Locate an article about using handheld devices such as tablets (ie. ipads,nook), cell phones, and ipods for education. Summarize 3 key points from the article. Next, describe how you would use these devices in the library. Don’t forget to include a reference for the article at the end of your post.
Technology is for ever changing. The I-pad is a great way to help children become
engaged in a textbook. The pages can come alive, if one is studying oceanography,
for example, the I pad can be connected to a web page that take the “diver”
into the deepest part of the ocean. Since there are vastly many links , students who have never
heard the ocean, without ever leaving their classroom, or hear the calls of hyenas from Africa. The internet can open as many
doors to as many places as they want in class, allowing the student expanding their knowledge.
One to one Technology Ratio
Students who are given access to technology for more than an hour, can do amazing things. Athletics track their calorie intake, their calories burned, they can keep track of their goals. Others students can work on home work on the bus ride home, at doctors office, or any other place they need to wait. Foreign language students can download the dictionary and use that to converse. Students who are given the task of journaling can do so as quickly as a situation arises. The possibilities are endless, if students are allowed one on one devices.
A Middle School Experiment
In 99-00, a school in Wisconsin participated in a program that gave middle school student palm pilots they could use them however they choose. The students had them for a total of nine weeks, then they were handed off to another students.When the student had them, for their nine weeks, they used them with their families for email, calculator, address book, calendar and their to do list. The children were able to access the their homework folders. The principal, Tom Fielder, stated " I truly feel this was a worthwhile project. Where learned a lot, but there is a lot more to examine in the area of students use of handheld computers."( page 2 of 4)
Mobile Technology for mobile students
In Kentucky a program was designed to help migrant students. Since these students move around a lot, they were not getting a full years worth of education. Each child was given a laptop with a fold out keyboard, making it easier for them to write their essays and homework. Their laptops had a built in infrared communication capability so that they could "beam" their assignments in.With this capability they did not require internet connection. ( This is a kewl idea! I like it!) Once beamed to the outer limits, their teacher can upload onto their PDA.
These immigrant children can use the handheld to download Spanish-English dictionaries, and other apps. to help them not just in school but in their lives. These handheld devices are a great affordable, portable appliance" that's " easier to use, more reliable " than a laptop. (page 3 of 4). This is a great way to merge education and technology.
How to incorporate into a library setting:
If money wasn't a problem, I would like to bank a stash of I Pads and have the children check them out to use like in one of the experiments in Wisconsin. Allowing them to check out an I Pad for nine weeks and allowing family to have access to it also. Children are better at technology and maneuver thru the maze of the internet. I believe that even if I had a degree in computer science, learning the ins and outs of the maze, children who blow my doors off, in their knowledge, even with out getting a degree.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech083.shtml
