Too Noisy Pro

Reviewed by Danna Kerns-Streett

Details:  Walsall Academy/Updated July 8, 2015/iOS 5.1

Cost:  $2.99

Review:  This is more of a classroom management tool but it has been recommended to me by multiple colleagues so I wanted to check it out.  Teachers display this app and it uses the microphone in your mobile device to track how noisy the classroom is.  This gives students a visual aid when things are getting too noisy.  This deal is a great app for students who tend to get too noisy during group activities.  This app inadvertently deals with problem solving/critical thinking because once the dial starts moving up students need to self-correct their behaviors and get quiet again.

Fill the Cup

Reviewed by Danna Kerns-Streett

Details: Solla Carrock/Updated July 3, 2012/iOS 5.1

Cost:  Free

Review:  Although the graphics are a little rough around the edges, this app incorporates great math skills using fraction rods, fill the cup, and two balances.  My only concern with the app is that even when you have the volume turned the whole way down the game continues to play loud sounds in use.  This would be a great app for math class during a fractions unit.  This uses critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Brain Pop

Reviewed by Danna Kerns-Streett

Details:  Brain Pop/Updated May 21, 2015/iOS 5.1

Cost: Free (in app purchases)

Review:  Brain Pop is a great tool for kid-friendly videos that teach a variety of content areas.  The videos have quizzes for the students to take to test their understanding of the content after they finish watching.  I have used Brain Pop videos in my math and science classrooms and I am excited to use some for reading and online blogging as well.  This app deals with any content area information and information literacy.

iTunes U

Reviewed by Danna Kerns-Streett

Details:  Apple Inc./Updated June 25, 2015/Requires iOS 8.3

Cost:  Free

Review:  This app is more of an online education forum for teachers and students to utilize together.  Teachers can create courses in the this app and have their students enroll in these courses.  The app also has a wide variety of texts that teachers can download to use within their courses which then makes them available for students to use as well.  I would recommend its use with middle school, high school, or college students.  I think this would be challenging to use with younger children unless they had a strong technology background.  This app deals with 21st century skills, information literacy, and communication.

This week I found myself thinking about the final project and I am leaning towards planning either a “bring your own device” unit and thinking through how to implement and structure that type of learning in my math classroom or doing something similar to the video that I found which is trying a flipped class approach to learning where students need to watch a video the night before to prep them for their learning the following day.  Back when I was doing my pre-student teaching I had a teacher in State College that was starting to try some of her lessons this way for her advanced students.  I wish I had paid more attention to her thought process back then because she was definitely ahead of her time!  While I think this strategy requires a lot more work up front I think it could really benefit the students, but especially the advanced students in teaching them new concepts and those who score basic because they could be introduced to a new concept and get some extra practice before the class as a whole.

Flipped Classroom Example

The first article I read this week was “Technology Enhanced Teaching: From Tinkering to Tottering to Totally Extreme Learning” which looked at using technology in informal and untraditional settings.  The article looked at learning in “extreme learning environments such as that taking place on trains, planes, mountain tops, boats, and war zones (Bonk, 1)” with the idea that learning can take place anywhere and that notion is enhanced with the use of technology.  It is because of technology that this extreme learning can take place.  Now, because of internet and mobile technology people can take their learning anywhere and they can stay connected even from a distance.  The article cites an example of Bridey Fennell, a girl who was able to complete four Indiana University High School courses while on a 5 month sailboat journey (p. 5).  This proves that now, with the use of technology, students can learn anything anywhere.

The second article I read was “Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers.”  In this case study two experiments were conducted with students taking an Introductory Psychology class at “a large Canadian university in a large Canadian city”.  In the first experiment students were asked to take notes on their laptops on a meteorology lecture.  Certain students were assigned at random to complete some online browsing that was not related to the lecture.  The results were that students that were multitasking scored lower on the quiz following the presentation then the students who were only focused on taking notes.  In the second experiment a group of students was told to take notes with pencil and paper while another group of students were told to multitask on their laptops.  The 2^nd set of students sat in view of the 1^st set of students.  This experiment found that those students in view of their multitasking peers scored lower on the post-lecture quiz because they were distracted while taking notes.

The third article I read was “Students’ and teachers’ use of Facebook”.  This article, although it discussed teachers in the title, never really investigated teachers’ use of Facebook or how Facebook could be utilized for academic use.  Instead the article discusses students’ trends on Facebook; who they are friends with, the information they provide, how often they use Facebook, and their motives for use.  This case study discovered that students tend to be friends on Facebook with people they are already friends with in real life; however, they also friend mere acquaintances as well.  It also discovered that females tend to have more friends than males and that for the most part students have not had any negative experiences on Facebook.  As a Facebook user I did not find this article to be particularly informative.  I felt that this article was written more for an older generation who does not know or understand what Facebook is.

In conclusion, I feel that this week’s case studies have started to help shape my final project.  I know I want to utilize technology better in my classroom and whether that is through a “Bring Your Own Device” program or through a “flipped classroom” I want my students to benefit from the use of technology in math.

I just returned a few hours ago from State College, PA.  I spent this past week at the Summer Institute on Contemporary Art (SICA) at Penn State (Heather, I actually met one of your PhD students!) and I don’t know if it’s still the excitement from this amazing week among art educators or what but I couldn’t believe how many connections I found between this week’s readings and what we discussed at SICA!  The three articles I read this week were “E-books for educational uses,”  “Opportunistic uses of the traditional school day through student examination of Fitbit activity tracker data,” and “Mobile technologies as tools for augmenting observations and reflections in everyday informal environments.”

On our first day at SICA we learned how to create E-books and discussed the pros and cons of E-book use.  The article also discussed the benefits and disadvantages.  Some of the pros of e-Books is that they are cheaper and easier to access than paper books.  E-books also include interactive features that allow the reader to participate in the reading by watching video clips, taking quizzes, and manipulating the visual aids.  Some of the cons for e-Books are that because they need to be accessed online they isolate people that either do not have access to computers or mobile devices (Davidson, p. 718).  The author also pointed out that because we are now shifting to documenting important information online, these artifacts may not be available to future generations depending on the future of technology.  One other disadvantage that we discussed at SICA is that, according to the presentation we were given, you can only author an e-Book if you have a Mac.  Does anyone know of any ways to write an e-Book on a PC??

The other two readings were case studies.  In the Fitbit article the researchers were designing lessons to have students test which recess activities involved the most exercise.  Researchers equipped students with Fitbits, worked with students on a daily basis, and tracked the data.  Students then discussed the data to see which recess activity gives you the most exercise.  A student also compared the accuracy of the Fitbit compared to a phone app and two teachers tracked their daily activities to see which way was more effective to track your exercise.  The third article I read was about using mobile devices to collect different types of data in a variety of ways for different classroom lessons.  The example I found most interesting was the nutritional activity where students were given cameras to keep a visual log of what they were eating throughout the day.  Then students researched the nutritional value of what they were eating and shared that data with their parents so that changes could be made to their diets at home.  I loved this example because not only was it a practical lesson that could be done in my classroom but it went a step farther to include the parents which can affect the community.

Okay, one last comparison (I promise!) to SICA came from the video.  At the conference we were talking about the importance of students becoming both producers and consumers of art.  The focus cannot solely be on one or the other but students need to do both to have a full appreciation of art.  In the video, Erik Klopfer said, “we are in the realm of devices being pushed to consumption instead of production.”  This quote really caught my attention because I had always thought about mobile devices as the epitome of technology because they were able to be used everywhere.  This quote made me really stop and think about the fact that we have become a consumer-focused nation.  I utilize my smart phone and my iPad all the time but I don’t do much producing on them.  I believe that the same principle applies to both art and mobile technology, in order to truly appreciate and fully utilize these devices we need to be both producers and consumers of this technology.

I created this meme because I feel like I am playing defense when it comes to mobile technology in the classroom.  My students are constantly sneaking their phones into class because they know that our school policy is that their phones must be locked in their lockers.  I would love to be able to tap into that technology and teach my students that balance between digital media and face to face interaction but it has been a struggle in my school with the lack of technology.  I want my students to see me as a person that utilizes technology in the classroom and allows them to choose how they want to present information in projects based on their use of mobile devices.