Promethean Boards

A Promethean board, also known as an interactive white board, is a large interactive display that combines white boards and the power of a computer. These boards are capable of engaging students with vivid images, video, and is able to do everything a computer could do but projected up on a white board for the class to see. These interactive white boards provide students with collaborative and personalized learning which in the end keeps students engaged to lessons. I think having Promethean boards in the classroom supports how students learn by using technology and also makes learning for students successful. I also think the interaction between students and teachers is more collaborative which also makes for a successful learning environment. I think the interactive boards are a good addition in today's classroom because instead of using separate technology systems the white boards allow teachers to use all of that technology by using only one technology system.

http://www.prometheanworld.com

Educational Podcasts

A podcast is an audio/video file on the internet that can be automatically accessed by a computer, laptop, and downloaded to a portable MP3 player. Podcasts have an educational advantage in the classroom because it allows students to share their learning experiences world-wide. Teachers are able to provide podcasts for students to learn about a particular topic and students are able to create podcasts so teachers and other students around the world can access them as well. Being able to have podcasts in the classroom allows students to have easy access to information and the flexibilty to create them with our hectic schedules in today's society. Having this kind of technology in the classroom will keep students engaged and help them to get and receive information in different ways.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/

Change in Student/Teacher Roles

As technology becomes more and more popular throughout the school systems, the traditional student and teacher roles have to change. Students today are using technology in the classrooms to generate, obtain, manipulate, and display information. Technology is used as something to support students when they are working on particular tasks so they are able to define their goals and make design decisions all while evaluating their progress. Because students are using more technology, the role of the teacher has to change. The teacher can not be the center of attention while they present their lesson plans. The teacher now has to facilitate their classroom by setting project goals, providing guidelines and resources, moving from student to student and group to group, and providing suggestions/support for the student activity. 

Technological Convergence

 Technological Convergence is the trend of technologies to merge into new technologies. In the past, certain technology devices were only able to handle one or two tasks at one time. Now, devices are able to accomplish and interact with a wide variety of media. Technology in the past consisted of playing a video on television with some sort of video player, music was played on a tape deck or compact disc, radio was played with FM/AM tuner, and video games were played through some sort of console. In today's society people are able to receive all of these different types of entertainment in one place whether that is on a smart phone or on an Xbox. In the classroom, convergence is such a big deal now because of the students that have grown up with ipods, mac books, and video game systems that can do much more than what entertainment devices used to. Using technology in the classroom such as promethean boards, ipads, mac books, etc. is so important to keep the students engaged in what they are doing. Students now are able to multi-task and are able to learn so much more at one time because of how convergence has developed in the past few years.

http://www.convergemag.com/