Emerging Applications and Technologies for the Classroom

            While researching apps for this week I chose to use two websites that are available via any mobile device anywhere there is a cell signal or Wi-Fi availability.  The first app I chose was one from the school where I work.  We use a Moodle page that is available that is available to all instructors and each course they teach.  You can go to our Moodle page, but unfortunately you cannot access it without a functioning school email address.  The website is www.medical-btc.org.  For example, for my Anatomy and Physiology class I have developed games, flash cards, quizzes, articles to read, and videos to watch.  Sometimes I assign student to watch a video I posted on the Moodle page and write a small essay about it.  Also, in my Moodle page I can track which students were on, when they were on, and what features they looked at.  Sean Parsons, instructor and Moodle guru states, “Our Moodle page is a great source of information, and a great way for students to collaborate and enhance their learning experience” (Parsons, 2013). 

            The second app I found interesting is Flickr.  We all know that Flickr is one of the best online digital photography technologies available, but it is also great for education.  www.Flickr.com is the website.  I like the feature in which you can annotate a photo so when a student hovers their mouse over a particular box (or annotation box) a message pops up about that area, or annotation box.  Richardson says, “One of the most useful tools in Flickr is the annotation feature, which allows you to add notes to parts of the image by dragging a box across an area and typing text into a form” (Richardson, 2010, Pg. 104).  This feature works very well with Anatomy images and diagrams.  It makes the images interactive and keeps the student engaged as he/she studies the pic.  Flickr would work for a variety of classes including Pathology and Pharmacology.  I will investigate more and try some of these tools and evaluate how they help students.

            Finally, I would like to research about the tangible classroom.  Tangible means as explained by Michael Horn from Tufts University, “instead of using pictures and words on a computer screen, tangible languages use physical objects to represent various programming elements, commands, and flow-of-control structures. Students arrange and connect these objects to form physical constructions that describe computer programs” (Horn and Jacob, 2012, Pg. 1).  I will show later the pros and cons of the tangible classroom including cost.  Tangible classrooms need to have specific languages depending on the level of education, Quetzal – pronounced ket-zal, and LEGO Mindstorms robots, and Tern, later I will begin to explain how each of these work.

References:

Parsons, S. (2013, July 10). Interview by A Schlott []. How Moodle works.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wiki's, podcasts. (3rd ed., p. 104). Thousand Oaks, Ca. Sage.

Horn, M., & Jacob, R. (2012). Designing tangible programming languages for classroom use.