I watched Jeff Han and his demo on touchscreen computers that will inevitably move us to the next level of technology steering away from point and click. Jeff’s speech is very interesting to watch and to learn and most importantly for me, it was a visual demo with hands-on. As I was watching Jeff demonstrate this new invention, my mind raced quickly to my students, to my teaching techniques and to the technology that is offered to our schools. I believe that since technology is moving at a fast pace we, educators, have a huge amount of pressure on us to keep up with the new and latest inventions. The pressure of attending in-services and learning these ideas and contemplating how we, educators, are going to integrate them into our instruction is massive. This also relates to Elizabeth Gilbert’s speech on nurturing creativity. How are we going to successfully and effectively carry out new ideas and deal with the after effects; failure? I feel that we shouldn’t jump head first into getting our hands on new gadgets if we haven’t researched or sampled them first. This is where I feel, many of these new inventions are somewhat a waste of time.
On the other hand, the touchscreen computer can be useful, valuable, and applicable for all learners particularly ones that need diverse learning techniques. Teachers and students will be able to engage in activities jointly. I would love to have touchscreen computers in my classroom in the near future but let us be realistic, budgets are tight.
I agree that touchscreen is going to be an asset, I have a concern about when it decides not to work, but that comes with the territory. I hope that the school districts start to get on board with adding the necessary technology to our classrooms.
ReplyDeleteYou're probably right, touchscreens are going to be making its way into classrooms in the near future. But, something to worry about, might be the age group of your kids. No matter how much you teach and remind those little ones are not going to keep their hands off those screens. It'll be like a magnet.
ReplyDeleteYou are right...it will be like a magnet. I guess you will have set the standards and rules for it just like anything else.
DeleteI too have seen this video of Jeff Han demonstrating the touchscreen. I am instantly drawn into thinking of the iPad and SMART tables. Granted the iPad is not multi user friendly but the SMART table is.
ReplyDeleteYeah this video caught my attention quickly. Do you how easy and fun it would be to teach with it? The students would want to pay attention to you so that they could be called on to come up and use it.
DeleteTouch Screens are a wonderful tool to use in the classroom, however I do agree that budgets will prohibit them in the classrooms, until Special ED has them for their students then we can witness how they will hold up in the classroom setting.
ReplyDeleteI went to visit a local boarding school that has a one-to-one iPad program. They offered very interesting advice when it comes to technology in the classroom. They argue that technology will not reinvent the classroom, but instead educators are going to be who changes education. They are also quick to point out that their interactive whiteboards in every classroom are no longer used with the iPad program. They created a wonderful ebook about using iPads in the classroom and the beginning they explain how educators should go about deciding to purchase and implement new technologies. Here's a link to their iBook.http://www.newhampton.org/ftpimages/97/misc/misc_117020.ibooks
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