Reflection #2: SketchUp

After reading Generation IM, I wanted to check out the SketchUp tool. Basically, it's an online tool that allows users to tri-dimensionally create models for all sorts of outlets. You can use it for architecture, gaming, carpentry, landscaping, interior design, and many others. I have discovered that you can use the pro version for up to 8 hours without paying for it.

I don't know that much about architecture, or gaming, or anything else that this might be a really awesome tool for, but I do think that it could be useful in the classroom, especially because it has so many uses.

I played with the tool a little bit, but I don't really know enough to actually know what I am doing with it. I was able to find a building, in Athens, and view it and manipulate it. There are 21 different angles and interpretations already created of this particular building that I could play with. You can see cars and people around the building to get the idea of the sizing of the building (this one big!) and how complex and intricate it is. The display gives measurements of any part of the building that you click on. You can view it from the bottom, the top, up-side-down, or any angle in-between. You can sue a tape measure to see exact feet and inches of a portion of the building (and it does something else, there are lingering dotted lines, but I haven't figured out what they do). If I were creating my own building, I could drop in people to see how they would look size-wise or spatially.

It is a really cool tool. It makes me want to have the time to learn about architecture. I think that's a big moment right there: it makes me want to learn. This cool techy gizmo makes me want to learn about something that I'd otherwise have no reason to. If we can use techy things like this in our classrooms, our students will want to learn about new things simply because the display is really cool.

Week Six: Generation IM

Article: Generation IM

I think the part about Wikipedia was pretty funny. We used to use encyclopedias to do our research, now we start with Wikipedia, do some more research, and come back to Wikipedia to add or change the content that we started with. That's an amazing ability and function. Not only are our young people able to access a vast array of information, but they also are able to become "experts," or at least those with knowledge, in the subject area.

"In a digital age, we simply cannot measure a child’s knowledge through an isolated, fact-driven standardized test." We don't need to know things the way we used to. We used to need to know facts to be able to function. Easy things like math, to calculate the new price after a sale; or (from a Christian school grad) Scriptures; or measurements, to figure distances or make a double batch of cookies; or where a state or country is located geographically; or even how to spell. Now, if we didn't store that in our minds somewhere, we carry devices that can look it up and tell us in moments. Our students are learning differently than ever before. They are being taught that they don't need "useless" information, and so are not storing it. Now, we're teaching our students how to critically analyze information that they look up or find. Not how to store what we give them as absolute in their own minds.

“We need kids to think about problems in innovative and creative ways. We need to change the emphasis of education to focus on higher-order kinds of thinking." I think that this is a powerful, true, statement. Lately, it seems that all I hear is how poorly our students are doing educationally; but perhaps that's because of how we're teaching them, and what we're teaching them. Maybe if we taught them how to deal with the world that they will face, not the one we used to face or wish we could face, we would all be better off. But then we run into the fact that there's simply not enough time for teachers to learn about the ways to use and incorporate technology and teach the subject matter effectively. Teachers simply cannot do everything.

I really liked their tips for incorporating technology into the classroom, so here are my notes on that.

Seven Ways to Bring Technology into Your Classroom:

1. Have your students blog

• Easier than a webpage
• Send work to grandparents
• Authentic audience
• Edublogs (free!)
• - Classroom blog site
• Classblogmeister (free!)
• - Classroom blog site

2. Create a social network

• Connect over shared interests
• Respect
• Elgg (free!)
• - Create your own social network (your own class FB)
• Ning (free!)
• - Create your own social network

3. Podcast

• Share research
• Audacity (free!)
• - Edit digital sound files that students record
• Mac users: Garage Band
• - Editing software
• Gabcast (free!)
• - Create a podcast via a phone call to an 800 number

4. Use wikis for big projects

• Better than a blog for separating lots of info into different pages
• Collaborative projects made easy
• Wikispaces (free for now)
• - Easy to create and manage webpages

5. Try social bookmarking

• Share online resources
• Students, teachers, parents, etc.
• Delicious (free!)
• - Bookmarking site

6. Post video

• Video discussions
• Can link to all parents!
• Animoto (free or subscription)
• - Video editing
• TeacherTube (free!)
• - Online video storage
• Avidemux (free!)
• - Video editing
• VirtualDub (free???)
• - Video editing

7. Explore with google maps

• Track Odysseus's journey
• Find major buildings for Beijing Olympics and create models using SketchUp
• SketchUp (free!)
• - Architecture program