Technology Exploration 5-8

Brain Pop

Brain Pop is a program that can be used in many K-12 classrooms. BrainPOP has animated curriculum and can be used in place where students feel bored and uninterested. BrainPOP has four different versions to help reach the audience of all schools. BrainPOP has been set up to support the whole of the child by providing complex concepts in illustration, characters that can reach the audience of those in the school and aps that help the student understand the concept being taught. All resources in BrainPOP are matched with the common core of academic standards and doesn’t require any special hardware or installation in order to be used. Additionally, BrainPOP can be used on tablets like iPads for use in the classroom on a more individualized lesson plan.

 

I have used BrainPOP in my classroom. I used it to teach science and social studies at the middle school level. There are many different subjects that can taught by using BrainPOP. A problem can exist when attempting to focus on one particular aspect of a larger topic with BrainPOP. Although a useful tool, when needing to break down material into smaller bites, BrainPOP fails miserably. This resource is used in many Kentucky schools and usually doesn’t fail to entertain the students in the classroom.

 

Although this is used in many classrooms, I’m not sure I would use it as much as others. The price to be purchased by schools is approximately 1500 dollars. If not all teachers are using this, then it doesn’t pay to have this resource. Instead of spending the money on this program, I would choose to have access to youtube where I can find resources that delve deeper into the topic I am teaching. For a younger crowd, like elementary, it may pay to have this program, for 8^th Graders, not so much. There is a minimal charge for use in one classroom. Only three computers can use this at a time, so if expecting to have the students use BrainPOP as a lesson, it will probably not work.
There is an ease of use to this program, the fee is quite high but not too high, but I would still only suggest the lower grades use it for lessons.

Kidspiration

Kidspiration is a concept-mapping product for elementary students. Originally, the program was developed for grades K-3 but it seems to be appropriate for classes up to grades 5. There is program by the same company that caters to the middle school and high school students. Kidspiration allows the students to apply what they have learned in the classroom. It seems to be very popular from the reviews read. By using kidspiration, the student can create virtual graphic organizers, concept mapping, webbing, and outlining. There is also an area where the student can use the program for plots and graphs.

I would use this program for science experiments in the classroom. After Christmas, my students will be tasked with completing an assignment that requires a type of mind-mapping. They must design plans, prove they experimented with different options, and then show how the assignment worked when finished. I would have them use this as a presentation since the program can be printed as a larger type of presentation. In comparison to a Microsoft program, the ease of use is great plus the examples provided are much more suited for education.

It is difficult to imagine purchasing this product for an entire district. For an entire lab, it is in excess of 1000 dollars and unless used on a regular basis, this could be a waste of money for the school. Upon investigation, if a purchase is made for a particular teacher or class, the teacher does receive a lesson plan book and a copy to be used at home for planning purposes (funny that they provide this - the job is never done!). I have used the trial version of the program and love it for the purpose of creating science experiments in the classroom. I have never, however, had the opportunity of planning a lesson around creating mind-mapping or webbing as an assignment. If the money was available, I would definitely create plans that require the students to complete a particular assignment by using iPad installed programs like Inspiration.

Mystery Quests

The Mystery Quests website is made for the Social Studies and Civics classroom. This is a Canadian based website that focuses on the mysteries of history that surround the country of Canada. There are many different lessons that focus on solving a particular mystery. Each lesson requires a certain skill of reasoning from the student and requires the student to follow through by a predetermined process of solving a mystery. The student must be able to reason through the topic. Students may work individually or as a pair and have many different choices as they examine a particular historical moment.

As a science teacher, it is difficult to imagine using this in the classroom. I didn't go through many of the different mysteries but the ones I did didn't give me the idea that the website would go along with the curriculum in which I teach. Because I am a certified science and social studies teacher, I can see this used in the social studies classroom at just about any grade level. Although the middle school classroom focuses primarily on American, World, and Geographical history, it is important to pepper in history of other countries, especially the nearest country to the United States - Canada. I would use this as a class activity since the website has smart board use, as well.

I would definately use this website in a social studies classroom. There didn't seem to be any cost associated with the program. When opening documents, there was an ease of use and the documents were in PDF form which allows for easy printing. Having adobe acrobat installed on lab computers would allow the student(s) to fill in required fields and resubmit for grading. Overall, I really liked the lessons provided and the additional teacher resources is a great time saver for lesson creation.

Puzzlemaker

Originally, I didn't know that Puzzlemaker was created and provided by Discovery Education. In order to use all aspects of discovery education, a fee must be paid. The puzzlemaker is a systematic program that allows parents, students, and teachers to create puzzles that can be solved strictly by the knowledge of the student. There are many ways to use it, including word searches, crossword puzzles, cryptograms, mazes, and fallen phrases. This section of discovery education is free with the understanding that discovery education will place their stamp on the work provided to the student.

I would use crossword puzzle in my classroom for review purposes only. It is difficult to justify the level at which a crossword puzzle challenges the mind of the student. It is, however, important to understand that all students learn in different ways. Using a crossword puzzle or type of puzzle like available on this website, you can be sure the students are influenced by the content in more ways than originally thought. Although most students are given a study guide that requires them to answer a series of questions, this may be one of the best study guides for a student to perform at home when they are more relaxed and dependant upon the resources they have at home.

I would definately use this free resource. There were just a few negatives to the potential use of this resource. The first was the time it took to create a detailed crossword puzzle, the second was the nature in which material was taught, and the third was that advertisements were included in the printed copy. The positives are that it is free and students love to have assignments that require very little reasoning skills.