8/26/19 was the first day of ED 5534-Research and Technology Methods for Childhood education. I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into class today, since I haven’t taken a science course in probably 15 years, but I am glad I did because it was an exciting class, especially the activities we participated in. The first activity was “Let’s get Acquainted.” We had to make creative name tags with markers and stickers. The second activity was called “What/Who am I?” This activity was really fun and reminded me of the game Headbands. We broke up into groups and we each got a small piece of paper with a science word on it, which was then taped to our foreheads. We had to ask yes/no questions to our group members to see if we could figure out the word taped to our forehead. When we were finished we had to decide which field of science we all belonged to. For the third activity we had to draw a scientist at work and give the scientist a name. This activity was not my favorite because I’m not the best drawer, but I guess we are all artists in some way, shape, or form. Our Final activity that we did was go on a Course Treasure Hunt with our group members. We had to go around Hudson Hall and collect some papers and take pictures to document our findings. We also had to navigate through e-class and answer certain questions about the course syllabus and make a slideshow documenting our adventure. Dr. Smirnova also showed us how to create a blog, which is nerve racking and exciting at the same time, especially for me since I have never blogged before. I guess there is a first time for everything, right?! Overall, I thought the first class went exceptionally well and I learned some great icebreaker activities that I can use in my future classroom. I can’t wait for the next class!
My Reflection on “Did You Know?”:
This video proves that we live in an information age, where the use of technology is used on a daily basis for anything and everything. In 1984 there were 1,000 Internet devices, today there are over 30,000,000,000---crazy! A statistic that shocked me most is an engineering student on their first day of class to three years later when they graduate, the information they learned will be outdated. Our language has advanced 5x from when Shakespeare was alive. Artificial Intelligence will be replacing surgeons and police officers in the future. The facts from this video are real eye openers and that technology isn't only used daily, but constantly changing and improving rapidly.
My Reflection on “A Vision of K-12 Students Today”:
This video demonstrates that we live in a world of technology and that we need to incorporate more of it into our classrooms. Children are using technology everyday, whether they are watching television, gaming, or listening/reading a book on their iPad. What amazed me most was that over 76% of teachers never even used podcasts or wiki. Also, over 60% of teachers (reading) never thought to use digital storytelling in their classrooms. We as future educators need to make learning possible in every way we can for our students. We need to provide an active and engaging learning environment with the use of technology, so our students can be successful in the future.
My Reflection on “Do schools kill creativity?”:
Ken Robinson is extremely accurate in this video. School districts rank subjects by their significance. Math, English, science, and history are among the top subjects. Music and arts fall below this priority. Art and music allow children to be creative and when schools take these programs away, it makes it difficult for a child to not only learn, but express their creativity. Ken stated, "creativity is as important as literacy" a strong statement, but as children enter the school setting they grow out of their creativity because of education. Children are taught that education is based on their academic ability, not creativity. If a child is not good at a certain subject it is assumed that something is wrong with them and they must be fixed, an example that he mentions is ADHD. Again, as future educators we need to provide every opportunity for children to learn and to be engaged. Ken stated that movement = thinking. Some students need movement in order to learn and he validated this by speaking about the ballet dancer. If we don't offer our scholars any source of engagement (movement) then we are stopping them from learning, being creative, and most of all thinking.
Course Expectations:
My expectation for this course is to learn fun and engaging ways to teach science lessons to children and how to incorporate the use of technology into the classroom for a more active and creative learning environment.
Great post! It is amazing how far technology has come. It is so surprising to me that AI will be taking over for police officers and surgeons! In the classroom, I think many teachers may be afraid of technology. They are expected to know a lot and they are afraid of being wrong while learning something new. I see it a lot in the school where I work. Many of the older teachers do not use technology s they should because they do not want to learn it. This is sad for the students!
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