Technology in the Classroom

Technology in the classroom.

Today's school students are downloading free information or homework, listening to lessons via podcasts, communicating with other students all over the world through social networking sites, and even video conferencing with leaders of business and industry.

 Outside school, students constantly interact with technologies such as iPods, mobile phones, the internet and social networking sites, so it is a support for students to get involved in classes

An integral part of the connected or smart classrooms is video-conferencing technology, which allows students to talk to experts and other schools and students around the world in real time via a video link-up. The facility is linked to the connected classroom package and uses electronic whiteboard technology so a teacher can interact with a class in other place for example, by using the same whiteboard.

 Instead of going to specific classes in person, teachers and students could communicate at a time they choose by exchanging printed or electronic media such as emails, message boards or blogs, or through technology that allows them to communicate in real time such as telephones, web conferencing or video conferencing.

The learning place provides materials and resources such as digital images, sound files, video, online courses and lessons as well as hosting events such as online chats, festivals and collaborative project.

First of all I was motivated and enthusiastic in the class and I liked the way you teach. You explained the topic, and we made comments and work out on the exercises. You made me participate in the class and you took all my partners into account.

I enjoyed the first works, because I already knew how to do the exercises.

Secondly, the other part of the subject was difficult to do it, because we weren’t prepared to deal with blog pages, I spent a lot of time trying to handle them but I didn’t get them. So I had to ask my mates for help, in order to do the assignments.

I have to admit that I learnt a lot of things about the internet and how to manage my notebook, before that I only used my computer to chat.

I mean that, technology also offers greater opportunities for families to learn together. I urge parents to learn how to use technology as well so they can teach their kids the appropriate use of them including mobile phone and social networking sites," “The new technologies offer a more engaging way to learn and it's important to remember that it doesn't take away from learning.”

TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

Technology in language teaching is not new .Indeed; technology has been around in language teaching for decades; if we classify the blackboard as a form of technology. Tapes recorders, language laboratories and video have been in use and are still used in classroom around the world. We hear about technology and how wonderful the benefits are to the education system. Although, this may be true, teachers and students vary in how they teach and how they learn. For some teachers, using technology is the best way to work in the class, and It’ is an excellent way to let your students participate more and feel that they’ re given an important and more active role in the class For others, technology is unfamiliar and rarely used. This usage of technology is the same for students. Some use technology on a regular basis and are familiar with the use of it, they are more likely to thrive. Others are afraid of new technology. Either way, there are several benefits of technology: technology is easier to work with and present information, students will be entertaining, and it keeps the class active and the conversations flowing.
In my view, Technology can be a wonderful tool in the classroom, but we must understand how to use it appropriately.

A comparison between Halloween and The Day of the Dead

Our project is about these two celebrations because they are similar in some ways but they are very different in meanings.

The Day of the Dead and Day of All Saints are Hispanic countries festivals, like in Argentina, held on 1st and 2nd November. Halloween is celebrated on the night of October 31st as if souls were on their way back to earth. The Day of the Dead is a SERIOUS PARTY in honor of the dead and sometimes tries to make the sorrow of death into a celebration of the lives of dead people. The memory of dead things is welcome to enjoy a for short time the pleasures of the earth, such as preparing their favorite food, meals, desserts and drinks in a big table.

As a costume on the Day of the Dead we visit the cemeteries where rest of our ancestors.

Halloween originally is a European tradition. It was believed that on that night the veil of the spirits of the dead and the living was thinnest. People wore costumes made of animals’ skins and heads slaughtered in order to scare the evil spirits.

Nowadays Halloween has many commercial purposes and is a fun party in which children and adults get dressed up and go from door to door asking for sweets.

Later we show the students a power point with pictures representing these celebrations and their differences. And this is the end of the project.

PICTURES

The day of the dead

HALLOWEEN          

      

NAMES: Vilca, Natalia

             Pastrana, Viviana

            Cardozo, Jacqueline

Prices

                            A General English Simulation

PERSON	Suggestion1	Suggestion2	Suggestion3
frans $300	The Apex Researcher Microscope $201 The Apex Advanced Microscope Slide Kit $75 The Apex Starters Microscope Slide Kit $24	Panasonic Lumix G10 12.1MP Compact System Camera Kit - Black $300	A Business-class latitude laptops $300
Pawel $250	EyeMax Solar Radio $150 Solar battery charger $24 CameraPentax Optic LS1100 (14MP, 3-inch LCD Screen, 4 x Optical Zoom $75	Royal Doulton Superblock Twin Under sink Water Filter $250	Organic Gardening $25 Shower filter $100 Wind Powered Generator Experimenters Kit $75
Pedro $200	Santa Cruz Transfer 5k/5k Jacket $150 Nixon The Outsider Watch $50	Emu Stinger Hi Sheep Skin Boots $150 Montane Extreme Salopettes $100 Berghaus Technical L/S Crew Neck Tee $50	Brasher Supalite Ii Gtx Walking Boot $125 Grivel Salamander Helmet $55 Wild Country Astro Wire Gate 10cm Quick Draw $20

In my opinion the most suitable price for the first student, Fran, would be: the suggestion 1. Because it’s a complete kit for someone who loves science and it includes a book for beginners using a microscope.

For the second student it would be perfect the first suggestion, so that it contains a camera for taking Pictures Turing his trips and the battery charger is solar so it’s very easy, and also a radio to listen to music

while travelling.

For Peter I recommend the suggestion 3 as it can helps him with his adventures doing extreme Sports, like having this fantastic boots with great support and good quality.

Using chat in a language teaching

Chapter 6

Using chat in a language teaching

a-With text chat, we need to teach learners to use to speak chat, e.g.L8er for later.

I agree with this statement because I think it is useful to teach common abbreviations such as: brb; btw; cu; f2f, and so on.  I would recommend that students generally use standard written English conventions in text chat and email. As they are more likely to be interacting with other non-native speaker and writers and abbreviated forms can be confusing. They are meant to be using chat as another way of improving and practicing their English.

b- Voice chat is easier to use than text chat.

Learners are using two different sets of skills for these two means of communication; but text chat and voice chat have some advantages and disadvantages.

 Text chat requires less bandwidth, microphone, no sound card and headsets. On the contrary text chat can be slow and a problem to weaker typist. Also if we just have a single computer, with larger groups’ students can take part in voice chat more easily than in a text chat, so which one is easier to use with learners depends on your teaching context.

c-The teacher requires a lot of technical to use text or voice chat with learners.

The teacher just need to install and learn to use the software. Download a popular instant messaging program which includes both text and voice chat facilities to your school computers.

d- It’s a good idea to teach learners some chat conventions, e.g. how to take turns.

The text or voice chat conventions will depend on the size of the group in the chat. But for larger groups conventions are a good idea for text chat.

e- Using chat is best between classes who already meet regularly face to face.

For the use of chat to be meaningful for learners; we would suggest that chat is used outside class between class members or between two classes who are in separate classes.

Internet- based Project work

Internet- based Project work

First lesson:

Students have to think about the particular features of the Egyptians they want to know about. They will have to choose from the following list.

                                        

Second lesson:

On this stage the teacher give the students the following websites, so they can find the information already asked to look for, and later put this information on a poster. It’s important to give them a model so they can do something similar about the poster.

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/egypt/war/index.htm

http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/2/21701778/

http://www.watson.org/~leigh/egypt.html

http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/society.html

Third lesson:

The final product will be to show what they have prepared.

MULTIMEDIA

Chapter 3

Evaluating websites

Accuarancy:

The whole information is confirmed by guiness teams. The “about us “section suggests a personal involvement in production by well qualified people. Among other languages, the site could be grazing in different ways to speak English making it ideal for many several contexts.

Currency

Bring up to date with all the latest world records; the site seems to be modernized every day.

Content

Splendid combination of short texts for each record which is complemented with different sections an interesting storehouse of games and videos materials .It also offers us the kids sections.

Functionality

The site woks correctly in general, but games pages give have some spelling errors.