Week 7

VIDEO

All I have to say is, "Wow." That movie is really crazy.  I have an ipod touch and it utilizes the same technology and I know that there are touch screen computers like that now, but some of the things they said in that clip made me think that a lot more is to come in the future.  It was interesting to hear him say that one day our kitchen tables might be made from surface computers like that, or even our coffee tables and we will control our televisions with them, and at the end he even went as far as saying our walls will be made out of these surface computing devices.  The most interesting part of the movie was when he took the photo placed the camera on the surface and it took the picture off the camera and put it on the screen then took the photo from the screen and put it on a wireless device like a cell phone.  I think that in the future kids' desks might be made out of these devices and they will laugh when we tell them that our desks were just made out of wood.  This technology could definitely have an effect on the way that I teach in the future and the interactions I have with my students and the interactions they have with each other.  

UEN REFLECTION

The Utah Education Network is very useful for students and teachers. I want to use it to enrich my classroom. As a new teacher I will use it often so that my lessons are focused on the core curriculum for the grade I teach. I like how they break it down into subjects and grades so the information is easily accessible, organized and user friendly. I think it is really helpful that they give lesson plans because as a new teacher it will be really useful to have all the resources I can get. The lessons are nicely outlined. I like how it lists all the materials that are needed and if you need pictures it provides those as well. These lesson plans will save a lot of time and relieve stress for me as a new teacher. There are a lot of resources that UEN provides for students, teachers, and parents. One of the really useful tools for students is the Pioneer Library. This website is full of reliable databases that are really useful for students in doing research projects, studying, reading, exploring, and it even has games for younger grades. On the UEN website it has a feature called interactives. There are many different interactive websites and games to help students of all levels with different subjects such as math (see left, help George estimate the height of things), reading, writing, listening, health and more. A couple other things that I found interesting were that through UEN students have access to TIME Magazine for Kids, CNN Students News, and Who’s Who and What’s What Weekly Quiz. These all help kids to keep current with the world and news on their own level and understanding. The second thing that I found was the Bill Nye The Science Guy, I think that these are really helpful in the classroom, when I was a student I loved these movies because they were entertaining but helped me understand the information.