Friday, April 17, 2009
Barone, D., & Wright, T. (2008, December). Literacy Instruction With Digital and Media Technologies. Reading Teacher, 62(4), 292-303.
In Barone's & Wright's article on introducing media technologies into the classroom they offer you a glimpse into a unique classroom motivated by computers. The classroom is constructed of fourth grade students in a low economic status area of Nevada. The article begins with the brief history of the integration of technology in educational systems specifically with laptops in the year 1990. This article shows a fourth grade classes entire day consumed with laptop construction. The teacher by the name of Kurt begins each day with students updating their academic laptop calendars through the online classroom website. The day begins with a simple fun word activity which involves an online thesaurus and a student generated sentence with a visual representation. The article then gives the reader a look at the rest of the school day. Kurt seamlessly weaves literature discussions through the use of a blogging site. He sets time schedules for partner activities with the use of aol instant messenger. In the afternoon Kurt uses the KidBiz application to differentiate learning. The students are constantly immersed throughout the school day with the use of their laptops, and it was quite amazing to believe how much a teachers' actual day can be planned through the use of a laptop and wireless internet capabilities. I applaud this article for its great detail, and groundbreaking work in full classroom integration.
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Wow! I've never heard of such a classroom! It seems pretty unique to have students use their own laptops at school all day long. Although I feel that integrating technology into the class and allowing students many opportunities to use computers is a great way to motivate students and increase their learning, I'm not really sure I would want to do all or most daily classroom activities through the use of a computer. I think students need to be involved in tasks that involve them communicating face to face with other students and teachers. I also feel that students need time during the day when the teacher is providing direct instruction. And event though discussions through blogging or instant messenger would be motivating for students and could be a great activity during the week, I think students also need opportunities to collaborate on projects face-to-face. Overall this was a very interesting topic. I'm not sure that I agree with classrooms consumed by laptops, but I do think it would be neat if all classrooms had more computers available for students so that more lessons could incorporate technology and students could more often use computers in school to write, create, and learn new things.
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