Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Smart Boards, what's so great about them?

Image by: Muncie Public Library via www.flickr.com
Smart boards.  What's there to say about them?  Teachers use them for their classrooms and students like them. Big deal, right?  Wrong!  They are a big deal!  More and more schools are buying them for their classrooms.  Teachers love using them because it keeps their students attention on the material instead of doodling, sleeping, texting, etc.  When I was a junior in high school my math class got a smart board and at first I thought it wouldn't work and I didn't think much of it, but there was one day in class where we just sat and listened to our teacher talk about the different things it does.  You can do simple math, write, draw, bring up websites and draw on the websites.  The one we had actually saved whatever work the teacher had done on it on the computer in the back of the room, so if the teacher wanted to talk about it to a different class all they had to do was bring it up on the computer and project it on the board.
I found a website where it has 13 reasons on how the smart board has improved teaching and learning in the classroom. If you would like to view it click on the link.  The one I found most interesting is, "The board can accommodate different learning styles" is because I didn't think boards could fluctuate depending on the different learning styles.  When we first got one in my math class, I heard a lot of parents say that they didn't know if it was a good idea to put those in the classrooms because they weren't sure if every student could operate it because of the new technology.  The only time we got to use it was when/if the teacher called on you to do a math problem on the board.  My whole class loved it by the end of the semester!  The only downfall to it was it wouldn't do your homework for you... :) 

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Should Facebook be allowed in school?

My Facebook profile. Screen capture.
Facebook? School? Allowed? What? You might be thinking to yourself, what is she thinking?! There are some people who think Facebook should be allowed in school because they think it would be beneficial for them. How could it be beneficial for teenagers to be on Facebook during class? Well to start off students are on Facebook all the time, so why not make a Facebook site for the class? It could give the students opportunities to talk about assignments, due dates, tests, projects, etc. over their favorite social networking site. And if anyone has a question about an assignment or project or test they can post it on the wall and someone would more than likely answer within minutes. There's a few classes I'm in that have made a Facebook page for the class. (Like this one!) The teachers mainly post useful information and reminders, which is nice.
Obviously there are some downfalls to it too. Students can easily get distracted by someone chatting to them on Facebook chat, they could be visiting someone's profile, looking up different things to "like" and so on. If there would be a way for the teacher to monitor that then I think it would make a huge difference. The teacher could have some rules about it, such as; log off of the chat, consequences for wandering off, etc. Facebook has become the most popular social networking site, as of now, and I think teachers should be able to incorporate that into their lesson somehow. So, should Facebook be allowed in school? I think so. What do you think?

Article about why schools should learn to use Facebook instead of banning them.