Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality

Augmented and virtual reality are the two hot new topics in the world of education technology. Both are new world ways to view the world, or even your classroom. Augmented reality is a three dimensional image projected from an Ipad or cell phone. Virtual reality is more of a morphing type of technology that takes your sense of vision and has the ability to make you feel as if you are in a completely different place. This allows for interactions with unrealistic places to travel, such as space or the ocean.

I personally believe that augmented reality is more of a realistic way for students and teachers to further enhance their education. For example, if the class were studying the human body, they could project a three dimensional, interactive image of the human body into the classroom. With the ease of access and low costs, I can see the concept of augmented reality becoming more of a regular occurrence in classrooms in the next 5-10 years. As for virtual reality, I think that it is meant more for gaming purposes. In order to buy all the equipment needed and set it up in the classroom, would
take a lot for the teacher and the school.

Gamification, Yay or Nay?

Going into this portion of the class, I didn't think I would like the concept of gamification. Now that I have seen all that it consists of, I am hooked! I love the different options teachers have to use in the classroom to promote learning. From websites to Osmo, teachers have so many interesting resources to choose from. I am certain that I will be using at least one of these in my future classroom.

The best example of gamification, in my opinion, is Osmo. Osmo has so  man expansion options for the base. From drawing and learning to write, to early coding, these are great ways to promote learning. The price is a great bonus as well. I think gamification is a great option for both classrooms and homes. I would definitely recommend gamification and Osmo for any teacher looking to enhance their classroom.

How Students Learn Best

Personally, I never really changed when it came to learning. I always learned best when I had a visual representation and a group to discuss it with. For some reason, when I did not have a visual understanding of what I was learning, I could not commit that information to memory. I have found this to have both positives and negatives. The positives are that you can visualize the lesson in your head when it comes to tests or quizzes. The negative is that not all lessons can be visually represented, like books for instance.

As a teacher I think I will be more aware of the different learning styles and be able to accommodate them a little more. I enjoy making visual representations, so that part will hopefully come easy to me.

As humans, we are taught that rewards are for the better. I do believe that most humans need a reward as motivation. That reward can be a physical or even mental reward. As a teacher, I want to instill educational rewards, such as a prize box for students that complete their homework. This will keep students on track and motivated to learn.

How I Stay Current

You are on a job interview and the interviewer asks, "How do you keep current with emerging trends in education, classroom tools, and technologies?" 

 I would answer my question with one simple phrase....Twitter. I have found that there are so many amazing ideas and inventions for the classroom and Twitter keeps me up to date with them. On the social media site, you are able to follow professional account, such as Google Education and Classdojo. Accounts like these are constantly posting about new products and free giveaways, which is a major plus for a teacher! 

Follow me on twitter to see some of these professional accounts! 

Educational Technology

Technology in the classroom has come along way over the years. Not only has it become more widely used, but it also is continuing to change as we speak. One major hurdle, that is more relevant to today's technology is the safety for children. As I had mentioned in my previous post, it is vital that we as teachers keep our students safe while surfing the internet, whether that is on computers or Ipads. A great way for us to come over this hurdle is to use internet protection tools and to educate the students on safe ways to use their technology. 

     

In my classroom, I definitely want to use technology, but I do not want to depend on it. I am sure that by the time I am teaching there will be technology that I have not even heard of yet. I can not wait to see how influential technology is in the classroom in the upcoming years. 

Pros and Cons

           Using both Microsoft word and power point and using Goggle Docs and Slides, I am more familiar with which one is best to use in certain situations. I have always used Microsoft, and never really got the chance to use Google Docs or Slides.



 Honestly, I ran into a lot of issues when using Google docs. First, the formatting was not as easy to access and the fonts were not the same as in Word. I was getting pretty frustrated. In that instance, I would recommend Word over Docs, however I  really enjoyed using Google Slides. The options for personalizing, in my opinion, were  a lot nicer than in PowerPoint. For students, I would recommend using Microsoft over Google, mainly because it is a lot more self explanatory.

I found this article interesting on Word vs. Docs.

Students and the Internet

       When I am running my own classroom, electronics (and the internet) will for sure be a huge part of the students' everyday interaction. When having young children working with the internet, there are some very obvious concerns, such as inappropriate content, misuse of internet, etc. Now that we are in a modern age where technology is around every corner of a classroom, schools take precautionary measures to make sure that inappropriate websites and images do not pop up in a student's searches.



       One concern of mine is the use of games on the internet. If you are having students on the web doing an assignment, they can easily get distracted by gaming sites and not get there work done. At my school district, they managed to block almost every well known gaming site that students could access on the computers. There is an awesome website that I found called Safe Search Schools, which is a "browser" of sorts for kids to use to search safely and effectively. The only downside is that this still does not block them from using the regular internet. I want my students to see the internet as a positive thing. It is a tool that will help them learn, explore, and have fun, while keeping the mindset on academics. 








Safe Search School:  http://www.safesearch.school/