Journal 1

Power of the Mashup-Combining Essential Learning with New Technology Tools
By Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss

The article discusses how Jerome Burg, a high school teacher, combined students interests in technology with literature. He was able to create Google lit trips that used Google earth as a tool to give the students a better visual of where characters where from and the situations they lived in. It allowed for his students to be more involved with literature. For example, Burg had his students watch a dust cloud so that they could get a better visual of what it was actually like in the story Grapes of Wrath. Being able to incorporate this this kind of technology not only enhances education but also helps bring up more discussion catching the interest of more students. Furthermore, David Fagg ,an Australian hisory teacher, realized the technology that the students were using such as the ipod and found ways to make it useful, such as pod casts. He gave his students access to pod-casts about history to enhance his lessons. The web has given teachers access to great ideas and ways to incorporate technology into the classroom and allows teachers to contribute their ideas as well.

Questions
1) What benefits are there for the students using a podcast?
Podcast are great for students to use because they allow students to learn according to their needs. For example, they can go back over the information they missed or did not understand. Many students have an ipod and using pod casts allows them to use a technology tool in class that they enjoy.

2)How can I use these ideas in my classroom?
Google earth is a great idea to give visuals. I would like to teach science and I could use it to have them look up different regions of the earth to see the difference in climates and biomes. Pod-casts could be useful as well but only if all the students have access to an ipod or pod-casts. I am not sure how I would be able to coordinate pod-casts considering the limited amount of funding.