Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Journal #4: "It's In the Bag," by James Basham, Ernest Perry, and Helen Meyer

Basham, J., Perry, E., & Meyer, H. (2011). It's in the bag. Learning and Leading With Technology, 39(2), 24. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-september-october-2011.aspx

Summary: The article begins by bringing the fact that schools and teachers want to teach the basics' as well as digital age skills. I really like how schools and teachers are somewhat willing, it seems, to want to integrate technology into their lessons. It will definitely benefit the students, so that they can use technology to their advantage. The authors went on to explain what a digital backpack is and that there are designed backpacks for specific projects or lessons. The article provided a lot of information on what the digital backpack would contain and what it provides to the students. Each backpack contains foundational technology, modular technology, and instructional support materials. The authors then went on to further explaining each piece. Foundational technology is simply the actual piece of technology itself, a laptop, for example. The modular technology is all the software or apps that go with or are apart of the piece. Teachers can then add or remove certain software depending on the objectives of the lesson. Instructional support materials are the actual curriculum resources or the structure pieces of the lesson.They gave some examples of what teachers have put in the digital backpack for this section; they were documents, podcasts, videos, and content-based apps. I found the next part really interesting. They experimented with the digital backpacks in certain grade levels. It definitely can support their opinion on the digital backpacks, because instead of simply saying what they think will benefit students, they test it; it becomes more real that way. I really enjoyed reading about how elementary children used technology to figure how a zoo can become more kid-friendly! I think that incorporating a small project like that into the curriculum is super fun and not that complicated to do. I know that with that age group, though there would need to be lots of instruction. This article was very eye-opening and interesting; I had never thought technology could be strategically organized into a classroom!

Question #1: What other ways could I have elementary school students use technology?
I remember actually having to do a project in middle school that had to do with a book we were reading. We had the option to make a commercial that related to the book and I jumped at the opportunity. I had a lot of fun doing it and it got my dad and I do spend some time together! (He helped me with the whole video making process). I think that I could use this in an elementary school setting, because of how advanced technology has gotten. The students could make a short video or commercial that relates to a piece of literature or even do a video book report. I think the most important thing is to just get the students familiar with it and to have a good experience with it!

Question #2: How can a digital backpack help me as a teacher?
Well I definitely think that the digital backpack is very organized and with help me keep my lessons structured. I know that as a teacher organizational skills are very important and the backpack will help me maintain the organization while teaching the students digital age skills. It can also help me stay on the topic of the lesson and not get off topic. I can just put the apps or software that pertain to the topic in the backpack. I think it's a great tool and resource for teachers!

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