Learning to Learn

      Education is constantly changing. How we learn is changing almost as fast as what we learn. Educators need to be well informed in more ways than one. What a person studying to be a teacher may not realize is that in college, while they are learning how to educate their future students, they will have to unlearn all of the methods that they grew to know. With technology in the classrooms always growing and changing, it is impossible to keep the same techniques going. Luckily, there are steps you can take to learn new teaching techniques and technology skills.
     With so much going on in the world of education technology, it may seem hard to fully understand how much there is to know, unlearn, and then relearn again. Our book, The Connected Educator, mentions steps in knowledge that every teacher must take.

Knowledge for, in, and of practice are crucial to educators. Knowledge for practice refers to traditional college instruction on how to teach in the classroom. Knowledge in practice refers to trying new methods and seeing if they work for education or not and knowledge of practice refers to teachers going technologically out of their comfort zone and work collaboratively with other teachers via e-mail or especially social media to get new ideas and skills that they can pass on to their own students. Unlearning old skills and constantly relearning new may seem like a huge challenge but with collaborative thinking on social medias I believe it can be well achieved.

Interactive Whiteboards in Today's Classroom

    Interactive whiteboards have been a part of my life since I was in seventh grade and my middle school decided to spend the money on the new high-tech boards. Therefore, I am quite partial to them and have been very familiarized with them throughout my middle and high school careers. I specifically remember when I was a sophomore in high school, we had to do a research project and it had to be specifically designed to conform to an interactive whiteboard. I really liked the project and wanted to learn how to do more with them in my classes.
    In SEDU 183, I liked learning about the different of boards apart from just the SMART boards that I was accustomed to. I also liked learning about there were different earlier models of interactive whiteboards.
Although the movable ones do not seem that practical for kids to write on, it would be nice to have one like that because you could move it to different locations as just a plain white board as well. I also liked learning about the boards with the built-in projectors that eliminate unnecessary shadows that could block what you're trying to put on the screen.

  These are all pros of why interactive whiteboards would be good in the classroom but some cons do exist as well. I think differentiation would be hard to achieve because if you already have a set whiteboard program, all students' needs may not be met. It would be great for visual and maybe even auditory learners but for hands-on tactile learners it would not be as good. I do not think that tactile learners would get as good of a use out of the interactive whiteboards that visual learners would.
http://www.prometheanworld.com/us/english/education/products/interactive-whiteboard-systems/

http://www.neamb.com/professional-resources/benefits-of-interactive-whiteboards.htm

http://konymusic.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/using-the-smart-board-to-teach-music-literacy/