Digital Diagrams

From an early age, I as a student have always been learning about diagrams. The most common one was the Venn diagram. It was an easy visual way to compare and contrast two different things. Diagrams that are more of a diagram map can also be useful.

In my classroom, when I want to introduce a topic to my students, this will come in handy. It is a good way to put a lot of information in one place and present the basic bare idea to your students. You can do it on a variety of topics and pass it out to your students in note form.

Inspiration was a cool program that made doing this SUPER easy. It was possible to hyperlink into boxes at the touch of a button. You could change colors and shapes so easily so that each diagram you made was one of a kind. When I am a teacher, I am definitely going to have to invest in this software. The hardest thing to me will to be to choose the right topics to not make digital diagrams and the ones to make. Some information is just not well displayed in this form so knowing your subject will be really helpful!

Interactive Whiteboards Research

In the article, it first starts out talking about the benefits of having an interactive whiteboard. This includes the ability to highlight, drag and drop, coloring, and annotating information. If one were to use common sense, then one would assume that the boards would work great at increasing test scores and overall achievement. However, it says that when examined while the boards do show a positive correlation between the boards and student achievement, it is based on the amount of time spent with the board. The positive correlation only applied to students of average or above average ability. I would be concerned that by using the boards children of lower ability would not get the very necessary person to person contact that they need.

The article did go on to say that some teachers had better results when old-fashioned teaching compared to using the IWB. The reasons for this though were that they were using the boards incorrectly. As a teacher, I have been given tons of resources and need to utilize them all. The IWB's may not be the resource to use in all subjects with every class but knowing when and how to use it is key. This class is teaching me key skills to be able to proficiently use the IWB's and help my class advance as technology advances.