Lab Observation Day One

Directions for Lab Day One

1. Set-up the video camera to observe a class period.
2. Review the videotape at a later time.
3. List, describe, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of technology use, as well as the strategies used for teaching and learning. Bring the videotape to the following class so we can discuss your reflections together.

Response for Lab Day One

Technology Used
~ Smartboard
This was the first time I'd seen a smartboard. The idea of a smartboard is wonderful. The board was used to quickly show the students how to create a formatted letter in Word. I have to admit the smartboard was fun but there were features it lacked like a keyboard and the ability to right-click. To perform these actions the instructor had to return to the computer many feet away. However, it was nice being able to follow the instructors hands to see where she is going to click. This appears to be the main advantage of the smartboard over feeding the computer screen to a TV monitor or projector.
~ Flashdrive
Each student has a flash drive provided by the school The students were instructed to leave the flash drives so their documents saved on them would be available next week. No instructions were given regarding the flash drives and it appeared the students had prior knowledge of how they worked. However, the problem I had with the flash drives is that things didn't seem to function normally. After the students left I had to hook up through the USB port my flash drive and a reader for the digital camera memory card to copy the pictures from the day. I hooked both up at the same time to the front of the computer through the 2 USB ports. The computer only had the capability of reading one. I could not drag the pictures directly onto my flash drive. So I had to remove my flash drive. Until recently I did not know about the "Safely Remove Hardware" option (it always appears on my personal computer because of my external hard-drive and my Internet card but I never used it for those so thought it was just a useless program my dad installed). However, I now know that removing a flash drive without stopping the processes first could potentially cause it to crash. The computers at the elementary school lacked this feature. Actually, the "safely remove hardware" existed but it said it was locked and could not perform the action. I don't understand why the students are using flash drives if they can't use them properly. Maybe a disk or Internet location would be better for saving if the students can not be taught proper use of the flash drives.
~Word
Microsoft Word was used for this project. Each student created a template for a letter so all they needed to do was type the body of the letter. This was interesting to me because I didn't know of this feature. In my past computer classes we learned to write business letters formatting them by hand. The kids seemed to be familiar with Word which helped things run smoothly.

Teaching and Learning Strategies
One particular strategy that I found exciting was the male instructors use of his body. He never spoke to the students standing up. He knelt down and sat to position himself at the level of the students. I'm more experienced with teaching older students where kneeling down would put me below their level so I was impressed to see this different strategy geared toward younger students. I was also intrigued by some of the instructors doing parts of the project for the children. Each ch id was given explicit written instructions to assist them in the process and one student was continuously asking me questions about what he should do next. I felt he wasn't using his full capability since he was asking me what to do instead of reading the instructions. However, it appeared as if other students were doing the same thing and the instructors were telling them what steps to perform. Even more interesting though was that at one time I observed an instructor actually reading in front of a student to type and move the mouse. I was not close enough to see everything that was going on but I am curious as to why the instructor was manipulating the computer for the student. There are certainly times when the expert should fix things for a student but it seems like the student should have to experiment with helping him or her self also.

Other Notes
Although not required, I want to include personal notes about the experience here to help myself remember what events occur ed and perhaps have someone help reflect upon my own problems.
The students did not seem pleased that we were there recording the lesson. One girl specifically told me she did not want to be videotaped and tried to cover her face every time I moved the camera past her (even if I was just moving from one direction to the other and she happened to be between the two points). One instructor (though I think she was a substitute) also expressed her desire to not be on tape. I think we will be more accepted once we are not taping. I do not blame them though. I certainly would not want to be taped either.
We arrived at the school about 30 minutes before the students and I still felt unprepared when the students arrived. I borrowed the video camera from Indiana University and it was not charged. With only 30 minutes before the students arrived I was only able to obtain about 18 minutes of charge (I believe it was 18) before the lesson began. Then I had to figure out how to format the DVD and put it on "extended play" and as a result missed the first few minutes of instructing. The low battery charge resulted the in the camera shutting off (when it said there was still about 8 minutes remaining on the battery) and me then having to stay attached to the wall for power. This drastically reduced my ability to record students since there were only two students near the outlet and one did not want recorded.
Technology does hate me. Although it is not recorded on my tape, my problems with the camera were recorded through a classmate's video. Toward the end of the lesson the camera I was using said there was an error on the disk and that it had to fix it. After the camera fixed the error, the message telling me about the error occurred at least one more time. I do not know what I did to cause the error and I am not sure how the camera fixed it.
My last concern after observations is with the requirements for my class. We are designing our own lesson and will eventually be teaching it to these students. I think we might be reaching for too much. In the 45 minutes (or was it 60?) that the students were in the lab none of the students were able to finish their letters. If writing a letter in Word is a 2 day activity, how many days will it take for the students to make a tour of their school with pictures and audio tracks and perhaps Google Globe? Are we going to be asking for too much?