be recreated in the classroom for the kinesthetic learners. Another great thing is that people can download these materials on to their ipod to take wherever they go. This is great for busy students who never know when they will have spare time to study. Also, I found out that there is not only college material available. There is a K-12 link that provides some great resources for K-12 teachers. One thing I found very helpful while learning about iTunes U was Apple's Introduction to iTunes U. It gave a great overview and showed me things that I may not have discovered on my own.
There are many ways that iTunes U can be beneficial to studnets and teachers. First of all it incorporates different learning styles. A good amount of the content is just audio, but there are also a lot of videos that show demonstrations and other things. These demonstrations can be recreated in the classroom for the kinesthetic learners. Another great thing is that people can download these materials on to their ipod to take wherever they go. This is great for busy students who never know when they will have spare time to study. Also, I found out that there is not only college material available. There is a K-12 link that provides some great resources for K-12 teachers. One thing I found very helpful while learning about iTunes U was Apple's Introduction to iTunes U. It gave a great overview and showed me things that I may not have discovered on my own.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
iPods in Education!
I found a great site when I searched for "iPods in instruction." It's called Learning in Hand and it talks about all the great features that iPods have and how they can be used in instruction. They have resources for the iPod touch and iPhone and also for all other iPods with scroll wheels. For the scroll wheel iPods there are twelve sections on different uses. Not only does it tell you what they can be used for it tells you how to use the feature it is talking about. A few things that I found interesting that I did not know, is that people can download dictionaries onto their iPods. Also a useful thing for teachers and students, you can download PowerPoint files onto iPods.
I also found out more information on how Duke University is using iPods in their instruction. They started out by giving all incoming freshmen free iPods. Since then demand for iPods has grown from both students and faculty. The faculty are starting to alter their lesson plans in order to make full use of the iPod's capabilities. For example, professors are having the students make a podcast instead of doing a traditional paper. The results have been great so far, and everyone is looking for new ways to use this technology in education.
I also found out more information on how Duke University is using iPods in their instruction. They started out by giving all incoming freshmen free iPods. Since then demand for iPods has grown from both students and faculty. The faculty are starting to alter their lesson plans in order to make full use of the iPod's capabilities. For example, professors are having the students make a podcast instead of doing a traditional paper. The results have been great so far, and everyone is looking for new ways to use this technology in education.
Dr. Alice Christie's helpful site.
I think Dr. Christie's Website was extremely helpful in so many ways. Everywhere I looked I found something interesting that I could use in my future classroom. If I had to pick a favorite part of the site I would pick her section on web design. I think that this is extremely relevant to me as a teacher who will be using a blog in my classroom. Although I will not be designing my blog from scratch, she give a lot of great layout tips that will definitely help me design my blog. There were a bunch of helpful links that I will certainly use when making my class blog.
The first link she gives in this section is "Text Based Design Tips." On this pages there are a bunch of tips for creating a website. First their are some overall tips then it gets more specific and talks about the Layout, the purpose of boxes, the use of color, and how to grab the users attention. All of the tips about these subjects would be helpful to me when creating a class blog. Another thing that I thought was extremely helpful was that she provided links to what she thought were good and bad sites and explained why she thought so. Overall I think Dr. Christie's site was extremely useful and I will definitely visit it again in the future.
The first link she gives in this section is "Text Based Design Tips." On this pages there are a bunch of tips for creating a website. First their are some overall tips then it gets more specific and talks about the Layout, the purpose of boxes, the use of color, and how to grab the users attention. All of the tips about these subjects would be helpful to me when creating a class blog. Another thing that I thought was extremely helpful was that she provided links to what she thought were good and bad sites and explained why she thought so. Overall I think Dr. Christie's site was extremely useful and I will definitely visit it again in the future.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
