Hi! My name is Abbey and I currently teach middle school
social studies and English at the two middle schools in South Lyon. I also
teach beginning adult ESL to Adults at night twice a week in Walled Lake. Generally,
Sunday through Thursday I am incredibly busy and I catch up on real life on
Friday and Saturday. I am certified 6-12 social studies, history, and English
and am working towards a K-12 certification in TESOL by December.
I do my best to integrate technology in my classes when I am
able to. I completed my student teaching at Pathfinder Middle School in
Pinckney and was there the semester their district went to one to one with
Macbooks. I was fortunate enough to utilize the computers in my unit for
student teaching and used layered curriculum in a way that let the students explore
using their new technology. The students and myself had a lot of fun with the
end products. Currently in South Lyon, I have access to Chromebook Carts as
well as multiple computer labs and ELMOs. I like to integrate technology using
Socrative and Kahoot for review games, as well as having my English classes
respond to prompts about independent reading books on a forum on my website. I
have also used Aurasma, which the students had a lot of fun with. I could have
a Promethean Board installed in my classroom this year, however there is a high
probability of me switching classrooms at the end of the year, so I am waiting
to hear the final word on that. While I enjoy having access to Chromebooks, I
would really like to have tablets for my social studies classes. I feel the
tablets off a little more options in terms of creativity with the apps that are
available.
So the image I have uploaded is an Aura, It is used with the Aurasma app and students hold their device up to the image and something else pops up. In this case it's a Maccabeats video. If you haven't heard of the Maccabeats, they are a Jewish acapella that sings about different Jewish holidays. The songs are very catchy, so you have been warned. This image was used in a station about the Jewish holiday, Purim. There were also had two other images that linked to websites about the holiday.
I agree that one of the cons of Chromebooks is that many apps are not compatible. Also, certain virtual labs or other online activities that require Java Script, etc. don't work on the Chromebooks. I'm not sure if that is a district tech access issue or if it is an issue with the Chromebook capabilities.... Does anyone else have access to different devices?
ReplyDeleteI love how durable many models of Chromebooks are. It is only human nature (especially in children) to not value something that have been given to you with no sense of earning the privilege. I doubt we'll see tablets, so long as the touch LCD's are covered in glass. When a tablet is both hearty enough to survive being thrown like a Frisbee and cheap enough to remain competitive with the Chromebook, then we'll see them.
ReplyDeleteDurability and keyboards are often the main talking points. Also, insurance and repairs (Apple is VERY good about this; just mail it in and they'll fix it with their ed contracts).
ReplyDeleteWith respect to Java, we're seeing a flock toward HTML5, so that may not be a concern in the future (just like Flash has died over the past 5 years).
I like the Chromebooks for English and typing papers. I don't like them when a class is using them for Kahoot, Quizlet, Socrative etc. I believe that tablets are more functional in those scenarios. There are also apps available that would be great in a classroom, that you just can't get from a Chromebook or PC.
ReplyDeleteWe have computer labs that access everything a Chromebook can't, but those labs are about to go to the wayside and be turned into classrooms.