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Inside the United States: Regions
My lesson was designed to enhance my students' knowledge on regions and specific climates within two regions. In an effort to incorporate technology that was useful to the lesson but also to my students I do not want to overwhelm them with technology and forget the importance of the lesson; therefore, I thought including the Smart Board would be both beneficial to their learning and enhancing to the experience. To incorporate the Smart Board technology, I would have the students use the interactive map to identify the states within a region by touching them on the Smart Board and taking turns completing this activity. (Please see the youtube videos below that model this type of learning.)
The technology in this lesson will give students the opportunity to be hands on with their learning, not just sitting in their seats and being lectured to by the instructor. As a result, while I recognize that this tends to automatically encourage engagement and motivation it also fosters, a connection to a different learning style and environment that may be more conducive to one students learning over another. The technology is a means of creating a hands on, up and moving environment that would not exist without the ability for the students to come to the Smart Board and touch the actual map. For many students, this movement will be helpful and the other aspect is this means of learning provides a visual image for students and many students, being visual learners will gain significantly from a Smart Board enhanced lesson.
The use of technology seems to be something that i plan to strive for in my classroom; however, I do recognize that using the technology will change my role as instructor. When using a piece of technology such as Smart Board, I feel as if my role changes from lecturer to guide. I feel as if I am there to assist my students with not only the content but the use of the technology; therefore, I should be knowledgeable. Additionally, I am not longer responsible for simply lecturing to my students for the entire lesson but they are responsible for exploring through the technology and using their inquiry skills. Furthermore, I believe that the use of technology does intensify classroom norms. As n instructor, I would need to set norms for how to work with technology and using it properly that may seem more strict that our classroom norms on a day in which we are not engaging in a lot of technology use. Technology does alter the classroom environment; however, I do not see that as a discouraging factor for me not to engage in the use of technology in my classroom.
While I recognize that technology does not always go as planned, I will not be afraid to use it because of this possibility. As a result, I think being prepared is always the next best thing. In my lesson there are potential risk of the Smart Board not turning on or the program freezing when we need to tap a different state or identify a different region. Therefore, the best thing I can do to prepare for this possible issue to have paper copies of the maps that I want students to work with. While this will not be as interactive, I do recognize that my lesson must go on and I still need them to complete their assignment. Additionally, I can have a digital map (from an internet source) prepared to show them so that they can have examples and larger maps to view. Technology is not perfect; however, it can be a very powerful learning tool!