E-Learning

I had a bit of a laugh when I read the cartoon posted on Linda’s page. I had a similar situation at my practicum school yesterday when I was listening to students read in a reading group. The word ‘walkman’ was used in the story and the child reading was having trouble because they didn’t know what a walkman was. I had to explain to the children that a walkman is a little bit like an iPod but not many people use them anymore. I offered to bring one in and show the kids which they were very excited about. Wow! I would never have thought my walkman would be such a collectors item.

At my practicum school, I have been sitting in on Computers lessons with a year 4 class. I have been finding it interesting observing how different students interact with technology. At the moment, students are learning how to use e-mail. There have been a variety of responses from the students. Some children have really embraced the idea of e-mail and have thoroughly enjoyed sending electronic messages to their peers in the school and also family and friends outside of school. Some children though aren’t as enthusiastic, in fact I had one student say, my friend is sitting just over there, I would much prefer to go and talk to him instead of sending him an email. I too feel that there are times when it feels a bit funny sending someone an email when I could just as easily phone them or go and visit. In saying this though, I certainly enjoy the benefits of e-mail and I think it is a skill that is important for students to learn. Next week, children will be sent a task on email for them to complete and send back to the teacher via email along the same lines as Jenni’s son who also funnily enough is in year 4. I will be interested to see how the students respond to this task next week. I will be also interested to see what the teacher decides to ask the students to complete for her.

Have a look at some Primary School students and their thoughts on using technology in the classroom. There are some great ideas for uses of technology that could be implemented in our future teaching. I found particularly interesting the race around Australia project that is mentioned.
Download Video: Posted by paulfuller75 at TeacherTube.com.

Welcome to my E-Learning Blog, I hope you find it both informative and at times entertaining.