Week 3 Reflection, Course 5364

Week 3 Reflection, Course 5364

This week many of the videos we watched were on the subject matter of how students use technology. A couple of the students that were profiled participated in after school technology programs. These programs focused on tiered mentoring.

This got me wondering if our school district had any of these programs. I did an internet search and found a webpage from Duke University that runs a K-12 Technology Mentor program, the site can be found at http://library.duke.edu/blogs/techmentor/. It has many examples of technology use in the classroom. That includes completed class projects and how to use a wiki.

The most interesting for me was the example of a project that was created by a Kindergarten class learning about the life cycle of Frogs. They created several presentations using Pixie2 http://library.duke.edu/blogs/techmentor/category/projects/ . The pictures show the students reading about frogs. The students used laptop computers and created the narration for the presentations. The teaching staff wrote down the students’ narration on the white board so that the students could read it back into the microphone. The students also selected the music for the presentation. I was very impressed at how professional these five year olds sounded reading out loud during the presentation. I am sure if the Kindergarten teachers in my district saw this example project then they would be inspired to create a collaborative projects utilizing technology.

Thanks!
Sandra Villarreal

References

Duke University: K-12 Technology Mentor Program (2009). Retrieved on December 3, 2009, from http://library.duke.edu/blogs/techmentor/

Duke University: What I learned about Tadpoles from Ms. Bethea’s Kindergarteners (2009). Retrieved on December 3, 2009, from http://library.duke.edu/blogs/techmentor/category/projects/