The Use of the Internet in the Classroom!

"How can visual literacy and the use of the Internet impact the teaching and learning process in the classroom?  What are some visual-thinking strategies you would like to use in your classroom?  What role do you want the Internet to play in your classroom?"

In the 21st Century classroom, teachers need to be aware of their digital learners.  Students are prone to being engaged at home through watching TV, playing their XBox, texting their friends, and sending each other messages and comments through Facebook.  With this in mind, educators need to incorporate similar objects into their lesson plans in order to meet the learning styles and needs of their students.

Visual literacy is a great way to do just this.  Through asking my students to represent their answers by making a collage of images that they find online, one of many ways you can incorporate visual literacy into your classroom, they get to explore, think, create, and decide.  They are asked to think on a higher level, getting them out of their normal routine of being asked a question and then responding in their journals.  They also can look at their peers results and critically critique their final product.  Students truly enjoy this style of learning much more than they do in the traditional way.  I have tried visual literacy a couple times in my science class this year, and in the end, I have found great results.

Searching the web, I found this awesome "periodic table" (being a science teacher I thought this was 'cute') of visual methods you can use in your classroom!  It has a lot of great strategies in it! :)

http://www.visual-literacy.org/ on February 2, 2011

Personally, not only would I enjoy incorporating visual literacy in my classroom more often, I would also love for  my classroom to revolve around the Internet.  Currently, I am attempting to make this a reality; however, this is hard to do in a title 1 school.  If all of my students had the Internet and a computer at home, I would be in cloud nine, but unfortunately this is not the case.  To make up for the students who are lacking these resources, I provide them with adequate time to use my student computers at lunch and after school, yet some of them still elect to not come in (they are too busy, etc.).  What I use the Internet for currently, is for a class website (with assignments, announcements, and all of our documents), a classroom blog filled with higher level thinking questions (ndahlberg.edublogs.org), and for providing my students with their online textbooks so they can study and complete assignments online at home.  Using these resources, my students are engaged, more organized, and above all more motivated to complete their work. 

In class, I also utilize the Internet.  We use brainpop videos for visual reinforcement and quizzing (brainpop.com), my.hrw.com for pre-made powerpoints and games, search engines for answering questions and researching, discovery streaming for documentaries, google earth and space for science and math, online simulation labs, and online games for centers and enrichment, to name a few.  All of these resources help enhance my students learning process visually, which increases their retention and engagement. 

Comparing last year, my first year of teaching (unfortunately without using the Internet all that often), to this year (using the internet hourly), I can honestly see a difference in my student's test scores, attention spans, and motivation throughout my classrooms.  I plan to never end my class improvement, but this is definitely the start to a great beginning when it comes to supplementing my digital age learners.

Found on http://visuallit.wordpress.com/ on February 2, 2011