Teach in Real Life: Students See Devices as Tools, not Toys

A six minute video showed students in a highschool in Utah using technology in their science class to test water contamination in their area, and in history to take a virtual tour of a WWI trench. The science teacher said that by using the technology, student's learning was enhanced 20% over not using the technology. (She taught the class both ways to guage this). The virtual tour enabled students to see something that they couldn't see by going on a field trip, yet it placed them there with enough of the information that they could realize the situation, place themselves there mentally, and create a more realistic idea of what a trench is than by simply viewing photos of one. The science lab tech devices were obtained by the teacher through a grant. Both were good ways to involve students in the classroom. Jeanna