Comments on Articles - Week 11

I indeed also believe that educational video games also called “edutainment”  could entertain the students by making learning fun; entertainment can be used as an educational tool so that games target a specific type of learning or topic and build a game around that topic (for example, kids might learn math by playing a flying game). The ideal scenario would be that children will have fun and forget that they’re learning, but still maintain the stimuli and the knowledge they pick up while playing.

It is not surprising that part 3 of the Pew Internet & American Life project study on Social Media and Young Adults reported a significant increase of social networking usage by students. Educators should also capitalize on that since students are developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customizing content and thinking about online design and layout. They're also sharing creative original work like poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology.

In conclusion video games and social networking tools are tremendous educational potential that should be valued.

Comments on a Smart Board Notebook Lesson

The Smart Board lesson I have selected from Smart Exchange is a 3^rd grade French course (besides ED Tech, I am also working on getting my French certification – French is my 1^st language). Although this is supposed to be a French lesson, I found it interesting that the teacher had made this course interdisciplinary by incorporating Science, Social Studies and Language Arts components. This lesson contains a lot of colorful images which can be very helpful for the students to learn a new language.

Overall, this type of lesson show how the Smart Board technology can touch on all multiple intelligences along with various learning strategies. I truly believe that he interactive whiteboard supports the teaching process of foreign languages in three main ways: it supports interaction and conversation in the classroom; it helps with the presentation of new cultural and linguistic elements; and it promotes the organizational skills of the teacher.

Another think I would like to underline is how easy it is to use; foreign language teachers can prepare a lesson as usual in a Word Document, and import it into the SMART Board in order to be able to benefit from all the interactive features of the whiteboard. The main advantage is that teachers can use the whiteboard to overwrite, underline, highlight or circle the elements that need to be emphasized. Teachers can also bring the Internet into the class without involving the cost of having one online computer for every student in the classroom.

To sum up, the Smart Board interactive whiteboard is a very innovative and powerful support for language acquisition, it provides a bridge that allows using the features of computers without breaking communication.

Ubuntu Open Source Operating System

The timing of this assignment is interesting because it has been about couple of weeks that I have been looking for free open source software and operating system for my niece who just got her first new computer.

I have explored the Ubuntu version 10.10 open source operating system. This was named after the South African ideology which means “humanity towards others”. I thought what a great name for this free and open source software which provides users with flexibility and accessibility just like Windows. Not only users can install it wherever they want, they can also personalize it to their liking. I found out through my readings that Ubuntu is one of the most accessible operating systems and is also translated into 25 languages. That’s quite impressive!

Exploring the system was fairly straightforward, it actually offers all the applications needed on a computer such as a web browser (i.e. Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome), office suites to create professional documents, spreadsheets and presentations (i.e. openoffice.org), email and chat/instant messaging, and media applications…etc.

Of course, I am still a newbie in this new environment, and I didn't explore every corner yet but it sounds exciting and definitely worthwhile to get familiar with this totally FREE resource.

For further information on installation please check:

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download