PBS Teachers Media Use Quiz
I was surprised at how bad I was at this quiz. I thought with my understanding of students
and this class I would have had a better score.
I correctly answered 3 out of 12 questions. I was close with most of my
answers but one really surprised me. When asked “When considering media
exposure by race/ethnicity among 8 to 18 year-olds, which group is exposed to
the MOST media (13:00) in a typical day?” I believed white students would have
the most media interaction because their families could afford the extra TV or
iPad. With this line of thinking, I also go the revers question wrong “When
considering media exposure by race/ethnicity among 8 to 8 year-olds, which
group is exposed to the LEAST (8:36) media in a typical day?” I answered
Hispanic thinking these would be the children encouraged the most to run and
play.
Digital Landscape
What it is?
After looking through the websites offered one that would be
the most beneficial to me as a teacher would be the SMART Exchange where educators
post different lesson plans they have created using the SMART board. This is
helpful as these games can be great ways of getting students engaged in what
they are learning. The website currently had 41,520 free resources and ideas
could be searched by topic, grade level, and region. Some of the games required the students to
throw koosh balls at the board in order to open up a question. One of the
resources was a ball pop where attendance could be taken by having the students
pop the balloon with their name when they entered the classroom.
How Do I use it?
I love the Edudemic articles. This is an important website
because it keeps teachers up to date on new technology and websites that could
benefit the classroom. The world of technology is continually changing and
short articles linking technology to education is just what I need to stay on
top of the changes. For example, I read the article on why this user deleted
his Pintrest account. Pintrest is a new idea for me but I was debating about
trying it. It sounds like a wonderful online scrapbook of ideas but due to its
copyright rules, Pintrest might not be right for me or my future classroom.
Learn More
I love the Google doc on 35 interesting Ways to use Twitter
in the Classroom. I wasn’t even aware of Twitterfall until just now, but it
could be a very useful tool. It would be fun to get tweets from people around
the world and pin their location on Google Earth. It’s a nice way to create a
global classroom.
Examples
I like ClassChatter.com because it
combines the class website with other web tools and blogging. One thing I didn’t like about using different
online formats for class communication was the multiple websites with different
logins. This one gives the students one place to go and protects the student’
identities. The website was created with the classroom in mind so the teacher
has full control.
PBS Resources
PBS Resources has a number of different resources aimed at
helping kids to understand the message portrayed in media. Resources attempting
to get kids to think critically about the media they are watching. Don’t Buy It
is a website with interactive games and ideas to get kids to think about why a particular
item sold or not. What kids think of as cool is actually do to advertisements.
Integrating Digital Tools and Content
I really like the idea of bring in a guest speaker via
Skype. This is a great way to create a
global community and bring people from around the world into the classroom. It’s
a modern day pen pal. Students could individual pick someone to interview and prearrange
questions they would like to ask the guest speak before inviting them on Skype
to talk to the entire class.
