What do I think about using visual thinking software in the classroom? What about the SMARTboard? What will it do for the student and me?

Visual thinking softwares, such as KIDspiration and Inspiration provide great tools that can help students tremendously in the classroom. These programs incorporate hearing, seeing and feeling types of thinking for various learners. They are great for meeting the needs of several types of learners, as they help students focus on relevant information. Software such as inspiration leads to gathering information in an easily understood format. In gathering data and visually representing ideas, visual thinking software creates a clear and easy to use format for organizing information. Concept maps help students break down concepts into individual components, allowing them to see relationships through connections among pieces of information. The SMARTboard is also a phenomenal tool in engaging students in a hands-on experience. Using technology such as SMARTboard is vital in the 21st century, and allows for a more interactive environment in the classroom. Teachers can benefit tremendously through visual thinking softwares in ready made templates. Templates offer a starting point to incorporate visual learning into the lesson. Organization is also an easier task for teachers through software such as Inspiration in templates to create lesson plans or substitute teacher guides. My eyes were opened to a world of possiblities through the use of visual thinking software. There are hundereds of templates to help guide the interactive classroom experience.

What Do I Think About Using GeoTools in the Classroom?

Geotools are a great new technology that bring a whole new life to mapping for the classroom. No longer are students confined to looking at a flat map in a textbook, or search an encyclopedia for an image of a location across the world. With geotools, students have the capability of visiting the places they learn about and see a 3-D perspective of the location. Geotools are beneficial no only for an entertaining or interactive activity in the classroom, but they are also great for visual and spatial learners. Many think that tools such as google earth can only be used in classes such as Geography. However, these programs can be used to teach a History lesson, in order to take students around the globe to the areas being studied, Science can be integrated in studying space, Math classes could make use of this tool in finding measurements, and other technology courses could use these tools to bring other multimedia into the presentation with the display of pictures or videos. The interest level of students in using geotools will be much greater, as they participate in finding locations, rather than reading them in a book. Many students will also grasp a better understanding when using geotools through viewing locations on an interactive level. As an English teacher, I may use tools such as google earth to allow students to put together a trip based on a voyage characters are taking in a story. For example, if the students were reading a book about characters migrating across the country, taking various stops along the way, the students may put together a folder on google earth displaying each location in which they stopped. They may also have to include pictures displaying the cultures of each location. Geotools have brought a new level of technology into the classroom, for, field trips can now be taken on the computer screen at the cost of nothing.