McLuhan's+Tetrad

Summarize the work you completed in the Application Assignment: McLuhan’s Tetrad. Select at least one technology contributed by a member of your Learning Community and add your thoughts and ideas about using that technology in an educational setting.

**Christa Dandoy's LC Assignment Week 2**: I chose online videos as my emerging technology.

Enchances: Immediate access to a variety of videos and video clips to improve instruction and student learning. Some videos come with correlating worksheets and flipcharts. Obsoletes: DVDs and VHS tapes Retrieves: Fimlstrips Reverses: Perhaps personal video watching devices for every student will take its place and/or cheaper video site subscriptions may occur.

Videos support student's cognitive learning and keep learners engaged. It can reach students with multiple learning styles. The internet allows teachers instant access to numerous videos for varying subjects and grade levels. I really like [|www.discoverystreaming.com] and [|www.safarimontage.com]. These have a collection of educational videos organized by grade level and topic. This makes it even easier for teachers to locate videos tied to standards and relevant to the content being learned. The latter provides correlating worksheet, quizzes, and interactive whiteboard flipcharts. It also offers instant streaming so a teacher does not have to download the video beforehand. This feature is excellent for those teachable moments when a student asks a question so the educator can immediately go online to find a video to show them more information.


 * Response to Christa, **


 * I use similar sites for my math classroom. Instead of the sites you listed, I use khanacademy.org and brightstorm.com. They are a staple in my current lessons delivery process and have lead me to move towards a “flipped classroom.” I have been told that having students listen to their own teacher on many of the videos adds meaning and personalization to the curriculum, and having students attack notes outside of the classroom allows for more time in the to differentiate and work with students one-on-one on a daily basis. Have you ever considered this approach? **


 * Mike Larson **


 * Traci Kitchen's LC Assignment Week 2: **
 * I chose Promethean Planet as my emerging technology **
 * Enhances: ** Promethean Planet is an interactive database of flip charts that have been created by teachers and students and for the use of incorporation into lessons. This service is a pay service, but it is available through many schools. When using the flipcharts, you can access videos and allow students to produce work samples on the Promethean board. Students love seeing the computer on the large screen, but more importantly, they enjoy being able use the different pen choices and write on the board itself when ansering asked questions.
 * Obsoletes: ** Chalkboards, Dry erase boards, VHS tapes
 * Retrieves: ** Lessons and videos online, flipcharts

Promethean Planet is a paid service that is usable with Promethean equipment. Its uses are endless and are beneficial for all ages. This service is a tool for educators and students that was created by teachers, for teachers to share and support one another with lessons for all subject areas. The community is built to equipt teachers and students with interactive resources such as flipcharts and videos. This community of learning is constantly growing and changing. Promethean Planet makes supplies such as chalkboards, chalk, and VHS demonstrations obselete. Its interactive nature has cleared the path for new and more inventive exciting pieces.

I am not sure this link will allow you to access my account, but if so you can have a wealth of information. []

//Christa Dandoy's Respone to Traci on 5/9/12:// I use Promethean Planet in my classroom. I, however, consider it more to replace PowerPoint software as well as the whiteboards that you mention. You can create interactive flipcharts which in the past some educators would have used PowerPoint for. Of course you can also just write on a blank page just like writing on dry erase boards. I LOVE Promethean Planet because 99% of the time I find a flipchart already made that I can use and even better it is free. I have only made a couple flipcharts myself because of this resource. I did not know that they provide videos as well. I will have to look into that more. I love using my interactive whiteboard and find it engages students especially with the creative flipcharts activities. . Traci's response to Christa: I thank you. Great point that the Planet replaces whiteboards and PowerPoint. You can tell how old school I am. I do use my board as a blank chart also, but I have a great deal of technical difficulty and have to re-calibrate, we are within two miles of an Air Force base and have two to three sonic booms a day which get my board out of sorts so I cannot depend on it for writing and drawing a great deal. It does most certainly engage the students with the flipcharts.

Latoya Adams Week 2 Learning Community

In this week’s assignment, I complete McLauhn Tetrad on the Ipad. I find this emerging technology exciting and cannot wait to get my hands on one. During my search, I found that the Ipad has the capability of enhancing education well into the future. For instance, Apple is communicating with textbook companies in efforts of getting textbooks loaded onto the Ipad. If this is successful, textbooks would become obsolete. I also discovered during this week’s application that Ipad is not the first computer tablet to exist but that the idea came up in the 60’s with a creation called the Dynabook. The Ipad is going to be a great tool for the classroom and I cannot wait to see how it changes the way technology is used once it had fully emerged in the educational system.

To Traci Kitchens

Promethean Planet sounds like a very exciting tool to use in the classroom. We do not have this at my school but if we did, I can imagine using its interactive features to make my lessons come alive. I have seen this being used in other classrooms outside of my district for such lessons as building vocabulary, creating timelines and showing steps to solving problems in math. I know that the possbilities are endless as there are several pre-made flip charts available online. With use of the interactve board and the lessons, students will be able to move around, touch and manipulate objects on the board. This technology would obsolete the Interwrite pad at my school if ever introduced. The one Interwrite pad gets to be time consuming and difficult for younger students to use but with the Promethean board, it becomes easily accessible for everyone.

Michael Larson

In this week’s application, I chose to use VoiceThread as my media. This great tool is one that I plan to use more and more each year as a means of assessment in my mathematics classroom. Using McLuhan’s Tetrad as an evaluation medium, I was able to break down and highlight the four quadrants of the Tetrad as I see them applying to VoiceThread (VT).

I see VT enhancing the current assessment practices in my classroom from a process that is monopolized by paper and pencil procedures to one that also equally balances verbal and visual representation of student learning. VT will be used on smaller, more frequent levels that allow for it to obsolete students coming up the board to solve problems. I have found that this practice provides very low levels of overall student engagement, and no longer has a place in a classroom where time is of the essence.

One problem-solving method that has been in place since the beginning of time is to be faced with a problem and have the ability to describe solutions verbally so that others can understand. In my current assessments, that strategy has been lost and needs to be rekindled. I see VT as a technology that may eventually catch on with more popular brands such as Google or Apple, and thus might be overtaken in years to come and e replace by products these companies make and pre-install on popular devices such as the i-pad.

Michel, I think that VoiceThread is a terrific tool, and have used a similar tool in my class. A few years ago I got ambitious as I knew I would be out of the classroom for a few days and used a Promethean Board, and recording software similar to that of VoiceThread to record full length lessons that followed along with my recorded actions on the Promethean. Although I was not there to physically answer student questions and guide them through the rough spots, the ability to record the lesson and show it to students worked very well.

Michael Ballard

Michael Ballard

In this week’s assignment I chose to discuss the path and possibilities of motion sensing input devices (ex. Microsoft Xbox Kinect, Ninendo Wii, Playstation Move). Although this technology is currently only utilized in the gaming world, I believe it has very real possibilities for classroom use. I have taken my science students on virtual tours using Google Earth and other virtual programs, but if students were able to physically interact with a virtual world the way they can in a video game it brings about a whole new world for them, literally.

The technology is not perfect as it does not catch every human movement perfectly but would definitely improve student interest and involvement in computer-based learning. The virtual “hands-on” possibilities would allow a much greater range of possibilities such as handling dangerous chemicals, watching a volcano erupt from way to close or being in the middle of a World War II battlefield, all without any consequences. I know this technology has yet to reach many, if any classrooms, but could now easily be adapted to such uses.