Why Educators should be using Twitter - Justin Tarte

2011-03-18T03:04:39.581Z

I created this video to help share the power of Twitter for Educators. Bringing some of the best Educators together from around the world to learn, share and...

The Benefits of an Amplified Classroom | Technology in Education

2011-02-07T17:33:20.419Z

http://blog.ampli.com/2010/08/how-amplified-speaker-systems-in.html
http://www.ampli.com/

Hey this is Kevin and Michael from Amplivox Sound Systems and we are here today to talk about why you need an amplified classroom. In the age of the iPod, it is safe to assume that many students do not have the best hearing. According to the CDC, approximately 5.2 million children ages 6-19 suffer from permanent damage to hearing from excessive exposure to noise. It is obvious that they need assistance hearing what the teacher is saying. But according to the Institute for Enhanced Classroom Hearing, even students with perfect hearing can miss as much as 1/3 of what teachers say due to poor acoustics. They go on to list other groups of people who benefit from amplified classrooms including:

- Students with an Auditory Processing Problem
- Students with a Minimal Hearing Loss
- Students with a Severe Hearing Loss Using Personal FM Systems
- Students with a Temporary Hearing Loss Due to Ear Infections (OME)
- Students with Behavioral or Attentive Disorders Such As ADD or ADHD
- Students Learning English as a Second Language (ESOL)
- Young Children Learning Phonics and Phonemic Recognition
- Students with Perfectly Normal Hearing
- All Teachers

So basically everybody benefits from having an amplified classroom.

Studies have shown that students in amplified classrooms retain more information, have less behavioral problems, and have better test scores. A study done in Canada shows that student's in non-amplified classrooms actually lost a small percentage of their reading comprehension during the school year while the amplified classroom gained in their reading comprehension. If English is a second language for students, an amplified classroom helps even more. As the student sits farther away from the teacher, their word recognition dwindles. (Check out this graph, two-bar bar graph, percentage on left, distance on bottom). As you see, if an ESL student sits near the back, their word recognition drops nearly 40 percent in an unamplified classroom.

All the teachers who were a part of the Canadian Journal for Speech Language Pathology and Audiology said is was much easier to grab the attention of the class with the amplification system in the room. 100 percent of the teachers also said that they spent less time repeating themselves. It also helped in managing the behavior of the class so that the teacher could focus more on the curriculum. 100 percent agree that there is less interference and distractions from outside noise when using an amplification system in the classroom. 91 percent agree that you need to raise your voice less often and a whopping 100 percent STRONGLY agree that they liked the impact the system had on their teaching voice and presentation. Over 90 percent said that their voice was more flexible and sounded better than before while 100 percent strongly agreed that their voice showed less signs of strain during the day.

These statistics speak for themselves. We are going to list our resources at the end of this video and on the Youtube page, so if you want to do further research go ahead.

Although we are a pretty trustworthy group of guys, if you need further validation of the statistics we used, check out our sources that we will provide for you at the end of the video.

-Infrared- The SIR 285 is a unique sound system that uses Infrared technology to pick up your voice from the microphone from nearly anywhere in the classroom. It comes with a wall mounting bracket and a wireless mic so you can hang it on the wall and forget about it.

Understanding Ink Aware in SMART Notebook Software – from Blossom Learning

2010-02-17T22:27:47.266Z

This video shows a clip from the Blossom Learning online applied SMART Board course of how to use the ink aware feature on a SMART Board.
Ink aware is a tool that enables you to embed text or drawings directly into a software program. Ink aware works with Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint (there are others, but these are the main ones)
This example uses Microsoft Excel and shows how students can use the pen to write on the SMART Board, converting the hand-drawn number into text into the cell

Using the Screen Shade tool in SMART Notebook Software – from Blossom Learning

2010-02-17T22:25:20.729Z

This video shows a clip from the Blossom Learning online applied SMART Board course of how to use the screen shade tool in Notebook software.
This tool allows teachers to slowly reveal text or images to keep students focused on a particular line. It is essentially like putting white paper over acetate paper on an overhead projector.
This example uses a passage that is revealed line by line

Using the Magic Pen tool on a SMART Board – from Blossom Learning

2010-02-17T22:23:01.991Z

This video shows a clip from the Blossom Learning online applied SMART Board course of how to use the three features of the magic pen tool.

1.Use disappearing digital ink

2.Creates a spotlight

3.Magnifies an image

This tool is great for teaching any subject on a SMART Board. Teachers like it because it looks very…

All Videos Tagged Professional (Classroom 2.0) - Classroom 2.0

Why Educators should be using Twitter - Justin Tarte

The Benefits of an Amplified Classroom | Technology in Education

Understanding Ink Aware in SMART Notebook Software – from Blossom Learning

Using the Screen Shade tool in SMART Notebook Software – from Blossom Learning

Using the Magic Pen tool on a SMART Board – from Blossom Learning