Beyond the Basics - Week 4

The material covered in Chapters 5 and 6 of our text immediately reminded me of my friend Joe. Joe has had much success integrating multimedia into his fourth grade classroom. Most recently, he received a grant from Apple which awarded him 30 iPod Touches, two docking stations, and two Mac lap top computers. With this technology Joe has been able to enhance lessons with different educational applications. Students are able to practice math skills, review English vocabulary words, learn Spanish, and even create their own music using applications they have downloaded. Joe is able to monitor all of the students’ downloads from the Mac lap top and he is able to sync all of the iPods so that each machine has the same applications. In addition, as part of the grant, Joe is required by Apple to attend certain trainings which assist him in learning how to integrate different applications into the classroom.

It was really interesting to look at one of the iPods and see the different applications that Joe's students use to support their learning. Each application is very kid-friendly, well-designed, and uses colorful graphics and animation. Joe mentioned that his students love using the iPods in the classroom and that they are continuously motivated to learn. Another thing that Joe mentioned is that many of his students can figure out how to download applications and use them faster than he can! These students are perfect examples of digital natives!

Multimedia and Me

I really enjoyed using Glogster this week to create my multimedia presentation. I can definitely see myself using this tool in the classroom. Another presentation tool that I like to use on a regular basis is Prezi. Prezi allows users to create a multimedia presentation that is similar to PowerPoint; however, it is created on one large canvas instead of using multiple slides. In my opinion, Prezi allows the user to make presentations that are visually stimulating and creative. Check out the video below for a quick introduction to Prezi!

Finally, it was interesting to read in Chapter 6 that research has revealed that students benefit from the use of multimedia and hypermedia in the classroom (Roblyer & Doering, 2010). Personally, I can relate to this idea because I learn better when both visual and verbal explanations are provided and when pictures and graphics accompany text. I did get concerned, however, when reading about the research which concludes that students experience increased enjoyment and comprehension when reading a text in electronic storybook format or when the book was narrated (Roblyer & Doering, 2010). Although the electronic format has proven beneficial for students, I still believe that it is important for students to learn how to read from traditional text. Although we are living in the age of e-books, the Nook, and the Kindle, traditionally print books are important and it is still necessary for students to learn how to read, comprehend, and enjoy material from a traditional text.

References

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2010). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching (Fifth ed.). Pearson Education, Inc.

Get started with Prezi by visiting http://www.prezi.com/.