What “outside” technology could schools use?
Web 2.0 May 1st, 2007Will Richardson (who works with the George Lucas Foundation and spoke at our campus in February) sent a question to us for our students –and your answers just might be included in Edutopia Magazine!
Here’s the question–
“What technology do you use outside of school that would be good for the classroom? Why? How would that work?”
They’d love examples of how you see that technology working in the classroom or how it could benefit you at school, because they know students are so tech savvy!
They also are interested in ideas students have for using technology gadgets at school–for example, gadgets you normally use at home or outside of school.
Share your ideas here along with your name and we’ll send the whole list back to Edutopia, and your ideas may get published!
May 1st, 2007 at 7:38 pm
5/01/2007
Perhaps mine will be the nerdiest response out of all the replies about cool, high-tech gadgets received. But I really think that the technology I’m suggesting is practical, available, and useful in a variety of capacities.
The technology about which I am speaking is, of course… my graphing calculator. I would love to see students make more use in the classroom of this obviously powerful tool. In fact, I use my calculator almost as much for its Study Cards application as for my academic classes: physics, math, and chemistry. Study Cards lets me study my vocabulary or spelling words in digital flashcards – it tallies up my scores and lets me choose among animation options.
My graphic calculator is so portable and user-friendly that I find it fun to search for new applications on the manufacturer’s website, explore my calculator’s downloadable periodic table, and create my own programs to solve kinematic equations in physics. My calculator can manipulate data quickly, and its powerful applications are endless!
So, although my TI-84 may not be the flashiest new gadget or the sleekest tool in the box, I really think that students could take advantage of their calculators more in school, and teachers could use this technology in the classroom. Who knows? My PreCal teacher may come up with an Inverse Functions game to accompany Snake and Pong!
Thank you very much!
Christina Chang
Junior
Westlake High School
May 1st, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Many students e-mail documents back and forth, and yahoo! is the most popular mail server. When our school’s filters block yahoo!, catastrophe can ensue. I can’t count all the times I’ve had to explain to my parents over the phone on how to attach documents–that’s pure torture!
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:14 am
I just have a couple idea’s to suggest so far. First of all, bluetooth on school computers so students can send information from camera’s, cell phones, etc… onto school computers. Example: if you had a picture on you cell phone that you liked and could use in on a project, just send it over bluetooth onto the computer! it is soooo simple! Secondly put lazer sensors on the school projectors. If a teacher is lecturing the class over the projector and need to open a new application she could use a simple lazer pointer and point to the application button desired and there you go! it works as a mouse! Another thing I have noticed is that teachers have like 10 remotes in the classroom for the T.V., DVD, Projector, Camera, VCR, etc… It would be sooooo handy for them to have one simple multi task universal remote. They could control everything with that making life a lot easier.
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:42 am
The only thing WHS really needs is WiFi, the ability to bring your own computer and access your home folder would be momumental to the student work flow. And while I’m on that note, just more accessability would be good; access your home folder from HOME, the ability to use VNC to log onto your school account from your own computer, and then also oh, and the most inmportant computer related change: GET RID OF WINDOWS, if the school is not ready to make the price leap to Macs at least move over to Linux, the school can be less paranoid about viruses and whatnot, and allow more accessability to websites and from home. And then also about websites, the district needs to refine their flter system, for example, if I want to read an article that has been posted on Wired.com, I can’t access the blog, its been blovked out for some reason and some of the best articles are located ON the blog beause they are user submitted.
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:46 am
I forget to mention one thing, the standardization of the boot images. Every area of the school has its own image that its compute log onto, the library and the classroom computers are different systems, and they can’t be corssed over. If I save a bookmark on the library computer, its wonly accessable from a library computer and not from a classroom computer. And on the topic of boot images- switch to Firefox instead os IE.
May 24th, 2007 at 6:52 am
Emory–Good comments about WiFi. When the library is renovated we will have wireless hot spots, and I believe other areas of the campus are getting it next year as well. Something to look forward to.
By the way, you can access your home folder from home. Come by the library for the instructions if you get a chance!