Another great week of presentations. We have learned so much through the presenters Mike has brought in as well as my fellow classmate's presentations. On Monday of this week we had a great presentation on video games in the classroom, very well could have been the best presentation of all time. I could go on for pages about this presentation but because I was one of the presenters I won't ;).
Another presentation we had on Monday was for Skype/Elluminate by Nathan, Mark & Jay. I did not know a whole lot about Skype and I wish I would have had this presentation the first year I moved to University. What a great way to keep in touch with people and avoid the phone bill. My Wife could have used this our first semester of University when she was homesick for about 2 months. She easily could have had some face to face interaction with her family back home. Now that I'm student teaching back home I don't see much use for it in keeping in touch with people back home but will use it to keep in touch with friends from school, like good ol' Beaver Bear.
In terms of education these programs are awesome in terms of being able to have a presenter skype/elluminate into your classroom if you are not familiar with a subject being taught. If you know of a friend who is passionate about a subject that you are not, he/she can easily be brought into your classroom through this technology. Skype/Elluminate are definitely programs I will keep in mind when thinking about guest speakers.
What a great presentation we had on Wednesday. These guys had so much information to share and I know Mike didn't want us saying I wish the presenters had more time, but, man do I wish these presenters had more time. They had so much to share I don't know where to start. That Wolfram Alpha, what a program. I think this is a program I would definitely try keep a secret from my students. I think if students know about this program they will take advantage of this every opportunity they get. This program can be useful to teachers, creating tests through this program will be a breeze. What a great research tool too, side by side comparisons of countries are awesome. Its fun just to do a few searches and see what comes up.
This blog is getting a bit intense so I'm going to end on the video they showed when class ended. Sixth Sense Technology, YIKES!!! For those who read this post and did not stay for the video, you need to look at it. That technology is intense. Calling people from your hand, taking pictures by making a box with your thumbs and index fingers, standing next to a wall and being able to organize photos, looking at items in a grocery store and seeing if they match your criteria, seeing Amazon ratings for books in book stores or getting information on a person standing in front of you. This technology is amazing and the price to manufacture it is so inexpensive. This is definitely the path cell phones and PDA's are heading.
Wow that was a lot longer than I expected, till next time.
Lava Man
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Mr Lava
ReplyDeleteI say we start up and organization based solely on video games for educational purposes. It is clearly a great tool to use in the classroom and students have fun while learning in that manner. I have never heard of Wolfram Alpha but I muist agree that it is an unreal program. Im not big into math ut I could see how useful it can be for pretty much anyone. Unfotunately I had to leave early and had to miss the 6th sense video. What did it show? and where can I find it to watch it myself
I agree that skype opens your classroom doors to so many new resources. It is often difficult to organize guest speakers to come into the classroom, however if you could use skype and the speaker would just take 40 minutes out of their schedule or whatever the time is, rather than including travel time etc. they may be much more willing to help out. the wolfram alpha site was something new for myself as well, i found it facinating, what a great resource to have at our finger tips! Definitely something I will be keeping secret from my students!
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ReplyDeleteAfter class I got an opportunity to watch the video on TEd of the 6th sense technology...WOW you are right. Forget looking at items off the shelf, this technology is off the hook! I can't wait to get one of these myself. I feel like were living with aliens in the future. What next?
ReplyDeleteJustin T.