Technology in the Classroom - Lincoln Elementary

           In CCA we went to a school were the administrator have been open to technology. We went to the school to see how the teacher are using interactive white boards in the classroom. We were able to see a demonstration done by a younger classroom. It was amazing to see how the teacher was sitting back and letting the student run the class. I was able to see the advantages of having this interactive white boards.  The students not just sitting and listening to a lecture about numbers they were doing it.  The interactive white boards that Lincoln was using are called the Mimio (picture to the right). This is a bar that is attached to the white that sends out an sound wave and turns the white board into a interactive board.  At Lincoln the teachers also used a amplification system. This allows the teacher to he heard throughout the class.  It was nice, when I first heard of this idea I thought it would sound like she was speaking from the ceiling but school had it set up so that is sounded like she was next to you, it was comfortable.  We also got to see an older class using Google sketch up in a math class.   Some of the items that children where coming up with was great.  Dr. Z asked a girl if it was ok that a teacher did not know everything about the software they are using in class and her responds was that she hate teacher who are know-it-alls. I think being honest with student about your knowledge on something is great then they seen that you don't need to know everything but you show them that learning is taking place all the time. You also show then good learning techniques, about how to find the information you need.   Another great thing to see about Lincoln is the relationship between the teachers and administrator. It was great. Other schools can really learn a lot from Lincoln and I can only hope that I will be able to work in an environment like this.