Digital Badge: Chapter 10

Digital Badge: Chapter 10

After reading chapter ten of Transforming Learning with New Technologies. The most important concepts I found  interesting were:

 



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Word Cloud

There many types of educational tools that students can use to improve with their education. One of  many is a Word Cloud. What is a Word Cloud? A Word Cloud is a visual representation of text. It allows both the student and teacher to show a large amount of written text in a visually engaging format on a computer screen. Word Cloud  are generated by software programs that take a count of the words most frequently used in a document and re-position them in a nonlinear pictorial image as it shows in the image above. I believe that Word Cloud is an important tool that should be use in the beginning of the  school year . Through Word Cloud your students can get to know each other .You can have each student create their own Word Cloud where  they write about themselves: what they like, what they did over the summer, hobbies, family, the things they are interested in, etc. They can use the Word Cloud to give the 'big picture" of themselves and they can also easily see what their classmates are all about, too!

 

Electronic Spellers and Dictionaries
 

An electronic speller and dictionary are two of the many important tools that every classroom should have. An electronic speller helps the student find correct spelling, they have the opportunity of listening to words spoken aloud and they can also check the currency of their spelling with no adult help! The electronic speller helps students of all ages, hearing impairments, non fluent readers and  students learning the English language. Through the electronic speller the non fluent students have the chance to see and hear  the words that they may not be able to sound out. The electronic spellers does not cause disruptions in the classroom lesson, the student just need to plug in their headphones. Once, the student plug in their headphones they hear the pronunciation of the letter names and then the whole word. Also, the electronic speller check spelling. The student types in the word then the electronic speller accepts the word even if its spell incorrectly. The electronic speller offers a list of possible standard spelling and says each word aloud for the identification of the correct word.  Meanwhile, when the student need to find a definition, check the part of speech of a word, or find the English translation of a word in your language he or she can use the dictionary, too. Both of this educational tools are a must have in the classroom! I have attached a YouTube video above which demonstrates how an Electronic speller is use and how students benefit from it.

 

 

Handheld Calculator

 

 

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Like an electric speller and dictionary, a calculator is also an important learning tools that all students should have at their reach. A calculator is a handheld device that performs mathematical operations and computations. Calculators are small computers that perform specific data operations, have electronic circuitry and posses a limited memory function. There many types of calculators. However, am going to mention a few. The first is the basic calculator. The basic calculator is the most common type of calculator (as shown in the image above) , it does number operation and has a minimal memory function. Meanwhile, the scientific calculator is used by scientist, its more capable of performing more complex operations and  possess more memory. Last but not least, it the  graphing calculator.  The graphing calculator is used in math teaching, for scientific and engineering purpose, these calculators has a larger screen for displaying graphs, it has  an advanced memory capabilities, are programmable and can handle more complex formulas. As the students advances grade levels they use  different type of calculators.

Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

(2011, August 24). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqlYvnR0D1E