In other classes I have been learning a lot about the importance of the way you set up your classroom in the primary grades. I knew it was useful for emergent literacy, but apparently it's important for technology as well. Some things to take into consideration when setting up your technology equipment would be to put the equipment somewhere the students can easily access it, but it's also good to put it somewhere against a wall so children don't trip over the wires, etc. Also, you want to put it away from the windows to avoid glares, and you want to put it somewhere that students are able to work together, but it needs to be in a place that it won't be too distracting to others in the class.
The article also talked about how using computers and other sources of technology can enhance communication and gives them opportunities to develop their language. The author of this article argues that children should always be able to work collaboratively on computers because this gives them the chance to share their ideas with each other, talk about what they're doing and assist each other.
The laptops were pretty neat. We would be able to use these laptops in the classroom much more easily because this way it would be easier to have one for each child, so you could use it much more often . I was thinking it might be fun to use the chat as a sort of classroom discussion...I'm not sure exactly how this would work but I think it could work for those who finished their assignments early or something. Also, there was internet which has obvious implications for the classroom. These are the two things we spent most of our time exploring.
IDEAS:
Digital Camera:
Take pictures of everything that starts with the letter A
Scavenger Hunt: A sign that has to do with safety, someone you can run to if you're scared and someone is chasing you, or something...
First thing to do when teaching them how to use a digital camera:
where the buttons are they'll need
Then help them make a plan first! This will help them stay focused and on task
How we used the digital camera: Kindergarten content standard 1, objective 1: Identify ways people look different.
We took pictures of different colors of hair. You could also do tall, short, eye color, etc. and each child could take two pictures in groups of say 4.
