Sunday, February 24, 2013

Tech Play 4


a.       In keeping with the original purpose Discuss the tools you explored, what you liked or disliked about each one and which one you selected one to continue to reflect on.

The tools I chose to explore this week were The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and Brain pop Jr.  The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM) is an NSF supported project that began in 1999 to develop a library of uniquely interactive, web-based virtual manipulatives or concept tutorials, mostly in the form of Java applets, for mathematics instruction (K-12 emphasis).  Virtual manipulatives are free, available to the entire class, and working with them does not require tables or other large spaces.  Virtual manipulatives do require computers, ideally with internet access, but many can be downloaded and used offline.  Students enjoy using virtual manipulatives and find them easy to use.


 

BrainPop Jr. is an animated website which provides educational movies for K-3 students in the areas of science, social studies, english, math, health, art, and music. The site also offers homework help, leveled quizzes, games and activities for kids. I think BrainPop Jr is an excellent teaching resource for young children.  I think the animation is a wonderful asset of the website, as it helps to hold the interests of early childhood learners.  However, BrainPop Jr. requires an account and charges a monthly usage fee. If a student’s school district has an account, a student may use the site if he has the username and password but only during school hours.


 

 The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is the tool I choose to reflect on.   I teach 2nd grade, and one of the skills taught at this grade level is regrouping in addition.    

b.      Describe how this content object that you selected might fit into the TPACK model. Specifically, describe the content, pedagogical and technological aspects of some student work that uses the creativity tool you selected. Make sure you discuss the type of work you would design around that tool so that students would learn the information required by the standards.

I would use this tool to teach place value. The NLVM has a place value mat with ones, tens, and hundreds.  The mat is actually for teaching regrouping in subtraction, but it can be used to teach place value also. The mat allows ones, tens, and hundreds base ten blocks to be manipulated to create numbers up to 999.  I would have the students to work independently on their computers to express a given number in base ten blocks. This activity allows the students to improve their math skills, while utilizing technology.  This activity would fall under the TCK part of the TPACK model.

c.       Identify other ways that students could use the content object you selected.

Students could use the base ten blocks to learn regrouping in addition and subtraction. By manipulating base ten blocks, students can get a better understanding of how we add and borrow tens and hundreds when regrouping in addition and subtraction.

No comments:

Post a Comment