Hide and Seek: GPS and Geocaching in the Classroom

This article is called “Hide and Seek: GPS and Geocaching in the Classroom” and is written by Lynn M. Lary.

This article is talking about geocaching which in short is a high-tech, worldwide treasure hunt where a person hides a cache for others to find (Lary, 2). The cache is in a waterproof container and usually contains a log book and an assortment of goodies. The goodies may include toys, photo books, or music recordings pertaining to the class. The coordinates for where the item is place are posted on the geocaching website with a description of the cache, a hint, and any other information that may help the seeker. Once the cache’s coordinates have been posted, the hunt will begin and the way a student looks for the cache is by going to the geocaching site to see what caches are in an area close to them. At Thurston Middle School, the Lynn Lary had her students get into groups of three and gave each group GPS systems, but before they were just given these systems they were taught how to actually use them properly. They go on a hunt and find clues that eventually lead them to where the cache is. Each group had to locate three caches out of twelve that were hidden. One of the clues was “Go past the flat tire or you’ll get stumped by this one (hidden in the stump)” (3).

Many students love the Geocaching game and that can be attributed to their love of the hunt, their physical speed, and their ability to use the GPS. Their ability to use the GPS is the main task that needs to be faced because that requires much skill and requires some math. It gives the students a chance to get out of the classroom and get some fresh air as well as find some caches that are related to lecture. With my students, I also will use this scavenger hunt technique and a fun time to use it will be when we are learning about pirates or different things found in the ocean from sunken ships. I will put many different pirate related items in the boxes that were found in the bottom of the sea so the students get a better idea of what things looked like. You truly can use this exercise in a science class or even a math class because the ideas are endless.

Fulldome Video

This article is called Fulldome Video and is written by Linda E. Law.

The very fun thing that the Fulldome video system has to offer is the fact that the students enjoy it immensely. They sit back, turn off the lights, and show a film of the galaxy for example then your students feel much stronger about the subject that is being shown on the screen. Instead of your students becoming restless and bored, they are quiet and focused and caught up in what they are watching. After the film is shown on the full dome video system the questions start and the students truly are way more interested in what they witnessed. The students see the items on the screen as life like so therefore they can picture for example how large they would be in space. Apparently many schools have started using this program and it has been a very powerful way of teaching. The systems range from 20-40 thousand dollars, but you do get what you pay for. The 3D images are visually studied and the stories are very engaging when they are viewed in the full dome. It is the teachers’ responsibility to provide the students with a tool that they can comprehend and enjoy. "The innovative teachers who take on the ground-breaking work of introducing this technology to their classrooms will be rewarded by classes of students who are eager to come to school to learn" (Law,4).

This article is very interesting to me because I have never heard of or seen one of these before. These Full Dome systems are large inflatable rooms that can be placed in the gym or in a designated room. I cannot even imagine how much fun this would be as a student showing up and then walking into a 10 foot tall inflatable door and entering into a dome where bean bags and comfort is given to you. All of the students will sit down and look around because they may be surrounded by planets or possibly be surrounded by the world with the equator’s circumference around them. If my school has the Fulldome where I teach in the near future, I will make sure all of my students are comfortable and we will study geology for example. I will get a video or slides of different rocks and crystals that I can show the class with great detail on the projector. I will put them into groups and have each group study one of the rocks that is projected on the Fulldome. The students will learn where they can find the rocks and what they are. They will then share with the class what it is that they saw and all of the students will get a very thorough analysis of each. You can use the Fulldome projector system for many subjects, yet it is mostly used for geology, chemistry and history. The only issue to this technology technique is that it is very expensive and would have to be used frequently to get the monies worth.

Assessment Made Easy

This article is called "Assessment Made Easy" and is written by Andrew A. Zucker.

There is a school called the Denver School of Science and Technology that is very special. It is the first public high school to have a one to one laptop ratio amongst the students. The school received 1 million dollars from Hewlett-Packard so therefore a laptop was purchased for every student so they could all be technologically savvy with one another. 40 percent of the students that go there are from low-income families, yet their test scores are among the highest in the state. Also, every graduating senior was accepted to a four-year college or university. This is so awesome and the reason for the high test scores and positive information is because the students have their computer with them at all times. Andrew Zucker believes that “DSST is noteworthy both for its success in improving student performance and for its use of laptops for assessment.” The students say that laptops are positively influencing how they work with others, their grades, and loving their school. These laptops are keeping everyone together and keeping them connected to one another with their fingertips. With the students all having access to the internet in class, the teacher can have them take tests on it through different programs. The students taking their tests online will be very organized and will make it easier for the tests to be graded. Students love getting feedback on how they did on tests as quickly as possible.

I think it is amazing that the ratio was one to one for each student on the campus in Denver when it came to laptops. I hope that soon in the future funding could pay for every student to have a laptop at their disposal. I can totally see how having a laptop could improve your education because there are no excuses for not having access to a computer. The testing online is an awesome idea for many reasons and the main one being that it keeps everything very organized. The students will get their grades back in a timely fashion and it will lift some stress off of the teacher in the grading department. When I begin teaching I would love to have my students take quizzes this way. Even if we don’t have access to computers in the classroom I will have them take little short quizzes online at home to show that they know how to use a computer and it will be an easy way for me as the teacher to see their progress in class. It is true though that a one-to –one laptop program cannot make a weak school strong. “To take advantage of computers, schools still need thoughtful administrators, high-quality teachers, an effective curriculum, and all of the other components that make a school excellent.” All of those key elements are very important yet if laptops were available to every student then they could make different assessments and other tasks more efficient. I hope this happens in the near future!

Web and Today's Technologies

This article is called "Web: Today’s Technologies" and is written by Jennifer Groff and Jason Haas.

This article is about different web games and activities that can be used by students in the class room. Many students under 18 years of age have a facebook account, have played world of Warcraft, or Second Life. These are a few examples of the leading tech innovations that are around today. Facebook Is the most popular technology innovation right now and is connecting friends, new people meeting, and has followers joining groups around topics of their interest. “The researchers at MIT’s Education Arcade have dedicated themselves to understanding the potential benefits of these technologies to students and teachers and to helping schools implement these technologies in ways that make sense.” Many teachers feel that video games would be disruptive to a class but students can use these video games as tools to learn in a more creative way. For example, a computer game called Ayiti can be played and how it is played is the students are introduced to a family on the island of Ayiti and must help them make decisions about work, education, community building, personal purchases and health care that may improve their lives. The article states that “This is the best situation, because you and the kids become partners in learning.” Both the student and the teacher will be learning in this situation because it is a new style of teaching and is being tested right now in schools slowly but surely.

This article sounds fun, yet challenging and since this is an open-ended activity sometimes that comes with problems. Every teacher should give these techniques a try because students gain deeper conceptual knowledge of what they are learning. Another cool idea for a tech game in the classroom is Muzzy Lane’s Making History and it is geared toward older students. In this game, students role play to take on significant challenges and face world leaders in WWII. This one would be very fun and the students would get a chance to learn more about which countries fought in different wars and who their leaders were. It will give students a more hands on approach to the war and make them feel as though they were part of it. I am going to try and incorporate one of these intellectual games in to the classroom because I see the benefits that it has brought some students within the article. I will try out one of the tech games with some friends or fellow colleagues first to see if it will be fun and able for my students to conquer and then I will incorporate it slowly to the class and we will work on it once or twice a week in the computer room that is offered to us. The children will even have access to the game at home if they want but the service may be a little pricey depending on which game we end up playing. I hope my future students will appreciate this unique teaching technique when used in my classroom.