Week+9

__Interactive Whiteboards__

So this is a very interesting topic because I was given ample opportunities to use a SMARTBoard during my practicum and I really enjoyed it because of the **added fun** it brought to the room. It made a really big difference over a standard whiteboard or blackboard because the **kids LOVED playing with it**, we **wrote on it**, **played different games** **on it** and did **computer walkthroughs on it** during lab classes. If you use the software that comes with it you can manipulate the board to do a lot of fun things. That being said the board is really **only one of many tools that teachers have in their arsenal**. A poor lesson or poor planning will **not be saved by the SMARTBoard** in fact it could **probably be worse** because you would excite the class by its use and then let them down because you were not using it properly.

__Photoshop Elements__

Photoshop is one of those programs that everyone has heard of because of the abilities it gives you for **editing pictures**. I have never used photoshop before but after watching the videos Bruce provided I decided to play around with it a little bit. In a short period of time I was able to make what you'll find below. However, the **learning curve for this software** (especially its more advanced features) **can be a little tough** and I don't know how useful it could be in the classroom because of the **amount of time that would be required to teach it in the first place**. In a classroom like **photography** I think this is a great program though because the students can edit any photos they take and those students could get a lot more use out of the software.





So I've resized my picture. Taken me out of the game picture, changed the background, and used the background erase tool to allow the logo to come through and be more prominent. As I become more familiar with the functions of Photoshop I'm sure that I can really clean this up much nicer.

__PhotoStory 3__

So Photostory made its reappearance this week and it was a fun little item to play with. I think this could be **really useful in the class as an addition to podcasting**. I thought I would like to play around with photostory so I made this short piece which proved to be easy and lots of fun.

media type="file" key="PhotoStory1.wmv" width="420" height="420" align="center"

An interesting site I found this week is perfect for use in a history class: @http://www.pchs1.com/ecourses/punicwar/punicwar.htm I designed a lesson based around the use of this site and my teacher really enjoyed it. I particularly like it because it is **student centred** and exciting. The teacher would only need to book the lab and supervise as the students taught themselves the material of the Punic Wars through a style similar to a "Choose your own adventure" novel.

__Literacy is not Enough By Ian Jukes__

This article again describes that **today's student is different** because they have grown up in an **environment surrounded by digital devices.** Furthermore it goes on to say that while **students have changed our educational system has not** and that we are not doing the service we need to our children. This article reminds me a lot of the one that explained the That's the way we've always done it system and it is frustrating to consider that we are still so slow to react to the shift that is hitting our schools. Imagine if for the last 10 years we had been directing the way we teach to the types of learners that were going through the system, how much further ahead would we be today? The article continues to state that the **traditional skills** that we used to learn in school are **no longer** **as prominent in our students' futures**, therefore we need to **revitalize the way we teach to meet students strengths.** I think that having classes like this is the first way of changing the system, the largest problem is the old guard of teachers who think that there is only one right way to teach. The changes required to revitalize our system will be slow moving because of this and I wonder if by the time the system catches up will it be too late because the children have already moved on?