iTunes U is a really nice FREE resource that can be used by teachers and students. There are dozens of universities that have their professors record their lectures and upload to iTunes. You can search these by university, professor, or topic. You can sign up for podcasts on certain topics. One that I am really looking forward to using is called "Ask a Biologist" from Arizona State University. Each session is a short interview with a scientist about their work, using revolving around something strange or interesting. I like this series in particular because my students always come up with strange questions and things that interest them, but I never seem to have enough time to get into it with them. Maybe I can post episodes of this on the class website, or even just encourage students to subscribe.
Smartboards are becoming ubiquitous in NYC classrooms, and unfortunately, not many teachers feel totally comfortable using them or use them to their full potential. What makes a smartboard so useful is that is allows you and the students a chance to be active in what is happening on the board. You can have media-rich presentations and not have to worry about juggling between several displays. You can touch and toggle everything on that one board, even draw or write on pictures/diagrams/text that you are showing the students. I'm very excited to have a smartboard this year at my new school. I've had one in the past and have mostly used it along with powerpoint. However, I would really like to see the science lessons available on the smartboard website. My only complaint with the using the smartboard is that the software uses a lot of ram, at least on the older laptops I have used with it in the past, and makes the computer run a little slow at times.
Another, much smaller gadget, is the ipad. This tablet computing device is newer on the scene, but is quickly becoming more and more popular as more educational apps are created. One great way to use these is for ebooks. Instead of worrying about real books, losing them, carrying them, returning them, etc., a student can carry an entire library of books in one device. Many of the reading programs are also great for students, including features that allow students to highlight a word and have it defined or pronounced or highlighted and saved for later reference. Unfortunately, ipads are still fairly expensive and also easy to steal, so managing this resource may prove difficult in some schools.
Lastly, I would like to comment on a video I watched regarding something called Universal Learning Design. Watching this video, I felt that every aspect was pretty intuitive, a lot of stuff I already try to do in my own classroom. Differentiation has been a big buzzword lately and is something every teacher should strive for. Much of the UDL best practices centered around differentiating presentation and student work to accommodate all types of learning styles. Instructional technologies make this so much easier for the professor or teacher. This video gives lots of great suggestions for designing your classroom or course to be a great learning experience for all of you students.
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