Wednesday, 1:45-2:45
Salon 4
Patrick is always very entertaining and this was no different! He brought me back to my Education classes in this one.
How do we create effective educational technology in the classrooms and WHY! Here is the why, no different from teaching without technology...
- New information is connected to prior knowledge
- New information is organized in or refers to some kind of mental structure or schema
- Students are actively involved in the learning process
- People are selective about what is learned
How can technology help...
- Attention is the KEY - technology grabs their attention because they are comfortable with it
- Eliminate Distractions - the brain can't multitask, it can only pay attention to one input at a time!
- Emotion effects learning - technology is motivation for learning for many of our kids
- Give the big picture first - many of you do this using BrainPop or United Streaming at the start of a lesson.
- People automatically group elements - chunk you lessons! The rule of 4 works well. Groups of four are easy for the brain to remember.
- Structure and organization is key - hierarchical structure is the easiest for our brain to remember.
- Watch one, do one, teach one.
- Physical activity increases cognitive performance - Years ago we chose the ACTIVboard (as opposed to other whiteboard technology) for elementary schools in Rockdale County BECAUSE students could move around the room and go to the board. Do not let this be forgotten, and allow this INTERACTIVE technology become a place for teacher presentation.
Tips to keep in mind when putting a lesson together...
- Fonts - avoid ALL UPPERCASE, all italics or all bold
- Don't underline - cuts off the letter Pp and the letter Qq. This is very difficult for students that are learning to read.
- Don't use pictures just to decorate, they should add something to the lesson
- Don't use different colors - they distract from the lesson content
- Use fonts that are easy to read
- Be sure there is alot of contrast between the background color and the font color. Especially when projecting onto an ACTIVboard, screen or through a presenter box.
- Don't use animations, sounds or transitions that will take away from your content. They should add something to your lesson, or they are not needed.
He is great about getting his presentations uploaded to his website and making them available. This presentation however, is not available yet. You can find many other of his presentations on his website www.netsquirrel.com. I will make this presentation link available to you as soon as it is posted.
No comments:
Post a Comment