My students, in creating their digital storytelling project, will tell a story about how people looked at and dealt with World War II, specifically the Home Front (what life was like in America).  This is a 11th-12th grade project, and will be created while we are covering the World War II time period.  We will be usint the free account, so we will be able to embed video, and will be audio in the form of voice or music of the era, and pictures taken in that era to enhance the text.

The web resources that the students will be using is the Prezi learn tutorials, as well as websites about the home front era, such as http://www.history.com/topics/us-home-front-during-world-war-ii from the History.com website.  other resources will include the textbook and lectures, but the students will be encouraged to search for other resources based on their subject choice of the era.  I would also have them access http://www.archives.gov/ for other resouces of pictures, video, and audio from that era.

I think that I would need to create an online resource of video, audio, and pictures from that era that I glean myself from their resources, so they can not only download and use these from my site, but will also serve as an example of what they can look for.

In making this Prezi, I hope that my students will learn something extra about what AMerica went through during World War II, and how it impacted their daily lives.

IPAD vs. eReaders

So I have been posting about the IPad and it's uses in the classroom. But we need to ask ourselves the most important question before getting these for the schools...

Do we really need them?

This is the question that needs to be asked by every school board before buying anything that is going to cost so much in monetary costs and time costs for set up. The school needs to find out exactly what it needs the IPad to do for the students and administration.

Students:

Do they need to read books on it? Do they need to run the apps on the IPad? Do they need internet access for the classroom? What are they going to do with this IPad, besides read on it? These questions are just the basics,, but if they are not ALL answered with the afirmative, then we need to stop ourselves and look at the answers. If the students are just going to read on them (both books and assignments from the teacher)and if the students are just going to be running basic apps, then they do not need an IPad. They can use an eReader like the Kindle Fire. It can do those things and is a LOT cheaper. This cost savings can help school boards decide on the implementation of this technology, especially in this economy.

Teachers and Adminstration:

Again, the same questions apply. What we have to take into account also is that if we keep the same technology for he students and the teachers, they can be Synched together in real time so the teacher can actively work with the whole classroom, literally staying on the same page. The adminstration really doesn't need any, because they can use the computers in their offices to do their work, since they are not actively teaching students.

So there it is. Do we really need the IPad inthe classroom, or can we use the eReader to do the same job.

Next time, we'll look at the IT department and see the cool stuff they can come up with to help the classroom that uses the IPad/eReader.

Prezi Presentation

Digital Storytelling eme5050 on Prezi

Teacher Apps

In the classroom, it isn't just the student that can benefit from the IPad.  The teacher can use it to make her work more effecient, thereby concentrating more on the learning needs of the student.  There are many apps that the teacher can use for this, so let's look at a few, shall we?

First, there are apps for attendance.  Instead of the teacher going to her desk to call out names and enter them into the computer, she could be entering it into the IPad.  The app could be a list of names, or maybe a layout of her classroom, showing the desks.  She just clicks on the desks to show the empty ones.  With assigned seating, this would work out great for the teacher.  She would be able to breeze through her attendance in less than a minute, instead of 5 minutes the old way.  Over the course of time, this can add up to some serious addition of class time.

Controling her smartboard/projector.  The teacher can control these with the IPad instead of going to her desk every time she wants to activate software, such as Power Point.  She will be able to proceed with her presentation with minimal interuptions, allowing her to keep the focus of the students for the entire time.  She can also walk around the room with it, making her presence known to the students.  This will help with talking or whispering in class during a presentation.

Assigning homework.  The teacher can teach her class, and if this school is full of technology, can email hte daily assignments to her classroom.  Each student would recieve this email with the homework in it, thereby ensuring that they won't "forget" to write it down.  Also this can add students that are absent that day, due to illness or such.  They won't miss assignments, and the teacher can keep on track with those assignments as well.

This is just a few of the many apps that the teacher can implement in her classroom.  There are many, many more that can be used, so long as the teacher can implement it seamlessly into her class.

I would like to invite you to my Google+ page for this project, at https://plus.google.com/?hl=en&gpsrc=gplp0#103880660156167839030/posts.  Check it out and let me know what you think, or if you have any ideas to add!