Observing Students
What software applications and hardware are students using in the classroom?
The day I observed, my students were not using technology at all. My teacher is very old school and likes to have them do everything with pencil and paper. However, usually during the week when we do reading or math groups, students have the opportunity to go on our class set of five iPads.
Describe what the students are doing with the technology that you identified.
On the iPads, students are playing educational games related to phonics instruction. The above level learners usually play scrabble or other word-making games. Below and at level learners usually play simple phonics or math games to help sharpen their skills. I am not around to monitor what they are playing, though. I just know from what my teacher tells me. They have a list of games that students are allowed to play on these iPads, so the students are not able to randomly download a game or play a game that is not educational.
What software applications and hardware are facilitating/impeding the conditions that make student learning possible?
One of the games that I saw was called Word Connect, or it was something very similar to that. I am not sure of the math games that they play. These games help to facilitate student learning as we are working on both phonics and math skills in first grade.
How so?
This helps to facilitate learning as we are focusing on spelling words in our class. Actually seeing how these words are spelled can help students when it comes time to actually write them down. The one problem that would impede on student learning is that there are only five iPads in the classroom. Therefore, not everyone gets a chance to play on one during independent instructional time. The iPads are also very old and cannot get certain software on them to help facilitate learning.
ED 386 Educational Technology - Lauren's Blog 