Blog Number Four

After exploring outside of class the following Emerging Technologies: a) Games, b) Interactive Whiteboard Activities, c) Simulations/Role Playing, & d) Virtual Reality/ Worlds, discuss whether or not you see a use for each of these four technologies. Then, pick two different, specific activities (a game, a simulation, an interactive whiteboard activity, or a Virtual Reality or World) and discuss in detail how it engages students in their own learning.


       Technologies can be a great tool in the classroom, but I am often sceptical on whether or not every technology has a place in a classroom.  I probably feel that way because I am a high school art education major and I find it difficult to integrate technology into a classroom that is predominantly a studio based class.  However, I do see how an interactive whiteboard and games could be useful in the classroom. 
            An interactive whiteboard could allow the students to be a part of their own learning by having the students interact with what they are learning more so than photograph slides or reading from a textbook.  Instead of hearing or seeing what the teacher is talking about, they can decide for themselves whether or not a work of art is what the teacher is saying.  
         I also think games could be an important tool in a classroom.  I'd probably use it mostly with an art history lesson where I'd put the student in groups.  That way they could discuss the answer with each other and hopefully the students could basically teach each other if a conflict of answers arises.  I think putting the students into groups would provoke a sense of competition which would hopefully get the students more interested in their own learning.