Blog 8: Will the Kindle Change Education?

When the Kindle was invented it turned several heads and everyone wanted one. Well one teacher thought outside the box on how it could help technology. Teachers are now discussing the potential of handheld technology tin education and seeing it how it cuts the price of books. There are three things pushed in the article why the Kindle is indeed for the classroom.

The first reason is it’s a Handheld Library. The Kindle is larger than a book, but easier to carry than a laptop.  The Kindle weighs just 10.2 ounces and the text displayed on the six-inch screen is readable. One of the teachers push with paperback you were limited on what you could get because of the price and how long it would take to get there, but with the Kindle you could get the copies of the books you need in just an instant. Another way it could help in the library you have access to more material to the subject you are teaching than ever before.  The final thing that it pushes you can now carry thousands of books in a students backpack without causing permanent injuries to the kids back.

The second reason is it can help with the Text to Speech that it comes with. Kindle’s text-to-speech audio function can help address the challenges of students with vision problems, language barriers, and lack of reading fluency.  Audio books are not new, but with the Kindle could be taken to another level and help people with their education.

The final factor that can help it, but also harm it is it durability. The tryouts may shed light on other issues that worry K–12 educators, such as how durable the plastic tablets are in students’ hands and backpacks. Amazon says the Kindle can survive repeated drops from 30 inches, but one broke when it slipped from a student’s hands.   Another issue is the ability to transfer content from one user to another. Amazon.com’s system limits to six the number of Kindles that can access content from one user’s online repository. But Amazon also allows publishers to choose whether to protect their content with “digital rights management” technology, limiting downloads to just one device.

The deciding factor comes to us teachers. Each kindle cost about $250.00, but the books are pretty cheap. It be interesting n how this impacts the classroom. 

Reflection in my classroom

Well it has been several years since this article has been published and with that so had the Amazon Kindle. Amazon now has the Amazon Kindle fire, Amazon Kindle paperwhite, and just the Amazon kindle. I would go with the Amazon Kindle fire due to all you can do with it. I like that Amazon Kindle has a feature called Kindle FreeTime and is it’s a setting you can enable to create a safe digital environment. FreeTime makes it safer for all the kids. Also there  so many apps that you can use for education and most of them are free. You also can get into YouTube to show an important video to your class. The last thing its pretty cheap and that’s important when it comes to buying technology in class.  This is why I have them in my classroom and I love them so much.

Blog 7: Differentiated Instruction: Getting Personal with Technology

When you are walking in the classroom in Forest Lake Elementary there are several things going on, but one thing is happening everywhere in the classroom: Students are thoroughly engaged in learning. Forest Lake, is a technology magnet public school that deals with grades preK-5. One thing that makes the school different is the assessments. The assessments come in countless forms, from writing assignments to computer-graded quizzes to one-on-one conversations. Each teacher goal is to find the right activity and technology to fill in the gaps in the students' knowledge. The teachers do it by playing to the students strengths to help the succeeded in learning. An example given is a student who is disinterested in reading and writing, so the student has elected to work on creating comics, where good writing is essential and every word counts.

The problem with differentiating instruction is that it takes time with technology or not.  Forest Lake teachers tackle this challenge by using the technology to simplify other parts of their jobs, sharing their best ideas, and divvying up some of the work. The teachers use software to do much of the basic-skills practice and assessment to save the time. They use computer can identify specific weaknesses in a child's skills, such as understanding analogies or adding fractions. Teachers can review these outcomes daily, then assign lessons to each student according to her needs so that the next time she logs on, the program will give practice assignments on precisely what the student is missing.

There are several excuses why you can’t us technology in the classroom, but Forest Lake has solved those excuses with a step at a time. An example most schools say their facility can’t do it because it’s old.  The school has a 53-year-old building and it makes it work. They even as go as far how older teachers can improve with technology. They solved it with one trick at a time, with a lot of help from the school and each other.

 

Reflection in my classroom

The article shows how any school can become a technological school. They show how far they have come and what they have accomplished. I liked how it points in this day and age a teacher must use technology. “It can't be optional, but you cannot set those expectations unless you're backing them up with tech support and professional development.” It’s so true because in order to have technology it must add on to the learning not just have it there to add a TEKS to your lesson plan. I love how it the article gave a timeline on how they were able to become a technological school. They started with some two interactive whiteboards on carts to music equipment. We as a district can make this our school if we do it right.