Week 8

Field Observation Week 4:

 

During this week’s observation hours at Parker Elementary I wanted to focus my attention to the class room set up. I’ve incorporated a number of pictures that will show you the layout of the classroom.  Below each picture I will give you a brief description of what is being shown and how it is effective in helping students learn.  This is a picture of the initial view of the classroom when you first walk in from the hallway.  You can notice how organized the room is from the arrangement of the desks to the different centers located throughout the room.  The classroom is nicely spaced and allows for a smooth flow of movement from one side of the room to the next.

This is a picture of the desk layout in the classroom.  I feel this is a good desk arrangement because it allows for cooperative learning.  Most students are able to effectively see the chalk board from where they are sitting.  One problem I noticed is kids who are assigned to sit on the insides of “U” shaped desk arrangement will have a hard time seeing the chalk board from the angle that are sitting at. The desk arrangement seems to be comfortable for students and promotes interaction amongst their peers when doing activities. In addition, the larger tables allow for more space to get work accomplished.

Technology: How to Use Social-Networking Technology for Learning

Schools should reflect the world we live in today. And we live in a social world. We need to teach students how to be effective collaborators in that world, how to interact with people around them, how to be engaged, and informed twenty-first-century citizens. We need to teach kids the powerful ways networking can change the way they look at education, not just their social lives. We don't talk enough about the incredible power of social-networking technology to be used for academic benefit. One way to integrate social networking technology into the classroom for academic benefits is by setting up kids with accounts at the Web site Delicious, which lets you store, organize, and share links -- for example, an annotated resource list you use on a project. You can also see links other people have saved, or browse to see what everyone has bookmarked on a subject. It's simple. You don't need your own server. Any teacher with a computer and an Internet connection can use it.

Weekly Reading: Digital Citizenship

In this weeks weekly reading I learned that Digital Citizenship is a process where all users of technology can learn what is acceptable use. It provides a framework in which all users can begin to ask what they should be doing with respect to technology. It is an attempt to provide a consistent message to students, teachers, parents and all users alike about what they need to do to be productive users of digital technologies.

Researchers have defined digital citizenship as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use. As a way of understanding the complexity of Digital Citizenship and the issues of technology use, abuse and misuse, nine areas or elements have been identified that together make up Digital Citizenship. Digital citizenships is composed of  9 main elements; Digital Access, Digital Commerce, Digital Communication, Digital Literacy, Digital Etiquette, Digital law, Digital rights and responsibilities, Digital security.