Math Blaster

This fast-action, futuristic game builds confidence, accuracy and speed in basic math skills. When the CD-ROM is inserted, children are sent on a mission to save the universe from robots that are controlling the galaxy. Practicing skills from addition and subtraction to multiplication and division children work on fact families, problem solving, equivalents and mental math. The game is so intertwined with math, that the flow of the game essentially helps children inprove mental math skills. Playing the game makes math cool for children because it helps them win the game. The skills that are fostered in the game are based on real-life skills that children will need, which gives them the opportunity to, in a little-to-no-risk situation practice and perfect the skills. The combination of visual, auditory and kinesthetic feedback during the learning experience allows children to grasp the concepts in ways that match their own learning preferences.

Techie Phonics Program

The Learning Resources' Reading Rods are small cubes with letters displayed on them. When the cubes are placed in the Reading Mentor console the sound of the letter or blend is spoken from the console. This new and improved form of Phonics offers students a hands-on, active alternative to the structured, often boring Phonics program. Students are encouraged to explore with the cubes to create words and sentences by mixing and matching the different phoneme cubes. While the Learning Resources' Reading Rods Kit is simple enough for Kindergartners to use, it is sophisticated enough to work at many different grade levels. Students can begin by creating simple words using consonants and vowels and proceed into advanced vowel combinations, digraphs and blends. The Mentor console is equipped with a 23,000-word dictionary. A kit contains 109 rods with a storage container, activity cards, activity trays and activity and instruction guides. Four headphone jacks are also included in the kit for small group activity use. Some skills that can be taught using the Learning Resources' Reading Rod Kit are: recognizing spelling patterns, comprehending vowel digraphs, learning consonant blend and digraph usage and sounds, r-controlled vowels and diphthongs.

As I am finishing my education and will be entering the teaching profession, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the typical, traditional setting of school classrooms and ways to change to the atypical, reform or constructivist model of teaching. Traditional classrooms, as we all know and were subjected to, are teacher-centered and focus on the teacher’s active role as a dispenser of knowledge. Teachers provide direct instruction and use tests to measure learning, while children are passive learners, working independently, usually practicing skills by completing fill-in-the-blank worksheets.
In a constructivist classroom the teacher’s role is to engage students with experiences so that they construct their own knowledge and modify their schemata. The classroom is student-centered and children are active learners, connecting what they learn to their own lives, literature they have read and what is going on in the world.
The tech-savy generation of students that I will be teaching do not know life without wireless Internet, DVD’s, gaming devices and cell phones. Yet, when they enter the typical classroom it is as if they have walked back in time. Although many schools are now equipped with computers at least somewhere on their campus, students are faced with an incredible inconsistency, daily, between their home-life and their school-life.
Repairing the mismatch of technology use in students lives between home and school-life makes sense, is beneficial for the students and is helpful for teachers.

Question+Answer

A Techies View of Technology Use in School

I recently sat down with, Nick Migliaccio, a twelfth grader, to ask him about the way technology is used in his life both in and out of school.


Q: Do you consider yourself "tech savvy"?

A: Yes, I enjoy learning about and using the newest and latest technologies that come out.

Q: What is your favorite technology that is out right now?

A: Well, I just really like anything that Mac makes. I have a Mac desktop, laptop and basically everything that goes with them.

Q: What is it that you find so appealing about them?

A: I am really into making short movies, so they are a must and I download music onto my iPod basically everyday.

Q: Do you feel that there is a discrepancy between the technologies that you use in your daily out-of-school-life compared to your school-life?

A: Yes, without a doubt! As soon as I get home after school I log on to my computer, even though I have probably not missed anything because everyone I know was just at school with me. I guess it just makes me feel more connected.

Q: Are there any technologies that you use out of school that you feel could be incorporated into the school curriculum?

A: Of course. We do use the Internet for researching at school, but with all of the different capabilities that are possible it could be used a lot more. Macs are a great tool for audio and visual classes. There are all sorts of games to help kids learn math and reading that would make learning a lot more fun.

Q: Do you feel that you have seen any improvements in the use of technology in your school career?

A: As I went up in grades we definitely used them more, but I think that it is important for younger grades to use them just as much. Technology surrounds us and it only makes sense that it should be used in schools.