Media in the Classroom

My mom and I were talking recently about ways that technology and current media are changing education. She's a K-12 music/choir/art teacher and is always looking for ways to teach more effectively, and recently, these ways have included new tech and media. I am planning on being a jr. high or high school science teacher, and would also use a lot of media in the classroom to aid in education.

Some of the current classroom media options for her as a music teacher are apps that help kids visualize pitch matching or music sight-reading. Google Voice, an online voicemail, is good for band playing tests as a kid can simply call in, leave their name, grade, and piece title, and then play their part and she can listen to the messages and grade them. YouTube is great for her too as she can involve her students in the artistic aspects of music by watching music videos.

When I'm a science teacher, I hope to do a form of Skype fieldtrip, by "traveling" to a different part of the country or the world, and learning about their ecology. Kind of like a classroom swap. I've also followed a number of science teacher blogs on tumblr that are full of helpful visuals and lessons. YouTube offers a number of video study guides for students of all ages, and a cool classroom project would be to ask students to make one for each section of a class to help with review.

I love to see technology being used for students' benefit. It's an exciting time to get into education! But that might be because I'm a huge nerd.