Internet in My Classroom

As our textbook states on page 281, "As with all techonology tools, it is not the tool itself that enhances teaching and learning, it is how the tool is used by the creative professional educator who is wielding it. The web is a marvel of limitless resources.  But your students need you, their teacher, to help make the web truly meaningful in their attempt to achieve their academic potential."  (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2010).

I believe it is important to teach students how to use the internet in a safe and productive way.  Bringing the internet into my classroom is the easiest way for me to do this.  Although there are days when I struggle with class management due to having 25 students on an iPad, I know that I am in the process of showing them what a useful learning tool the web can be.  I've always been a believer in "inquiry learning", and having the internet in the palm of my students' hands (literally) is an efficient way to really make my lessons meaningful.  The ability for students to ask questions and immediately get the answers has never been so easy.

Take, for example, a middle school math teacher attempting to teach a geometry unit on angles.  A loud, somewhat obnoxious sixth grader blurts out, "This is so dumb! We're never going to need to know this!"  BOOM! Time for a "teachable moment".  The lesson is now focused on finding ways that we use geometry in our daily lives, and why it's important to understand angles.  Every student grabs their iPad, opens Safari, and starts researching angles.  I'm imagining groups of students discussing landing airplanes, building bridges, famous athletes performing in sports, and these are just a few of the many possibilities for learning to take place.  Click here for more examples!

To assess understanding, they could use their iPads to take pictures of how they use geometry in their daily lives- it could be a student in a wheelchair going up a ramp (what are the requirements  of the measure of incline for handicap accessible ramps?) Perhaps another student has a picture of a classmate shooting a basketball at recess (what angles are involved in making a shot/using the backboard?) The next day we can project these pictures on our board and use protractors to measure the angles.  Or we could compare the inclines on staircases from the homes of our classmates.  Who is more likely to fall- a student with a staircase incline of 30 degrees or one with an incline of 45 degrees?

How do these lessons become meaningful? It's about giving students the opportunities to be responsible for their learning, and requiring them to be active instead of passive.

References:
Chapman, L. (2011). How to use geometry in every day life. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/how_4421171_use-geometry-everyday-life.html

Lever-Duffy, J., & McDonald, J. B. (2010). Teaching and learning with technology. (Fourth ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.