Smartboards and Clickers in the Classroom
Q: What is your ideal
teaching situation (grade level and subject area)?
A: I believe any grade in middle school social studies would
offer me the kind of everyday challenge that would keep my career fresh and
interesting.
Q: List three ways you
might use a Smartboard in your classroom to help your students learn.
A:1. Using the Smartboard for Power Point products has a great capacity to illustrate ideas and data in the most graphic and effective way.
2. The use of the document camera by math instructors is
surely invaluable because the board can be written upon with different colors
and effects. The cleanup is certainly faster that chalkboards.
3. The board is an invaluable tool to link the class with
the outside world via the Web. Simply having the ability to connect a computer
to an instructional tool for all to see is a great advancement in the pedagogy
of modern teachers.
1. There are invariably those students in the classroom who
do not understand a lesson (or portion of a lesson) and are too fearful of
ridicule by others to raise a hand and ask a question. The clicker is the great
equalizer in question and answer sessions.
2. For the instructor, the clicker is a rapid response tool
that keeps the classroom curriculum flowing and assists in the management of
dwindling time.
3. In a group setting, the simple act of discussion about
the question at hand is a great tool for learning. Putting a time limit on
"clicking in" may focus the debate as well.
Q: After reviewing these
new technologies, which would you most like to have in your classroom? Why?
A: I relish the idea of having access to as much technology as
possible in the classroom. I may not always know how to use the tech, but
learning new "stuff" is part and parcel of the profession.
Furthermore, technology will not be going out of style anytime soon so why not
embrace it.
Using the Smartboard in a social studies setting is really a
no-brainer. Being able to shift from one geographic area to another with a
simple click of the mouse is a precious thing. Having the ability to underline
memorable segments of a Power Point presentation is a visual memory device that
assists the students cognition and note taking.
Having artifacts in the classroom for the students to see,
touch, or hear is certainly preferable to any learning device. However, having
the ability to see and hear it by clicking on a website is supremely preferable
to slinging old, heavy, and outdated pedestal maps around the classroom.
As stated before, I am intrigued by the idea of clickers in
the classroom. My use of them would be to flush out the unasked questions by
using probing questions with regard to the objectives of the lesson. The impact
of the device is not yet completely understood because the use of them is still
in its infancy. Learning more about how to put them into effective practice is
certainly on my professional teacher to-do list.
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