VISUALIZING WITH TECHNOLOGY

Visualizing with technologies is a way for those of us who are not particularly gifted with artistic talents to use computerized programs to illustrate and explain complex ideas or concepts. Programs such as Sketchcast, TinkerPlots, GIS, and Fathom can be used to create short films or complex illustrations of concepts, and there are multiple ‘draw and paint’ applications that can be used to create and modify pictures. The visual aids produced by such programs cover a wide variety of subjects and grade levels, and they can help students to more easily comprehend both basic and complex ideas by using a multi-sensory approach. Teachers can develop their own material, or access the work of their peers or professionals through a wide network of sources for educational materials. Videos can take students to see places they have never been, and enable them to hear from people they have never met. Tools such as hand-held graphic calculators allow students to input mathematical material and watch a visual representation of how the often confusing formulas and equations affect the problem. The visualizations of the problem is an effective way for the student to see the effects of their actions, and determine whether or not they are on the right track. Technology has led to the production of a lot of electronic devices and applications that are not necessarily beneficial for learning overall; however, visualizing with technology is a valuable educational tool for both teachers and students alike.

Visualizing with technologies has impacted the learning process in many ways. Up to now, students attempting to learn about the often abstract concepts involved in algebra, geometry, and the gamut of scientific courses, including chemistry and biology, were essentially at the mercy of their instructor’s ability to verbally explain the principles involved, and perhaps awkwardly attempt to demonstrate the material two-dimensionally via chalkboard. With visual technology, instructors are now able to create or obtain multi-dimensional, layered explanations of essentially anything. Complex ideas can be broken down step-by-step to facilitate greater understanding of the basic concepts, providing for more complete comprehension of the subject matter. Students who may need further clarification can also make use of visual technology by accessing further, more in-depth explanations of virtually any concept through on-line platforms such as You Tube, where instructional videos are easily accessed by the public. Visualizing with technologies has made both the teacher’s job of explaining, and the student’s job of researching and comprehending, easier and more effective overall.

http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/ CurrentCourse/Files/Management/Ch9/VisualizingTechnologies.pdf

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/

http://www.safarimontage.com/

PODCASTING

Since I did not know what Podcasting was prior to this week’s lesson, I learned a lot about it. Anyone with a microphone or video camera and internet access can create a show for a podcast. Users who like what they see or hear can subscribe for future issues of the podcast, allowing them to filter what they would like streamed to them based upon their preferences. Podcasts can be used in the classroom to educate students with a wide variety of lectures and videos. My son’s Language Arts class is equipped with iPods so that the students can use them to listen to grammar lessons. I did not actually realize that the lessons were podcasts until now. According to him, the podcasts are pretty entertaining and the students get a lot more out of them than they would listening to the teacher lecturing them about a dry subject. 

Podcasting is very similar to some of the other Web 2.0 applications. Just like social networking sites, blogs, and YouTube videos, users can subscribe to their favorite sites to have new podcasts streamed directly to them. While the material from these sources may vary in terms of format, the premise of subscribing to a site for the purpose of receiving share information is the same. Like podcasts, wikis are also a concentration of collective material about a given subject, but wikis differ because there are multiple contributors working on an ever-changing content. Social bookmarking and web quests can almost be considered the opposite of the other user subscribed aps. Web quests are typically produced by teachers, and are a creative way to present students with an online research assignment. With social bookmarking, researchers come upon sites marked as relevant by others, and contribute by marking sites they find useful. In both of these aps, the originator has laid out the groundwork, but the bulk of the researching is being done by the user. Unlike the other formats, these two aps are not spoon-feeding the user their material so much as they are directing them where to go to research it for themselves.

I use my iPod primarily when I go to the gym or out walking for exercise. I put a lot of songs on it when I originally got it a few years ago, but I haven’t really added to it since then. I probably don’t get as much use out of it as I could. However, in a classroom I can absolutely see the advantages of allowing students to independently listen to lectures, with the ability to go back and listen to something more than once if they are having difficulty understanding it. The advantage to teachers is that they do not having to repeat the same lecture over and over again throughout the day, giving them time to work on something else. The only disadvantage that I can see would be if students were using their own iPods, rather than the school’s. It would be difficult to be certain that they were actually listening to the assigned material, rather than music or something else they’d downloaded. Of course, it would likely be evident by their scores on the correlated assignment. For the most part though, podcasting is an excellent way to both store and access a wide variety of educational material.