As some of you know I have been fairly reluctant and even resistant to some of the tech tools that have been presented and how useful they would be in a math classroom. But recently I have been coming around! The presentation by Liz Kolb on cell phones in the classroom and the webinar that I watched about twitter got my wheels turning about using technologies and devices in the classroom.
Liz Kolb showed us some very interesting websites to use to get students involved in class through their cell phones. There are a couple of different ways and different apps and websites that Lisa showed us that I would like to try using in my classroom. The first is remind101. I have seen other teachers use this and I think it is a useful tool. My mentor teacher always posts the homework to the class moodle website but I think that some parents and students would find it easier and more useful to receive a text.
Another website tool that Liz suggested was polltgo.com a website that allows you to poll your students instantly. This is something that we have seen our professors and others use or some other type of polling website that allows students or audience members to respond. I really like this idea to get students involved in the class discussion or to share answers that some quieter students may not feel comfortable with but I have some concerns. I like that the tool allows for the students to have anonymity when responding to questions in class which would hopefully help with participation and allow students to guess if they do not know without being embarrassed. But I am afraid with the anonymity comes the ability to goof off and give ridiculous answers. I would like to think that I will have created a classroom where this is would be unacceptable but I have seen adults not take these polls seriously and take advantage of the anonymity. I do like that some of the other sites similar to polltogo.com that Liz showed us can have people sign in so students' name or login name would be attached to their post. I believe that this would eliminate some of the abuse of the poll but I also think that it may take away the advantage of having less confident students involved in the conversation. I do still think that completing a poll on their cell phones may reach a different group of students than a normal class discussion.
Along with polltogo.com I believe that twitter could be an interesting tool to use in the classroom. I am going to have to look into it more to see what trouble students can get into on twitter before encouraging my students to use it in the classroom or for homework but it could be a good tool for homework help or another way to have a class discussion while we are in the classroom. I am also excited for the networking possibilities of twitter. I never knew you could connect with people in such constructive ways through twitter.
I am excited to learn more and try some things out. I think that I would like to do some testing with the polling and see how it goes in the classroom. I foresee using it in a warm up in the future! I will keep you posted on how it goes!
Sarah, I definitely appreciate your hesitation in implementing new uses of technology in the classroom. I think the concern you raise about anonymity and how some students might potentially respond under the mask of that is a serious issue to consider. But likewise, by the time we begin to implement these tools in our classrooms, we will hopefully have created a classroom climate in which the students have learned to act in appreciation of and respect for one another. Every tech tool has been a new tool for me this semester, so it has been a big learning curve. I wasn't convinced as I began, that I would actually see the implementation of the tools as an asset to the classroom. Was it mere whistles and bells, or was there something more to it? Well, I learned a lot when doing my VoiceThread presentation, and appreciate the possibilities for publishing and sharing that it provides for students. I think that with the particular group of students I'm working with now, it will cause them to try to step up their performance a notch, to make it more polished for public display. We will be doing a VoiceThread in my 12AP class in the next two weeks, based on what I learned through my study of it - assuming there are no technical difficulties, and no friction over whose day it is to use the laptop cart :) I also like the idea of remind 101, which I might try to implement in the spring when I'm more responsible for the class. Let me know what you discover about twitter. I'm still hesitant to expand my digital footprint along that route.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment Jeanine! I also learned a lot while working on our Voicethread presentation. If it is ok with your students would you mind sharing that voicethread? I think it would be really cool to see how you used and it what the students experience with it was. I would also like to know if you felt as though your students learned more through the use of voicethread.
DeleteI will let you know how my experience or experiments with twitter go.
I don't have a Twitter and I don't want a Twitter and I'm probably going to get a Twitter to use in my classroom. I hear that it's the new hip thing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me about all the things Liz talked about, I didn't really feel like I had time to process her presentation at the time, but I feel that cellphones in the classroom is something that could be very helpful.
I don't know what kind of technology I will have next year, but I'm not expecting much. I do think, however, that cellphones are the most likely technology to which my students will have access. I remember hearing somewhere that children growing up in urban environment might have cellphones with internet even if they don't have home computer. Definitely worth looking into if that's the case.
I guess I'll have to learn more about the possibilities!