Running head: EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

Karen I Villatoro-Gonzalez

Professor Corinne Blake

EDU214

March 25, 2016

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Thesis Statement:

The purpose of this research paper is to show how three different emerging technology

tools currently being used in Education are different depending on the grade level they are used

in. The research will also provide information on how they impact the learning and teaching

process as well as describe how each work and benefit the classroom. The three tools being

researched are Ipads, Podcasting and Electronic Boards.

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Ipads have recently been one of the tools integrated into the classroom setting. Many of

the hands on experiences plus the articles tells us the benefits that children in any age group and

grade level are able take advantage of. According to many of the articles which I will go more in

depth on and reference which particular ones, most have some things in common. The Ipad is

meant for every student and no matter the disability, age or gender, each child will find

something that they can learn from. From the camera, to the video recorder to the applications

installed, to the bright attention grabbing colors to so much more.

One of the references, Blow and McConnell in the November/December 2012 article

states how integrating the Ipad into classroom or classroom rollout technology as they call it

was a big success and a learning experience for all. Before they gave this challenge a try,

according to the article, there were steps taking to get the program started. The school district

where this integration was done is in Northern California, it is the Cambrian district. The article

stated that teachers in this study, were expected to use the technology with all of their students by

creating lesson plans, research and develop best practices and come back and share what they

had learned with their colleagues. Teachers in this program stated that they liked the opportunity

of having students create their own learning opportunities and teach each other. Most were

excited with all the free apps that would meet the educational goals. In the Article by Blow and

McConnell it also indicated how teachers were concerned that their students would bury their

heads in the devices never coming up for air but this was not the case. They were able to see the

gains of independence that the students had. It benefited children with different needs, language
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varies, the shy and the extroverted. Students were able to open up and share what they did and

learned from taking pictures to opening up and up to making a mini movie. The Ipad in this

article was integrated to the entire district for those teachers that applied making it an interesting

article.

In another article; Matamoros, A.B. September/ October 2012, we see a different school

age group integrating the Ipads. The Boston College Law Library applied for a grant to receive

Ipads2 so that they can integrate them into classroom instruction. The Ipads were loaned to those

who had the desire to experiment and use the apps recommended for their course of study. They

gathered for monthly discussions and gathered feedback relating to the Ipad use in instruction.

They each were granted a 32GB Ipad 2 as well as a protector, charger and $25.00 for app

purchases and the pilot began in January 2012. They found the pilot to be of a learning

experience for them as well. They were able to think on how they teach their courses, how they

engage the students and how they can use what they have learned to teach.

According to this article, they were able to not only learn how to use and Ipad but also

how to effectively use it in law practice. The Ipad allowed them more hands on experience as

they were able to walk around as they conducted the presentations to increase interaction and

participation. The article continues on by stating that they were able to help students develop

knowledge of mobile versions of research and facilitate group work and collaboration during

class time.

The last referenced guide in this research paper is the textbook Teaching and Learning

with Technology which in Page 136 describes to us how Jennifer Sieracki, a fifth grade math

teacher at JV Washam Elementary School in Charlotte, North Carolina encounters her usage of
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Ipads in her classroom. She states; My students are more engaged in learning with these light-

weight, touch screen devices and have. She has 10 Ipads for 35 students and has to make it

work by setting up groups which in turn creates collaboration and interaction with peers. The

apps she refers to are Popplet, ShowMe and EverNote which are helpful in lessons she has

created for research, to save images and for information. It has helped students in and out of the

classroom. Another one she mentions in the textbook page 136 is the IMovie which lets them

create presentations with audio, narrations and still or moving images. She has even had a virtual

trip across the United States where the students were able to apply math, social studies, history

and geography/mapping skills to complete their required work. Facetime as she states, allows

students to see each other as they communicate with other classrooms in her school which

allowed them to assist a lower grade learn math.

In conclusion, Ipads in all of the grade levels from Day care settings to College can be

integrated to support the learning of children, teens and adults. Both the teaching and learning

aspects in any setting are impacted by creating a more interactive learning setting. Students are

able to learn from the many applications that can be downloaded into the Ipad as well as all the

preset software like the camera it has already. The applications can be used for learning but can

also be used for grading and storing information on students achievement. The camera and video

processing system can be used to share images of any project for example, science and the

process of a seed to a plant or a video of a group collaboration. The Ipad has many functions and

works in many different ways which have been discussed here before. A personal favorite is the

ability to take anywhere to keep your memories stored and you can make connection with

anyone around the world and share those memories as you are living them from miles away. The
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benefits of integrating the Ipads to the classroom in priceless. Children are so knowledgeable of

internet, software and hardware programs that make it a fun learning experience to continue that

in schools.

As we continue the discussion and research on technological tools in classrooms, we

come to another emerging technology which is the Electronic Whiteboard. In an article brought

to us by the NEA member benefits on their website titled The Benefits of interactive

whiteboards, it explains to us not only the history but the in-depth idea of the benefits of using

one. The whiteboard, as we learn in this article, was released in 1991 but yet only in the last

several years has it become a need or something of a most have for classrooms from

Kindergarten to twelfth grade. The whiteboard has replaced your common dry erase board. It is

powered by software designated to make it an interactive board rather than just your traditional

board. It is practically a huge computer touch screen were now you can run a program from your

computer to your projector and into the board. The teacher then controls the content either by a

pointer or a touch of the hand instead of the keyboard or mouse. All of the mentioned make it

better than just an image on the board or screen; it is now an interactive device, a crowd pleaser

and an attention grabber. Think that anything you do in a computer, you can do it on the

whiteboard. The article gives us examples of teachers can create engaging lessons for example a

matching game for the younger age groups and older age groups may experiment with multiple

items such as websites, photos, and music. All of these lesson plans call for interaction and can

open up discussions verbally or written on the board itself. Things like images can change with a

touch of the screen and live instructional lessons from faraway places can be a click away. The
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article has us imagine a virtual trip to an African Safari where we can see live animals from

Africa including learning from the culture, music and maybe even visit a live classroom.

According to this article and it is something you see in many different children and even

yourself, people learn better when they are engaged and are able to have hands on learning. In

this article, we learn that in September of 2008, Newsweek magazine reported that more than

70% of primary and secondary schools in the United Kingdom have interactive whiteboards

compared to only 16% in the United States with this, the majority of the research has been done

in the U.K. although recent studies in the United States have reported an increase in student

engagement, school attendance, and higher test scores. This article shares with us the leading

brands of the whiteboard companies since now there are so many to choose from. It also shares

with us the impact the whiteboards have had when integrated in the classrooms. The article

shares with us the story of Chad Lehman, a media specialists and technology coordinator of

Horace Mann Elementary School in West Allis, Wisconsin who noticed an increase in student

attentiveness and engagement since the district began integrating the whiteboards into the

elementary classrooms there.

The last article pertaining to electronic whiteboards shows us how much of value they are

to a classroom that an Ontario Elementary school staff had pies thrown to them while duct taped

to a wall to raise $3,000.00 needed for the whiteboard. The internet-aged chalkboards as they

refer to them, as a Blessing, as they state in the article since they see them as a need to engage a

generation of students weaned on the web. In this article, they also state that even though the

data of the efficacy of touchscreens in U.S. classrooms in inconclusive, the studies suggest that

the growth in attendance and participation as it cross reference to the article on neamb.com. In a

district in South Carolina, the article tells us that after installing 1,200 whiteboards, the behavior
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incidents went down because students were no longer bored. Even though it is something new

for the older educators, they have to make it work for the benefit of the students.

There are many different applications for a smartboards too just like an Ipad which can

help a teacher create multimedia lessons and presentations with audio and visual, collaboration,

showcasing and sharing students work, virtual field trips, recorded lessons that can be used by

substitutes and documentation of students work and achievements.

The whiteboards have been integrated slowly but surely and some schools may not even

have them yet, but they are of big interest and need. They impact both the learning by being a

hands on device, more interactive which makes students more willing to participate. They can

connect to the internet making it a wide range of lesson plans that can be done therefore also

impacting the teaching. Teachers can access any lesson and save it for a later time to be

reviewed unlike the traditional boards like chalkboards, once erased is all gone. Teachers are

able to do virtual field trips around the world; they are able to have lessons that grasp the

attention of the students. They are easy to set up and connect and in most schools, the Tech

Specialist will install it for you. Think of it as a large computer screen, big enough for students to

walk up and tap on an apple and make it move and say the A sound with those bright red colors,

getting that full attention of the child.

The last emerging technology that will be discussed today is Podcasting. Podcasting as

described in the article found on how stuff works, referenced in this research paper, is a free

service that allows the composition of audio files which can be listened to on computers or

personal devices. The term as explained here comes from a combination of the words IPod and

broadcasting. You can use it in any media player device. It is not like internet radio since you do
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not have to tune into any internet radio station rather download the podcast to your computer. In

the article, we discover that the Podcasting was developed in by a former MTV video jockey

named Adam Curry and a software developer Dave Winer. Podcasts are used for many things

but also for informational and educational purposes. There are guided walking tours, talk shows,

and training available through podcasting. This article explains to us how easy it is to listen to a

Podcasting by simply going to the site, clicking on the hyperlink for each podcast you want,

listen to it right away or download it for later in your media player. It also explains to us the

simpleness of creating a podcast by plugging in your microphone, install an audio recorder, and

create an audio file and saving it to your computer. Upload the audio file to one of the podcasting

sites and done.

We go to another article in www.readwritethink.org and it gives us a guide on how to

integrate podcasts into your classrooms and how to help your students create their own podcasts

with audio and images. They state something that is very important to educators, and it is that

the Podcasting can be used across grade levels. It has no limit to the age groups because it can be

something simple as a hello to a parent from the kinder podcasting site or a research paper turned

in by a twelfth grader. Topics can vary and they can be individual or a collaboration by a group.

They can also be shared with anyone across the world, including a grandparent or family

member who may not live in the same town as you. Middle and high school educators are given

the idea on this website to have the students create podcasts about persuasive messages they find

in their favorite books, television shows, video games, and movies. Podcasting can be

incorporated into your lesson plans to make it more interactive and fun, they can be presented to

connect to all of the curriculums. It can be used in writing, reading, vocabulary, science, math,
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economics, social studies. Students are not limited to one subject now a day; they are able to

explore so many in one.

The understating that it can cover so many topics shows us that it can benefit all different

grade levels as the lesson plans are prepared according to the grade being taught. In the textbook

Teaching and Learning with Technology page 247 regarding Podcasting, we learn that the use of

podcasting can support distance educational objectives. The digitized media can add auditory

and visual content to text information presented by the teacher and in turn students can use them

to produce content to share as it tells us in the textbook. Podcast, can use a variety of software

and as stated in the other article, can be saved for future learning and sharing.

All of these articles show us how integrating the Podcasting to the classroom can be not

only a learning experience for the educators and students but a new tool. It proves that it impacts

all of the curriculum needed in every grade level as we have discovered and can meet standards

in place. Students feel that this is another hands on experience and can learn and interact with

other students around the world. Teachers are able to connect with parents and not only share

what the student may be doing but show them a new emerging technology tool.

In Conclusion, every day, we see new tools available for daily use in our personal life

which in turn connects with our educational life. It has been proven that children now are more

familiar with internet use when they get to kindergarten than years ago because internet is

everywhere. Think how many applications can be downloaded to a smartphone to show a child

their alphabet and there it all begins. The students come with a sense of knowledge and seek

more so introducing all of the tools we learn is an amazing experience. The three covered here

Ipads, Electronic Whiteboards and Podcasting are just the beginning!

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Referencies:

Matamoros, A. B., & Neary, M. A. (2012). Librarians, Legal Research, and Classroom iPads--

AWinning Combination. AALL Spectrum, 17(1), 27-29. (Ipad)

Blow, D., & McConnell, S. (2012). Classroom Technology Rollouts. Leadership, 42(2-), 32-

33,. (Ipad)

Textbook Page 136: Teaching and Learning with Technology Fifth Edition ; Judy Lever-

Duffy and Jean McDonald Copyright 2015, 2011, 2008 Pearson Education

(Ipad)

www.neamb.com/professional-resources/benefits-of-interactive-whiteboards.htm (white boards)

http://newsweek.com/education-interactive-whiteboards-schools-88501 (referred by neamb

article whiteboards)

computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/podcasting.htm (Podcasting)
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http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/podcasts-nuts-bolts-creating-

30311.html (Podcasting)

Textbook Page 247: Teaching and Learning with Technology Fifth Edition ; Judy Lever-

Duffy and Jean McDonald Copyright 2015, 2011, 2008 Pearson Education

(Podcasting)