This assignment started with reading the Horizon report on technology trends in Education. I found the report to be informative, and thought provoking about how education will change over the next few years with the changes in the technology available.
In my classroom, where I have been teaching for six years, I have actually found that I am using less technology currently than I was when I first started. This is because the computers I have for student labs are all nearly ten years old; they freeze often and take longer and longer with each passing year to run physics lab software. I have found that it is not worth the high level of frustration on my students part and on my part to try to use out of date computers to run new software. This issue is why I focused in on the tech trend of using educational apps that students can download to their own device. I feel that as more students have their own smart phones, laptops, and tablets, education could take on a “Bring your own device” approach and the lack of current classroom computers will not keep us from using this new technology in our classrooms. This approach is already being used on many college campuses in purely online classes, and in classes that are a hybrid of face to face instruction and online content.
The app I chose, Vernier’s video physics cost $2.99. There are other free apps out there that have similar features, but after playing around with all of them I found Vernier’s to be easier to use and worth the small fee. This $2.99 per device is in contrast to software that costs hundreds of dollars for a site license to do “almost” the same thing. I say almost because the more expensive software makes motion graphs for moving objects in front of motion sensors, but does not also take video to analyze with the graphs. I feel that the app is better than the software because of the fact that you can watch the video of the motion as you analyze the graphs.
Designing this lesson relates to the AECT standards 1.1: Instructional Systems Design, 3.1: Media Utilization, and 3.2: Implementation and Institutionalization. I had to consider the objectives of the lesson and how the app could enhance the lesson’s objectives and the best way to utilize the app in the course of the activity.
lindsaydurningdavis 