McLuhan's+Tetrad

McLuhan's Tetrad

Matthew Horning
I created a tetrad using McLuhan’s Laws of Media to outline the emergence of the iPad as an educational technology. You can download electronic versions of textbooks and literature to an iPad and can cancel your subscription to those once popular Scholastic magazines. In Social Studies, I always laugh about how textbook companies try to make their history more inclusive by adding little blue boxes around the text that mention an African American or female figure you might want to read about. On an iPad, the little blue box can come to life and contain video, audio, or interactive game content.

The iPad also helps differentiate. In my world history class, I recently assigned a topic and allowed students the choice of reading the text, browsing the internet, or using pre-made interactive resources on BrainPop. Because I have the .pdf version of my textbook downloaded to my iPads, my students were able to choose any of those methods all from the same device.

Some people are using the iPad to replace other computers, even using GoogleApps for word processing. I find it hard to type a paper on an iPad but you can buy a nice iPad case with built in wireless keyboard for less than $50. As long as you have a good wireless network that can handle the traffic, I believe an iPad could completely replace any desktop or laptop computers in your school.

Sue to Matthew I think it will eventually too, in the future size will not matter. Take for example sending email messages from a mobile phone (cell phone), the keyboard on some mobile phones are really small and most of us can type a message without even looking at the keyboard anymore. The same way in which people have adjusted to the size of the script of mobile phones is the same way they will soon type major papers on an iPod. A number of my students have iPods and would love to use it in school but they are not allowed to. Excellent post. Sue

====Matthew - using the iPad to differentiate and create learning opportunities for different learning styles is great! What I love is that the iPads are virtually endless with possibilities. They're a powerful tool that engage students. I like having students create podcasts using Garageband, and then they're available to listen to them in the iTunes library. I've only done podcasts with 5th grade, but hope to do more in the future with other grade levels. I especially like how the iPad can be a powerful learning tool for a a kindergarten student, high school student and anyone in between. ==== - Cindy

Syuen Walker-Ferreira The technology I have decided to discuss is a device called Elmo. It can be used to project any image placed under the camera to be projected on the screen, it can also make movies. Enhances: The new thing that this technology has done is that it is able to project printed material on a screen, the whole class can now be looking at a page in a text book all at once projected in front of the class. Obsolete: It is my opinion that it will eventually make text books obsolete. Once images and words can be projected on a screen students will not see the need to go out and purchase costly textbooks anymore. More students will rely on the teacher to show them important information, rather than purchasing a printed text. Retrieves: Art work, teachers actually creating their own pieces, example persons who like to draw can do so and the entire class will see it. Reverses: This technology will be replaced by eBooks, once the rules governing students taking technological devices to school are amended.

Sue - We recently received an Elmo machine at our school. I think it is a wonderful tool for sharing student work. I can take a student's written response and place it under the camera for all to see. Then we can analyze the response as a class. I know that our Science teachers have used it to project a microscope slide to the entire class. The one thing I could see happening someday is a non-stationary camera. Perhaps there will be a way to send video from an iPhone directly to the SmartBoard or something like that. But in the meantime, this is a great addition to my classroom also! - Matthew

Brittany Millsap

The technology I have choosen is the e-reader. Examples are the Nook and the Kindle.

__Enhances: __ The students will have easy access to helpful tools such as looking up a word in the dictionary, changing the size of the text, and highlighting important information. __Obsoletes: __ The use of textbooks and books in the language arts classroom could be obsolete because the e-reader holds so many books in a compact device. __Rekindles: __ The e-reader brings to mind the idea of reading normal books. It also reminds me of old newspaper records and periodicals found on a microfiche reader. __Reverses: __ The e-reader might be replaced by other devices that offer more tools that might allow the students to exchange thoughts about the books through the other readers that may or may not be in their classroom.

Brittany - I really like the idea of using e-readers in the classroom. This would help eliminate carrying around bulky textbooks, and also allows students options for literature classes. I feel that the e-reader is already being replaced with tablets, though. Students can still read using tablets, but can also interact with the text and use other applications that are limited on e-readers. -Derek

Derek... I do agree with you. My husband has a tablet and uses the application for the nook. However, I feel that students can be more distracted with the tablet because of other applications making it hard to manage a classroom set. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 19px;">-Brittany

<span style="color: #d21414; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 1.06em;">Brittany - Great thougthts! An interesting concept is to question whether a technology makes a difference in student learning. With thousands of dollars being spend on iPads in our school, we have shied away from using them as eReaders, mainly because we aren't convinced that reading a book on an e-reader will be better for a child than reading a book. Although I understand that from a convenience and funding perspective, e-readers may seem like a good idea - I still wonder how it will help a child with their reading. Thoughts? (by the way - I LOVE using my personal iPad as an e-reader!) <span style="color: #d21414; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 1.06em;">- Cindy

<span style="color: #d21414; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 1.06em;">Cindy... <span style="color: #d21414; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 1.06em;">I believe that e-readers can make an impact on student learning because of all the tools that it offers. If a student is reading a book, they might come across a word that they might not understand. The average student would bypass the word and not even pay attention to that word rather than going to get a dictionary to find out what it means. Or if they do search for it a dictionary, they might lose focus on what they are reading. With an e-reader, the student can highlight the word and find it right away rather than having to stop what they are reading. I believe that this will impact a student's comprehension.

<span style="color: #d21414; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 1.06em;">I love using my nook as well. :) __<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 19px;">Derek Meyer __ <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Webcams <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Enhances: allows users to communicate via live video chat with other people, potentially from anywhere in the world, to gain information, collaborate, and share thoughts and developments <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Obsoletes: potentially cause e-mail and telephones to become obsolete <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Rekindles: an old style of learning where individuals learned from experts traveling from city to city <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Reverses: Any technology that allows for instant communication from one individual to another in another place could potentially render webcams obsolete in the future.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Derek... <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Webcams really have changed the way people interact with one another. It has taken communication to the next level. I remember when instant messengers like AIM were very popular and now it is video programs like Skype. This allows the students to have hands on experience with many people such as professionals, other classrooms, etc. <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">-Brittany

<span style="color: #c21919; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">This is a tetrad using McLuhan’s Laws of Media to illustrate the emergence of the wiki as an educational technology.
====<span style="color: #cc2828; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">A wiki, which is one tool that is a part of a participatory online culture, positively impacts teaching and learning in many ways. Wikis can provide opportunities for peer to peer learning, collaboration and sharing of ideas and perspectives from all participants. These skills build on the foundation of traditional literacy, research and critical thinking skills taught in the classroom. When students are able to create and publish their work for an authentic audience, they tend to believe that their contributions matter. ====

====<span style="color: #cc2828; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Wikis have changed the way students are able to collaborate. Long gone are the days when collaboration meant a piece of chart paper, markers and a “clustering” writing activity. Collaboration does not have to be limited to the ideas found within the four walls of the classroom. Wikis allow students to create projects, discuss ideas, share documents and aggregate web resources. ====