Spring EDET637

https://www.abcmouse.com This downloadable app has more than 7,000 fun and interactive learning activities for children ages 2-8 that teach reading, math, beginning science, art, music and more. It can be dowloaded on iPad, iPhone Kindle Fire, and most Android phones. The school I work in has these downloaded on every computer in the classroom and each iPad used by the after school program. The kids love them and really enjoy doing the activities. Each student definitely has certain categories they prefer and it can at times be a challenge to get them to do anything else. As I explored this app more I decided it is something I would like to download to play with my son who is almost 4. Because I would I would like to use this with my preschooler and with students I teach I focused on looking at the activities for preschool and Kindergarten (what I am teaching this year). Preschool Reading- Uppercase Alphabet A-Z Math- Numbers 1-5, Shapes World around us- Getting dressed, my...

This week I focused my research on a piece of technology I could use in a classroom of older students. Right now i am teaching kindergarten so I tend to think about technology based on their age and forget about what would work for older aged students. In my research I found cold turkey.com which is a website that allow teachers to temporarily block online distractions to help students stay focused and finish their work faster. Honestly this seems like something I could use while I am in school. To often we are distracted with many different websites and things to explore instead of staying focused on our work. I think this website would be very beneficial for middle school and high school students in a classroom to prevent them from visiting distracting websites. According to the website Cold Turkey can be set to block specific webpages to the entire internet. You can allow exceptions, block applications, or even lock yourself out of a computer. This technology is free to download (...

Yesterday I had a student ask me if I had printed a piece of paper with a 3D printer. This got me thinking about using a 3D printer in Kindergarten classrooms. In a simple Google search I found a plethora of resources on how to incorporate 3d printers in to the classroom. Ideas included designing custom artwork frames. This allows students to practice their geometry skills and calculate measurements, weights, and balance. As an extension students can create decorations that can be snapped on and off the frame to create a fully customized display. 3d printers also allow teachers to cross curriculum. An example of this is by having students design and print out different catapult designs and predicting and testing their ability to launch projectiles. Another use of 3d printers is to assign students a real world problem to solve. Students would use the 3d printer to create gadgets that would help solve everyday problems like saving a child or dog locked in a hot car. 3d printers can al...

This week I looked at how augmented reality can be used in the classroom. Augmented reality is content that can be accessed by scanning or viewing a triggering image with a mobile device that creates a subsequent action. This action can be a video, another image, 3D animation, game, or QR code. I looked at the app Aurasma with is smart phone that allows individuals to see and interact with the world in a new way. With this app images, objects, and places can have its own aura. An Aura can be as simple as a video and a link to a web page or as complex as a lifelike 3D animation. This app can be used in the classroom in many ways. One way is to create an interactive word wall. As students learn new vocabulary and practice parts of speech and synonyms and analogies. To add visuals students can act out the definition of the words that can be display the words or create an aura which with scanned by the Aurasma app it will react and play the photo or video the students created. Aurasma ...