Fieldwork Presentation

I real enjoyed watching everyone’s fieldwork presentation assignment. It was interesting to see how much change has occurred in our education system over the past decade. This assignment allowed me the opportunity to see just how educators are using technology to enhance students learning experiences. After listening to my fellow classmate’s observation experience; I notice that the schools who put high emphasizes on integrating technology into their program had higher API scores. I also thought it was interesting to see that teachers are incorporating technology into the classroom of younger learners. I was also impressed to hear the amount of technology that is being used in the schools where Andrea, Tammie, Loletta and Angel observed. I can just about imagine how schools will look ten years from now. My heart went out to the staff and students at the school where Doreen work and observed. It was sad to hear about the limited amount of technology these students had in their classroom. In addition, to make matters worst they are stuck in the same room all day. However, at the end of the day the staff and students make use of what they got. I think anyone teaching under the circumstance Doreen described need to be applauded. Overall, I liked the diversity that everyone’s presentation offered. I was pleased to learn about some of the many ways technology is being used in today’s learning experiences.
As a future educator, some of the concepts I can picture myself using inside the classroom is a laptop, clickers and interactive whiteboard. I have learn that technology can be very beneficial in students learning process if educators are taught how to use it effectively. Evdience shows that students are better able retain and regurgitate information when they are engaged in the learning process. Integrate technology into everyday teaching can help improve students performance considering the majority of student are technology driven.

                                                                          
The class also got a brief introduction to MIT open courseware and Wordle cloud ware. “Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide”(wordle.net). . Learning about Wordle web cloud was fun. I like how you can write out a paragraph and the program than creatively converts it into a whimsical pieces of art. Wordle can also be printed, saved, shared, and use as a clip art. Wordle is a site I can picture being used in the classroom. However, there is one drawback, teachers are not able to block students from using inappropate language on the site.

I also explored MIT an online web site that allows individual to obtain almost all MIT under graduate and graduate coursework without being register in the school. According to research, MIT open courseware allows individuals to access lecture notes, exams, watch videos and obtain information according to the course online for free “wow”. My initial thoughts were that is “great” people can self educate them by utilizing the countries most prestige schools course work. I think it is incredible that MIT openly share their educational materials free. According to research, MIT pays for all the publication cost that goes into sharing each coursework, which could range from 10,000 to 15,000. I think MIT open courseware is a good site because it provides many people the opportunity receive quality education. Who may have not otherwise been able to receive it. However, the drawback is that students who learn this way do not get any recognition to confirm that they master the subject. At the end of the day, I think MIT commitment to share their educational resources with others is wonderful.