Emerging Technologies Project

The world of technology is already making a significant impact on classrooms today; even the simple use of blogging and teacher websites give parents much more access to their student’s world in the classroom. To find out some more information about upcoming classroom technologies, I have studied three emerging technologies: virtual reality in education, interactive Smart Boards, and podcasting.

Virtual reality is essentially a technology that has students interact with a simulated environment. This could encompass simulated driving sequences, snowboarding, or even space exploration. No longer would students need to read out of a textbook about aquatic life in the darkest depths of the ocean! They could step into a computer-simulated environment and become the scuba diver!

This technology would have a tremendous impact on my teaching; imagine how engaged my students would be if they could enter some form of a virtual world in which everything that they touched gave them information about itself. I read an article by John Shaffer, a 7th grade science teacher in Colorado (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/shaffer.htm), which had a great idea for bilingual students: in a virtual reality world, a bilingual student could touch items and have the item description and name said to them in both languages. A technology like this, as a teacher with a classroom of up to thirty students, could benefit me by allowing me more time to work with all students rather than spending all my time with a student who couldn’t seem to pick up the language fast enough to stay on pace. I believe this would also benefit the student by giving them an environment that explained itself according to his/her interest. More information about virtual reality can be found at: http://www.sunrisevr.com/vrlearn.htm.

The interactive Smart Board is a technologically-enhanced version of a whiteboard. Using a projector to project the computer’s desktop onto the “white-board,” educators can then interact with the white board to open programs on the computer as though their fingers were the computer mouse. More impressively, educators can actually write on the board with “digital ink.”

Using a Smart Board in the classroom would be a huge aid for teachers and students. If I had access to this technology, I would make sure to save all the work I wrote out for students during lessons. Imagine being able to go back to all those scribbles on the board to jog students’ memories about a lesson a few weeks back. Not to mention it would eliminate the overhead transparencies as I could do everything through one technology. As for the students, the interactive format would help students engage in their learning. Thinking back on the Kiosk projects we made for this class, I could see making one of those that allowed students to access it through the white board. Not only would the whole class get to participate in this form of learning, but it would be so much more interactive than white boards and overheads ever were! For more information about Smart Boards, there is some information at: http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech/tech234.shtml.

The third emerging technology in classrooms that is making a huge difference in the classroom is podcasting. Podcasts are internet audio recording that can have any theme or topic; it is completely up to the creator.

Podcasting in the classrooms can be a great technology for students of any age, but particularly older ones. As a teacher, this would make a great ongoing project for students. I found an amazing idea on Education World (http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech/tech238.shtml) which suggested using podcasts to record greetings for pen pals around the world. Another idea would be to have older students read short stories written bi-monthly in the classroom. These podcasts would be shared with parents, which would give them a view into the classroom world. They could hear progress in their student’s writings with each recording. As a teacher, podcasting would serve as a great portfolio item to document student progress. The students would also benefit from such a technology. Simply turning in a story or a letter to me may not encourage as much enthusiasm and engagement as having to read the story aloud for others to hear. Not only would it encourage active learning, but it would help build public speaking confidence in students of all ages. More information on educational podcasts can be found at http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/index.php.

New technology is always going to be emerging from all around us, which excites me as I love learning how to work new programs and devices. I hope to stay up to date and open to new technologies as I believe it can greatly increase the engagement of students.