Today's classroom obviously extends far past the four walls that surround teacher and student a mere eight hours a day. I find myself more and more excited as I near the time of having my own classroom. This is definitely an amazing time to be a teacher! INSPIRATION is one of the cutting edge tools that is making it possible for teachers and students to continue (and ENHANCE) the learning process beyond the normal classroom time. I just finished the tutorial on INSPIRATION and noticed several things right off the bat that I loved. First of all, it reminded me of a conversation we had in my Monday night class, Dr. Stewart's Reading, Analyzing, and Teaching Literature. It was about utilizing graphic organizers and how instrumental they can be in helping students to put together their thoughts and ideas. Many students do not fit into the traditional "cookie-cutter" style of note-taking and their papers and essays may be reflective of that if they are not given a valid alternative to gather the information needed. INSPIRATION is one of the tools that provide visual aids that help students gather what they need to write an organized and well-thought out paper.
I think there are a number of writing activities where technology can be beneficial. Some of the primary ones in my field (English/language arts/reading) would be essays, journal entries, response papers, and book reviews. This allows work to be done, both, inside of class time and also outside. It also allows for peer contribution. Through blogs, and other programs with interfacing and comment features, classmates can constructively critique and comment on assignments, entries, and reviews. When handled within a managed set of parameters, I would think this would be a value added asset to the lesson plan! As with anything that we learn, the more we go over it - the more we revise and review something - the better we learn it. It's true with students and it's true with us teachers as well. Each time I teach something brand new, no matter how well I prepare, it's not until I've presented it to a live...breathing...class full of students that I fully get the whole bulk of the lesson myself. There is something about repetition and about presenting it in various different formats that help it to stick with us. That's what makes learning so fun - and so interesting!
Lesson Plan Blog
14 years ago
I fully agree with you, by putting the papers on a database where other people can see it so that they can get there peers to be involved and critique them is a great attribute. I also believe that by doing this the students tend to put a lot more thought and work into there paper, because they know that others will be looking at this besides the teachers. In today's society it is great to know that there are many different sites and databases that we can use to teach which gives us more methods to teach a child that may not learn through pure classroom lessons. This gives me a sense of joy knowing that we will be able to reach out to more children and get them to utilize there brain to a higher level and hopefully find something that they want to do for the rest of there lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that in the field of English/Education there are several ways that technology can be utilized. I liked the idea of putting the papers on some type of datatbase in order to have peer review. I believe that the students will work harder on reviewing the papers because they won't be rushed doing this in the classroom. I remember when I use to have to do peer review during class time, there was barely enough time to read through one paper. This way students will get through multiple papers. I plan on having my students post their essays on blogs as well. This way the students are encouraged to participate. I enjoy the fact that now we have the ability to use technology to broden students minds and writing skills.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agee with you in that Inspiration can enhance the class room beoyond its normal limits. I know I wish I would have had Inspiration in high school because I was never really good at writing papers. Like you said because Inspiration can help organize and provide visual aids, this could have been vey benifical to me, and will be very benifival to future students.
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