please read the Guide fully (no word count for either student)

Guided Response: Post replies to at least two peers before the close date of this discussion. In your replies, consider asking questions of peers about their responses to encourage further conversation. View the videos of at least two peers. Reflect on how the technology used in their selected video promoted student engagement and motivation in the learning process. To what extent do you agree with their observations and impressions? Provide specific feedback regarding their perspective of student motivation versus the challenge of the educator acquiring and effectively using the technology. Remember, though two replies is the basic expectation, for deeper engagement and learning, you are encouraged to provide responses to any comments or questions others have given you, including those from the instructor, to further the conversation while also giving you opportunities to demonstrate your content expertise, critical thinking, and real world experiences with this topic.

Amanda Fidler

https://www.teachingchannel.org/video/differentiating-in-math (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

I watched a video about a teacher using technology in his classroom. The class that is focused on in the video is a second-grade classroom. The teacher is using technology to help his students learn math skills.

In the video, the teacher uses computers and iPods to help educate the students. The teacher is using several different websites for the students to choose from. The students are playing games on the websites. Each of the students log on to their own account so they are on their math level. The technology is being used to help support the students learning math. The students are being motivated to learn through the games they are playing on the computer. The students want to get to the next level so they continue working until they get a high enough score to pass and go to the next level. The student is getting immediate feedback from "planet turtle" so the student is learning what they did wrong immediately so they can learn quickly and move on. Without this technology, the student would have to wait for help from the teacher. The games are continuously assessing the students so they will receive more support than a teacher could provide. The support from the technology allows the teacher to give extra support to the student that really need it.

The technology promotes the students' engagement during the learning process by keeping them excited about the lesson. The lessons are geared toward their personal math level so the lessons are challenging for each child, but not overly challenging where the students are getting frustrated. The games are more fun than traditional learning. The games tell the students where they got something wrong and give them the opportunity to fix the problem right away so they do not continue making the same mistake.

The use of technology outweighs the potential challenges the educator might face in acquiring the technology because there is data showing that the students are learning more and learning at a faster rate through the use of technology. The teachers will have to monitor how the students are using the technology to ensure they are not using the computers or iPods for other things such as watching videos. One way the teachers can help contain the problem of going on to different websites is to block the websites from the students accessing them on their school computers. In the end, if technology is used correctly and monitored, many students will greatly benefit from using technology in the classroom.

Kelly

Provide a link to the video you viewed and a succinct description of the video’s focus, such as the grade and/or ability-levels of students, the educator(s) involved, and the subject being taught (e.g., science or language arts).

https://www.teachingchannel.org/video/analyzing-websites-with-students

This video is about a teacher gaining the interest of her 6th and 8th grade ELA classes by discussing internet browsing. It is not known if this is an inclusion classroom or straight general education. The educator is heavily involved by asking her students questions. The questions are about the importance of knowing if a website is trustworthy. She begins the lesson by writing definitions on the white board. She made her students us critical thinking skills, evaluation skills, and media vocabulary. The students continued to remain engaged in the lesson with anticipation to use the computer.

In at least one paragraph, describe how the technology is being used in the video and describe what you observed in the video that informs you that students’ motivation is increased or otherwise supported due to the use of the technology.

After the review of how to find a trustworthy website, the students were paired up by the teacher to work on a specific topic. The students had to find facts on the internet to convince their principal why they should or should not attend school year-round. The students were emailed a helpful link that would help them organize their facts and help them conclude if the site is legitimate. Once the teacher explained the assignment, the students retrieved their laptops from the cart and began working with their partner. There was a lot of talking in the room, but I noticed it was about the topic the teacher asked them to research. The students continued to be engaged and excited about using the computer to prove to their principal going to school year-round was a horrible idea. During the video, I noticed a busy classroom of students working. They were not up walking around or being rowdy. They took this research assignment serious and knew they had to find facts to argue their case. The teacher continuous walked around the room helping students if they ran into any problems. She would also stop by their desks to ask them what makes the site they are using trustworthy.

Next, succinctly describe how the use of the technology promotes students’ engagement during the learning process.

The students continued to be engaged in the lecture portion of the lesson because they knew the laptops were going to be used in the second half of the lesson. Without providing technology time, the students would not have been so engaged in the lecture. It was obvious they wanted to learn the proper way to use the laptops and look up proper sites.

Finally, describe the extent to which the use of technology and its motivating factors outweighs the potential challenges the educator might face in acquiring the technology and learning how to effectively implement it.

Without technology, the teacher would have struggled to keep the audiences’ attention. The students would have gotten bored if the teacher just taught about technology and how to look up appropriate sites. By allowing them to see the laptop cart, they became more motivated because they knew it was going to turn into a hands-on experience. The teacher in the video had a well thought out lesson plan for teaching students how to properly research.

Reference:

Teaching Channel. (2018, June 27). Using Critical Thinking to Find Trustworthy Websites.

           Retrieved August 2, 2018, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/video/analyzingLinks to an 

           websites-with-students