Digital Blog Post #C

By mchica | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Digital Games for Learning: There are several ways to teach students and help them understand a certain subject. Increasing number of software programs throughout the years have been developed to help assist students in learning when the classical “teacher – student” method wasn’t enough. Not only is it a gruesome task to grasp the students attention in the classroom, it has also become a daunting method to have them focus on a software program. This has led to educational software developers to create games that correlate fun and learning. This is an exceptional method for students to be able to enjoy time off of school and gain some ground in an educational aspect. Electronic Communications between Teachers and Students: It is extremely vital for students and teachers to maintain an educational communication after classroom hours. Several teachers have mastered this concept by being able to cover the subject by recording themselves during classroom hours and uploading it to a blog they have constructed for the classroom. Also, maintaining a connection through e-mail can solidify a classroom’s ability to adapt to change and overcome any obstacles given the circumstances. Creating Your Own Teaching Blog: Organizational blogs, subject blogs and teaching and learning blogs play an essential role for teachers to reach out to students if the students weren’t able to understand while they were in class. Blogging has become a popular way of communicating in teaching and in many other fields such as journalism, entertaining, and politics. Some teachers use it to post extra information or for homework, and they’re using it for all subjects as well too. I think blogging is a great way to keep students and parents informed and updated. Blogging is an extra resource that is easily accessible to most students who are usually using the internet throughout the day anyway. Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Blog Post #B

By mchica | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Instructional Methods to Engage Students: Educators usually use these four teaching methods to engage with the students; one-on-one tutoring, learning groups, inquiry learning, and metacognitive thinking. One-on-one tutoring is something that can benefit many students who have issues in a certain subject. Sometimes the learning time in class is not enough for a teacher to teach every student individual student. With tutoring it can help a student with their specific needs and concerns. Learning groups helps students prepare for the real working life after they graduate. Sometimes we are going to have to work with others that have different views and opinions. Inquiry learning also works along learning groups because it allows students to seek outside information and requires them to actually go out to the work field they like to get it. Metacognitive thinking engages students by showing them how to examine their own learning methods. Online Problem-Solving Environments: Technology has brought many activities and simulations that help students with their social abilities. Many people think that technology can deter students from having a social life but it actually has many programs that help develop problem solving and critical thinking. Educational games and apps of those games can be accessed on the go from their phones or tablets too. There are three characteristics for the online educational games. The first one is students doing what they cannot do easily on a sheet of paper. The second is students encounter types of problems that can happen in real life or that personally interest them. I personally think these activities are a great success. Students can access educational apps with the tip of their fingers at any time and can be comfortable using the device because it is nothing new to them. Most children and teens are usually already on some kind of technical device throughout the day so might as well add some educational programs to them. Active Learning: Active learning is also known as discovery learning, learning by doing, or hands-on learning. In a classroom you will always find a variety of learning styles that you will have to cover as a teacher. One that works for many students is active learning. It benefits students who have a hard time concentrating on lectures or reading material. Doing the work physically helps the students memorize and remember the material because they’re actually being hands on with it. Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Blog Post #A

By mchica | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Student-centered teaching can be hard to do for many teachers who are primarily accustomed to the teacher-centered approach. I find it to be challenging for not only the students but for the teacher too. When teachers engage with students by asking questions and making conversation they are opening a “can of worms”. Students can ask questions that the teacher did not expect and vice versa. The student-centered approach keeps both the teacher and student on their toes. By creating different experiences for students you are able to see how each individual reacts to certain situations. A student-centered classroom is mostly concentrated on each student’s development skills and learning tactics. The second concept that intrigued me was the concept of ‘Using Technology to Enhance Teaching’. Technology is now being used in all levels of schooling, even with kindergarten classes who are just learning how to read. It helps students interact with visuals or videos instead of just words on a chalkboard. Technology helps the teacher interact with students in a different and fun way. Most students from all levels are already using technology at home which helps them relate to the technology used at school. Technology is growing everyday and is being used in most of the job fields. Highly interactive classrooms require a lot of multi-tasking skills. It raises student standards by requiring them to interact and engage into the lesson plan for the day. This environment is based off of many learning activities that incorporate many or most of the different learning styles. It also gives students a sense of responsibility because they are required to make websites using their own knowledge of the subject. Highly interactive classes value the student’s opinion on what they are learning from online, which is very unusual from the traditional teaching methods. Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc